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Before Percy could say anything, Will cleared his throat. "I don't mean to ruin the drama here," he said, "But this guy needs medical care or else he will DIE! So Nico and I will take him back to camp, and you guys can look for the other person. And don't worry, I'll send Nico back with another medic just in case."
"I'll be very quick," Nico promised.
Annabeth nodded. "Go on," she said, "But hurry back."
Nico placed his one hand one Will's shoulder and the other hand on the boy's arm. He shut his eyes, concentrating.
It took a moment, but Nico was finally able to melt into a shadow, taking Will and the boy along with him.
Clarisse stared at the spot where they had been. "That's just plain creepy," she commented.
Percy kicked at the twisted sword that lay beside the hellhound. "Look at it," he marveled, "It's all broken. And guess what?"
"What?" Annabeth asked as she explored the small clearing for clues.
"It's made out of Celestial bronze, just like the shield. Whatever attacked them must have been either huge or super strong. Not even a Cyclops could break Celestial bronze."
"Ugh. That's not good."
Clarisse poked at the dead hellhound with her electric spear. She frowned.
"The bite marks all over the hellhound are sizzling," she called to the others "Do you think it was a Hydra?"
Percy shook his head. "Too strong," he said, "No Hydra could have done this much damage. 'Sides, the scream we heard was obviously not a Hydra."
"So," Annabeth said, "What was it? Maybe it was a- oh."
Percy turned to her. "Oh what?"
"What if," she said slowly, "It wasn't a Greek monster? What if it was a Norse monster?"
She gazed at Nightshade. The silver wolf was now pawing at the boy's weapons. His tail was drooping and he looked back at Annabeth with mournful eyes. They may never know who the other person was, but it was obvious that the wolf cared very deeply for him or her.
Clarisse snorted. "A Norse monster?" She laughed in disbelief, "There's no so thing!"
Percy looked doubtful. He scanned the area one more time. "Why not?" He said. "There might be a Norse camp. A Norse wolf is literally walking around right in front of us. I've never, ever, in my entire sixteen year long life, have ever fought a monster like this one before. And trust me, I have fought every type of Greek monster there is."
Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she replied.
"Hey guys!" Annabeth said suddenly. "I've found something!"
The two glared at each other one more time before going over to where Annabeth was stooping over something behind one of the boulders. She stood up as they approached, brushing her messy blond hair out of her face.
She pointed to an odd line on the ground. Percy and Clarisse stared at it. It looked just like the mark a snake makes when it is slithering really fast, if snakes were as thick as barrels and covered in green slime.
"Ew," Percy said, stepping away from the tracks, "That just looks disgusting."
"That's not all," Annabeth said, "When I was twelve, I did an extensive study on snakes for a camp project. Now, this 'snake' was slithering backwards. That, besides its abnormal size and slime, is quite unusual. Even weirder was the fact that as it was leaving, it was dragging something. Someone, to be precise."
Clarisse checked her electric spear to make sure it was working. "So does that mean that the snake thing dragged some random person off for no reason? I mean, besides being hungry, but seriously, is it coming back?"
She scowled fiercely. "Cause if it is, the Ares cabin is having fried slime snake tonight for dinner. Ain't no monster getting within two inches of Camp Half-Blood!"
"That's the spirit," Annabeth said, "But I'm afraid that we won't be able to fight it. The tracks vanish after a few feet. We need to come back later with expert trackers and more fighters. There's no telling just how dangerous this monster is."
"You're right," Percy said reluctantly. He didn't really want to leave now, but Annabeth was always right. Most of the time, anyways. He sighed and picked up one of the swords.
"I can get this and one of the shields; you and Clarisse can get the other ones."
Clarisse scooped up the other sword and both of the shields. "I can carry just as much as you can, Prissy," she huffed.
"Oooookaaay," said Percy, "Or we can do that."
Suddenly, there was a whooshing noise, and Nico appeared with a thump beside Annabeth.
Annabeth jumped back, startled. "Oh my word, Nico!" She yelped, "Dont do that!"
"Sorry," he said, "Next time, I'll try to send you a text that says, 'I am currently shadow traveling in your direction with a medic and I will be there in approximately point two seconds.'"
Percy smiled at him. "And I thought I was sarcastic," he quipped. "By the way, where exactly is the medic?"
Nico held up a finger. "Hang on a sec," he answered, "Ella is kinda hard to shadow travel with since she's claustrophobic. She panics, but eventually she should get the hang of it."
Just as he finished speaking, Ella came tumbling out of nowhere. "AHHHH!" She screamed. She slammed into the ground at Percy's feet, eyes shut tight and arms wrapped around her head.
"Am I alive?" She asked, still not looking up.
The others exchanged glances. They were all wondering the same thing: Who in the world thought that sending Ella would be a good idea?
Don't get me wrong, Ella was super sweet and everybody liked her, but the shy thirteen-year-old Apollo girl wasn't really crime scene medic material. She was afraid of multiple things, including large animals, monsters, the dark, monsters, blood, monsters, battle, monsters, conflict, monsters, hurting people's feelings, and monsters. Especially snake-like monsters. She had had several bad experiences involving Hydras, which seemed to hate her for some reason.
Once she realized that she was, indeed, in one piece, Ella jumped to her feet. "Whoa," she said, "that was SCARY! No way am I doing that again! Sorry Nico, but I'm walking back to camp."
She looked around. "So is the monster still around?" She asked nervously. "And is the wolf going to eat us? I hope not; I don't want to be eaten at such a young age."
"No," said Annabeth, "And I don't think that we're going to need a medic. Whatever took the other person dragged him or her off and is probably enjoying a good meal right now."
She showed Ella the tracks, and while the girl was distracted, Percy and Clarisse turned on Nico.
"Why would you bring her?" Percy asked. "That was like, the dumbest thing that you could have done!"
He felt bad the second the words left his mouth, but it was too late to turn back.
"Was it Will's idea?" Clarisse asked. "Did he send the little coward?"
Nico sighed. "Look you guys," he said, "Ella really isn't that bad once you get to know her. She can be unbelievably brave sometimes; you just have to give her a chance. And yes, Percy, it was Will's idea."
"Of course it was," Percy muttered.
"So that's why we have to return with reinforcements," Annabeth was saying to Ella once Percy and Clarisse finished being mad at Will and Nico. "The other person has to be dead by now, but we still have to kill the monster."
"Actually," Ella said, pushing her oversized glasses up her nose, "The person is probably still alive."
Everybody stared at her, confused.
She pointed to the tracks. "Well, first off, these were not made by a Norse monster. A very rare form of snake that only appears about once every two thousand years made these. It is called the Snake, with a capital S of course since it is a name, and there are only two types of Snakes."
Percy's brain started to hurt. There was no way that this was happening.
Ella continued. "There are intelligent Snakes and non-intelligent Snakes. This was clearly an intelligent one since there is green slime coating the tracks. A non-intelligent Snake gives off blue slime, due to the small size of its brain."
She hopped over the tracks and pointed to another track, the one that Annabeth had said belonged to whatever the Snake had dragged away.
"Intelligent Snakes never eat. Not even once in their whole life. We have already deduced that this was an intelligent Snake, which means that the other person was dragged off for a reason. The Snake might have been bribed by somebody to capture this person. Therefore, there is a very good chance that the person is still alive."
Annabeth's jaw dropped. "Who are you and what have you done with Ella?" She asked.
A twig snapped in the forest, and Ella shrieked. She jumped and grabbed onto Percy's arm.
"W-was it th-the Snake?" She stammered nervously.
"Aaaand Ella is officially back," Clarisse sighed.
When Percy finally found his voice, he said, "Nah, it was just a vicious twig. Don't worry, they only attack at night. By the way, are you sure that you aren't really from the Athena cabin? How did you know all of that stuff?"
Ella blushed. "I read a lot about ancient monsters, just in case I get attacked by one. It always pays to be prepared."
Nico crossed his arms over his chest, a smug look on his face. "That's why Will wanted me to bring her," he said, "I told you guys that it was worth it."
"Worth what?" Ella asked.
"Never mind," said Percy, "I have a feeling that Nico is going to be lording this over me for the rest of my life. Come on you guys, let's go back to camp and come up with a new plan of action."
By the time they had all trekked back to Camp Half-Blood, along with Nightshade, who seemed to be afraid of being left alone, the sun was almost halfway across the sky.
"I'm starving," Clarisse complained. She trudged up to the pathway that led to the Big House. Annabeth had insisted that they all submit a full report to Chiron before eating.
"Why do I have to tell him what happened? Why can't just one of us do it? Someone who is not me?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. This was about the tenth time she had explained it.
"Because," she replied patiently, "It is vital to get as many views as possible when we have a problem as big as this."
Clarisse just frowned. She still couldn't see why this had to be done, but she wasn't in the mood to argue (Which was even more rare than finding a Snake).
Chiron was not there, though, so Annabeth said that they would just have to give him the report later.
Lunch had already passed, but Percy was able to talk a tree nymph server into whipping up a quick lunch for them.
They all sat around the empty Hermes table, each one trying to collect their thoughts.
"This is probably the weirdest day since the day I discovered that I was could summon ghosts," Nico commented.
"You've got that right," Percy agreed, "Although in my opinion, this is the weirdest day since the day that I met Bob the Titan." He paused for a moment. "Man, that was a pretty weird day."
"My weirdest day was when a discovered that Prissy was smart enough to recognize his own name," Clarisse said. "Of course, that's about as smart as he'll ever get."
"Thank you Clarisse for your kind remarks and mispronouncing my name. Again," Percy replied.
Ella absently stirred her egg drop soup with her spoon. "Do you think that the guy who was hurt will be okay?" She asked.
Annabeth shrugged. "I hope so," she said, "I know that Will is doing the best he can."
She stared down the hill at where Mrs. O'Leary was trying to play with Nightshade. The silver wolf looked seriously depressed, though, so getting him to do anything except lay in the shade and whimper seemed fairly hopeless.
Nico sighed. "Why can't that stupid wolf just come up here and say, 'Guess what? I'm from a Norse camp and I can help you guys find the missing person! By the way, the other camp is at such and such place, so why don't you drop by for a visit to tell the people there that you have one of their campers, so come and help us!' That would be so useful."
Percy chuckled. "That would be pretty useful," he said, looking at the giant wolf, who, despite being utterly useless as of now, was a very majestic creature.
Then he blinked and looked again.
"Guys," he said, "Is that somebody running towards us?"
Everybody stopped what they were doing to see.
"It is," said Annabeth, "and I think that it's Will."
"I wonder what's wrong," said Nico worriedly.
They went to the edge of the pavilion and met Will just as he reached the top.
"Is everything okay?" Ella asked him.
Will panted for breath and shook his head. "No," he gasped, "nothing is okay."
They all exchanged worried glances. Had the boy died?
Will finally managed to speak, and he told them the reason for his urgency.
"The guy we found is awake, and he told me something really, really, really important. You guys, this is bad. You need to come with me right now."