A/N Ena is pronounced Ee-nah:)

It was 4 o'clock in the morning, and Ena was rudely awakened.

"Hey!" she mumbled, her eyes gently fluttering open when something large and soft hit her in the stomach. There was some kind of light on somewhere, and she squinted her eyes against it.

"You were glowing again," Connor Stoll, who slept in the bunk across from her, whispered sleepily. "Knock it off."

"Oh, sorry!" she whispered back to him, as she realized that SHE was the source of the light. She shut her eyes and focused for a moment, and her glow faded. "G'night."

"Mmm," Connor grumbled as he rolled over.

Now that Ena was awake, it was hard to go back to sleep. She loved the night, it was the best part of the day for her. She always felt so energized, just by being shrouded in the darkness. Her thoughts wandered, and she tossed and turned in her bed, too restless for sleep. Finally, she signed quietly and threw the covers back. Sliding off her bed, she put her feet into her slippers and stood up.

She quietly crept out the door, careful not to wake any of the Hermes children. She breathed a sigh of relief as she successfully made it outside without disturbing anyone, and took a deep breath of the cool night air.

Ena Echo Collins was not a child of Hermes. She was a daughter of Nyx. However, as she was the only child of Nyx at Camp Half-Blood, they hadn't yet constructed a cabin for her, and she was put in the Hermes cabin, full of mismatched unclaimed demigods. Sometimes it annoyed her, but whenever she brought it up to Annabeth, she would be reassured that they would construct Nyx's cabin soon.

Ena looked up at the stars, her metallic blue eyes shining. She wanted to run and jump around, throw a party, do something! The night was just so magical.

She knew that she wasn't supposed to be out, but she started heading towards the woods anyways.

She hadn't gone far when she tripped over a gnarled tree root. She threw her arms out to catch herself, but instead she felt someone catch her around the waist.

Startled, she twisted out of the stranger's grasp.

"Wh-Who's there?" She called into the darkness. Without waiting for a response, she blinked once and her eyesight cleared. Now she could see through the shadows, and standing in front of her was...

"Nico!" she squealed with delight, rushing forward to throw her arms around him tightly.

He stumbled backwards before regaining his balance. He hesitantly returned the hug before she pulled away, holding him at an arms length.

"You're back!" she exclaimed, looking him over. "I missed you!"

"Uh, I missed you too, Ena," he said, a small smile on his face. "What're you doing out here?"

"Oh, I couldn't sleep. The night just looked too inviting!" she gushed, still holding on to his shoulders. It had been a month since she last saw him, and he seemed to have grown a couple inches. He was now taller than she was.

"What're you doing in the woods?" she questioned.

"You know, it's easier to shadow travel in the woods. There're a lot more shadow doors with all the trees clustered together."

"Oh yeah," she said, nodding. Then she glanced up at the moon peeking out from behind the leaves.

"Wow, it's almost 5 o'clock!" she announced, a little surprised. "You should probably get some rest. Actually, we both should probably get to our cabins before the harpies find us."

A smile tugged at the corner of Nico's mouth.

"You're probably right. I'll walk you back to your cabin."

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When they reached the Hermes cabin, she gave Nico a quick hug before sneaking inside. She passed Connor and Travis, gently snoring, and several other of her "siblings" (for now) without disturbing any of them.

She crawled into bed and wrapped her blankets around her, snuggling in for the few hours of sleep before it was time to really wake up.

Ena had almost drifted off wen she remembered something. She pushed herself into a sitting position and leaned down to the end of the bed, towards the electrical socket on the wall. She reached her index finger out and flipped her nightlight on.

It wasn't just any nightlight. It was the nightlight that Leo Valdez had crafted specially for her. When it was on, it projected a mini-nighttime-atmosphere that only spread over her bed. Ena was fascinated as she watched the stars twinkle, the occasional comet falling by. It made her feel at home, even though she knew she didn't belong with this motley crew. Leo knew how she felt about having to stay with the Hermes kids, so he worked all week on the special nightlight for her. When he presented it to her on her birthday 8 months ago, on December 3rd, he had also asked her to go out with him, to which she enthusiastically said yes. He just made her happy.

Leo Valdez had also made her feel welcome when she arrived at Camp Half Blood in the dead of night, about a year and a half ago. It had been freezing, and the snow was falling hard. She hated snow, and she hated being cold, even though she was a December child. The icy wind bit at her heels, as did the telekhines that had been chasing her. Leo was on his way back from bunker 9, after he had finished his work on a project that kept him up until that hour. The only reason Ena had evaded the two telekhines for so long was because the night had filled her with energy, and she could feel that her goal was near.

Leo had ran up to her and pulled her across the magical boundary. Then, he bravely whirled around to face the telekhines. Ena had screamed when one of the telekhines threw a handful of of fire at Leo, but he just caught it and threw it back. Ena couldn't move; her energy had all but completely disappeared when she crossed the boundary. Now, she was shivering from head to toe, frostbite setting in.

Leo rigged some sort of mini catapult, which sent explosives sailing towards the telekhines. They exploded on contact, and moments later all that was left of the monsters was dust.

Leo then turned towards Ena, and dropped down on his knees on the snow bank next to her.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked softly.

She tried to take a deep breath, but found that she couldn't. She was tired from all the running, and now it was just so cold.

She shivered violently, and Leo looked at her with concern.

"Oh, man, I'm guessing that it's not a good thing for your lips to be that color," Leo remarked, his slight Spanish accent naturally rolling the "r"'s. He put his arm around her shoulders and Ena shuddered at the sudden warmth.

"Well, my name's Leo," he said. "You don't have to talk right now, but I'm going to take you somewhere safe, alright?"

Ena nodded jerkily. Leo put his other arm under her knees and picked her up. Ena snuggled into his chest; he was so warm. Later she learned that he was using his "Child of Hephaestus" fire powers to keep her extra toasty.

He had brought her to the Big House, introduced her to Chiron, and didn't leave her side that whole night. She cuddled up to him on the couch while Chiron explained the new world she had entered, and he kept her warm until her lips returned to their normal color. He held on to her even after all the signs of hypothermia had vanished from her. She had let him.

Now, gazing into her personal solar system, she smiled at the memory. She rolled over and fell into a peaceful sleep.

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The next morning, after hunting down her favorite blue headband from a child of Hemes, (she still couldn't get everyone's names straight), she put on her favorite light blue dress that flowed out at the bottom and was covered with small white flowers, she headed out before the rest of the cabin. If she had waited for then, she would be late, and she liked to be punctual.

At the dining pavilion, they were serving pancakes, which was her favorite. She piled a stack onto her plate and headed to the over-crowded Hermes table. On the way, she passed Mitchell and Lacy, who waved excitedly at her. She wiggled her fingers at them and kept walking.

She plopped her plate down at the Hermes table, but then spotted her two favorite people. She abandoned her pancakes and rushed over to the Hades table, and she wrapped her arms around Nico from behind.

He let out a startled "oomph!" but then realized who it was.

"Good morning Ena," he said monotonously.

"Good morning Nico!" she replied brightly, letting him go. "Did you sleep well?"

"I guess so."

"Great!" she said happily, smoothing down his hair. "Then enjoy your breakfast, smile more, and have a nice day!"

"Got it," Nico nodded, then ran his fingers through his hair, turning it into bedhead again.

Ena beamed at him, then whirled around towards the Hephaestus table.

She reached Leo in two big skips, and his arms were already waiting for her hug. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, and she buried her face in his neck and smiled. When she inhaled, she breathed in his familiar smell. He always smelled like a campfire, which may not sound like a good thing, but it was a comforting and relaxing scent.

"Sleep well?" he asked when he pulled away.

"Yeah. I took a walk last night when I couldn't fall asl-"

"Wait, what?!" he sputtered, cutting her off. "Where did you go?"

"Huh?" she asked, surprised. "I mean, I just took a walk by the Hermes cabin. I didn't go far or anything. What's wrong?"

"Oh, good." Leo sighed. "Uh, I mean, it's just, you shouldn't walk around in the woods anymore."

"Why not?" Ena questioned, confused. "I go like, every night."

"What?! No! Stop doing that!" Leo said, getting flustered. His voice had been a little too loud, and the whole pavilion stared at him for a second. He gave everyone a huge grin and a thumbs up, and they all returned to their food.

"Why?!" Ena demanded.

"Um, I, uh, oh! There's a monster running around in the woods!" he exclaimed, as if the thought had just come to him. "A huge, dangerous monster. A lot of campers have seen it! Isn't that right, Nyssa?" he turned to Nyssa, who was seated beside him, and elbowed her in the ribs.

"Huh? What? Oh, yeah," she said distractedly. "He's right."

Leo turned back to Ena. "Yupp. Big monster in the woods. So don't go roaming around until we take care of it!"

Ena looked at him skeptically.

"You can watch the stars in your nightlight," he suggested.

"Oh, alright," she relented. "But you'd better catch it quickly, I don't like being stuck in that cabin all night long!"

"I know you don't," he said, leaning up to kiss her on the cheek. "Hang in there, you'll be fine.

"I know, I'm trying," she said, leaning down so he could kiss her properly. He did, and she grinned at him. "Well, my pancakes are getting cold," she said, gesturing towards her table. "See you after archery?"

"Count on it."

He squeezed her hand before she skipped off to eat her breakfast. The pancake from the top of her stack was now missing, but she just rolled her eyes and poured more syrup and powdered sugar on the remaining pancakes.

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After breakfast, everyone scattered around the camp to go to their various stations. Ena scanned the crowd for Annabeth, then ran to catch up with her.

"Hey, Annabeth, wait up!" Ena called, rushing after her.

Annabeth turned to face her.

"Oh yeah," she said, pulling something out of her back pocket. "It's Tuesday. Just give it back before dinner, okay?"

"Got it!" Ena smiled, as she caught the cellphone Annabeth tossed to her.

She quickly punched in a Chicago number, and after a few rings her dad picked up,

"Daddy!" she said happily when she heard his voice.

"Ena!" he said, equally as happy. "How're you?"

Ena called her father every Tuesday to check up on him. They had happily lived together until she was 13, and then the monsters had come. If she could manage to make eye contact with a monster, she found she could hypnotize it into leaving them alone. But some monsters wouldn't leave, and Ena didn't understand how her father couldn't see what was happening. Finally, one night, after a particularly vicious attack by a hellhound, she decided to run away. She left her father a note and hopped on a bus. For some reason, the bus went all the way to New York. She got off near Long Island Sound one stormy night, and the rest is history.

She tried to visit her father as often as she could, because they had been close, but she always borrowed Annabeth's phone on Tuesday mornings as part of her routine.

She talked with her father for a while before heading for wilderness survival class.

"Bye daddy, I love you and I miss you!" she said.

"I love and miss you too sweetheart. Be safe." her father said lovingly.

"I will, don't worry. Talk to you later!"

"Bye!"

She hung up the phone and slipped it into the messenger bag she always carried. The bag also held: a candy bar, as she had an incurable sweet-tooth, a book, in case there was time to read during breaks, and extra hair clips and ties, in case hers broke or she needed extras.

She straightened her blue headband and started for the field in which survival class was taught. On the way, she passed the climbing wall, which Leo was scaling with some difficulty. She watched for a moment as he dodged the falling lava, though he didn't really need to, and continued towards the top.

As he reached for a handhold that was just above him, she saw his foot slip and he fell through the air towards the rocks below.

Ena screamed, but the emergency lock clicked on, and Leo abruptly stopped in midair.

Ena ran over to him as the rope slowly lowered him down. As soon as his feet touched the ground, she threw her arms around him.

"Leo!" she scolded, gripping him tightly, relieved that he was okay. "Be careful, you scared me half to death!"

"Lo siento," he apologized quickly, then switched back to English. "I'm sorry, I was just tired and I wasn't paying attention. See, look, I'm alright!" he said, pulling away and spreading his arms out so she could examine him. She saw a streak of dirt on his t-shirt so she brushed that off, but he looked unharmed.

"Fine," she agreed, concluding her critical gaze. "Just don't go up any more today, maybe take a nap or something."

"Yeah, I probably will," Leo said, scrunching up his nose the way Ena found adorable. "I didn't get much sleep last night, I was working on a project."

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "You and your projects."

"I think you'll like it," he beamed.

"What is it?"

"You'll find out later," he said with a wink. She reached out her arms and gave him one last hug.

"Well, I have to get to survival class. I'll see you later!" she said, squeezing him tightly and turning to skip off.

"See you!"

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Annabeth happened to be at survival class that afternoon, so Ena returned her cell phone to her.

After a few more classes, they had lunch, and now Ena was headed to the final activity of the day: archery.

Ena loved archery- it was her favorite camp activity. Her mother, Nyx, had given her a charm bracelet, her favorite magic item. The bracelet turned into a bow, and the charms turned into the quiver and arrows. Ena was an expert shot, and she was often called to the front of the class to give a demonstration. Thalia had approached her several times, but she refused to give up Leo to become a Huntress, even though it was tempting.

She got to class early, and took a seat between Lacy and Mitchell of the Aphrodite cabin, her two best friends.

"Echo!" they greeted her, using her middle name, because they thought it sounded cool. She gave them each a big hug.

"Oh my gods, your outfit is adorable!" Lacy squealed, taking in Ena's color-coordinated blue ensemble.

"And your hair looks fabulous," Mitchell put in. Today, Ena had swept her waist-length straight dark brown hair up into a high ballerina bun. She had secured it with several sparkly blue bobby pins.

"Thanks!" she grinned at them. "How did that thing with Connor go?" she asked the younger girl.

"Well, he totally would've fallen for me," she started conspiratorially. "But I decided that he's not going to be the one for my rite of passage. He's a little too old."

"That's what I told her in the beginning," Mitchell cut in. "But would she listen? No."

"What would you know?" Lacy argued. "Katie Gardner dumped YOU."

"What? No!" Mitchell sputtered. "That was a mutual break up. I was totally ready to end it!"

Ena giggled. "Mitch, you are so full of it."

He shrugged and smoothed his hair down, then fixed the collar of his purple button-down shirt.

"I admit to nothing," he said stubbornly.

Ena rolled her eyes at him and smiled. It was her turn to shoot, so she took her place in front of the targets. Seconds later, 5 arrows protruded from the bullseye. She gave a satisfied grin as the instructor, Michael Yew of the Apollo cabin, applauded her.

"Nice job, Ena," he said approvingly. "You could teach everyone here a thing or two," he said, looking pointedly at the rest of the Aphrodite kids, who were all examining their cuticles.

Lacy and Mitchell gave her double high-fives when she took her seat.

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After campfire that night, she trudged down the hill, tired from the day's activities. She started to feel a little disheartened as she remembered the overcrowded, messy cabin she would have to go back to in a a few minutes.

Suddenly, she felt a pair of warms hands cover her eyes.

"Wha-, Leo?" she asked, trying to pull his hands away.

"Nuh uh," he said, holding his hands firmly. "I've got a surprise for you."

She giggled. "Can't I see where I'm going for it?"

"Nope! Come with me, I'll take you to it. Close your eyes for a moment, okay?"

She shut her eyes and felt his hands come off her face. Then, she felt him tie a bandana over her eyes.

"This way," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her along. She screamed, "Ahh, no! I can't see!" she stumbled blindly.

Leo lauded softly. "Just trust me, I'll lead you."

She stopped trying to walk on her own and let Leo lead her forward. They walked quite a ways before she could tell they were in the forest.

"Huh? Isn't there a monster in here?" she asked, confused.

Leo chuckled. "Hey, you actually listened to me! Nope, the monster's taken care of."

They walked a little further, and she could hear campers a little ways off.

"Where are we? Are we by the cabins?" she asked.

"Sh, you'll find out soon enough!"

Finally, they stopped walking.

"Alright, I'm going to take your blindfold off, but don't open your eyes until I tell you to, alright?" Leo instructed.

"I won't."

The blindfold came off.

"Alright: one, two, three. Open!"

She did so, and she saw they were standing in the middle of a clearing in the woods a few yards from the campers cabins, and standing directly in front of her so she couldn't see anything else were Nico, Lacy, Mitchell, and Annabeth.

"What's this?" she asked them, confused.

All five of them were grinning at her.

"Well," Annabeth started. "You've been here a while, and Leo brought something to our attention."

"It wasn't just me," Leo interjected.

"Yeah, Mitchell and I helped too!" Lacy informed her.

"Helped with what?" Ena asked, extremely curious now.

"Well, this," Nico said, a rare genuine smile on his face.

They all stepped away from her, and they revealed...

"Oh my gods!" Ena exclaimed, rushing up to the newly constructed cabin that was dotted with stars. "Is this for me? I mean, for my mom?"

"Yes!" Annabeth exclaimed. "We've been working on it all month!"

"I'm shocked you haven't found it already," Mitchell smiled. "Leo told us about your nighttime wanderings."

Ena was so happy she could feel tears forming in her eyes.

"Thank you guys so much! I can't believe this!" she gushed.

"Go look inside!" Nico encouraged her, opening the door for her.

She hopped through the door and gasped as she entered. Overhead was a huge skylight, through which she could see the beautiful night sky.

"You can close it in the morning if it's too bright," Leo said, handing her a remote control.

"Did you make that?" she asked wondrously.

"Yeah," he said, looking proud but a little embarrassed. "I hope you like it."

"Leo!" she exclaimed. "Like it? I love it!"

He smiled as she continued to explore. There was a mini-fridge stocked with her favorite candy, and lots of shelves for her to put her belongings on. There were also 3 bookshelves, filled with all her favorite books. How they knew which ones she liked, she had no idea, but she was glad that they had put then there.

Her new queen sized bed was covered with a swirly star-patterned comforter, and there was a night stand with a pocket to put her bracelet in at night. There were a few more beds in the cabin, just in case she ever got any more siblings.

There was a lot more to explore, but instead he turned towards her friends, her eyes shining.

"Guys, thank you so much! I love you so much!" she said, giving them each a hug.

"You deserve it, Echo," Mitchell said, giving her a tight squeeze.

Lastly, she hugged Leo, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I love you," he whispered in her ear.

"I love you too," she said softly. She pulled out of his embrace and looked around at all her friends, and her new cabin. She finally felt like she belonged, that she was a real part of Camp Half-Blood.

She was home.

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A/N

This is for Cassiopeia3, who owns Ena. Thanks for submitting!

The demigod submission form can be found on chapter one, I'll keep writing as long as people submit, so please do!

Please review and or follow and or favorite!:)

Xoxo

EmMarie