Chapter 5

I was angry. I had a right to be. Stella, and probably the others as well, were withholding information from me. Timothy had been my assignment, my demigod to protect and lead to Camp Half-Blood. Who did she think she was? Yeah, I admit, I felt bad for them. It must be horrible to have been forgotten, or ignored was actually more like it, but the gods and not even be allowed a proper camp but this was getting personal. I needed to know where he was. It was my duty to protect him. Mine alone. I could care less about their heritage, it wasn't really all that important compared to what I had to do. I had been sent to bring a new half-blood to camp. Well, that was exactly what I intended to do. I needed to get back to wherever Gaia had been keeping me… and to do that I needed…

Stella.

She had gotten me out of there. Maybe she could get me back in again as well. My thoughts raced across my brain with the speed of a bullet. How had she managed to get down there and rescue me without getting caught? How had she managed to escape without pursuers? Each question led to another and eventually, suspicion began to form.

By this time I had left the Gathering behind me. The flickering flames had been lost in the shadows of the trees and the voices in the night had gradually faded behind me. I turned and looked back. I had strayed well off the path, but had there been a path in the direction I had taken? Quite honestly, I didn't know. I remembered what Chelsea had told me and my heart began banging against my ribs. Don't stray off the path no matter what you see or hear. What horrible monsters lurked just out of sight? Did I want to know? Probably not. Whatever the case, I didn't know in which direction the path lay. The best I could do would be to choose a direction and hope that I'd wind up somewhere recognizable. I couldn't see three feet in front of me, which was definitely going to be detrimental. With a shrug, I started off the in the current direction I was facing. Maybe I'd get lucky. Luck seemed to have been on my side these past few days.

My good feelings had quite dissipated about an hour later. Blundering through thickets and getting stuck in brambles will do that to you, especially when it's dark and you're lost and you have no idea as to what might lay in front of you, wanting to kill you. Finally, I stopped. I was probably going in circles. My face and clothes had been severely scratched by now and I was starting to get hungry too. Glaring around, everything looked exactly the same in any direction; I couldn't even tell what direction I had come from. That really freaked me out – I mean… I should have been able to tell where I had been blundering for the past hour. I decided that this place sucked.

I sat down on a rock, mad at myself, the gods, the world. The darned thing was a conspiracy. Before long, I started feeling stiff. Before I could stand up though, I heard something moving behind me. I twisted, sword flying into my hand. "Who-?" I hadn't even gotten the rest of the sentence out of my mouth before I recognized her. The dark hair, silver and shadowed eyes, the sadness permanently etched into her brow. "Stella?" I gaped, standing and sheathing my sword. "What-?"

"What am I doing here?" she asked me, raising an eyebrow. "Looking for you, what'd you think?"

All my bad feeling came rushing back. "Why the Hades did you come after me?" I demanded, snapping. She flinched slightly and I felt kinda bad, but didn't let up. "Couldn't let your precious son of Hades out of your sight for long, eh? I can look after myself, you know." Stella looked hurt, but still didn't say anything. For some reason, this made me even angrier than I already was. Why did she have to be so calm? Why'd she let herself get kicked around all the time? And since she did, why did she still seem so strong? "See here," I snapped, not caring if I hurt her feelings or not. "I can't stay here. This place that you guys have is running straight into the ground. But you already know that, I assume. What else can you expect from demigods who would turn to Kronos?"

Instantly, I saw that I'd gone too far. Her eyes flashed with something that ran deeper than mere anger and she turned away. "You know nothing of us," she said softly. In her voice, I could hear barely controlled rage, bitterness, and… pain. Pain and sadness. What had happened? "Yes, Nico, I came to find you. If you wish it, I can also leave you here."

"No," I said quickly, feeling like a real jerk, but not knowing how to say that I was sorry. "It's alright…"

"That's what I thought," she muttered, still with her back to me. "Come on, we shouldn't linger here for long."

"Why not?" I asked curiously as she started to move away. Quickening my pace, I caught up with her. To my surprise, she picked a fairly easy route through the woods and we moved with a good deal more speed than I had managed. Her footsteps were silent. Not a leaf cracked underneath her tread, not a twig snapped. It occurred to me that I probably sounded like a herd of elephants trampling through in comparison. "Why not?" I asked again when she didn't answer.

"Because," she snapped, sounding irritated. "This forest is an illusion. It goes on forever changing, never the same. It becomes what you expect it to be. It only took a few Underworld children and a daughter of Hecate to make this possible. It's our best defense within the camp." I stopped, but she kept going. When she realized that I was no longer right behind her, she doubled back. "Don't believe me?" she asked. "I could leave you here, you know. I didn't have to follow you. There's no guarantee of ever getting back."

I just looked at her. "You people are insane," I finally said. Weak, but it was all my mind could think right then. "That's… this is nuts…"

"Exactly. You weren't listening very hard to Chelsea, were you?" she asked. "He makes a point of telling everyone not to leave the path."

Shooting her a withering look, I replied, "Yeah, he told me. I just… didn't expect… didn't think…"

"Hey, it's cool," Stella said with a shrug. For someone who had seemed so upset a few minutes before, she recovered fast. "We have to recover a few kids every year that get lost. And now we've got to go, Nico."

"Right," I said as we started off again. "How exactly did you find me anyway?"

"That was easy," she responded. "This place looks different for every person who sets foot in. However, there are places where they overlap. All I had to do was find what looked out of place to me and follow it. Rather like a trail you left behind."

I just stared at her for a moment. "Is it normal," I asked, "for new kids to just lose it and freak out?"

Stella rolled her eyes, grabbing my hand and pulling me after her. "Very," she said. "And you could be one of them if you don't get going right now."

That made me nervous, but I tried not to let anything of my emotions show on my face. She seemed to know where she was going, so I was content for her to lead me. My hands felt hot and sweaty with fear and nerves, where hers were pleasantly cool by contrast. After a while however, I started feeling like we were going in circles. I stopped and she stopped too. For a moment, I thought she was afraid because she kept looking around and her eyes were darting all over the place. Were we lost? I didn't know this place, and from what she let on, Stella didn't know it very well either. If it changed for each person to set foot within it… Yeah, we were lost. And standing there with this girl I hardly knew in the middle of nowhere and dark trees closing in all around, I got angry again.

"Well, what're you going to do?" I snapped, tugging my hand out of hers. "We're never going to get out of here!" She was supposed to be the one who knew what was going on, what to do. This was her camp after all. Why couldn't she get us out of here?

Stella glared at me. "Don't think like that – of course we'll make it out." She looked angry, but underneath I sensed that she was as afraid as I was.

"Yeah?" I demanded, angry that she was afraid. "So I suppose that the path is just a five minute walk away, eh? Just blunder along for a few more meters and we'll find it? What is the point of this place anyway if you never find your way back?"

She sighed. "Please, Nico-"

"No," I snapped. I was tired of her acting so superior. For gods' sakes, I was a son of Hades. I was way above her on the social ladder. I didn't care that she was head of this dumb camp here and I didn't care about the people here either. All I knew was that I was sick and tired of being treated like a kid. "This whole operation you're undertaking is pointless! You're never going to be recognized and none of the gods are ever going to care about someone else's kids!" As soon as the words had left my mouth, I knew that I'd gone too far.