A/N I'm leaving a few days between the posting of each already-written chapter so you guys don't get too used to me updating regularly. Please review :)

Nico's POV

I walk over to Will, Cecil and Lou-Ellen in the middle of the dorm circle.

"hi." Lou-Ellen says as soon as I get there, "we're still waiting for-"

"Sorry I took so long." Will says; a smile- as usual- radiating from his face, "I had a lot of siblings to say goodbye to."

"Speak of the devil." Cecil whispers to me and Lou-Ellen.

"hi." I say to Will. Argus is walking towards us with his car keys. He points towards half blood hill then starts walking towards it; we all follow him.

When we've all gotten in the strawberry delivery van- I always forget that camp is a strawberry business- we set off. I realise how many other times I've left this camp: after I found out that Bianca had died, the months I spent between camp half blood and camp Jupiter, and now. I remember promising Will I'd never leave camp half blood "for good" again. I just hope I was telling the truth.

"So what's the plan" I ask.

"We go south to find the 'stars'." Will says, making bunny ears signs by either side of his head as he says "stars".

There's a pause in the conversation before Cecil blurts out, "okay so this has been really bugging me and I don't want things to get awkward so if someone's a liar please say." In one breath. There's a pause in the conversation.

"Well I'm gay." I say glibly to difuse the tension. I could swear I heard Will squeak a little, though I might have just been imagining it.

"Oh, we know." Lou-Ellen says.

"What? How? Who else knows?" I ask.

"More like who doesn't know." She replies derisively.

The van stops and Argus climbs out to open the back door. We all climb out as he grabs a crate of strawberries and starts loading it into the back door of a pancake shop. We take that as a sign to start setting off on our own and by midday we're in Times Square, and, having decided what we want for lunch, looking for a shop that sells tacos.

When at last we find one, surprisingly empty, we run over to it immediately.

The shop is set out like a carvery, or a school dinner's hall, where we get a bit of food each time we move along in the queue. We all get a serving of food each then go to sit.

When we've all finished, I get up to go pay. The old woman at the counter says in a rough voice –like she needs to cough, "that's 12 dollars 96 cents please"

"Do you have change for 20 dollars?" I ask.

"Yes in the back." She says. I look over to my friends and Lou-Ellen gives me a look that I think is saying, "go!" when I will later learn it meant, "no, don't go!" the woman starts walking toward the door that's behind her, "come on- this way, child."

I tell the others to stay put and I follow her. But by the time I'm back there I can't see her. "Hello?" I ask.

"My, my, you have been a naughty boy, haven't you?" I hear her voice from nowhere in particular; it seems as though it's coming from all over.

"n-naughty?" I stutter, "wh-wha'd'you mean naughty?"

"Leaving your friends to wonder where you'd disappeared to, keeping secrets from them. You ended up in Tartarus- why, you can't have been good, can you now?" she appears- literally out of thin air- right in front of me, then starts running towards me. I might be imaging it, but I can hear her mumbling "naughty child, yummy child." Over and over under her breath.

Having left my sword with my friends, and being too close to the woman to run away, I've all but given up on trying not to die. But just before it's too late, I feel two hands grab my waist and lift me to the side before the hag is decapitated and turns to dust.

"You... saved my life." I say to Will, who was the person that pulled me to the side.

"'course I did." He replies, "I'm your friend." I can't help but smile.

"What was she? Why did she call me "yummy child"?" I ask.

"Mormo." Lou-Ellen says, "Some myths say she ate misbehaving children, other's say she was a friend of my mother's"

"What do you think?" Cecil asks.

"both." She says simply, gaining confused looks from all of us, "I mean, they weren't friends at the same time she was eating children. I'm pretty sure they're not friends anymore."

(a glib remark is made without careful thought and suggests that asituation is better or simpler than it really is.)