"Hay!" I waved at Danny as we reached the round pens in front of the stables. Nico groaned at the pun, holding his head with his hand. Danny grinned as he waved back.

"How are Y'all?" His Texan accent matched his red flannel and boots perfectly.

"Good. We weren't overly busy today and we're hoping that Katie here could have a ride on one of your pegasi. That is if you aren't too busy," Nico stated as Katie waved at the Palomino on the lunging rope in the pen.

"No, Cam and Lilah are just taking a ride with some of the greener ones, but we still have some of our calmer gals in their stables. Did we want to head inside and see which one Katie takes a fancy to?"

We nodded, and Danny started to shorten the rope, leading the pegasus into a pasture before heading back towards us. He waved over his shoulder for us to follow him inside, and it took a moment for our eyes to adjust. The cobblestone floor was scattered with hay and straw, and four stables lined the far wall.

"Hey, can you grab out Chevalier for me?" Danny called to the back of the barn. Slowly, a mid-sized tan and cream mottled horse with creamy wings stepped out, a purple halter and lead head to its left.

"Pretty horsie!" Katie squealed as the pegasus was led outside into an open pen. We gave it some distance before heading out behind it. Danny took the lead from the black-haired girl as she headed to the pasture to lead another horse to the washing stalls. Danny lifted Katie onto the pegasus and held a hand against her back as they walked around the pen. I glanced beside me where Nico should have been, but he wasn't there. I looked around, trying to spot his dark clothing, before finding it over at the stalls with the girl. I headed over there, knowing that Danny would be able to entertain Katelyn for the meantime.

"No. I don't kno- no. I haven't. Please leave me alone, I'm trying to wash Chestnut." She turned her back to Nico and pulled on the lever to start the hose. Spraying it over the pegasus, she gently pushed him to the side so that she could wash his legs. Nico reached over her head and turned off the lever. The girl scoffed at him, before winding and hanging the hose up.

"I'm trying to tell you what my father told me. And I need you to know so that it doesn't happen."

The girl I recognised as Nisha, as she glared at Nico. She pushed him out of the stall before leading the pegasus outside again.

"What did your dad say, Nico?" I interceded, which startled both the demigods.

"Well, he, uh - he said that-"

"-Basically, he said that Doom and Gloom here has some type of death speak over only you."

I stepped back in shock. What had happened, it could become a recurring thing?

"Wait. Why do you know so much about this?"

"Gods. Can you two speak any louder?" Nisha glanced at the pegasus, before pulling at us to go around the back of the stall. "Nico thinks that I brought Percy back."

"You did so." Nico glared at her, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, it was freaky. Anyway, I've been worried that I'm going to do something wrong or slip up about the whole thing, so Nico and I have been liaising about it. But someone decided that maybe they should say it in the place filled with animals that a certain Poseidon-kid can talk to." She ended sarcastically, as realisation flooded Nico's expression.

"Crap. Sorry."

"Well," I said, grabbing their attention, "Whether you like it or not, I'm now a part of this."

"Great. Another person to deal with. Next, your kid will know and then the whole camp will." Nisha threw her hands up in the air and walked back around to the tied up the pegasus, "Now can I get back to washing Chestnut?"

We walked back over to Danny and Katelyn, who hadn't left the pegasus' back, and Katie was covered in light brown hair.

"Okay, this is the last lap. Y'all will most likely have to go soon." We nodded to Danny as he led Chevalier around the pen a final time, before lifting Katie down from his back. Nisha chose that time to walk back out of the barn with a bucket of grain for Chevalier, and Katie recognised her immediately.

"Nissa!" She yelled it so loudly that Nisha flinched, turning around to see the toddler.

"Munchkin," she regarded her as she walked through the gate into the pen, directing the pegasus' muzzle into the feed.

"What you doing?" Katie tilted her head to the side, confused.

"Definitely not making a teacup into a pancake." Was she alright? That sentence made no sense. Katie didn't care, she giggled at it. Nisha continued in the mad hatter-like lexicons, "Did the mouse bring its umbrella to the party?"

Katie giggled, turning to us, "I'm the mouse."

We nodded at her, slightly confused at how she could understand the gibberish.

"That was fun. What did you do?" We exchanged side glances as Katie asked the question.

"We talked to some of our friends." It was the best white lie I could come up with on the spot, but it fooled her because she started skipping up the hill back towards the camp.

"What we doing now?" She stopped skipping, turning around to us.

"The library. You wanted to draw remember?"

"Oh," she looked at her shoes, face screwed up in concentration. "Can Nissa come?"

"I don't think so, she looked really busy helping Danny."

"But I want her to come!" She stamped her foot on the grass. I looked at Nico, unsure of what to do. He shrugged, crouching down to her level.

"What would you like to do? Stay here, being cross and stamping, or would you like to climb aboard and we can go and ask Ciar- er, I mean Nisha." Katie's expression softened and she threw her hands around Nico's neck as he moved her into a piggy-back position.

"To Nissa!" She pointed back at the stables, and they started walking back to the stables.

I walked slowly behind them, extending the space between us. I perched against a pen and could hear them bargaining with Nisha to come. Either they were being really loud or the barn was very echoey.

"Come on, drawing!"
"I'd love to munchkin, but I can't. I've got combing to do."

"Pwease."
"Munchkin, I'm sorry. I can't."
"But… You pwomised."
"I did, didn't I?" There was a pause before all three of them exited, with Nisha calling to Danny that she'd be back later.

"You do know that you don't have to come back, right?" He replied to her, but she brushed it off, betting Katie that she could get the Athena cabin first.

Katie won the race because she kept calling for Nisha to wait for her. Heading inside, we found Percy in the process of building several different paper planes, his feet up on the table beside him. Annabeth still sat at her drafting table, pens pushed precariously into her ponytail and clipped to the pocket on her shirt.

"Hello!" Katie raced over to Percy, who started grinning as she clambered onto the chair beside him. He pulled out some more coloured paper and the felt-tips that he'd been using to decorate the wings. She eagerly took the pens and started drawing on the paper. Nisha walked over, picking Katie up and sitting her on her lap, asking her about what she was drawing.

I stood with Nico, chatting absentmindedly to Annabeth. Time seemed to slow down, like I was thinking faster than usual. I had only been reviewing these past few days. Adopting Katelyn; Mrs O'Leary and her litter; the drawing; Nico's selective death speak. It all felt connected, like a fine piece of thread connected it all. The drawing. I scrunched up my face trying to remember what was on it. Blobs that were Nico and I, a blob for Katelyn and a little brown blob. The death speak was on that page, in the way that the Nico blob hovered above mine. But the brown blob, I couldn't place it. It was too small to be Mrs O'Leary. Maybe one of her pups? But that was ridiculous, I hadn't seen any runts when we delivered them. Unless…

"Nico," I nudged his shoulder to grab his attention, "I know what it means."

"What? What's supposed to mean something?"
"Don't worry then. I'll just tell you later." I walked over to where Nisha and Katie were finishing an origami swan, and Percy was trying to convince them to give it blue feathers.

"Pfft, no. Then it'll ruin the pink and purples. Won't it, munchkin?"
Katie looked up at her and nodded, leaning back into Nisha. Percy pouted, and started drawing miniature dolphins and whales on a page.
"What's that?" Katie pointed at the animals, a pen in her other hand ready to try and copy them.

"Sea creatures, they don't have noses." Percy leaned closer to her, before fake-grabbing her nose and showing it to her. He added, "Now you don't have a nose."

She looked at her 'nose' in his fist, eyes wide with shock. She reached out to take it from him, but he pulled his hand away before she could touch it.

"Nose, pwease." He gave it back, surprised by her manners. The conch shell sounded for lunch, and we all exited the library in a herd, disbanding when we got our lunch and went to our separate tables. This really must have been Nico's favourite day. First, waffles for breakfast and now he had burgers and fries for lunch. We loaded up the two plates for the three of us to share.

Burgers and fries eaten and plates licked clean, the three of us decided to go down to the beach. Luckily for us, some of Katie's favourite people were already by the water, reading a book and building a sandcastle. She ran over to Percy, accidentally filling in his castle moat with her shoes.
"Aw, man! Now I have to redo it!" He exclaimed, causing Katie to falter and glance down.
"Sorry."

"It's okay, how about you help me rebuild it, huh?" She nodded and sat down beside him, patting lumps of sand into the hole as Percy shaped them. We sat beside Annabeth, head buried deep in a book on architecture. She didn't even bother looking up at us when we sat down.

"So, we've got maybe six hours until dinner. What do you think we should do?" Nico asked me, taking his shoes off and burying his feet in the sand.

"Katie seems happy playing with Percy, we could just hang out here." I nodded and Nico did too. We sat and watched Katie for a while.

"Oh, merda!" Nico sat bolt upright, twisting the ring on his middle finger.

"What? What?"
"Hazel doesn't know."

"Then IM her, she'll be excited."

He called out to Percy, "Hey, do you reckon you could make some seaspray. We might IM Hazel."
"Yeah, no problem." Percy stood up and dusted the sand off his shorts. He then rubbed his hands together, causing a wave to clash against the sand. The wave sent seaspray everywhere. Nico dug out a drachma from his pocket and threw it into the spray and muttered the incantation. Hazel's face sprung to life in the mist, her nose screwed up tight in concentration. She was glancing around, not aware that we could see her.

"Psst! Hazel." Nico caught her attention and she immediately jumped backwards, shocked to see us. I could barely make out her features, she was somewhere dark, maybe a forest.

"Nico? Will?" She stepped hesitantly closer to us, lowering her sword.
"Yeah, it's us. Percy and Annabeth are here too." They moved closer to us, Annabeth putting her book down for a second to wave.
"Hello. It's been what… A month?"
"Yeah, I'd say that," Percy scratched the back of his neck.
"Anyway, Nico just thought that he should call you to let you know about Katie." I said, as I glanced over to Katie still patting the sandcastle into shape.

"Katie," Hazel tapped her chin, "Katie who?"
She must have been overhearing her name, as Katie dusted off her playsuit and bounded over to us.
"I'm Katie!" She threw her hands out in excitement. Hazel looked incredulously at her, still trying to pinpoint who she was. There was a brief moment of silence before Nico intervened.
"She's your niece."
Hazel softened and proceeded to gush over her for a minute before snapping back to attention.
"I'd love to stay and chat but-" She was cut off by a guttural roar and a blue scaled creature cut the connection.

The conch shell sounded for dinner and we headed up, bith Nico and I lifting Katie as she jumped over stones on the path.
"Where was Nissa?"
"With the Pegasi most likely." She nodded at Nico's response and eagerly sat down at the table with us. It was brisket and roast vegetables that night. Katie ate almost half of my plate and drank at least three cups of juice.

We headed back to the apartment after skipping the singalong because Katie was tired. Changing into our pyjamas and brushing all our teeth, we tucked Katie in with a short story about a robot made of lions. Hopping into our own bed, Nico and I said goodnight as we turned to opposite sides. I could hear some faint scratching but couldn't be bothered to open my eyes. I shrugged it off as some sticks outside, instead quickly falling into unconsciousness.


Sorry for the late posting, I've just been in a bit of a slump. And I've been busily watching Voltron on Netflix *squee* it's AMAZING! Also I will be posting my final chapter for the story either today or tomorrow, so don't worry. Also, on the final chapter I may release some information about our next story. So get ready!
Supersassysnakeatingbadger out x