New Hope Rewritten

Chapter VI: Another Quest

Kairi

After showing Annabeth and Percy my new tricks, I decided to check up on Nico. I quietly walked to the cabin and softly knocked on the door. "Nico?" I ask. A muffled groan reaches my ears and I smile. "I'm going in, okay?" I open the door and the first thing I see is a ball under one of the sheets on the few beds within the cabin. Knowing that small curled ball is the son of Hades, I resist the urge to laugh at the thought of him ever hurting someone with malice. Looking around, the cabin was rather messy. I couldn't help myself and decide to clean the place up while the demigod was still asleep.

Upon throwing soap water onto the floor, Nico stirred a little in his bed. "Wha-what was that?" He asks, his voice laced heavily with sleep. His voice alone made me feel blood rush to my cheeks at how adorable it was.

"Nothing." I reply quickly. I quickly controlled the water to clean the floor and collect any dust and dirt before throwing the dirty water into the toilet and flushing it away. Just like Percy, Nico had his clothes strewn everywhere and I made it my task to fold them neatly and set them aside properly. Once the place was clean, I sighed with satisfaction.

I walk over to the boy and shake his shoulders gently, "Nico? Time to get up." I say.

"Later Bianca..." Nico groans out and waves his arm around in a weak attempt to shoo me away, "school can wait. It's a Saturday."

I tilted my head, "Bianca? Nico, I don't who she is but I'm certain I'm not her. I'm Kairi." I say while pouting and crossing my arms.

Nico shots up, "Kairi?" he immediately clutches his head from how fast he moved.

"Easy there tiger, I'm very sure that's my legal name." I say while chuckling.

The boy looks around and realises the change in his cabin, "Did you..." He didn't even need to finish his sentence as I smile and nod,

"Yup! Though it wasn't as hard as cleaning the Poseidon cabin, your place was easier to clean."

"You don't have to do that."

"But I want to." I retort.

"Th-thanks then." He says while getting out of bed and fixing it before going into the bathroom. He emerges with cleaner clothes along with his sword now hanging at his side. We wordlessly leave the cabin in comfortable silence and I quietly hook my pinky finger around his own while we made our way to get some breakfast. I was ready to pull my hand away and apologize for the sudden act but Nico just hooks his pinky to mine just as tight as I did.

While walking, I told Nico the events that happened this morning. To prove it, I showed the same trick to him that I showed to Percy and Annabeth. When we reached the cabin tables, we separated and went on our own ways. Percy was already sat there with his blue meal. "Hey there lil' sis!" Percy greets loudly before wolfing down blue bacon. I laugh a little,

"Great, we're the demigod version of Apollo and Artemis; how wonderful." I say with sarcasm. Percy winks at me then goes back to devouring his food. I do the same but at a more respectful pace. I scrapped a bit of my food to the fire as my offering, "To Poseidon and Hestia—my parents. Oh, and to Artemis, please give me the patience to deal with an idiotic brother."

After breakfast, Percy decided to train me a bit in swordsmanship. To his—and my—surprise, I was fairly quick to understand. Though my blows were a bit weak, I was quick and accurate to strike and react. However, with Percy's experience, I was defeated most of the time with my sword flying out of my grasp. At my fifth defeat, I took the chance to look at the clock and almost passed out, "We've been...duelling for... for two hours..." I barely catch my breath and Percy just laughs at me while taking a swig of water out of his bottle.

"This is nothing!" He teases.

I roll my eyes, "I'm a noob! I get it! Sheesh, no need to rub salt into the wound." I say.

"You weren't too bad. Actually, I'd say you'd get better in a matter of days and catch up to me." Percy smiles and pats my shoulder harshly to which I wince at when his hand collides harshly to my sore muscles. "Whoops, sorry."

"I'm going to relax at the beach side." I say while getting onto my feet.

"I'll go check on Annabeth." With that, we both teleport away in columns of water.

I look around and inhale the sea smell, "This is lovely." There, I notice a black figure sitting near the shore. Upon closer inspection, I notice it was Nico and grin. I try to surprise him but he barely flinches,

"You'll have to try harder than that." He says. I pout and sat down next to him,

"Why so glum?"

At my question, he scoffs, "I'm the son of Hades, they expect me to be glum being the son of the god of death."

I lightly shove his shoulder with my own, "I don't think you should be glum." I say. Nico gives his small smile and I pointed at that, "That, you should do that more often. Smiling isn't deadly and I think it makes you look more charming." Did I actually SAY that? Gods, Kairi control yourself, sheesh—

"Thanks." Nico says looking away as his usual pale complexion is dusted with the tiniest amount of bright pink.

I clear my throat, "So, uh, tell me more about yourself." That resets the mood and Nico tells me about what he recalls from his childhood. While he told me about his childhood, I told him about my days at the orphanage but never said a word about the battle scars on my wrists. After chatting, we both went back to the pavilion by teleporting along with a challenge on who arrives there the fastest. To my disappointment, Nico wins and laughs at the sound of my hungry stomach.

"'Sup." I greet Percy while sliding into the opposite side of the table. Percy looks at Nico and I before smirking and continuing to eat. I raise my eyebrow, "What?"

"Nothing, absolutely nothing." He replies calmly and drinks his blue lemonade. I pout and went back to eating my scrambled eggs and toast.

I decided to familiarize myself to the camp. I ended up staying at the woods and just lying down on the grass as the sunlight peaks down at me through the little gaps the trees had. Without meaning to, I nod off into a peaceful slumber even when I knew I was being observed by the nymphs but none of them dared to go up to me so I let them be and so did they. I was however woken up by a sweaty Nico staring down at me, "Have you been there the entire time?" He asks. I blink a few times at him then squint and nod,

"Yup." I reply. "What have you been doing for the rest of the afternoon?"

Nico taps the handle of his sword, "Sword practice."

I wordlessly reach for the hanky at my back pocket and raise it towards the sweaty demigod, "Wipe your sweat away before you get sick." I say. I was glad I squeezed my eyes shut because I was too scared of seeing Nico's reaction to my actions. When I felt the absence of my handkerchief within my grasp I knew it was taken by him.

"Thanks." He says, his voice slightly different. "I'll give it back to you tomorrow once I wash it."

I scoff, "You don't have to do that."

"Well I'm not changing my mind."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"Fine." I say and roll my eyes at him.

The sound of a horn echoed throughout the camp and through the woods—it was dinner time already. I open my eyes and see Nico's hand outstretched towards me. Grabbing it, he easily pulls me to my feet, "Thank you. Now let's go get some dinner—all that sleeping made me hungry." As we walk side by side, the boy hooks his pinky to mine as we walk. I smiled softly to myself as I slowly swung our intertwined pinky along with our arm at a steady motion.

After dinner, Chiron announces everyone to gather in the amphitheatre for a very important announcement. The chatter dies as soon as the centaur is at the centre, "During this afternoon, I have been called by the Olympians for a quest." Gasps and whispers were heard all around. "The gods have already chosen the demigods that will go on this quest." Chiron continues, "Apollo himself gave the prophecy."

"Who are the chosen demigods?" a camper, probably from the Ares group, asks. That's when I decided to zone out. After all, I was new around these parts. I've barely knew how to fight for myself properly with a sword. Yet a small part of me felt...nervous.

"—Jason Grace, Thalia Grace, Nico di Angelo, Hazel Levesque, Perseus Jackson and Kairi Wright." When Chiron mentioned my name, I knew I was doomed to fall behind the rest of the crew. I turned to look at Percy who wasn't surprised and was more of annoyed that he had yet another quest to go on.

Then I noticed something, "All the children of the big three are called to the quest." I say to my step-brother.

Percy's eyes widen at my point, "It must be something major then if it calls for all six of us then." He says.

My eyes latch onto the eyes of my very first friend—Nico. He seemed worried. I flashed him a small smile and the worry in his eyes seemed to fade a little. "Things will be okay."I mouthed to him.

"How can Jason, Thalia, and Hazel go on the quest?" a camper asks.

"Yeah, aren't Jason and Hazel at Camp Jupiter and Thalia with the hunters?"

"They will arrive here tomorrow morning." Chiron answers. "Now, that is all. All of you get a good night's rest. Oh, Nico, Percy, and Kairi, please see me tomorrow morning at 4."

Nico walks up to Percy and I, "Another damn quest... you'd think the Fates would cut us some slack." He mutters.

Percy agrees while I nervously laugh, "I'm nervous but excited too. It's my first quest but from the stories you guys have told me about the previous quests... I'm scared." I say while squeezing my hands together in a clasp.

"You'll do fine." Percy says while patting my back.

Annabeth walks towards us with worry etched on her face, "What were they thinking to make Kairi go on a quest when she's just got into camp!" she takes my hand, "You're shaking!"

I nervously laugh once more, "Y-yeah... It might just be a small quest..."

"All the children of Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades are going—I'm not going to sugar coat this Kairi, but this won't be a small quest and I'm sure you know that." The daughter of Athena's stormy grey eyes stare straight back into my own eyes. I got the chills but I nodded in reply.

"Annabeth, there's no need to freak her out more." Nico says while putting a hand on my shoulder comfortingly, "I won't let her out of this quest scarred."

Warmth spread throughout my whole body at his words. I look at the ground and bite my bottom lip to suppress my smile that no doubt reaches my ears. Gods, I can't believe this is happening. "Th-thank you." I say softly. Nico probably heard me because as soon as I said that he gives my shoulder a short squeeze.

"Well, you guys better get ready—it'll be an early day for you guys tomorrow." Annabeth says. I look back up at them all and I take a shaky breath,

"Okay." I say.

Annabeth and Percy walk ahead, leaving Nico and I to follow behind. I waited for his pinky to latch around mine but instead of a pinky a hand holds mine with the fingers intertwining my own. I quickly look to my right where the boy himself is just as embarrassed as I am. "Are you okay?" he asks.

"Y-yeah..." I stammer back intelligently. "Thank you."

"It's no problem—that's what I'm here for." He says.

We all go into our separate cabins. I give Nico one last smile before entering the cabin behind Percy. Immediately after entering I shut the door and squeal. Percy looks at me and smirks, "You know, I may be a Seaweed Brain, but I can definitely tell that you've got something for our cousin."

I groan, "Stupid family connections."

Percy laughs, "If you think about it, I'm technically dating my niece."

I glare at him, "Percy! Stop making this weird!" I say, my face flushed.

He just laughs some more, "It's best not to think about the family connections."

"Yeah, no kidding." I push him aside jokingly, "Now step aside, I've got to pack for us both since knowing you—you'd barely be able to wake up early tomorrow and pack your things."

"Whoa, easy Kai. It's just a quest, not an Olympic game of packing bags the fastest." Percy says while watching me zoom around the cabin.

"Easy for you to say—it's my first quest and knowing it's with you means death."

"Wow, I'm so touched that you look up to your bro like that."

Then without meaning to I drop to my knees and sob into my hands. A few seconds later, strong arms hold me tight but not too tight within a caring embrace. "Hey, it's okay. As long as I'm here I'll protect you." Percy says softly.

I wipe my tears away and look up at the eyes that are exactly like mine, "You mean it?"

"I do." He says while smiling a genuine one.

"Okay, I trust you." I say like a little kid.

Percy laughs and pulls me to my feet, "I'll help you pack—the sooner we're done, the sooner we can sleep." That seemed to motivate us both because a few minutes later, the lights were off and both of us were already snoring away in our beds.