"Who is Aunt Rosa?" Hazel asked.

Leo didn't want to talk about Aust Rosa. Nemesis' words were still buzzing in his ears. His tool belt seemed heavier since he'd put the cookie in there–which was impossible. Its pockets could carry anything without adding any extra weight. Even the most fragile things would never break. Still, Leo imagined he could feel it in there, dragging him down, waiting for it to be cracked open.

"Long story." He said. "She abandoned me after my mom died, gave me to foster care."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well." he didn't know what to say. He wanted a change in subject, but didn't know what. Luckily, Hazel came to the rescue as they climbed a boulder to get a better view.

"While we were talking to Nemesis..." Hazel said uneasily. "I saw your hands burst into flames."

"Yeah. It's a son of Hephaestus power. Usually I can keep it under control."

"Oh."

"We should keep going." Leo said. "I wonder what Nemesis meant about finishing before dark."

Hazel glanced at the sun, which was starting to touch the horizon. "And who is the cursed boy she mentioned?"

Below them, a voice said, "Cursed boy she mentioned."

At first, Leo didn't see anything. Then his eyes adjusted. He realized a young woman was standing only ten feet from the base of the boulder. Her dress was a Greek-style tunic the same color as the rocks. Her wispy hair was somewhere between brown and blond and gray, so it blended with the dry grass. She wasn't invisible, exactly, but she was almost perfectly camouflaged until she moved. Even then, Leo had trouble focusing on her. Her face was pretty, but not memorable. In fact, each time Leo blinked, he couldn't remember what she looked like, and he had to concentrate to find her again.

"Hello, who are you?" Hazel asked.

"Who are you?" The girl answered. Her voice sounded weary, like she was tired of answering that question.

Hazel and Leo exchanged looks. With this demigod gig, you never knew what you'd run into. Nine times out of ten, it wasn't good. A ninja girl camouflage in earth tones didn't strike Leo as something he wanted to deal with just then.

"Are you the cursed kid Nemesis mentioned?" Leo asked. "But you're a girl."

"You're a girl." The girl said.

"Excuse me?" Leo asked.

"Excuse me." The girl said miserably.

"You're repeating..." Leo stopped. "Oh. Hold it. Hazel, isn't there some myth about a girl who repeated everything?"

"Echo." Hazel answered.

"Echo." The girl agreed. She shifted, her dress changing with the landscape. Her eyes were the color of salt water. Leo tried to home in on her features, but he couldn't.

"I don't remember the myth." He admitted. "You were cursed to repeat the last thing you heard?"

"You heard." Echo said.

"Poor thing." Hazel said. "If I remember right, a goddess did this?"

"A goddess did this." Echo confirmed.

Leo scratched his head. "But wasn't that thousands of years ago... oh. You're one of the mortals who came back through the Doors Of Death. I really wish we could stop running into dead people."

"Dead people." Echo said, like she was chastising him.

He realized Hazel was staring at her feet. "Uh, sorry." He muttered. "I didn't mean it that way."

"That way." Echo pointed to the far shore of the island.

"You want to show us something?" Hazel asked as she climbed off of the boulder. Leo followed her.

Even up close, Echo was hard to see. In fact, she seemed to get more invisible the longer he looked at her.

"You sure you're real?" He asked. "I mean... Flesh and blood?"

"Flesh and blood." She touched Leo's face and made him flinch. Her fingers were warm.

"So... You have to repeat everything?" He asked.

"Everything."

Leo couldn't help but smile. "That could be fun."

"Fun." Echo said unhappily.

"Blue elephants."

"Blue elephants."

"Kiss me. you fool."

"You fool."

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

"Leo, don't tease her." Hazel intervened.

"Don't tease her." Echo said, nodding her agreement.

"Okay, okay." Leo said, though he had to resist the urge. It wasn't everyday that you met someone with a built-in talkback feature. "So what were you pointing at? Do you need our help?"

"Help." Echo agreed emphatically. She gestured for them to follow and sprinted down the hill. Leo could only follow her progress by the movement of the grass and the shimmer of her dress as it changed to match the rocks.

"We'd better hurry." Hazel said. "Or we'll lose her."

They soon found the problem, if you could call a group of good looking girls a 'problem'. Echo led them down into a grassy meadow shaped like a blast crater, with a small pond in the middle. Gathered at the water's edge were several dozen nymphs. At least, Leo guessed they were nymphs. Like the ones at Camp Half-Blood, these wore gossamer dresses. Their feet were bare. They had elfish features, and their skin had a slightly greenish tint.

Leo didn't understand what they were doing, but they were all crowded together in one spot, facing the pond and jostling for a better view. Several held up phone cameras, standing on their tippy toes, trying to get a better shot over the heads of the others. Leo had never seen a nymph with a cell phone before. He wondered if they were looking at a dead body. But if they were, why would they be jumping up and down and giggling like a besotted schoolgirl? Unless they were... Leo couldn't finish the thought. Just the idea made him shiver uncontrollably.

"What are they looking at?" Leo asked.

"Looking at." Echo responded.

"One way to find out." Hazel said. She marched forward and started to push through the crowd. "Excuse us. Pardon us."

"Hey!" One nymph exclaimed. "We were here first."

"Yeah." Another griped. "He won't be interested in you."

The second nymph wasn't wearing anything on her top and had painted red hearts over her tits. On her stomach, the words, "I 3 N!"

"Uh, demigod business." Leo said, trying to take his eyes off the nymphs' breasts. "Make room, thanks."

The nymphs grumbled, but they parted ways to reveal a young boy kneeling at the edge of the pond, staring deeply into the water. He was practically eyefucking the water.

Now, Leo didn't notice the attractiveness of other guys that often. But even he could admit that they guy staring at himself was fucking hot as Hell. The man surpassed everyone he knew, except Zoë and Percy. But that wasn't a fair comparison since one was a demon who had seductive prowess without realizing it, and the other was an angel who was said to have been the most beautiful of them all. The guy had a chiseled face with lips and eyes that were somewhere between feminine beautiful and masculine handsome. Dark hair swept over his brow. He might've been seventeen or twenty, it was hard to say. He was built like a dancer, with long arms and muscular legs, perfect posture and an air of regal calm. He wore a simple white t-shirt and jeans, with a bow and quiver slung over his back. The weapons obviously hadn't been used in forever, if the dust and cobwebs were anything to go by.

As Leo crept closer, he noticed that the man's face was unnaturally golden. In the sunset, the sunlight was bouncing off of a large, hammered sheet of Celestial bronze that lay at the bottom of the pond, washing Mr. Handsome's features with a golden glow that no amount of tanning under the sun could give you.

The guy seemed fascinated by his reflection in the metal. Like he was a baby who didn't understand how mirrors worked.

Hazel inhaled sharply. "He's gorgeous."

Around her, the nymphs squealed and clapped in agreement.

"I am." The young man murmured dreamily, his gaze still fixated on the water. "I am so gorgeous."

One of the nymphs showed them her phone screen. "His last YouTube video got a million views in like, an hour! I think I was half of those!"

The other nymphs giggled.

"YouTube?" Leo asked. "What does he do? Sing?"

"No silly!" The nymph chided. "He used to be a prince, and a wonderful hunter and stuff. But that doesn't matter. Now he just... well look!" She showed Leo the video. It was exactly what they were seeing in real life—the guy staring at himself in the pond.

"He is soooooo hot!" Another nymph said. She wore a shirt that read 'Mrs. Narcissus'.

"Narcissus?" Leo asked.

"Narcissus." Echo confirmed.

Leo had forgotten echo was there. Evidently, the other nymphs hadn't noticed her either.

"Oh, not you again." Mrs. Narcissus tried to push Echo away, but she misjudged where the camouflage girl was and ended up shoving several other nymphs.

"You had your chance, Echo!" Said the nymph with the phone. "He dumped your ass four thousand years ago! You are so not good enough for him."

"For him." Echo said bitterly.

"Wait." Hazel clearly had trouble tearing her eyes away from the handsome guy, but she managed. "What's going on here? Why did Echo bring us here?"

One nymph rolled her eyes. She was holding an autograph pen and a crumpled poster of Narcissus. "Echo was a nymph like us, a long time ago, but she was a total chatterbox! Gossiping, blah blah blah, all the fuckin' time."

"I know!" Another nymph jumped in, because of course she just had to. "Like, who could stand that? Just the other day, I told Cleopeia—you know, the nymph who lives in the boulder next to mine? I said, 'Stop gossiping or you'll end up like Echo!' She is a total big mouth. Like did you hear what she said about that satyr and cloud nymph? Or that one guy who has wings?"

"Totally!" Said the nymph with the poster. "So anyways, as a punishment for blabbing, Hera cursed her to only repeat things, which was fine with us. But then Echo fell in love with our gorgeous guy, Narcissus, as if he would even notice her!"

"AS IF!" A dozen nymphs chimed in.

Leo sighed as he realized they were getting nowhere with the nymphs. They were like an immovable object. He motioned over to Hazle and pulled her aside.

"I have a plan." He said.

LINE BREAK

"This is a stupid ass plan." Percy said as he surveyed the crowd of nymphs that surrounded Narcissus. "It's one thing to face down a legion of Romans, but to face down fangirls?" Percy shivered. "But let's get this over with. I have a wife who is currently tied up that I have to get back to."

Hazel blushed bright red as she remembered what she and Leo walked in on when they opened the door to Percy's room to ask him for help.

Percy marched down off the boulder and made his way across the field. One nymph noticed him. She alerted her friends, who alerted her friends, and before long, the entire group had forgotten Narcissus, instead focusing on the newcomer.

Percy sighed as he psyched himself up for the massive horde of crazy people. He thought he heard murmurs of 'The winged man' as he approached. He paused a few feet in front of the first nymph.

"Could you clear a path? I need to get to Narcissus." Percy asked.

"Who's Narcissus?" The nymph asked as blood started to leak from her nose.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me." Percy muttered under his breath as he forged on. He weaved his way through the crowd. He wasn't blind to all of the desperate hands groping his body. He had half the mind to just burn them all, like he did with the Karpoi back at Mendocino, but he ultimately decided against it.

He finally reached the pond. He saw the man kneeling as he stared at himself. Percy knelt next to him. "I'm going to need that." Percy said, pointing at the piece of Celestial bronze.

Narcissus didn't look up as he responded. "No, I need it. The image of me is perfect."

"Yeah, okay. That's enough of that." Percy said as he reached for the metal.

Instantly, Narcissus drew his bow and knocked an arrow. "Leave me be." He said.

Percy's fingers touched the Celestial bronze.

Narcissus let the arrow fly. The man had terrible aim. The arrow flew over Percy's head, hitting a nymph. Percy stared at the man in disbelief. He raised a finger to race the trajectory of the arrow. He went back and forth like he couldn't believe how bad of a shot Narcissus was.

"Lost your touch?" Percy asked as he picked up the metal and stood up.

Narcissus drew another arrow. Percy didn't waste time and flicked the self-absorbed man. Narcissus flew into the pond.

Percy turned and tossed the sheet of Celestial bronze, as if he was throwing a frisbee. The metal acted like one as it soared through the air. It landed at the feet of Leo and Hazel. Loe picked it up and started to run back to the Argo II, Hazel following close behind.

Percy looked out to see a sea of nymphs looking at him like he was the best thing since Narcissus. He was instantly ready to get out of there. He spread his wings and flew back to the Argo.

When Hazel and Leo arrived, they found a note on the door to Percy's room reading, "Do Not Disturb", with the sound of loud moans coming from inside.

A/N. Alright. As of finishing this chapter, I'm deciding to hold off on posting this till Saturday, (Which is when you're reading this.) The reason being is that I am leaving for Florida Sunday, which is tomorrow for you guys. I won't have Wi-Fi, so I won't be able to post anything, but be rest assured, I will be writing. That's all I really have to say right now.

Though, did you like how I foreshadowed Percy helping with the quest? (It was Leo referencing how Percy was better looking than Narcissus, in case you missed it.)

Thoughts?