HEIGHTS

Nico rolled over and blinked rapidly in the sudden bright light as he woke up. He didn't remember falling asleep, but then again, he usually never did these days considering he was always so tired.

He sat up suddenly as he remembered what had happened. He had been attacked by a few Kampe and knocked unconscious. Why he wasn't dead, he didn't know, but he wasn't going to complain.

He quickly blinked a few more times as his eyes adjusted some more. When he could finally see clearly, he looked around to take in his surroundings.

"Holy shit," he whispered.

Thalia stirred slightly as she started to wake up. She could feel a light breeze starting to tickle her hair as she continued to regain consciousness.

"Hey," a voice to her left called softly. "Be careful. Don't move around so much."

"Why not?" she asked groggily. She looked over and saw the blurry form of Nico sitting on a platform next to hers.

"Because it could cause a few problems in our current situation," he replied.

"Current situation?" she asked, pushing herself up off the wooden platform she had been laying on and turning to look at Nico. She frowned as she saw that he was sitting in the very middle of the platform he was sitting on, holding his knees to his chest as if he was afraid one movement would throw him off.

She turned slightly to take in her surroundings when he refused to answer.

"Holy shit!" she screamed, jumping up.

The platform she was standing on swayed dangerously as her sudden movement rocked the weak fifty foot tower that was holding it in the air.

"Thalia. Calm down," Nico tried to say soothingly. He moved as closely to her platform as he could without causing a dangerous rocking of his and held out a placating hand. "You have to calm down. Freaking out will just make things worse."

"Worse!" she shouted. "How can this be worse?! We're fifty feet up in the air on spindly little platforms with nothing to stop us from falling over to our deaths!"

"I know," Nico agreed quietly. "But we're going to find a way down."

"Down?! Down?!" she shrieked. "How are we supposed to get down? Do you have a magic spray bottle of water and a drachma hidden in those tight skinny jeans of yours so you can message for help? Are there any shadows close by that you can shadow travel from? No! We're stuck here genius!"

"The fact that you can rationalize and recognize all those things while deadly afraid leaves me a little apprehensive of you're apparently amazing skills," Nico mumbled.

"What?" Thalia snapped, rounding on Nico and causing the whole platform to shake again.

Nico wasn't able to answer as she threw herself down on the platform to keep it from falling over. He moved back into his original position of sitting with his knees pressed to his chest.

They both sat in silence. The shadows and sun traveled from east to west, but neither provided any help.

After a very long while, Thalia slowly sat up and turned to face Nico.

"Night time," she said excitedly. "Night time will bring shadows. We can shadow travel away then."

Nico looked at her sadly and pointed to the edge of the trees that surrounded them. "Flood lights," he said wearily. "The second the sun starts to go down and bring shadows, I'm sure they're set to turn on to prevent just that problem."

Thalia groaned and lay back down onto the platform as softly as she could. Nico could still hear a slight whimper come from her as the platform rocked slightly. He sighed and looked down at the ground that was fifty feet below him. The monsters wanted the two of them dead. And they wanted them to die painfully and in plain view of the gods.

Nico frowned at the ground. He quickly crawled to the edge of his platform and nearly fell off in his excitement. His mind scrambled through the idea. As long as he could time it just right, they would be performing one of the most daring escapes in the war.

"Thalia," he called tentatively. Thalia grunted slightly in reply, too scared to move or speak for fear of tilting the platform and making her look at the fifty feet drop below her. Nico took a deep breath before continuing. "I have a way to get out of here."

"You do?!" Thalia exclaimed, nearly capsizing the platform in her haste to sit up and look at him. She shrieked slightly and curled up into a ball in the middle of her platform before looking at him again. "What's your plan?"

Nico pointed down to the ground without looking away from her. Thalia's eyes widened as she realized what he meant.

"No," she disagreed forcefully. "No. No. No. No. No. I am not doing that. That is insane. I am not going anywhere near the edges of this platform let alone jumping off it."

"But it's the only way," Nico pleaded as Thalia turned slightly away from him. "There's a shadow from the platform slanting along the ground. If I time it just right we can get out of here."

"If!" Thalia threw back. "If you don't time it right, our bodies could end up splattered across the dirt below after falling from fifty feet in the air! I am not looking down again let alone jumping down!"

"Would you rather die up here?" Nico demanded. Thalia didn't respond, staring down at her shoes. She finally shook her head no. "Okay," Nico breathed. "I need you to stand up for me." He slowly backed up from the edge of his platform and got to the middle and stood up. He stood for a long time before Thalia copied him and stood up in the middle of her platform and faced him. She looked like she was about to puke, but was trying to detach herself from what was going to happen next. "Okay," Nico coached. "On the count of three, I need you to take three steps forward and then jump from the platform. I'll be right there to grab you and shadow travel us into the trees." Thalia stared down at the bottom of Nico's platform, shutting down from fear. "Hey," Nico said, catching her attention. "Do you trust me?" Thalia didn't seem to see him at first before nodding her head mutely. Nico took a deep breath. "One. Two. Three."

He took off and after three strides, leapt from his platform. He watched as, after a seconds hesitation, Thalia followed him. As he started to plummet to the ground he grabbed Thalia and pulled her close as if the were sky divers sharing the same parachute. Over the roaring of the wind as the picked up speed, he could hear Thalia screaming in fear. Nico couldn't concentrate enough to shadow travel when they reached the shadows.

"Thalia!" he bellowed. "I need you to calm down!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggghhhh!" Thalia continued to scream.

Nico looked below them as the ground and the shadows grew nearer.

"I guess if it's my last time to do it," Nico said. Somehow Thalia heard him over the sound of her screams and the wind and stopped screaming to give him a puzzled look. "Thank gods," Nico breathed before moving his head forward to kiss her.

Thalia inhaled sharply in surprise before melting into the kiss and burying her fingers in his hair. Nico sighed contently.

Before he wanted to, he broke the kiss and looked down. He felt the shadows engulf them and he shadow traveled into the edge of the forest.

They landed with a hard thump. Both inhaled sharply at the pain of a sudden stop. They stayed lying on the ground, trying to catch their breath.

After a few moments, they extricated themselves from each other and got up, brushing themselves off.

Thalia looked up at the platforms that were barely just small squares of blackness in the distance. "I don't know how you convinced me to jump off that thing."

"It worked though, didn't it? Come one," he said, turning from the platforms and starting to walk away. "Somebody's got to know we escaped. We've got to go before they bring a battalion of monsters to finish us off."

Thalia spun around him and grabbed his arm before he could walk away. He stopped and turned back toward her. Before he could do anything, her fist hurtled toward him and slugged him in the arm.

"What was that for?!" he shouted indignantly, rubbing his arm fiercely.

"That as for making me jump off that scarily tall platform," she replied. He just glared in return. She swiftly moved forward and quickly kissed him. Nico stood dazed, not understanding what was going on. "And that's for everything else," she replied before walking past him and starting to walk away. "Come on, Death Breath," she said after a few paces. "Didn't you say something about battalions of monsters after us. I really don't want to be here when they get here."

Nico smiled and ran toward her. They ran off toward what they hoped was some form of civilization, their shoulders brushing slightly.