Something clicked into place inside of Meara as the paw came reaching for her and the dark haired boy. She dove off to the side as the boy jumped the other way. The boy swung an iron sword, darker than the hour before dawn toward the paw trying to tear their heads off and missed by a hair.

She barely had time to wonder where the sword came from before the head on the serpent tale of the chimera tried to take a bite out of her side. Twisting away, she pulled a silver dagger from a sheath at the small of her back.

She stood in shock when she slashed at the snake's head and the blade barely scraped its scales. "What the hell?" She muttered.

"Monsters can only be killed by s weapon made of celestial bronze or Stygian iron," he shouted at her as he dodged the goat's head as it tried to butt him.

"Who made that idiotic rule?" She asked as the lion swiped at her again.

"Take it up with the primordial gods," Nico yelled back. When she tried again to at least injure the monster with her silver knife, he said, "just stay back. That blade isn't any good."

Meara did step back, but only to think. Nico was too busy dodging the three heads to try and kill it. She debated briefly before stepping once more into the fray.

This was not good. Nico could only fight defense. Every time he tried to raise his sword, a head he wasn't watching found an opening he had left open.

He was looking for a shadow to jump in and get him and Meara back to camp. Reinforcements sounded like a good idea right about now. Just as he found one, a bright red light hit the monster from behind. It snarled as if it had been hit with a stone.

Another beamed of red light hit it, seriously annoying it. It turned towards Meara, who was till Jodi g her silver knife in her right hand and another object in her left. She made a slashing motion with her left hand, sending a jet of white light at the monster.

Meara looked at Nico, trying to tell him something with her two toned eyes but he was standing in shock. He was just too surprised by the girl's actions, not sure if she were stupid, brave, or both.

Meara finally seemed to realize that Nico wasn't going to move. She shouted something Nico couldn't quite hear. Ropes suddenly wrapped around the legs of the chimera and tied the heads in a not so neat bundle.

Nico quickly sliced through the bundle, absorbing the monster into his blade. He turned back to Meara.

"What was that?" He asked, eyes wide.

Meara gave him a confused look. "What was what?" She tried to look innocent as she said it but Nico didn't buy it.

"That," he said as he pointed to the pile of ropes left behind. "You made a bunch of ropes out of thin air."

Meara glances at the ropes. She inhaled sharply before saying, "Technically, they didn't come from thin air."

"Not only that but they wound around it like," he stopped mid sentence and looked at Meara. "What do you mean 'technically not from thin air?'"

"Well, you see,"she started but Nico interrupted.

"Never mind. Just tell me how your able to do that, you're not a child of Hecate," he was practically yelling in desperation. Meara looked in his direction. Nico felt as if she was looking through him, trying to look for something only she could see.

Finally she said, " I'll tell you but you can't tell anyone. I could get in trouble if anyone ever found out I told you."

Nico thought a moment. He finally nodded. "Alright. I won't tell anyone."

She gave him a skeptical look. "Swear it."

Nico let out a sigh through his nose. "I swear on the river Styx, i will not tell anyone what you are about to tell me." Thunder rolled across the sky at his words.

The sky grew darker as Percy paced at the edge of the forest. It had been several hours since Meara had ran off into the woods with Nico hot on her tail. Chiron had told him to wait, he reasoning was being chased by a stranger that had turned out to be her brother would only made her run faster and farther the more he chased.

Apparently, this wasn't the first time a camper hadn't taken well to being claimed by their parent. Meara' case was made worse by the fact that not only did she resent being sent several thousand miles away from her home, but her godly parent was over a domain that had apparently claimed the other.

Annabeth sighed as she watched Percy make another lap of pacing. She also had wanted to follow Meara into the woods, but she knew they had a better chance of keeping Percy from following if she stayed with him. Oh, she was worried, but she knew Nico could hold his own and she had a feeling Meara could do the same.

"They've been gone for hours," Percy said hotly, startling her out of her trace.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "They'll be fine, Percy," she said. "Nico is more than capable of facing whatever comes at them. There's nothing too dangerous in the forest right now."

"I know Nico can take care of himself, but-" Percy started but Annabeth interrupted.

"If he can't, I have feeling that Meara can take care of herself," she said. She went on before Percy can speak. "I know she hasn't been trained, but with what we saw earlier, when you two fought, she has something powerful. Almost raw. She'll be fine."

Percy only huffed in response. Annabeth gave him a quizzical look. "You know, I'm a bit surprised by this amount of worry or a sister you only just met." Percy gave her a confused look. "Especially one that you hated when first meeting her." Annabeth was thoughtful for a moment before going on. "And since said sister knocked you flat on your ass."

"Hey," Percy said angrily.

Annabeth just shrugged. "It's true. I have a feeling that if Poseidon didn't break the two of you up, you would have come out of it worse off."

Percy opened his mouth to say that he could have beaten her. Then he thought of the raw power she had thrown at him after he had dumped water on her. Meara had managed to throw him flat on his back without touching him, and seemingly, without much thought. Whatever power or magic she wielded, she used it like it was second nature to her. Percy figured that Annabeth was right.

Meara sat with her knees drawn to her chest, her chin resting on top of them. She was waiting for nico to say something, she had finished telling him about her upbringing and why she had the ability to cast ropes out of thin air. He hadn't said anything for the last few minutes.

She couldn't take his staring anymore. "Are you going to say somethin' or just stare at me all night?" she asked.

Nico startled out of his dazed to glare at her. "Can't you give a guy time to wrap his head around news like that?" was his response.

Meara only shrugged. "Mama always said I was always impatient."

Nico snorted. "I think that's a bit of an understatement." He thought for a moment before asking. "So, was that rope an illusion?"

Meara shook her head. "It was a rope in every sense of the word. If I were to turn you into a squirrel, you would be a squirrel." She sighed at Nico's look of confusion. "You would know that you're still you, but you would have this insane urge to hord a pile of nuts."

Nico sat back Meara could almost see seem coming from his ears, his mind was working so hard to catch up. Finally, the light seemed to have come on. "This could change the way demigods think of magic."

Meara's mismatched eyes went wide. "You can't tell anyone. I wasn't supposed to tell you."

"But, we could use this to-" he started to say but Meara cut him off.

"The fewer people know about this the better," she said firmly.

Nico glared at her. She could tell he didn't like this, but it was true. If the camp boundaries didn't mask the use of her magic like Chiron seem to think it would, she was going to be in huge trouble.

Then he asked a question Meara wasn't expecting. "What about Percy? You gonna tell him?"

He was about to argue when they heard a twig snap in the woods. He suddenly became weary. "We should head back to camp," he said. "I'd hate to think what else is out here if there was a chimera wandering around the woods."

Meara paused. She grinned wickedly as a thought struck her. "Race ya back," she said as she hoisted hand fulls of her skirt to free up her stride.

Behind her, Nico shouted, "I've got one more thing to say."

"You may ask if you can keep up," she called over her shoulder. She didn't noticed Nico melt into the shadow of a tree.

He appeared out of a shadow in front of her. "You'll have to tell Percy something eventually." He then melted back into the shadow before appearing several feet ahead in another shadow.

Meara knew he was right, but there was something else at the forefront of her mind.

"Hey, that's cheating," she called then running towards she mumbled under her breath, "Whatever that is." She ran to catch up.