Chapter VI: Nico

Nico never meant to land in Paris.

The weight of two demigods, a fully grown satyr, and gigantic forty-foot tall statue overwhelms him. He wanted to go on a little farther, but that was until his knees gave up on him and they fell to their deaths.

Nico lay on the ground, panting and shivering. Reyna is not too far away, on her knees, long black hair blowing in her face. Nico can't find Coach Hedge, and scanned the crowd for the satyr. He is nowhere in sight.

He stands up and walks to Reyna. He stretches his arm out, and she grasps it, and he pulls her off the ground. "Okay, let's find Coach Hedge and get out of here, before we run into any more trouble," Nico mutters to Reyna. She grabs his arm before he can step forward. "Where's the statue?"

Nico looks around statue! He had completely forgotten about it. "I-I think the Mist is powerful enough to keep it covered."

He squints into the white fog, and then spots the large, rather noticeable statue standing in the middle of the lawn. "Yup, It's there, the Mist is really powerful over here, enough to block our sight. So stay sharp and alert at all times."

"Say's the person who's supposedly always sharp and alert."

Nico rolls his eyes. "Forget it."

Reyna turns her back to him, a small smile dancing across her lips. "Come on."

They search through the crowd, and Nico tries to avoid the little chihuahua staring at him with little red eyes. It was annoying. Its eyes follow him everywhere. Reyna sighs. "And there he is, in the place you expect him to be."

Nico follows her gaze. Coach Hedge is sitting at the hot dog stand, munching on three sausages at once. Reyna storms toward him and yanks his arm and pulls him away.

"What were you thinking?" Reyna hisses.

Coach Hedge shrugs defensively. "What? I was hungry!"

"We have a specific job to do!"

"That can't stop me from eating, can it? It's a free country!"

Reyna rolls her eyes. "Just don't try to attract more attention, okay? I'm getting a feeling not all of these people are normal," her eyes fixed on the chihuahua glaring at them. There was definitely something wrong with it. Nico knew it. "Come on, let's get going," Reyna mumbles under her breath, grabbing Nico's arm and pulling his gaze away from the dog.

Before they could move a step, a loud growl erupts behind them. Coach Hedge stops chewing on his sausages. Reyna turns around slowly. Nico turns his head, and slowly revolves on the spot. The dog is staring at them, and another growl escapes it's mouth. Its tiny little body slowly transforms into some kind of monster. It's head is a lion, but as he looks down its body, he realizes that there is a second head,a goat head, protruding from the middle of it's back, and its tail ending as a snake. Nico's mythomagic cards come back to him, and instantly he knows what the creature was. Nico pulls out his black sword, and following him, Reyna does the same as well.

Reyna's eyes widen. "What is it? I've never seen one before."

Nico doesn't move his eyes from the monster. "That's the Chimera- Part goat, lion, and snake, child of Echidna," he whispers.

Reyna gasps under her breath. "Percy talked about it before-He fought it once and he nearly drowned in the Mississippi River."

Nico swallows. If Percy almost drowned fighting this, his chances were gone.

It growls once more, and crouched down low, unsheathing its unusually large claws.

"Okay, so how do we kill it?"

Nico shrugs nervously. "From what I've read we'll just take a shot at it, then we'd better run for our lives if we lose. Considering it doesn't kill us first..."

Reyna takes a deep breath. "Let's go for it.

He, Reyna and Coach Hedge all take a step forward and wait for the Chimera to react. Surprisingly, it doesn't move. It has a late reaction.

It snarls and pounces on Reyna, and she is just in time to bring her blade at its nose. It yowls in pain and staggers back. A few seconds later it steps forward, glaring at Nico. It opens it mouth wide and black poison erupts from it, aiming at Nico square in the chest.

Nico deflects it with his Stygian Iron sword, the poison splashing at the Chimera's face.

Coach runs at it with his club, screaming, "DIE, HOT-DOG EATING CUPCAKE!"

"Coach. No!"

The monster snarls and raises its paw, or hoof, or whatever you want to call it, and gets ready to strike the satyr with its claws. Reyna dashes forward and stands in front of Coach Hedge, and before the Chimera can do anything to stop it, Reyna's sword drives its way into its paw.

It howls in agony and takes a few giant steps back. It looks defeated, but just to be sure, Nico runs towards it and stabs it, in the chest.

The monster gives one last scream and dissolves into nothing. Everything goes black.

"Nico! Get up!" Reyna shoves his shoulder. Nico blinks his eyes open to see Reyna and Coach Hedge towering over him.

He gets up on his elbows. "What happened?" He looks around. They are at a hotel, and the Athena Parthenos is laid sideways on the ground. He is laying on a bed, and the light are all turned off, except for the night light.

Coach Hedge opens his mouth to try and explain, but Reyna silences him at once. "Not now. You need sleep, Nico. "

"We have to get out of here, though," Nico argues restlessly.

Reyna presses a finger to his lips, effectively shutting him up. "I said, you need sleep. You won't be able to shadow travel in this state," she leans down and kisses his forehead lightly. She gets up and walks into her room, closing the door behind her.

Coach Hedge has turned to the phone in the far corner, talking in barely audible whispers. "It's going to be okay, honey. I'm going to be there soon."

A soft, worrisome voice replies, but Nico can't make out the words.

"Yes, sweetheart. I promise," he puts the phone down, and walks to the other room.

Nico isn't able to make anything out of it. He lay his head down and closes his eyes with a stupid smile and a tingling memory on his forehead.