Chapter IX NICO

"You know what I've always wondered?" Leo asked at lunch, examining his sandwich.

"What?" Hazel asked.

"Why there isn't more colorful food! I mean, what about pink food? There's none of that. Or-"

"Blue." Nico said with a wry smile.

"There's not enough blue food."

Everyone looked at Nico funnily and he shrugged,

"Percy had a thing for blue food. Jelly beans, cake icing, blue Coke-"

"Coke?" Frank said disbelievingly.

"Yep. It's a Camp Half-Blood speciality."

"So that's why Annabeth ordered blue Coke every night!" Piper exclaimed.

Nico nodded and was about to reply when...CRASH. Something barreled into the starboard off the ship. Everyone lurched to the left and then fell over.

If Nico had a camera, he would have taken a picture of the moment. Piper was stuck in between two chairs, Jason was on the ground underneath the table, Frank was on top of the table, and Leo? Well, Leo somehow ended up on top of Hazel. Nico watched with amusement as the son of Hephaestus stared, nose to nose, down at her. He gulped and then hurriedly sat up, yelling,

"GREAT. I HOPE WE'RE BEING ATTACKED."

He stood up and ran up on deck, the other demigods close on his heels.

Outside, a gigantic dragon with about a hundred heads was clawing at the ship, breathing fire everywhere. Beside him, Frank stopped in his tracks, his face whitening. Nico ignored this and pushed past him. Going through his mind frantically, he tried desperately to think of what monster that might be. It wasn't a hydra, it wasn't a Lydian dragon...

Then it hit him. It was Typhoeus. It was birthed by Gaea in the First Titan War in an attempt for her children, the Titans, to win. And how did Nico know this? Of all things, it was Mytho Magic; the game he'd played when he was younger. Before he knew all of this was actually real.

"It has 1200 attack power." Nico muttered grimly to himself, smiling at the irony.

Typhoeus roared and a plume of fire shot onto the side of the ship. Leo looked ready to literally combust with anger. Flames ran up and down his arms and licked his heels, begging to be used. Nico had never seen Leo that angry before, and it scared him..

But not as much as it scared Frank. He was trembling, trying to look brave, but was failing miserably. Before Nico had time to wonder why, the dragon attacked. It jumped fully onto the ship and strode along, gouging holes into the deck.

Nico heard a shout and saw Leo completely lose whatever control he still had. He basically turned into a gigantic ball of flames. Running forward, he jumped in front of Frank and Nico. Distantly, he said,

"You're not the only one who can shoot fire, Big Boy."

Frank scrambled back from Leo as he jumped on the dragon. The monster howled as Leo burned his scaly skin. It shook Leo off and he landed back on the deck. Leo jumped up and looked ready to attack again but the monster had moved on.

It was approaching Nico. He grabbed for his Styxian iron sword and held it out offensively. As he did this, he was hit with a tidal wave of Percy-imposed pain. As he fell to his knees, he thought,

"Curse you, Percy."

The dragon swooped down and caught Nico in his talons. Nico felt his skin tear as the dragon gripped his torso tightly, but it only added to the haze of pain that enclosed his entire body. The dragon flew up into the air and soared off, Nico along for the ride.

For anyone out there who always dreamed of flying, of feeling the wind in your face as you glided through the air, Nico felt he should inform you about something...FLYING SUCKS. Nico looked around frantically wondering where the heck this thing was taken him. Probably to be eaten. He looked up and stifled a scream. Hestia was staring down at him, brow crinkled in worry."

"What in Zeus' name-" Nico thought wonderingly.

Maybe he had finally lost it. All the time spent among the dead, the whole "stint in Tartarus' thing had finally caught up to him. But, honestly? At this point, Nico didn't care. He could be carted off to a looney bin right now, and he'd be perfectly fine with it.

He felt a hand gently hit his head nd he looked back up. Hey, maybe he wasn't insane. Hestia really was right there.

"Nico, are you okay?"

"What do you think?" he said sarcastically.

Hestia smiled weakly and said,

"Yyeah, you're fine, if you have enough strength to be snarky. Okay, Nico, I need you to trust me."

"Of course I do, Hestia."

"Okay, this I promise you, wherever you end it up, you will be safe. I swear by the River Styx."

"What are you going to do?"

Hestia put her hand on the dragon's already burnt forearm and let flames spring up. The dragon roared with pain and released Nico. He went hurtling through the air, clawing at nothing.

*It is becoming harder and harder to find greek mythological creatures that Rick Riordan hasn't used. does anyone have any ideas?*