Piper hung upside-down in the top of a tree. In this position, someone on the ground wouldn't be able to see her, but she could see almost the entire camp; including Annabeth, who was pulling people out of their hiding places left and right. Even from the current distance, Piper could see that her smile grew bigger and bigger. Yet, she wouldn't get Piper, the daughter of Aphrodite would not let her. 'Why did Annabeth get like this? When did this happen?' She whispered.

Well, it all started when Leo got the great idea to play hide-and-seek, with everyone who was in the camp at that point. Annabeth got voted to be the first seeker, and she had sixty minutes to find everyone, while the other campers had one-hundred seconds to hide (Leo had set up a timer to correctly measure the amount of time they still had. After one-hundred seconds, it started the one-hour timer for the seeker). Connor Stoll had asked how you would know if someone was tagged, and Leo had pulled a pack of stickers and a bottle with a weird fluid out of his pocket. 'You stick these on their arms. It doesn't let go unless you use this fluid, which I'll give to the seeker.'

'Yet,' Piper thought, 'how could a simple game of hide-and-seek ruïn our good friend Annabeth so badly? Make her so heartless?' Piper took a deep breath, and sat right up on her branch again. Stars were flying around in front of her eyes. Ugh. Maybe she shouldn't hang upside down for so long. She looked through the leaves, and saw that Annabeth was making her way over to the forest, probably to systematically find every camper that was hidden there.

Piper climbed down from her tree, and ran away. She knew there was another, higher tree somewhere, with enough leaves to hide behind. That was a good thing, because Annabeth was not a fan of tree climbing and she would only do it when she thought she couldn't do anything else. The bad thing was that a random, very small, very fat Hydra had somehow gotten into camp, and it was parading around at the roots of the tree.

Piper facepalmed. 'Oh, which you of these fools brought a baby Hydra into camp and spoiled it with treats?' She thought. She knew Annabeth could be behind her every moment now, so she had to act quick: either attack the small, fat Hydra or seek another tree. She shrugged, pulled out Katropis and charged at the Hydra. When she got into a six metre radius of it, she expected it to charge, but it didn't. The hydra just kept chewing on a leaf. When it was so close, that Piper could easily kill it, she hesitated. It was so small. And so round. It was pretty cute, even. She sighed, put away Katropris and stepped onto the first branch. The Hydra still didn't attack. Piper climbed onto another branch. The hydra was still not interested.

Piper was relaxing on one of the highest branches of the tree. She knew she was out of sight of Annabeth, and the chance that the daughter of Athena would pick this one specific tree to climb when she would inevitably come to the conclusion that Piper was somewhere in a tree was very small. She smiled, and laid her head against the trunk.

She even started to doze of a little, until she heard something cough. Her smile vanished. It wasn't a humanly cough. She started to climb down the tree as quickly as possible. She was standing on the third lowest branch when she the Hydra coughed venom onto the tree trunk. It started to disintegrate really quickly. She jumped down, a little to fast. Her ankle twisted, and she yelped. Behind her, she heard something like a scream. When she turned around, she saw that the little Hydra waddled behind the disappearing tree.

Annabeth came rushing to where she was laying on the floor. Piper let out a yelp, and Annabeth stuck a sticker on her arm. After she did that, she looked at Piper's' face. She looked like she was into a lot of pain (Because she was and all). 'Pipes? What is wrong?' She knelt down next to her. Piper looked at the little bit of tree stumps that was still there. 'This might sound weird, but there was a big tree on the place of that stump. A... very small, and very round Hydra coughed venom onto it, and then I jumped down. I think I broke my ankle.'

Annabeth put out her jacket, and put it under Pipers' leg. 'Anybody! Get out of your hiding spot! We have an emergency, I swear it on the gods!' she yelled. It stayed silent for a little while, but then Nico shadow-travelled out of nowhere. 'What is going on?'

'Piper broke her ankle. I am going to get an Apollo camper to look at it. You have to stay here with her, and there was a Hydra.' She got back to her feet.

'Wait! Will you please get that Meg girl?' Someone asked. Annabeth turned around. A dryad was sitting next to the tree stump. Instead of green, her skin was white. 'I'll survive for another twenty minutes, don't worry.' She sounded so relaxed, that Annabeth asked no more questions. She ran away. Nico turned to Piper.

'Was it a very small and very fat baby-hydra?' he asked. His eyes turned away from her. Piper nodded. 'Yup.' She raised her eyebrow. Nico gave her his largest puppy-dog eyes.

'Um, I found it somewhere in New York. It was so cute. I wanted to keep it in my cabin, but he escaped, I guess...'

They heard another cough, and the Hydra came waddling back to the tree stump. Nico stuck out his arms, and the Hydra waddled into them. Nico got a very fatherly expression on his face. 'He is sick! Poor thing!' Piper looked at it.

'What do we do with sick Hydra's?'

'Maybe keep them out of the forest, so they don't destroy trees?' the dryad chimed in. Her skin was losing more and more colour, but she was still completely chill. 'Um, shouldn't you be, you know, a tat worried?' Nico asked. The dryad shrugged.

'No. My tree almost burned down once, and the Meg girl helped me. It also once got cut down, and Meg helped me again. If she comes here within twenty minutes, which I believe is possible, I'll be fine. And struggling will only make my tree die sooner.' Piper and Nico looked at each other. It was a little surreal.

Annabeth came running back, with Meg and an Apollo child. The dryad waved at Meg, who started to use her magic to heal the tree. The child of Apollo kneeled next to Piper. He softly touched her ankle. Piper did not like the look he got onto his face. 'Hm. It's not good. Annabeth, please get me the brancard?'

Twenty minutes later, Piper was laying in the infirmary with her ankle in plaster and a small piece of Ambrosia to chew on. Nico was sitting on the side of her bed, with a juice carton and the Hydra in his lap. Piper looked at the hydra. 'I don't think Chiron will let you keep that. I mean, the Dionysus kids had to bring away their regular house cat, I don't think that Hydra's are allowed.' Nico pulled the Hydra closer.

'I know. I think I might bring him to the Underworld. My demiamigo's over there will probably like him.' Piper raised her eyebrows.

You have friends in the underworld... that are dead, or alive?..'

'Dead. You probably heard of Silena Beauregard and Charles Beckendorf, right? They and two more. They'll adore Fred!' Piper laughed.

'You called him Fred?' Nico nodded, as he took another sip of orange juice. Meg slowly walked into the infirmary. 'I healed the tree,' she announced. She also sat down at the foot of Pipers' bed. Will came rushing around the corner, with a juice box. 'Here's Apple Juice. Also, Meg, how often have you healed that tree?' Meg pushed the straw into her juice box, and took a sip.

'About three times. The first times the tree wasn't so badly hurt, not like this time. She isn't the high tree that she was before, but a sapling.' Meg took another sip of apple juice. Piper yawned; she was tired, which wasn't weird. Will pushed Meg and Nico off her bed. 'Go get some sleep, Piper.'

At that moment, Travis came sprinting into the infirmary. He jumped over the beds, and accidently knocked over a small shelf. Will screamed. 'Travis! Get out! There is no-one hidden here!' Travis looked over.

'Sorry Will!' He stormed out again. Will looked like he wanted to cry. Nico put Fred on the bed, and begun to pick up the things on the floor. Piper yawned, and sunk into her pillows. 'I think I'll pass the next time we play hide & Seek.' Will nodded.

'Me too,' he muttered as he grabbed Fred and forced him to swallow cough drops.

(That night, Piper had to stay in the infirmary. Fred, who was healed from his terrible coughing disease with the help of cough drops (And just the tiniest bit of Ambrosia) cuddled up next to her, not even being angry as Piper used him as a teddy bear.