Piper really didn't want to wake up. She felt her body was laying in a woven thing above ground like a hammock, sun touching her gently and a gentle breeze blowing by, warm and cool at the same time. The air smelled so fresh, it was like there was no such thing as cars. She heard squawks, warbles, and songs of animals nearby and way in the distance.
Piper wanted to stay where she was forever, but there was one problem. She had no idea where she was. Camp Half Blood didn't have animal sounds like this place did, and they definitely didn't have such fresh air or hammocks.
She forced herself to open her eyes and the first thing she saw was green woven fabric in front of her. She pushed her thired body upward with her arms, or what used to be her arms. When she looked at them, she saw that they weren't arms, they were very colorful, scaly dragon limbs with talons and claws where her hands should be.
Piper looked up her shoulder and saw wings, a giant scale shaped like a dove, and her knife Katoptris strapped on her arm by some tightly woven green material. The wings lead down to a long tail that curled like a chameleon. She felt up a long scaly neck that was supposed to be her neck and her talons felt a long a toothy snout with horns at the back of her head. "This cannot be happening", she said to herself, her scales shifted to different shades of green that sparkled like jewels in the sun. Piper looked at her scales in awe. Did they just change color? Then Her scales shifted to a deep cobalt, but some spots like the tip of her talons were still green.
Piper thought for a second and willed herself to shift into the colors of the sunset. Her nose turned yellow and the color faded into orange as it neared the tip of her tail. Piper imagined a blooming flower pattern that she saw once on a nice shirt she saw at a store she went to once. Her sunset scales faded into light blue with green vines spreading along her body and random pink and blue flowers bloomed on her wings and neck. She imagined green vines climbing up her arms with bluish purple flowers dotting them. Looking down at her arms, they now had vines crawling up them, shifting as if wind was blowing through them, all speckled with the flowers. "Ok this is cool", Piper said checking out her wings which had a net of vines and flowers. "That is awesome. Can I fly?", she asked herself.
Her answer came to her when the jumped out of the hammock and into the sunlight. The sky was a fresh shade of blue and the air was a surprisingly warm for a morning. Tall trees spread as far as the eye could see, but underneath the canopy was an entire village full of dragons. Most of them were bright and colorful, but some were pitch black. They all milled about, eating fruit or animals Piper didn't know which, flying around from tree to tree, talking, and just doing their everyday things.
Piper hovered there, looking at how beautiful everything was when something large and black hurtled into her. She yelped in surprise as they both plummeted downward, scaring dragons away as they fell. "Get off of me", roared Piper, not even a bit of charm speak in that sentence so she got back talk. "Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP! For the last time I am not going to eat anymore fruit or listen to any more of your chattering", the dragon kept yelling, but the voice sounded familiar to her. "NICO! Is that you"? suddenly everything stopped and Piper knew why. They had gotten tangled in a web of vines which tangled around Piper's wings, tail and legs, but thankfully not her neck. Nico the dragon was twisted in the vines like a cocoon with his limbs being pulled in different directions and his wings spread out in weird angles.
Piper had to agree, Nico did look pretty good as a dragon. He had gained some muscle since he had started hanging out with Will Solace so he looked healthy. His face and body was pitch black and his eyes were the same color as always, but a little bigger and easier to see without all of that hair. His horns were like smooth obsidian and Piper noticed the skull on his shoulder and his sword strapped to his tail which looked pretty cool. In the rainforest with light dappling his scales, made them sparkle like black obsidian and the rest of him look like shadow. The thing she also noticed is that he looked well rested, but him being really angry and annoyed ruined the image
"Hi Nico", Piper said. "Piper? Is that you"? He asked looking a little happier. "Thank the gods, you've got to help me. These dragons are driving me crazy". Piper didn't know what he meant, but then she heard a voice come from the tree, sweet with a little of the stereotypical, teenage, blonde, popular girl . "Nico, come here. We have some more fruit you would like", and three dragons appeared from the trees and flew down slowly and majestically. "Oh no. no, No, NO. Piper help. I am sick of them", Nico yelled, struggling in the vines that bound him, but without luck. The prettiest dragon giggled at his comment and his struggle in the vines. "Oh pretty Nico. You are so handsome when you struggle. Not like those other nightwings who were raised in a volcano and have no care for hygiene, but you", she slid one claw under Nico's chin, forcing Nico's head to turn upward to look in her eyes or be scratched, "You are perfect". Her friends all giggled. "AHHHH! GET ME OUT OF HERE", Nico roared and struggled in his bindings, trying to reach his stigion sword.
"Leave him alone who ever you are", Piper growled, putting a little charmspeak in her words. The dragons turned their attention to Piper and glared. "If you don't mind, I am Anaconda". Piper couldn't help, but to remember the song from Nicki Minaj and snort in laughter at the memory of the song. "Oh, are you laughing at me"? Anaconda asked raising an eyebrow at Piper. Piper resisted the urge to start singing it and put on a serious face. "No. I am asking you to stop bothering Nico. He just wants to live his short, miserable, demigod life in peace", Piper growled and reached over for her knife. "Yeah. Wait. What? Miserable"? Nico said. "Oh, I see. You want him too", the Anaconda joked and her friends laughed.
Piper felt like throwing up. No way she "like liked" Nico, he was a good friend and he was Hazel's brother. Hazel was her best friend. "NO. I like him as a friend. Not in that way and I feel sorry for him for having to looking at your ugly face". The dragon's gave an astonished look and it was the perfect chance for Piper.
As fast as lightning and ripped the vines to shreds and flung her knife to the dragon's throat. "Now you leave my friend alone or I kill you. Got it"? Piper whispered to the sacred Anaconda. Her victim whimpered and then nodded hesitantly. "Good", mused Piper and shooed the dragons away.
"What did they want with you"? She asked Nico as soon as he was out of his bindings. "I don't really know. When Glory found out that we were different and she told Anaconda to show me around. She began trying to fatten me up on fruits and started flirting with me. Then she gave me this fruit that made me feel weird, then I passed out. I woke up in a cage early this morning with her staring at me and then I remember her talking to me all night and me answering every question she asked, including the one about who I liked". "Oh who is that"? Piper asked, a little curious about who was Nico's crush. Nico's eyes drifted towards the sky then instantly snapped back to serious face and tried to change the subject. "I escaped through the shadows and then I bumped into you. Oh yeah, thank you for saving me from more of that dragon's torture. I don't want to hear her blab on endlessly about whatever".
Piper imagined the poor son of Hades and wondered what did Anaconda do to him. She imagined herself in his place, so freaked out, creeped out, and angry. Now that dragon knew Nico's deepest secrets, and that dragon can use those secrets against poor Nico if she wanted to.
After a while, Nico was back to his normal, grumpy self, standing in the shadows. Suddenly a black dragon with a dark brown underbelly and amber eyes dove down and hugged Nico, making him grunt with surprise. "Nico, thank the gods you are alright. You disappeared for the entire night and I didn't know where you were. I asked Glory, Deathbringer, Starflight, Sunny, Clay, some nightwings and rainwings, but they didn't help. Do you know how scared I was? I don't want to lose my brother", Hazel began crying in his chest and Nico hugged his sister.
Piper didn't blame Hazel for not wanting her half brother dead. Nico would visit Hazel in camp Jupiter and he was as nice to her and understood her feelings. Even though he was a little unsocial and mysterious, he was a great big brother to Hazel and by the way she would talk about him, it sounded like he was a great big brother.
"Im sorry I scared you Hazel. That dragon guiding me, she kind of kidnapped me and drugged me into talking with her all night", Nico explained softly. "HER!? The one who was looking at you funny when Glory said to show you around the village. Oh I want to have Arion run over her over and over again", Hazel growled.
All was silent for a little while until Piper spoke up "Who's hungry? Do you two want to eat anything"? Asked Piper, finding that she was really hungry. "Sure, I haven't eaten since yesterday", said Hazel wiping away her tears of worry and joy for the return of her brother. "Yeah, I guess, but NO FRUIT". Piper laughed at Nico's comment and they all took off for breakfast.
All was well for the rest of the day for the demigod dragons. Nico got a nice, fat taipur to eat, Hazel ate some mangoes and Piper ate some weird fruit that tasted sweet and got her full fast. They hung out for the rest of the day talking to a nervous nightwing named Starflight, who told the group to ignore Anaconda, she was weird and once kidnapped him like that. "It's best to stay with someone she doesn't like. That is why am always nearby Glory all the time and also Fatespeaker. She drives her crazy and I appreciate that", Starflight told them while he was reading with Sunny. "What about me? Why do you hang out with me"? Sunny asked, looking at him with her mossy eyes. "I hang out with you because you are nice and you are my friend", He said smiling at her. She smiled back and began their book again
"Guys, what do you think is happening? I know me and Nico just showed up in the forest and Piper shows up also. Do you think someone is planning something"? Piper thought about that for a second, then pulled out Katoptris.
She looked at her reflection of herself in the blade and it turned to something else. The first scene was a greenish blue dragon with a Camp Half Blood necklace and familiar celestial bronze sword. "Look at that dragon. Doesn't it look like…" Hazel answered Piper, "Percy. Its Percy Jackson, he's here too". Piper watched as he fought another dragon, a green one and there was a raging storm around Percy, trying to destroy the dragon. Then the scene shifted to two gold colored dragons, one with grey eyes and one with blue. They were both chained to stone and they were both listening to something. When Piper looked at the picture better, she could see two dragon shadows, one who looked like a rainwing and another huge one who towered above the two struggling golden dragons. A voice spoke in Pipers mind, rasping in a sweet hissing voice, "Why only one? There are supposed to be eight. Why is it so hard to catch these demigods, they are just worthless scavengers". "Soon my lady", spoke a familiar voice, "They are very powerful and all know how to fight very well. Give them enough ghost warriors to fight and soon they will fall at your knees and you may slaughter them and receive your power. And I will get my Willy".
Piper looked closely at the smaller dragon, the male with the blue eyes and she recognized the dragon and so did Nico. He stared at the picture in horror and then got angry. "THAT KIDNAPPING LITTLE SHIT OF A DAUGHTER OF APHRODITE. I WILL RIP HER ARMS OUT OF HER FUCKING SOCKETS AND FUKING THROW HER DOWN TO TARTARUS IF SHE EVEN DARES TO LAY A DAMN CLAW ON HIM", Nico yelled, startling Sunny and Starflight reading nearby and getting everyone's attention. "Nico calm down alright", Hazel tried to calm her fuming brother down. Piper could almost see what Nico wanted to do to Linda through his eyes. Finally Hazel calmed him down a bit and they both stared into Katoptris again.
The next scene showed a battle, dragon against dragon, all fighting in one big battle. Blood and gore everywhere, but there was one problem, some of the dragons didn't get hurt. Some fell and disappeared in a flash of dull light, but when they were slashed at, they wouldn't disappear, they weren't even hurt. Piper spotted a dragon who shifted from dragon, to lion, to bear, to crocodile, chomping at the enemy. There was a flaming red dragon yelling and flying around, taking out those warriors one by one. Two red dragons like the first fought side by side, one had a familiar shield with Medusa's head on it and the other had Jason's gladius and blue eyes. Those two were slashing down enemies and sparking with electricity. Piper spotted the blue green dragon, knocking out soldiers with a tsunami and Nico nearby raising the dead to fight at his side.
Piper's blade turned back to her reflection, but she saw more than her, Nico, and Hazel. She turned around to see Starflight looking confused, Sunny gaping at the blade, Glory looking worried, and Clay having the same face as Sunny's.
Well tell me what you think and did I do ok. I am very tired today and I didn't really look it over to well so if there is any problems, I'm right here if you need me. Ok then keep on dreaming.