Nico sighed. It had been about a week ago when Nico had saved the little cat. School had ended a few hours ago, and Nico was now sitting in front of his cabin, enjoying the sun. Closing his eyes, Nico let the warmth of the sun caress his face. The warmth disappearing, Nico opened his eyes and saw that the sun was blocked by a big, black thing. It was hard to say what it was, but it was scary and it was flying towards the center of the village. Nico looked as it landed on the small houses, crushing them under its weight.

Fairies and other magical creatures' panicking screams could be heard all the way up till Nico's ears as they tried to flee the fire breathing thing. The thing put almost every house on fire and creatures fled for their lives. Nico watched in horror as fairies, elves and other things got burned alive. Smoke and the scent of burning flesh made Nico feel sick. Too shocked to even move, Nico watched all the horror happening in front of him.

-In the center-

A big, golden dragon landed with a power even the lightings couldn't match. Crushing the small houses under its big body, it started to breathe fire over the panicking creatures. Watching the small, pathetic creatures trying to save their own lives, the dragon felt much better.

"You!" a booming voice could be heard somewhere in front of the dragon. The dragon looked down with his red, intelligent eyes meeting equally intelligent eyes, maybe even more so. Athena, the current ruler of the little kingdom, looked the big dragon into its eyes. "What do you think you are doing?" Athena yelled.

The dragon tilted his head a bit before moving its head closer to the ruler. The dragon's head was twice as big as Athena herself. "What I'm doing here? I'm here to make everything right. You know that the history repeats itself." the dragons beautiful voice boomed in the village. All the creatures stopped to listen to the beautiful voice of the terrifying dragon.

"I'm not letting you rule this kingdom, Kronos." Athena said, lifting her hands to shoot a ball of pure light. Kronos lifted one of his paw and smashed it on Athena, leaving her under it.

"You know you have no chances against me without the big three." Kronos said, while all the creatures watched in awe.

"Mom!" the silence was broken by a fairy, Annabeth. Annabeth ran towards her mother, but was stopped by a shield her own mother had maid.

"Annie… You have the power to save us all. Go find the three swords and come back to save the kingdom." Athena said, looking at her daughter. "But remember that you can't make it on your own. Outside our kingdom's borders, is a world you have no idea of. You need friends." Athena said, smiling at Annabeth.

Annabeth looked in shock at her mother before taking a few steps back. Percy was on Annabeth's right side by now. Percy took Annabeth's hand and started to fly away towards the only creature he knew that would know something about the world outside the kingdom, Nico. While flying towards Nico's little cottage, Percy and Annabeth ran into Grover. Grover was a satyr, meaning half elf and half goat.

"Dudes! Where are you heading to?" Grover asked.

"To grab Nico with us." Percy said and started to fly towards Nico's house again, this time Grover after them. When they finally arrived at the undestroyed cottage, they noticed that the door was left wide open. Inside the cabin they could hear cursing and see Nico moving around, collecting things.

"I don't want to take him with us." Annabeth said, looking at Percy. Grover made a noise of agreement, but Percy only shook his head.

"Wait here." Percy said, letting go of Annabeth's hand and walked inside the cabin. Nico turned to look at Percy who was standing at the door. "You have to come with us. I don't know if you saw, but… a dragon just attacked." Percy said, waiving around with his hands.

"I'm not blind." Nico said, grabbing few more books into his bag before closing it. Nico left the cabin, Percy on his heels. Starting to run towards the unexplored forest, Nico didn't even once look back before they got to the boarder. Turning around, Nico looked at the three creatures. Just when Nico was about to say something, more small dragons started to fly towards the little village. Nico turned back towards the forest and started to run.

When Percy and Annabeth tried to fly after him, they noticed that their wings couldn't carry them. Both falling to the ground with a big thump, Nico turned around again. Walking back to help them up, Nico offered his hand to Annabeth, who only slapped it away. Turning around, Nico continued to walk until he came to a river. Sitting down, Nico sighed and looked around himself. The river had a beautiful blue sparkling color, while it streamed. The trees were a shade of violet and the ground was full of beautiful flowers.

"Hey." Percy said, sitting down next to Nico. Nico turned to look at the boy, who had a frown on his face. Nico didn't say anything, but continued to look at the shimmering water. "Annabeth thought this could be a good place to camp for the night." Percy said, breaking the silence that had fallen.

"It's not." Nico said, looking at the bushes across the river. Percy followed Nico's gaze and was met by two shining pairs of eyes. "It's not even dark yet, so we could continue walking along the river, depending where you want to go to." Nico said. Soon Annabeth and Grover joined the duo at the river.

"So… Where are we heading next?" Percy asked.

"Well, according to the legend, we can't find the three swords without the lost Oracle." Annabeth said. Nico turned around to look at Annabeth.

"You want to find the three swords?" Nico asked.

"Yeah, so why don't you go back to the village." Annabeth answered.

"Annie, stop it. I wanted Nico to come with us, because I don't think we would have a chance to survive here without him." Percy said, taking Annabeth's hand in his own. Annabeth gave Percy a sweet smile. "Any ideas where we could find this Oracle?" Percy asked all of them. Nico opened his bag and took out a book. It was a book his father had made with a map. Opening the map, Nico put it on the ground, showing it to the others.

"We are here." Nico said and pointed at the map. They weren't that long away from the village, but enough to be safe for a while. "I suggest we continue to walk along this river and spend the night here." Nico pointed another spot on the map. It was deeper inside the forest, but it had been marked with an x.

"Why should we trust that map?" Annabeth asked, snatching it away from Nico.

"I don't think you have a choice." Nico said, reaching over for the map. Annabeth folded the map and put it into her pocket. Nico glared at Annabeth for a moment before putting his book away. Everybody stood up and started to walk along the river, Nico after the others.

'Why did they ask me with them? Well, they didn't exactly ask me…' he thought as he walked, looking at the trio. They seemed to be good friends and Nico couldn't help but feel lonely. Although he had been alone for almost his whole life, it didn't mean that he was lonely. Not until this second. Percy turned around and smiled at Nico. He slowed down his walk until he was walking next to Nico.

"Do you know why I can't fly here?" Percy asked, trying to start a conversation.

"Your wings are too weak." Nico said, not even sparing a glance at Percy. They walked for hours, the silence only getting broken by Grover's whines of 'are we there yet?'. The sky had darkened, and between the beautiful violet leaves one could see stars staring down at them. The flowers had started to glow, making a magical mood.

"It's here." Nico said, breaking the silence. He walked away from the river into the forest. There was a little cave, well hidden by big leaves. Taking them away, Nico went inside and dumped his bag in one corner. Annabeth, Percy and Grover walked inside too, sitting down.

"I'm gonna go look for some firewood." Grover said and walked out. Percy went with him, leaving Nico and Annabeth alone.

"Can you give my map back?" Nico asked Annabeth. Annabeth glared at Nico before digging out of her pocket.

"You know… I don't think I will." Annabeth said and put it in her pocket again. Nico sighed, and started to look at one of his books. It was a book about mythical creatures that lived outside of the kingdom. When Percy and Grover came back, they had arms full of wood and some berries they had found.

"Do you think we can eat these?" Percy asked after he had put the woods down. He showed the berries to Nico, who looked at them for a second.

"You can eat that one." Nico said, pointing at a blue berry with red prickles. "But those others are poisonous." he said. "I have some apples with me, if you're hungry." Nico said, taking apples from his bag. He offered one to Grover, one to Percy and one for Annabeth.

"I'm not taking anything from you." Annabeth said.

"More food for me then." Nico said, putting the apple back into his bag. After they had started a little fire, they were all silent, thinking about the things that had happened that day. After a moment, they could see a little thing coming to the mouth of the cave. The thing looked like a cat, but its ears looked like a fish's fin and it had four small horns. It let out a weird sound that could be considered a meow. Everybody looked warily at it, while Nico dig out one of his books. He was sure he had seen that creature earlier. Annabeth took a burning wood out of the fire and threatened the thing with it, trying to make it go away.

"It's harmless." Nico said, closing the book he had been reading at. The cat-like creature meowed again before walking over to Percy's lap and sitting down on it. It started to purr softly as it curled up even closer to Percy. "It's called Catus Piscis and it's kind of like a satyr, but half fish and half cat." Nico explained. Percy put his hand slowly on the cat's back and started to pet it. The cat opened its black eyes and stared up at Percy's green ones, before shutting them again. Nico took his bag and laid it under his head, as he laid down. He was tired.

"I'm gonna go sleep too, so if you two watch over for a while." Grover said, also laying down.

"Okay." Annabeth said and moved to sit next to Percy, glaring at the cat. After a long moment, Annabeth decided to break the silence. "Why did we take him with us?" Annabeh asked, pointing at the sleeping form of Nico.

Percy sighed. "He isn't that bad." Percy said, looking at Nico's back.

"He isn't bad? Are you out of your mind? His father tried to take the power from my mother and rule the kingdom! His father said that he had the right to do it, because he was one of the big three. Which is, by the way, a lie!" Annabeth hissed. "My mother is one of the three." she added.

"It doesn't matter what his father did." Percy said, reaching over to take Annabeth's hand. Annabeth squeezed Percy's hand, smiling at him.

"I don't trust him to come with us on this journey." Annabeth said, pecking Percy on the cheek. "You have to get rid of him." Annabeth said, taking Percy's chin in her hand and turning it towards her.

"Why would I do that?" Percy asked, looking Annabeth into her grey eyes.

"Because he's a freak, he's a traitor and we can't have him with us. What if we had to fly somewhere, he would only be a burden." Annabeth said, before kissing Percy on the lips. Percy responded to it.

"Grover can't fly either and neither can we, if you remember." Percy said.

"I want him gone." Annabeth said, giving Percy another kiss.

"I'm sorry, but then you have to do it by yourself." Percy said. "You can go to sleep now. I'll wake Grover up when I get tired." he adds, looking at the little cat in his lap.

"Night." Annabeth said, laying down a few feet from Percy. Percy sighed as he continued to look at the cat in his lap. The cat's black eyes were shut as the cat slept. Everybody else was asleep except Percy. Or that's what he thought.

Nico was laying on the hard ground, looking at the forest outside the cave. He was thinking about everything Annabeth and Percy had talked about. It wasn't anything new for him, and he still didn't understand why they had wanted him with them. Well, Percy had wanted.

"I'm gonna make sure that you're safe from Annie, Nico…" Percy whispered. Nico gave a little smile which went unnoticed by everyone. He closed his eyes and felt the sleep take over him. It had been a long day, and he still didn't understand everything clearly. "You looked over me once, so now it's my turn to look that you're safe." Percy added after Nico had fallen asleep.

A/N

Did this chapter make any sense? I'm sorry for making Annabeth the bad guy, again.

Oh, by the way, reviews gives me inspiration, and inspiration makes me write faster, so don't forget to review.

Please Review.