p style="margin: 0px 0px 13.3px; font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Nico's eyes fluttered open and he bolted up. His surroundings were blurry and sunlight blinded his vision. "How long have I-" " A day and a half." Reyna's voice was dripping with disapprovement. "Had us worried like crazy," Coach Hedge scowled, "had us force-feeding you and everything!" He reddened at the thought of Reyna or Coach Hedge stuffing food and water down his esophagus. "Well I'm fine now, so-" The look Reyna gave him silenced him. "You need to be honest with us. The life of many people depend on us getting this statue back. And I know you want to speed this up, but killing yourself on the way won't do anyone any good. Least of all, you." Her superior tone irritated Nico, she was not his mother, he did not have to answer to her. She may be praetor, but as he was greek, he felt no allegiance to her. "I swear I'm fine!" he spat. "Swear on the river Styx." She countered him with a raised eyebrow. Nico thought about it, he was fine. Physically that is, he had had a day and a half of rest, but emwas/em he fine? No, he was an emotional wreck. He decided to dodge her request. "Do you want me to run some laps to prove how fit I am? I'm alright, let's get a move on." She eyed him suspiciously. "Really. I am, I'll have a bit of breakfast and we can go." Nico barely ever ate, he did this only to assuage Reyna. The coach handed him a sandwich and he ate in uncomfortable silence, while Reyna and Coach watched him, as if they could tell whether or not he was lying if they looked at him hard enough. He looked away, gazing at his surroundings. Suddenly his mind was alert, his fingers gripping his stygian sword. He didn't know exactly what had sounded the alarm in his mind, but his senses told him something was off. Reyna and Coach Hedge flew into silent battle mode instantaneously, upon seeing Nico's stance. That's when he saw the slightest movement in the shadows of a tree across from him. Whatever it was, was hiding behind the tree. He called upon the shadows, traveling to the patch of shadow it was hiding in. Sword poised, he lunged at the figure. "STOP!" Nico looked up. A kid with chestnut brown hair sprouting from all over his round head held his arms in front of face, as if it would prevent him from being speared through with Nico's sword. Reyna grabbed the boy from behind, holding her wicked golden dagger to his neck. "Why are you spying on us? Tell me who sent you!" Despite being threatened with multiple weapons from multiple sides, the only sign of fear the kid showed was a nervous tick in his leg. Upon further inspection, the boy's leg was not shaking as if out of fright, but more like a painful spasm. That's when Nico noticed the blood speared all over his ratty jeans. "I'm not spying on you anymore than you are spying on me, or is this suddenly emyour/em field? Because the last time I checked this is government property." "Who-are-you?" Reyna threatened. "What would make me want to tell you? You're holding a knife to my neck! I'll tell you my name as soon as you tell me yours." "It's Nico," Nico growled, "Now tell us, who sent you? Was it Octavian?" "I work for no one, especially not a person with such a dumb name. I serve myself." "But you're a demigod?" " 'Course he is," Hedge growled, "wouldn't be able to see the knife otherwise, would he?" Something flickered across the boy's face, but only for a second, after which his face returned to it's previous scowl. "Then who's your godly parent? Or are you undetermined? How old are you?" "That's as much of your business as this field is your's, now if you would get that knife off of me, that would be great." He spoke without an ounce of fear in his voice, as if this was daily routine for him. "Nico, check if he's armed." Nico debated telling her he wasn't her servant, but thought better of it. Keeping his sword trained on the boy, he edged closer to him. The boy's chestnut brown hair stuck out in all direction as if struck by lightning, freckles scattered his round face, emphasizing his bright blue eyes that glinted with something he couldn't identify. He was of medium hight, Nico estimated he was somewhere between fourteen and fifteen in age, but you could never be sure. He wore a blue hoody, with rolled up sleeves which revealed his lightly tanned and freckled arms. His left wrist had a solid gold band around it. His jeans were bloody and torn on one leg and his sneakers were in no better condition. Nico hesitated at the prospect of feeling through this stranger's pockets, but went ahead and checked them for weapons anyway. Once having completed the awkward task of reaching into the front and back pockets of someones jeans and finding them empty, as well as the backpack lying next to the kid, he backed away. In doing so, he accidentally brushed the boys bloody leg, causing him to flinch in pain. "He's all clear, Reyna, let him go. He's injured." Reluctantly she removed her dagger from his neck and backed away a pace or two, but still within reach to tackle him if the need arose. He sighed and slid down the back of the tree onto the ground, apparently too injured to remain upright. "Whatcha' going to do now, huh? Strip me to see if I'm keeping grenades in my boxers?" Despite his obvious injury and exhaustion, the cockiness in his voice was crystal clear. At loss, Nico glanced over at Reyna, who responded, "We'll take him captive, force him to tell us the truth. Help me bring him over to the campfire." Coach Hedge stooped over and scooped him up in one forceful motion, setting him down in front of the fire. "What happened to your leg? Let me-" "What's it to you?" He sneered at the satyr. "Listen sonny if you want that leg bandaged you better cooperate." "Why are you aiding him? He could be an enemy!" "Doubt it." Coach countered Reyna, "But go on interrogating him and see. Meanwhile, I'll take care of his leg, he's lost enough blood as it is." "Who is your godly parent and who are you working for?" Reyna demanded. "I told you, I don't work for anyone but myself." Nico realized he dodged all questions related to being a demigod, he assumed the kid was undetermined and had run away from home, as thousands of others of his kind had done. "Reyna, if he was any sort of threat to us he would have weapons or something on him. No demigod slave of Octavian would come here unarmed." "Fine. Why are you here? How did you find us?" Reyna was losing her patience with the situation. "I didn't 'emfind/em' you! emYou're /emthe one who attacked emme/em! I'm only here because I ran away- left...OW!" he yelled as coach cut off his pant leg, which was glued to his leg from all the dried blood. "And where were you going?" She asked, her voice thick with suspicion. "Right, how is this your business?" He asked, cringing as Coach tightened his bandage. "You're impossible!" Reyna shouted exasperated. "This is a waste of our time. Octavian may already be at Camp Half-Blood. Let's just leave him here." "Fine." Coach said, gathering his things together. "Wait, please take me. You can't just leave me here!" "Watch us! We don't even know you. We haven't got room for one more." "Room in what?" He said glancing around, as if looking for a large shiny limousine "Fine. I ran away, I need somewhere to go. Take me with you. emPlease/em." "We can't just-" Reyna began, looking at Nico for support. "He's just one of the thousand demigods I brought to camp, he doesn't seem to be a threat to any of us-" "He might be an enemy!" Reyna cut through Hedge. "How's this," Nico interjected, stepping between the two, "We confiscate his bag and bind his hands together and take him with us. We aren't that far away anyway. I'm feeling a lot stronger than yesterday. Worse comes to worse we'll drop him off somewhere along the way. We're still doing him a favor." Nico couldn't really explain to himself why he was defending this random kid. He didn't even know his name. Maybe because he knew what it felt like to be abandoned and alone. He and his sister had been left at a boarding school before they were brought to Camp Half Blood. And after Bianca had died he had been alone as well. He reasoned helping this kid get to Camp would be ok. Nico just had this gut feeling that the kid was telling the truth. "Fine." Reyna surrendered, "At least tell us your name."A huge toothy smile spread across his face. "Lysander."
Hi there. Ok I guess not ACTUAL ROMANCE yet, but have patience ok?
Please remember to review, I smile with every single one of them!
-nicomioangelo
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