I couldn't sleep. Maybe I was still freaking out about all the stuff we'd done in the last few days. I kept waking up, and could hear this scratching coming from outside at first. But, I only heard that the first few times I woke up. The next ones were just because I could hear something creak or smash. After the sixth time I'd woken back up, I sat up, not caring anymore. My eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness and I could see something on the table. Something that definitely hadn't been there when we'd gone to bed. I got out of bed and tiptoed over to it, putting my hands out to feel what it was. It was soft, and small and had a rubbery piece covered in something sticky and sour-smelling. I pulled the rubber thing, and got growled at. I let go, hands flying back in response. There was a hellhound on our table. I grabbed it by it's waist and lugged it outside, where I would be able to see better.

The full moon shone on the hound so that I could see it better. It was one of Mrs O'Leary's pups, it had to be. It was grey and had several brown splotches across it's nose and ears. I dropped the pup outside, wrenched Will's sandal from its jowls and headed back inside. Hopefully, that would stop the noise and I would be able to go to sleep. How wrong I was. The hellpup scratched at the door, and when it saw how useless that was, she lay down against the door and started pining. I looked at the clock beside me. 4:27am. I rolled my eyes, and opened the door to let it back inside. She instantly jumped up onto the bed and nibbled at the duvet, pushing into it with her large paws.
"No! Bad girl! Get down!" I hissed at her, forgetting that she couldn't understand me, and forgetting that she was a puppy. I picked her up off the bed, the top cover coming with as it was still in her jaws. Will stirred and I froze mid lift. He squinted and rolled towards me.

"Whah? Whah you doing?"

"Shh, everything's fine. Go back to sl-" The puppy mewled. Will rubbed his eyes and sat up, jaw hanging open.
"Tha- Tha- Nico," He spoke slowly, "Why is there a dog in here? And why is it chewing on my covers?"

I didn't know how to respond. So I just held the puppy and shrugged. Will let out an exasperated sigh.
"Nico, you need to get it out of here before Katelyn wakes up. As soon as she sees it, she'll think it's hers. We don't want her to get attached before we take it away. I'll stay here, and you see if Mrs O'Leary will take it back."

For the second time that morning, I headed back outside with a hellhound under my arm and still in my pyjamas. I carried the pup as she fidgeted and licked my arm and whimpered to be let free. Maintaining my grip, we delved deeper into the forest, only stopping once to recall which direction Mrs O'Leary had been.

Upon reaching the end of the treeline surrounding the empty plot, I could see the huge outline of the old Hellhound in the slowly crowning sunlight. I put the pup down and it stood still, unkeen to move closer. I pushed it forward slightly, hoping that would make it realise where its mother was. The hellpup did, bounding over towards her mother so fast that she tripped up several times. She mewled at her mother, trying to scurry under Mrs O'Leary's massive paws. I walked around the treeline, trying to spy whether or not the puppy was okay. It was tiny in comparison to her brothers and sisters, and was easily jostled by her siblings. Trying to nudge closer to suckle on her mother, the other pups pushed her away. She moved towards her mother's face, but Mrs O'Leary turned to look the other way.

It was heartbreaking to see such a small and helpless thing being shunned by its own parent. I watched as the pup dejectedly turned and sat heavily on its rear. I knew that Katelyn would no doubt be up right now, but I also knew that this little puppy wouldn't survive on its own. My shoulders dropped and I sighed, knowing that I only had once choice. I hung my head and strolled forward towards Mrs O'Leary. She looked at me, slightly baring her teeth and growling. I ignored her, she would settle down in a couple days. Crouching down, I picked the little hellpup from around its waist. Turning on my heel, I headed back to the treeline as the pup squirmed and rolled upside down in my arms.

I looked down at the hellpup as we walked; it wasn't an overly beautiful thing. It was barely the size of a soccer ball. It was the smallest of its litter by far. The pup had dark skin like her mother's but aside from the bone structure, that's where the similarities stopped. It had the protruding ribcage of a normal bullmastiff, but had a slightly mottled underbelly. The colouring of it was similar to the colour of decomposing and rotten leaves on a rainforest floor. She had a short stubby tail that barely measured 3 inches. And her face. The poor pup's nose was the same mottled brown-grey colour of her underbelly, but her face was splotched with a ménage of light and dark browns blotched across her face and ears. She looked like someone had been using her face as a chocolate painting palette. Only did I look away from the hellpup wriggling in my arms when I nearly tripped over a tree root. I blinked and looked out in front of me, the trees less concentrated. We were nearly home.

When we got to the apartment, I squinted. The pup had clawed away some of the paint from the door. Tucking the pup under my arm again, I twisted the doorknob and stepped over the threshold. Inside, Katelyn and Will had propped several blankets and pillows upright using chairs. They'd built a pillow fort. Closing the door, the pup squirmed and wriggled in my arms once more, her nose twitching like she'd picked up a scent she liked. She wrestled free of my hellpup dropped onto the hardwood floor, making a considerable thud as she hit the ground. Instinctively, I rushed to pick the pup back up before she gave away her existence. Her nose disappeared under a blanket and the rest of her body quickly followed suit.

"Puppy!" I could hear the shrill cry of excitement from Katelyn, and watched as the pillow fort quickly collapsed from the puppy's sporadically wagging tail.

"Nico…" Will pushed a blanket off of himself and looked at me, face strained in annoyance.

"It's the runt," I explained, and Will guiltily looked down, a grimace on his face, "besides, it would've died otherwise."

Will nodded before looking at Katie, who was sitting cross-legged and had both arms wrapped around the pup. The hellpup itself was licking at Katie's cheeks and softly barking.

"Can we keep her?" Katie looked up at us, her eyes big and round.

"Er…" Will and I exchanged glances. It would be cool to have a pet, but there was no way we could keep it here. When it starts growing – and it will – it'll get as big as Mrs O'Leary. If not, bigger. These thoughts raced through my mind along with various other pros and cons.

"Uh," Will paused and looked back at Katelyn, "Well, sweetheart, we'll have to see. Because she'll grow, um, really big."

Will didn't want her to have it, he was trying to let her down easily. I could see Katie's eyes well slightly with tears, and she adjusted her grip on the hellpup.

"Pwease," Katie's eyes pleaded as she hugged the hellpuppy tighter. The pup just started nuzzling into Katie's pink pyjama shirt and sneezed.

"I suppose we could keep her," I crouched down beside Katie and ruffled her hair, "So long as she doesn't go chewing my shoes. How about that, Katie?"

I could see his expression was riddled with anxiety, wrinkles lined his forehead, and he kept glancing between Katie and I. After a couple seconds, he began to speak.

"Have we even thought this through? The size of the thing, and we don't know what to feed it, and what would we even do with it?"

"We can sort that out later," I responded to which Will gave an exasperated sigh before giving in.

"Oh, alright. But what are you going to name it?"

"I don't know," Katie said as she let go of the hellpup to raise her hands, "What do you think, Papa?"

"You could try Cucciolo." I looked at her clearly confused face, "It means puppy."

"But I can't say it."

"How about Bonnie?"

"Bonnie, Bonnie." Katie called to the pup who was busily sniffing the apartment and most importantly, the kitchen. The hellpup ignored Katie, sniffing the doorjamb of the fridge.

"How about Pepper? She looks like she could be a Pepper."

"She's not a Pepper, she's more a Nala than a Pepper. Pepper wouldn't have all those smudges across her face and belly," Will interceded.

"Smudge!" Katie called, and the puppy came bounding over, tongue hanging out the side of its mouth. Katie scooped her up and started running her fingers across the dog's belly as Smudge started yapping contentedly.

"Huh. Smudge it is." Will stood up, picking up the blanket and folding it up. I looked at Katie and Smudge on the ground before going into the dresser to grab some clothes to change into. I left them on the table and waited for Will to get out of his shower.
"Hey, Katie, feel like getting ready for the day?"
"No! I wanna stay with Smudge." Her outburst left me aghast, so I turned back to the chest of drawers against the wall. I dug through picking out an outfit of blue shorts, a butterfly shirt and matching socks. I held it up for her to see.
"Do you want to wear this?"
"No! I wanna stay with Smudge." She pulled her arms tighter around the hellpup.
"How about a compromise?"
"What's an com-promise?"
"You do something for me and I do something for you. If you get dressed, we'll take Smudge with us to see your friends." She nodded and slowly let go of Smudge, who jumped down onto the floor and ran into the kitchen.

After Katelyn was dressed, Will came out of the bathroom hair damp from the shower. I quickly ducked into the bathroom to change out of my pyjamas.
"Hey, do you want breakfast?"
"I thought that'd be finished by now," I called from the bathroom.

"I just saw Percy head over and…" Will paused, "It's only 6:50."

I opened the door, blinking at the alarm clock. Yep, the neon green LED said 6:50.

"Shall we head to breakfast?"

"Yeah," Will replied as he took Katie by the hand and led her outside. I followed behind, closing the door before Smudge could escape.

After having eggs and bacon for breakfast, we headed down to the shore. But not before grabbing Smudge from the apartment since I'd promised Katelyn. Taking off our shoes, Katie and Smudge ran into the water, the waves splashing at the hems of her shorts. Annabeth and Percy were sitting on the shore again, reading a book and covering his feet in sand. We sat down beside them, keeping a close eye on Katie and her new pet.

"What's that?" Percy pointed at the hellpup.

"Smudge," Will replied which caused Percy's expression to become more dumbfounded than before.

"Mrs O'Leary had pups and that one was the runt who decided to follow us home." Percy nodded at my response. After a little while, Percy and Annabeth left to return her book and find a new one. So Will and I just sat and looked out at the water and Katie and Smudge.

"It's getting hot out, sweetie, maybe we should go inside," Will called to Katie, catching her unaware. A larger wave came up behind her and knocked her over, causing her to sob uncontrollably. I jumped up and rushed into the waves, picking her up and grabbing her out of the water.

"Oh, honey, it's okay. Don't cry." I tried cooing her and bundled her up in my hoodie, the heavyweight cotton swelling with the ocean water, "What can we do to make it better?"

"Peggies. The peggies, papa." She coughed between words and shivered. Smudge was nuzzling at her hair and licking the salty tears and water from her face.

"Okay, honey. Let's go see the pegassi then." I stood up, lifting her with me and we trudged silently to the stables. The short walk in the sun quickly dried Katie's clothes, leaving only her hair damp and matted.

"Nissa!"

"Ark!" Katie and Smudge squealed and barked at seeing the daughter of Hecate. They raced towards her and Katie barrelled into her legs, threatening to knock the bucket of feed out of her hands.

"Munchkin… And dog?"

"She's Smudge!"

"Right," she said slowly, "Okay."

"What are you doing?"

"Feeding Nutmeg."

"Can we help?" Katie looked up at Nisha, eyes pleading to join in.

"Fine, Danny!" She called out towards the stables, where the head of the cryptoequestrian popped out from behind the barn door, "Tag team. Munchkin wants to feed and groom Nutmeg."

"Sure, you do realise that you don't have to be here though. You should be doing arts with your cabin or something." We watched as she ignored him, handing over the bucket and the brush in her hand. "You have to clean Elijah's hooves."

She briskly walked into the stables, our attention refocusing on Danny lifting Katie onto Nutmeg. He showed her how to hold the brush and how to comb it through the pegasus's hair. Will smiled at the scene, and I mimicked him. Except I turned towards the stables, there was something I had to do.

"I've been thinking about what you said yesterday. It's like a demon deal, isn't it?"

"You could say that, yeah."

"Time limit, what is it?"

"Uh…" I didn't exactly want to tell her, to which her eyes widened.

"You don't know?!"

"No, I know. It's, uh, 5 years." I looked down, mind thinking about the black hourglass hidden in the back of my bookshelf."

"You have to tell her."

"Tell Katelyn? No," I stood firm in my words, rising to meet the boldness of her words. I knew deep down that I would have to tell her, just not yet. "She wouldn't understand."

"Help her understand, you owe it to her."

"She's too young."

"You have to tell her," she repeated, words sharper.

"When the time is ri-"

"-There's never a right time. Just like death. There's never a right time for it. But it still comes."

How was a twelve year old able to come up with so much wisdom? She'd probably been hanging out with Annabeth. She looked back at the pegasus she was brushing to hide the tears welling in her eyes.

"Leo's not dead. I know that much, but you would know that too." I tried to change the subject, to something I was still curious about. Other than the physician's cure, Thanatos and my father, I'd never seen anyone else resurrect someone. And she was so young, that much power... Well, it could corrupt her. Like it'd nearly done with me.

"I don't know anything. Why do you think I'm trying to find him?" She hissed, dropping the brush onto the railing with a clatter.

"He'll come back. He's done this before."

"But this isn't before. He didn't die this time. He just doesn't want to be around me anymore."

I huffed, knowing more than to try and say otherwise. I could familiarise with her, but she'd ignore it. So I left her to picking and grooming the pegasus, and headed back outside to be with my family.

I woke up and stretched, faintly oblivious to what was happening. That was until I rubbed the sleep from my eyes to see Will donning his jacket and stethoscope, tucking a last square of ambrosia into his medical bag. He quickly looked up and at the window, and I followed his gaze. Katelyn was still fast asleep, arm hooked around Smudge and her body curled around the little hellpup.

"What's wrong?" Will flinched at my voice, anguish on his face.

"Nothing too serious… I hope. Just that Lou found someone out on her morning forest hike." Fear bubbled within me, who did I know that was constantly in the woods?

"Who?"

My fears had been answered as Will uttered the name.


Okay, don't judge me. I know that it's been well over a couple days, but I just couldn't figure out how to write this chapter. But (without spilling the tea) at least I actually finished! And I did promise a little bit about the next story in 'A New Uprising' saga. It will be set a little while (a fortnight, or two weeks for you Americans) after this story, and will centre primarily about our favourite OTP and power couple, Percabeth. It will feature characters from this story and the original, so make sure to go back and reread every single story so you remember it all! And make sure to check out A New Uprising: The Day Chase Became Jackson!

Poll which I will answer in the begging chapter/disclaimer of the next story: Who was unconscious? Points for correct or creative answers!