A/N: Hey hey hey! I'm so sorry for the EXTREMELY late update. But this time I swear the next chapter will be updated faster! I SWEAR, okay? Wow...I'm saying this to like three people...this is so lame. But I appreciate all of you :)

Isabelle's POV:

What a dipshit. Who spends five days in the infirmary for a kick in the crotch?

I mean, he deserves to be in the infirmary for that long. What kind of guy does that sort of thing?

Asking a girl if she wants to spend the night with him, on the first day!

He's perverted. And a stuck-up snob. And so arrogant.

Except, he does look kind of nice in those jeans . . . and someone brought him his Camp Half-Blood shirt yesterday. He looked pretty good in that too . . .

WHOA. WHOA. WHOA. HOLD IT!

You did not just hear me say that. If you did, you are dead.

Anyways, for the past few days while Tyler was in the infirmary, dying, I was out having fun with my friends. Yay for social life!

"Isabelle!" My friend Bridget was running up to me, her cheeks red and panting.

"Bridget, what's wrong?" Normally Bridget is collected and calm, but now she looked worried and scared out of her mind.

"The," I could tell she was exhausted from running, "nymphs-breath- at -breath-the-breath- beach -breath- come -breath- quick!"

"What?" Now I was really worried.

She beckoned with her right hand and ran towards the lake. I followed, this was something I had to see. It was a long way to the lake, so by the time we got there, I was panting too.

There was a light-green skinned nymph sitting on a rock by the water. She was really lovely, with pink and white flowers in her soft brown hair tumbling down her back. The nymph wore a delicate white dress, clearly made out of the same flowers in her hair. The only thing corrupting the image was her face, her eyes were wide in fear and she was as pale as a ghost.

She leaped off the rock as we approached and ran over.

"Is this her?" She asked Bridget, pointing to me.

"Yes, now tell her what you told me!" Bridget shuffled her feet impatiently.

The nymph turned and locked her enormous brown eyes onto mine.

"He's coming." She whispered, her voice suddenly all of a sudden sounding strained.

"Who's coming?" I took her by the shoulders and steadied her shaking.

"I-I. . ." Her eyes darted around nervously.

"What?"

"I-I. . . can't say." She faltered.

"Say what? Can you at least tell us his name?" I knit my eyebrows together and inhaled deeply.

"Us? Oh no, I'm not getting into this mess. I'm sorry Belle, but you're on your own." Bridget analyzed me quickly, as if I could disappear any moment. She backed away from us and ran back to the safe, secure training field.

"Can someone at least tell me what's going on?" I grabbed the nymph's shoulders again.

"You'll find out, don't worry." She bit her lip and fidgeted with her hands.

"Please just tell me your name." This nymph was clearly distraught and maybe mentally disabled, but I had a feeling I would meet her again.

"Poppy." She said plainly.

"Okay, Poppy," I said carefully, "What did you say to Bridget?"

"Terrible, terrible thing," She shook her head, "Coming for you." Her eyes sought mine and gave a sympathetic look.

"What is this thing?" I was as gentle as possible.

"That." She pointed behind me.

Something, huge, something massive rose up in the water behind us.

It created a giant shadow, covering the sun and enveloping us in darkness.

Poppy shrieked and ran into the forest, melting into her tree. Its leaves turned a slightly yellow color and were rustling although there was no wind.

HOLY FUCK, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT THING?

Nothing I'd ever seen could prepare me for this. It was about twenty feet tall, looking like a small hill in the water. Not really a hill, no. More like a giant mound of mud.

It was brown, and I think it was oozing and dripping.

Hot-dog shaped mud formations came out of the side. Were those the arms? Maybe? I had absolutely no idea. Basically it was like that Pokemon Diglett with arms. But a lot scarier.

There was kind of a face, but not really . . . it was hard to tell. Two round holes on the side facing me were black and seemed to move. I assumed those were the eyes.

And then a slit appeared under the two 'eyes' and the creature started to speak.

"I have a message for you, Isabelle Campbell." Its deep voice rumbled.

"H-how do y-y-you know my-my name?" I trembled.

It gave a low chuckle, though it was not kind.

"You are summoned by the lord, Erebus to bring Tyler Avila to the Cave in the Deep to demonstrate your powers."

"W-what p-p-powers?" My knees felt ready to give way.

"You mean you do not know what you are capable of?" Although the creature did not have distinguishable eyeballs, I could tell it was rolling its eyes . . . wherever they were on his . . . was that his face? I really couldn't tell.

"Tell 'Mr. D'," It sneered, "that if you do not come by the twenty fourth of July, the Lord will rain torture upon you and your precious camp. However, if you do go but Erebus finds you unworthy of his tasks, it will be the last time light will shine on your face."

The creature reached out with one of its massive hands.

I back away shaking my head in disbelief and tried to get away from the icky, gooey, monster.

But I felt its mud-like hands touch my head. Suddenly, the world went dark.

And I let out a scream, as loud as possible, before my vision blackened and I felt the sticky substance of the monster close around my face.

Who was that and what had just happened?

Tyler's POV:

They kicked me out of the infirmary.

WHY THE HELL WOULD THEY TURN AWAY A PATIENT WHO WAS IN PAIN?!

And you know what? They literally kicked me out. Or actually, one kid just shoved me out the door and then locked it. I SPENT FIVE WHOLE MINUTES BANGING ON THE DOOR TRYING TO GET BACK INSIDE!

So I was walking around, Chiron still hadn't given me my camp schedule due to my various injuries. Don't look at me like that! THEY WERE FUCKING LEGIT INJURIES!

I'm sorry, I'll get to the point.

Anyways, I was just walking around, kicking some rocks, when I heard a scream.

But it wasn't just any scream, it was Isabelle's.

Sure, I haven't heard her scream before, but I just knew.

Time seemed to slow for a moment and everything around me sharpened to the most intricate detail. I could see the maple leaf of a tree half a mile into the forest turn slightly yellow at the sound of the scream and slightly wilt. I hear every ounce of fear in that voice, and the camp going deathly silent. I could feel the dirt beneath my feet vibrate with intense power.

So I did the thing most natural to me at the moment, I ran towards Isabelle.

Trees passed in a blur around me as my feet sprinted through the camp.

"Isabelle!" I screamed, "Isabelle!"

I had no idea where I was going, but my body knew. And it took me to the lake.

On the beach, I saw a figure (of a girl, I think) kneeling over another figure who was lying in the sand. That was Isabelle, I was sure of it.

"Isabelle!" The girl who was kneeling stood up at the sound of my voice and I could see her face etched with lines of worry.

I reached the girl and my eyes widened at the sight of Isabelle lying motionless.

The girl standing up grabbed my arm, and I fear I may have looked frightened. She had greenish skin and wavy, light brown hair that went down to her waist. The once flawless flowers in her hair were now crumpled and messed up. She was barefoot and the white dress she wore went down to her knees. But there was one extremely peculiar thing about her, the girl's skin was a light green color. Not the puke green, or booger green, her skin was a pale pastel, green.

Okay, don't judge. It was the adrenaline rush that made me notice all those things. Not the fact that she was really pretty with her enormous brown eyes or her high cheek bones, got it?

"Do you know her?" She was the first to speak, and pointed at Isabelle.

I hesitated, what should I say? That I was her friend? Acquaintance? Just a fellow camper?

"Yeah," I heard myself say, "I know her."

"Okay, good." The girl's voice was flooded with relief, "I need you to carry her to the infirmary."

"Wait, what happened? And why do I have to carry her by myself? Can't you at least help?" I was extremely annoyed, I didn't have the energy to carry Isabelle back! I had just run half a mile in three minutes to get there!

"Because, dummy," She emphasized the word, "I'm a nymph. I can't get too far away from my tree, and the infirmary is on the other side of the camp."

"Fine," I grunted, "But what happened?"

"Oh, Isabelle should tell you. I don't think it's my place to say anything." She rocked on her heels and smiled as if nothing was wrong, and there wasn't an unconscious girl next to her.

"Just tell me your name in case Chiron wants to know." I rolled my eyes as I slipped my hands under Isabelle's arms to pick her up.

"Poppy." She said simply, and skipped back to the edge of the beach, where the sand met the forest.

But then, Poppy just disappeared.

What?

The detailed senses were going away, and I felt my breathing getting heavy and sweat forming on my forehead. Suddenly, I felt like I needed glasses to see everything, it was getting blurry.

But there were other things to attend to. And for half an hour, I dragged an unconscious Isabelle through the sand, across the grass (with many stares from other campers), and into the infirmary.

Thank god they didn't turn me away.

Actually, they did, but then I moved aside and showed them Isabelle, and they let us in.

Phew! I was beginning to think I would never get a seat to sit in.

Isabelle, you're a life saver even when you're unconscious.