Hey, everyone! Just a heads up: most of the chapters in BoL are going to be of varying length. So now, if you complain about the chapters being too short, you can't say I didn't warn you!

You know what makes me happy? For everyone who guessed reviews, you're right! Hope you like the chapter!

The only camper left on duty, of course, was me. Mitchell from Aphrodite had left a couple minutes ago, right after he'd fallen asleep and almost impaled himself on his own sword.

"You sure you'll be okay, Nico?" he'd asked, stifling a giant yawn.

I gave him a look. "I'm the son of Hades. I'm not likely to be afraid of the dark."

"There is that." He finally let loose the yawn he'd been holding back.

"Go to bed, Mitch. I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay, okay. Night, Nico…" He drifted back off towards the camp, leaving me alone on Half-Blood Hill. I didn't mind, though. Finally, there was time to enjoy silence, and the gods knew that there was barely ever any of that at happening at Camp Half-Blood.

I sat down on the hill about a hundred feet from Thalia's pine, and drew out my sword, Bianca. The black blade glowed faintly in the darkness, shedding light on the ground a few feet in front of me. When my dad had given this sword to me the first time I'd ever met him, I remember thinking when will I ever have to use this? But I learned pretty quickly that demigods have to use swords rather a lot - usually to keep themselves from getting slashed to bits by some monster.

As I stared out into the woods surrounding Half-Blood Hill, I started to realize why Mitchell had dozed off. The night was dark, quiet and calm, with nothing around to disturb the peace. I rested my back against a tree and was just starting to relax when something large and black jumped into my senses.

Being the son of Hades, I know when a creature of the Underworld appears anywhere near me. And this particular creature - a hellhound - was very near to me. And a hellhound within a mile of the camp was major league cause for worry.

I jumped to my feet and looked down the hill. Hellhounds are large and completely impossible to mistake for anything else, so it was easy enough to find. But what really surprised me was that there was someone else at the bottom of the hill - running from the hellhound.

She was obviously a girl, dark-haired and wild-eyed. In her hand was a long, glowing blade that I recognized instantly as Celestial bronze. That made her a demigod, but I was sure I'd never seen this girl before. So where the heck had she gotten the sword from?

Before I could do anything to help, the hellhound picked up one enormous paw and batted her away, so hard she hit the side of a tree with enough force to make me wince. It stood over her as she lay gasping for breath on the ground, and just as it opened its jaws to take a giant bite out of her, she grabbed the sword from where it had fallen and stabbed it into the hellhound's mouth.

At this point, some of my common sense returned, and I sprinted back to the camp's entrance. "Hey! Someone hurry up and get over here! We've got trouble!"

Seconds later, Leo came hurtling out of the forges, followed by Nyssa and Jake Mason. "What's happening?" he asked.

"Hellhound," I explained. "It was chasing someone - she stabbed it -"

They didn't need any further explanation. We ran together onto the crest of the hill. The girl was still lying next to Thalia's pine, but she wasn't moving. The hellhound was gone - her shot to its mouth must have sent it back to Tartarus.

After stumbling down the hill, Leo and I knelt by the girl's side. "Dang," Leo whispered. "Someone seriously needs to introduce this girl to a hospital."

I nodded in agreement. The girl's face was bruised all over, and what we could see of her arms and legs under her sweatshirt and jeans were scratched and bleeding. I put my fingers to her neck - thank Hades, she had a strong pulse. She was alive, but injured and unconscious.

Leo turned to Nyssa and Jake. "Book it to the Poseidon and Athena cabins. Percy and Annabeth need to know about this."

The two of them nodded and ran back to the entrance, leaving me and Leo alone with the new girl. He bent down and picked up her sword.

"This is Celestial bronze," he said aloud. "So how could she have gotten it?"

I shook my head, my eyes on the girl's face. Something about her expression seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't have placed what it was.

"It's magical," Leo said suddenly. "But how - ah."

He put the sword across her body so that the point touched her collarbone. Instantly it shrank into a delicate bronze chain, then the ends slid to connect themselves around her neck.

"Holy Hades," he said. "Only a god could have given that to her. Most likely -"

"Her godly parent," I finished. Leo nodded.

"Dude, we'd better take her back."

I leaned down to pick her up, then stopped. "I don't know if I should move her."

Leo snorted. "Don't look at me. I definitely can't lift her, so it's going to have to be you."

"That's not really what I meant."

"Look at her, Nico. She needs ambrosia right freaking now."

I looked at her. I had to agree.

Bending down, I put one hand under her knees and another gently on the small of her back, then lifted her up into my arms. She was extremely light - too light. I could feel every one of her ribs beneath my fingers; she obviously hadn't eaten well in weeks.

"I should take a picture," Leo joked as we climbed the hill and entered the camp. "Nico di Angelo, the white knight, rescuing a damsel in distress."

"More like a black knight," I answered, grinning. "And there's no way this girl is any kind of damsel in distress."

Leo opened his mouth to answer, but our weird argument was interrupted by Percy, who ran up to us looking like he'd just rolled out of bed. Which, when I think about it, he probably had.

Percy rubbed his eyes and stared down at the girl in my arms. "Whoa. Who's she?"

"A demigod," I answered. "But beyond that, we have no idea. She killed a hellhound, though, and she used -" I lifted the chain on her neck, " - this."

Percy put one hand on the girl's forehead, then looked up as Annabeth appeared beside him. "She's definitely a demigod. What do you think, claimed or no?"

Annabeth shook her head. "She's unclaimed, I can feel it. And Greek, so she belongs here."

"Powerful, too," Percy nodded. "So she'll probably be claimed tomorrow at the campfire."

"Then the only thing to do is wait until she wakes up. She looks like she could really use a good rest. Some food too," Annabeth replied, taking in the girl's gaunt and shadowed face.

So about ten minutes later, the girl was wrapped in warm blankets on an unoccupied bed in the infirmary. A little bit of colour had come back into her cheeks after Annabeth had dripped some nectar into her mouth, and she was looking better every minute Leo and I watched her. We'd told Argus to go get some sleep - okay, since he doesn't actually sleep, we'll say he went to get some rest - and that we would watch her until morning.

Leo, though, I wasn't too sure about. He looked like he would barely be able to make it another hour, let alone till dawn. I don't sleep very well sometimes, so it doesn't really affect me if I go one night without crashing. But Leo, as he put it, needed his beauty sleep.

"This is the second time I've had to say this to someone tonight," I sighed. "Leo, go back to bed. If you're dead on your feet when the Romans come, we're not going to make much of an impression."

"Dude, I got this," he said dreamily. "They'll never know I didn't get any sleep. I'm just that good."

I stifled a laugh. "I'm sure you are. But you want to look well-rested for Reyna, don't you?"

Leo stopped and considered. "Well…maybe you're right. Wouldn't want her to worry about me." He rose from his seat on the edge of the girl's bed and waved goodnight. "You keep an eye on her, Nico. Just in case she wanders off."

I snorted. He was so out of it. "I'll do that."

"All right. Talk to you in the morning…" Leo stumbled out the door, almost walking straight into a brazier. I watched from the window - just to make sure he didn't do anything to injure himself - until he tripped into the Hephaestus cabin. Then I returned to the girl's side.

I sat down on the bed and watched her for a while. Her breathing was deep and even, and she looked exhausted. I guessed that this was probably the most relaxing she'd done in a long time. Her pixieish face had been wiped of bruises from the nectar, so the freckles splashed across the bridge of her nose were plainly visible. Pale skin betrayed the fact that she was probably from somewhere in the north, and dark brown hair was splayed across the pillow behind her.

I frowned. She looked even more familiar now than she had before, but I still couldn't remember why. As the hours passed, it didn't get any clearer, and by dawn I was completely stumped.

But by that time, I wasn't worrying about how familiar she looked. Because just as the sun broke over the horizon, the girl stirred and her eyelashes began to flutter. As I watched and waited, a small moan escaped her. And as the first rays of light touched the camp, the girl opened her eyes.