No much to say, please enjoy, again sorry for any mistakes and thanks for coming this far.

Nico had made two journeys for the day and declared he should rest before his next one. He wasn't that tired, but he wanted to stay in Reyna's good books and it was dark anyway. Only as he was unpacking a few of his belongings out of his bag, did he notice how exhausted Reyna looked. "Hey Reyna, you've been guarding for the past three nights, it's my turn to guard. Yes, I'm too tired for shadow traveling," Nico continued when she showed signs of interrupting,"but I'm awake enough to guard for a couple hours. Let me guard and I'll wake you up when I'm tired. You too Coach." Reyna agreed, groggily retrieving her sleeping-bag from her backpack. Coach had just flopped onto his side, grasping his bat. Nico turned to Lysander. "You can sleep too if you like." Lysander snorted. "I have too many questions for sleeping." Nico sighed, he had rather been hoping to have some alone time with his thoughts, maybe send an Iris message to Hazel, but that was no longer an option. He would have loved to tell Lysander he would answer his questions tomorrow, but he knew exactly what it was like to be new to this whole new 'demigod universe'. "What do you want to know?" Nico asked, placing himself across from Lysander, the campfire crackling brightly between them. "Ok, so explain this whole demigod deal and this Blood Camp and your teleporting." "Well first off, a demigod is a half god, if you're a demigod, one of your parents is a god. In this case either Greek or Roman. Camp Half Blood is where the greek demigods stay, some all year around, others only for the summer. Some didn't know they were demigods before they were brought to camp, sometimes their human parent didn't even know that they had met a god or goddess. Some kids don't even know which god their parent is. Although sometimes you can guess according to their powers, but that doesn't always work. Recently the Gods agreed to claim all their children by the time they are thirteen, but in some cases it doesn't happen.

One thing unites all the demigods, they usually only grow up with one parent, because most gods leave after the kid is born. It's cruel, but that's how it goes." Lysander let that mull over for a while. "Ok, and your teleporting?" "It's one of my powers as a demigod, I can shadow travel. Although it's very tiring to take so many people." Lysander nodded slowly as if he was still trying to wrap his mind around the idea of being half god. "And so which parent is godly for you?" He noticed Nico's jaw clench and realized it was quite a personal question. "Or...Never mind-" "No," Nico said, his voice brittle, "it's ok. It's my dad. I don't know how well you know you're mythology-" "pretty well, had it in history this year." Lysander interjected. "Well you wanna take a guess?" Nico said it with a taint of malice in his voice. "Um alright, I'll place my bet on Erebus, god of darkness and shadows. You said you shadow travel..." Nico raised an eyebrow. "You said you learned greek mythology in history? Must have been one in depth course, Erebus is quite a minor god, good guess though. No, My dad's a lot worse then Erebus." Lysander's face was impassive. "Hades." Nico's expression was resentful, Lysander gathered there was some sort of rift going on between Nico and his father, he could relate to that feeling. "I never really thought Hades was bad, to me he just seemed exiled and lonely. They played him as creepy, because of his realm, but how is it his fault that he got last pick and ended up with the Underworld?" "You might think differently if you met him." Nico's voice was scornful. Moments of silence passed, both boys deep in thought. "What about your parent?" Nico finally whispered into the flames. "Do you know which one, and who it is?" Lysander looked panicked for a split second as if at war with his thoughts. Finally he responded. "I don't know. My dad is definitely not a god." At the mention of his dad, Lysander tucked his knees into his chest, wrapping his arms around and his chin on top of them. "So your mom it is," Nico finished more to himself than anyone. "Got any special powers or abilities?" Lysander shook his head. So there they sat, staring in the flames until Nico woke Reyna for her shift, advising Lysander to sleep as well.

They had been traveling for three more days, collecting some minor injuries due to being attacked by a few minor monsters on the way; ( Nothing a team consisting of Reyna, Coach Hedge and Nico couldn't take on without sending the monster crying for it's mother.) when Nico announced that their next shadow travel would be their last. " We are within a couple hundred miles from Camp Half Blood, our next step is to figure out from which side to enter. Guards will have been set up to patrol all sides of the camp for the upcoming attack. Shadow traveling directly into the camp is an option, but it's risky as I don't know what sort of protections may have been installed. I would say it's not worth the risk. Now Reyna said that the Romans intend to attack from this side. (Nico gestured with a stick to the west side of his dirt drawing of Camp Half Blood.) So I suggest we enter through the gate here, on the east side." Everyone consented, even Lysander, who gestured through a curt nod of his head. Nico suspected he had no idea what was actually being said, but wanted to feel more like a team mate than a captive. They had stopped binding his hands together as he seemed no threat to the group at all. On the contrary, he seemed eager to prove his worth to them, helping with firewood or water replenishing. Nico had come to enjoy his presence and subconsciously thought of him as a friend. (Although he wouldn't admit it to himself, because he doesn't have friends. And he firmly believed there were reasons for that.) He had filled Lysander in as much as he could about the goings on in the demigod world. Lysander didn't seem to have as hard a time wrapping his mind around the concept, which shocked Nico a little, but then again most demigods grew up knowing that there was something going on, or that they were special. What confused Nico the most was who Lysander's Mom could be. With most demigods you could at least make an educated guess, but with Lysander he was at a complete loss. Nico figured it must be a very minor goddess. Another reason why Nico enjoys Lysander's company, is that Lysander showed no prejudice towards Nico. Most cringe at the sight of Nico or at the knowledge of his parentage, but Lysander doesn't seem to care in the slightest. "Sounds like a plan then," Coach added, bringing Nico out of his thoughts. "we'll depart for the gate on Half Blood Hill tomorrow." "Yes," Nico agreed, "but let me warn you that I can't promise exactly how close I can bring us to the gate. Shadow traveling is rather spontaneous, we may have to go by foot for a short distance." "Nothing we can't handle." Reyna declared. She had spent the last hour practicing her aim with her dagger. Which is to say hitting every target she aimed for flawlessly. Coach Hedge and Reyna declared first watch, dismissing Nico and Lysander to rest. Nico noticed Lysander's longing glance in Reyna's direction, most likely he wished he was armed for the upcoming journey. "I could teach you." Lysander looked at Nico in disbelief. "You are gonna teach me how to sword fight?" "If you want, Nico shrugged, pulling a spare sword out of one of his bags. It wasn't anything special like Nico's Stygian sword, but it would do for a few starting sessions. Nico got on to his feet and handed Lysander the sword. "Here you go." Lysander marveled at it. He had never held anything like it before. And so Nico taught him a few sword fighting basics so that Lysander would be able to defend himself at least a little the next day.

Lysander had been stuck for a while on a particular move, which involved Lysander taking a step forward and thrusting the blade to his left. His feet kept getting tangled on the steps. "No!" Nico growled, growing impatient, "Like this." He stood behind Lysander grabbing his arms and demonstrating the steps as if they were one person. "Exactly." Nico said approvingly. He had been so sucked into teaching Lysander how to sword fight, he hadn't realized how close together they were standing. Nico was basically hugging the boy from behind. Taking a few hurried steps backwards, redness crept up his neck to his face. Something he was grateful that Lysander didn't notice, as he was busy repeating the new steps over and over for practice. Nico disliked contact, he only ever let Hazel touch him. But then again, she was his sister.

Later that evening Nico attempted to fall asleep, but found he was too restless to. Percy and Hazel kept popping into his mind. Where were they, and were they ok? He didn't know. His heart ached, they were probably having a blast with the rest of the crew aboard the Argo II without him. Percy and Annabeth tightly embraced, sharing stories and drinking hot chocolate. Nico felt like crying, he had been able to avoid thinking about him for the past few days due to the distraction of the journey and his exhaustion from shadow traveling, but tonight visions of Percy and the rest of the crew having fun and being together while he was in the middle of nowhere with a war crazed satyr, a bossy roman chick and some random demigod hitchhiker, haunted him. He took his anger out on a handful of leaves, by tearing them to shreds and tossing them into the ruby flames. "Those leaves planning world domination or something?" Lysander asked. Nico could hear the smile in his voice and threw the last of the leaves into the fire, where he watched them reduce to cinders. If only he could tear up his feelings for Percy and burn them up as easily. "Don't worry, we'll get there alright and stop that stupid Octobrain," Lysander reassured him. "Octavian?" Nico offered. "What I said," Lysander shrugged. "Yeah I know," Nico responded earnestly. Nico figured Lysander had mistaken his pained expression for one of worry. Lysander surveyed Nico, as if slightly confused about something, but shrugged it off and returned to fiddling with something Nico couldn't quite make out.

Thanks again, please review and have a nice day!(or night or whatever) -nicomioangelo