Nico's eyes opened long before the sun had risen above the horizon. He sat up, already alert and attentive, and skimmed the area. He didn't need a lot of sleep to function anymore. He'd gotten used to being sleep-deprived after three years of living with the dead and constantly seeing them in his nightmares.

His eyes fell on his two companions. My half-sister and her not-boyfriend. Great.

He glared at Kally, her face slack and her body slumped against the crumbling bricks of the shack. If it weren't for her, they wouldn't even be out here. Nico wouldn't be out here. He would be back at Camp Half-Blood, stowing away in his cabin or shadow travelling to all sorts of places searching for other demigods or…

Or investigating the treachery at camp on his own. He sighed in defeat. He knew that he'd be helping in his own way even if he didn't have the quest.

Nico enjoyed operating on his own. It was the way he had always been, ever since he was ten. Three years he'd been alone. He stiffened momentarily at the realisation. Had it really only been that long? It felt like he'd been on his own most of his life.

He stopped thinking there. If he went any further, memories would resurface; memories of Bianca, and he was not nearly ready to start thinking about her again.

Instead, Nico busied himself with meaningless chores; packing up the backpack; checking out the general area; taking out the choking fire; re-packing the backpack; checking the area again. By the time the sun had risen, Nico sat in the dirt, hands wrapped around his knees, with nothing to do other than play with the skull ring on his finger.

Eventually – after about two hours Nico decided – Pollux began to stir. He moved his fingers, his head. And then breathed in sharply and sat up groggily. He ruffled his hair and looked around until his blurred eyes found Nico sitting across from him.

'Oh,' he said, yawning a bit. 'Hi.'

Nico supressed a grimace. 'Hi.'

Pollux turned around to his other side and noticed Kally still asleep. She seemed to be in a fitful state of dreaming. Her head twitched from side to side periodically and sweat beaded on her forehead. Quiet mumbles and moans escaped her lips, like she was terrified of something.

And suddenly she bolted upright, her body making no transition. It was like one minute she was sleeping and the next instant she was awake. No mid-section. Her mixed-hazel eyes were pried wide open in fear and she panted frantically.

'Hey, what's the matter with you?' Pollux asked gently. He tried to hold her close but she shoved away the offer. Nico may not like her but he couldn't deny she was tough. 'Whatever it was, it wasn't real. It isn't real, okay?'

Nico gritted his teeth and locked his jaw. He wanted to slap Pollux's oversized hands away from her and send him on a one way trip back to camp. What made him think he had the claim to being the comforter?

But then Nico stopped short. Where had that come from? He didn't even like Kally. He refused to let her be his sister. But hadn't he called her just that not three hours ago?

He shook his head. 'You don't know that.'

'What?' Pollux gave him a look. Like I'm trying to comfort her and you are not helping.

'It probably was real,' Nico said. He was getting sick of having to explain everything to this guy. How stupid was he? Was he a demigod or not? 'Demigods often have dreams that are really visions. What'd you see?'

Kally sniffed. 'I saw the ranch. The Double E Ranch.'

'You mean Triple G?' Pollux frowned. Kally just sighed like she couldn't be bothered explaining something again.

'Yeah whatever. Point is, they've lost something. A whole herd of somethings,' she said, some of her panic subsiding now. 'And also… Orthus is alive.'

'What?' Pollux moved back and held Kally at arm's length. 'What do you mean it's alive?'

Nico rolled his eyes. 'She means he isn't in Tartarus. He's obviously reformed. Monsters tend to do that you know.'

'I know, but usually they take years, if not decades,' Pollux said. 'And we spent ages trying to get that bloody mutt back to monster hell.'

'Well, we wasted our time then, didn't we?' Nico stated blandly. He was not in the mood to put up with the blundering fool. He turned to Kally. 'But that's not what's freaking you out.'

Kally shook her head. 'No. I saw a goddess. Nike, goddess of victory.'

Pollux exhaled in awe. 'She appeared to you?'

'Yeah and gave me a history lecture,' Kally grumbled. 'But she also told me more about my abilities. She said she'd train me, but she didn't really do any training.'

'Cut to the chase. What happened?' Nico demanded. 'What did she tell you?'

Kally swallowed, her breathing back to normal now. She seemed to be capable of rational thought at least. 'She told me that I'm not like you.' her eyes darted up to meet Nico's only for a moment, 'My abilities work differently to yours.'

'What do you mean differently?'

'She said that my abilities are earth-based. I mean, I can still tell when someone is dying and stuff like that. But it's easier for me to, say, make a crack in the earth to Tartarus than it is for me to raise an army of the dead.'

Pollux spoke up. 'So, earthquakes, landslides, deadly chasms and rocks… That's your specialty?'

'I guess so.' Kally shrugged. 'I can still do all the death and darkness stuff, it's just more difficult for me than the earth stuff.'

Nico felt his blood boiling. She thought raising an army of dead people was easy? It nearly took the life out of him on several occasions. Controlling the dead was anything but easy. It was taxing and difficult work. He'd worked hard to build up his powers and his reputation amongst the dead, and now she was going to come and ruin it all by surpassing his abilities? It made him want to draw his sword and run his new "sister" through.

But in the interest of keeping the peace, he locked his jaw and said nothing.

'So how does that help us?' Nico asked instead. 'Nike said she's help us right? How is this helpful?'

'Understanding my abilities is probably the most helpful thing for us right now,' Kally said, with only helped to infuriate Nico more. 'Now that I know how I work, I can use that.'

'Use what?' Pollux wondered.

'My powers,' Kally answered. 'I can sense the earth and feel its movements and what's alive, well more to the point, I can tell what isn't alive in the soil.'

Pollux and Nico stayed silent and stared, uncomprehending. Kally scoffed.

'You two are so slow! I can feel where the earth is obstructed by something non-living. Like, say, a ranch.'

Pollux slapped his forehead. Nico might have done the same except that he didn't feel the need to make himself look as stupid as Pollux.

'Okay, so what are we waiting for? Let's go,' he said instead, jumping to his feet to pack away their camp.

There wasn't much to pack, as it turned out. They kicked apart their fire pit and swept away their footprints so that no one would ever know they had been there.

And then they were on their way, trekking through seemingly endless desert in the stifling sun. Perhaps if it was winter the temperature might have been bordering on bearable, but at the beginning of summer, none of them held any hope that it would cool off. As the day progressed, the sun only seemed to burn brighter and hotter, as if Apollo could see them and was laughing.

Kally and Pollux walked ahead of Nico, talking quietly to themselves, occasionally laughing or playfully shoving one another. Nico just brooded, glaring at the dirt and imagining he could set it on fire with his gaze alone.

He didn't see what was so damn special about being able to move some dirt around and sense a magic farm. He was far superior, absolutely. He could raise armies from the dead, command them and control them, make them fear him. He could summon the will to manipulate shadows to his desires and needs and he could call on the Furies whenever he felt like it. He was the Ghost King, the offspring of the Lord of the Dead! How could dirt compete with that?

It was probably only just after midday when they reached the ranch, but to Nico it had felt like days. Kally turned to give him a triumphant smirk but Nico ignored her and took the lead, walking through the entrance gate.

He was surprised that the gate was unlocked and wide open. Seemed unwise for a ranch that housed giant scorpions and flesh-eating horses. Mortals could just walk right in.

Then Nico remembered that it had magic boundaries, boundaries that had protected the ranch from Nico himself. Mortals wouldn't even see this place, and would be redirected to go around it if they came across it.

'Be careful,' Nico warned quietly. 'We don't know how they'll react to us. Especially Orthus and Geryon.'

'I thought you said Eurytion was a "cool dude",' Pollux pointed out. 'Wouldn't he stop them from hurting us?'

'Orthus, maybe,' Nico answered. 'Geryon, not much he can do unfortunately.'

'Well great, this sounds splendid already,' Kally rolled her eyes.

They moved forward down the path slowly, passing open fields and fence posts that marked the pens of who-knew-what.

After only a minute, a low growl was heard. Then Orthus slipped into view, both heads snarling and salivating, snapping their jaws in warning at the trio. Its Ruby eyes locked onto Kally. Why was this dog so fascinated with her? Oh right, she was the one that knocked him into Tartarus.

The three of them drew their swords, all ready to fight the mutant mutt again. But Orthus didn't attack. Instead, he lowered his heads and turned, walking down the path towards the house. He looked back and snarled again before continuing down the road.

Pollux was first to speak. 'Does he want us to… follow him?'

'I guess so…' Kally said.

Nico shrugged and they trailed after the hound, keeping their distance from his hissing reptilian tail. Before long, they reached the farmhouse. It was exactly as Nico remembered, except for the signpost that now read "The Double E Ranch".

Eurytion and Geryon were standing outside, Eurytion sitting in a rocking chair, swinging back and forth slowly. Geryon just looked angry – as always.

'So,' Eurytion drawled, looking over at Nico. 'You came back, boy.'

Nico stiffened. 'Yes. Is that a problem?'

Geryon interrupted whatever Eurytion was going to say. His voice was an octave higher than usual and he had plastered a huge fake smile on his too-big face. 'Of course not! We just loved having you here!' Geryon moved down to put an arm around Nico's shoulders, which Nico tried to avoid. 'Hey, look now that you're back here, maybe you could help out around here. You know, look after some horses, clean the pens, look for some cattle?'

'Look for cattle?' Kally asked. 'Is that what you guys lost? A herd of cattle?'

Geryon looked as though he wanted murder her, and Nico could empathise with him. 'How do you know we lost something, girly?'

Kally drew her sword and threw it straight through Geryon's centre chest, piercing his heart perfectly. Geryon staggered back but only chuckled and pulled the blade out, dropping it on the ground.

'Did you think that would kill me, girl?' he almost wheezed with laughter.

Kally seemed taken aback, but said nothing. She bent down and retrieved her sword, glaring at Geryon like she wished it had have killed him. Which she obviously did.

Geryon turned back to Nico. 'Your friend's right. This idiot-' he jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Eurytion, 'lost the herd. The entire herd! The bumbling old hillbilly. You know, it'd be real sweet if you could help us out.'

'What exactly did you-' Nico fumbled over his words at Geryon's glare, 'he, lose?'

'The herd, m'boy! Apollo's cattle!' Geryon clapped him on the back. 'He lost Apollo's cattle!'

'Apollo?' Pollux repeated. Even though Geryon had just said that. Twice. Gods he was thick. 'As in the sun god? God of healing and prophecies?'

'Is there another Apollo that you are aware of that has a herd of cattle?' Geryon grumbled. Pollux shut his mouth. Smart move.

Eurytion stepped forward, Orthus at his heels, still growling at the group, ruby eyes locked on Kally. 'After the sunset tonight, Apollo is comin' in to check on his cattle. If he finds out they ain't here, we'll all be headed for Tartarus… Permanently!'

'That doesn't sound like such a terrible thing to me,' Kally pointed out, face free of emotion. 'Two monsters and a grouchy demigod with bad taste in pets going to Tartarus seems pretty good to me.'

Geryon looked desperate. And he must have been because he clasped his hands together and started pleading. 'Please help us!'

'What will we get in return?' Nico demanded. 'If we help you, what's in it for us?'

Geryon paused to think. 'Anything! Anything you want!'

Nico looked over his shoulder and exchanged glances with Kally. Silently, they made an agreement on their reward.

'We need to speak with Apollo,' Nico told Geryon. 'If we find the cattle, you have to make sure Apollo will see us.'

Eurytion nodded firmly. Geryon grinned wickedly.

'Deal,' he said.