Hazel chapter! My first one ever.

Oh, and guys, I really appreciate the reviews. But, cute? Really?

Two people have said I'm 'cute.' I am not 'cute.' I have no desire to be 'cute.' 'Cute makes me sound like a little girl.

So if you want to say something like that, I would greatly prefer it if you said I was EPICLY AWESOME instead.

That's much better than 'cute.'

:p

Chapter XVI

Hazel

Hazel paces back and forth in her bedroom, wondering if any of the others are having trouble sleeping. Probably not. But Hazel is too full of energy to even consider sleep. It's not that she's scared, or nervous, or whatever. In fact, as they get closer to Athens, she's kind of been getting excited. But that's not the point. Hazel just isn't tired.

Her pacing around the room, from wall to wall, bed to window, is starting to make her feel more and more like a caged animal. She creeps to her door and peeks out. No one. She tiptoes into the hallway, carefully shutting the door behind her. She decides to see if anyone else is up. Maybe if she had someone to talk to, it would make her restlessness a little more bearable.

She goes to Annabeth's room first. She doesn't really want to bother Annabeth. But she might have a suggestion for Hazel to help her with her sleeplessness.

Hazel's bare feet are silent on the floor. She tries to be as quiet as possible when she opens Annabeth's door, just in case she's asleep. But when Hazel looks into her room, it's empty.

Hazel steps back into the hall, confused. Where could Annabeth be? But then she smiles as the answer comes to her. She walks across the corridor, and opens that door, peeking in.

She has to stifle a giggle when she sees Annabeth and Percy. Percy's sprawled across the bed, one appendage to each side, so that Annabeth has been forced to curl up on the very corner of the mattress, snuggled against his side. The sound of their soft snores mingles so that you can hardly tell whether it's one person snoring, or two. They're so cute together.

Hazel, still smiling, gently shuts the door, so as not to wake the couple. She debates briefly before heading to Frank's room next. But when she gets there, he's asleep too, curled into a ball like a bulldog, the way he always sleeps.

Hazel sighs softly and runs her fingers through her tangled cinnamon blonde hair. Her next choice would be to talk to Piper, but she knows that Piper hasn't been getting very much sleep lately, and doesn't want to risk waking her up. And Jason and Leo...Well, Hazel would really rather talk to a girl. Girl talk, you know. She would have been happy talking to Frank, because of their closeness, but she doesn't feel comfortable disturbing either of the others just because she can't sleep.

She starts up the stairs to the deck, but stops halfway up when she sees Piper and Jason standing at the railing, holding each other. As much as she wants to talk to Piper, she could never interrupt one of her and Jason's shared moments.

She goes back to her room and lies on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She wishes she had Nico to talk to. He never slept. And he was always willing to listen. But he's transporting Reyna, Coach Hedge, and the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood.

She wonders about his motives. She got the sense, immediately after he volunteered, that he wasn't really thinking things through. He was always so distant, but Hazel could usually tell what he was thinking about. This time, though, she couldn't, and that bothered her. She did know that he had been bitter and even a little angry after they got back from the House of Hades. She wished she knew what was wrong.

As she stares at the ceiling, she starts manipulating the Mist, closing her eyes and concentrating. When she reopens them, she's no longer in her room. She's at the place where she first saw Arion, so long ago. The sky is bright blue. It all looks so real, she feels like she could reach out and touch one of the trees.

She lets the image fade. It makes her sad, for some reason. But she starts playing with the Mist some more, testing the limits of her power, creating illusions and transforming her room into different environments. She creates a herd of miniature horses that gallop through the air, and then they morph into hippocampi, growing fish tails and swimming instead of galloping.

She fills her room with creatures of all shapes and sizes, mythical or not. She uses her powers so much that her room fills with white Mist that swirls around her, thickening the closer it gets to her. She twirls a tendril of the Mist around her finger, marveling at it.

She looks around her room, wondering at all that she's managed to imagine and then create with the Mist. Her herd of hippocampi still swims in the air around her head, but she also recreated her original herd of horses. Occasionally, the two mingle, regular horses mixing with half-fish, half-horses. Besides those two, there are a few unicorns grazing in a lush, green valley of Hazel's own creation, two yellow lab puppies wrestling and playing tug-of-war, and a Hyperborean giant playing in an ocean.

Hazel also creates several images of her own memories, the ones that don't make her too sad. The first is of Arion, as he runs up the side of the glacier, carrying Hazel, Frank, and Percy on his back. The second is of Frank and Hazel, the first time they kissed. The third, and last, image is of Nico, the first time she ever saw him, when he helped her escape from the Underworld.

Hazel sighs, happily this time, and lays back against her pillow, watching her creations. Her eyes start to grow heavy, and the last thing she sees before she falls asleep is an image of Nico's face.

Hazel stands in a forest of pines. Pine needles cover the ground, muffling the sound of her footsteps. She hears a voice behind her and turns. There, standing among the trees, is Reyna, facing a tall, buff man with dark hair and a beard.

"Join us, my young demigod. Help Gaea rise from her slumber. You will be rewarded. Riches beyond compare." The man says.

"I will never help Gaea. Never!" Reyna spits at him. Hazel wonders why she doesn't attack, then realizes that Reyna's sword has been taken from her and her hands are tied behind her back.

"Oh, but you will, my dear. You will." The man murmurs, looking Reyna up and down, as if calculating how long it will be before she gives in. But Hazel knows better. Reyna will never give in.

The dream blurs, and suddenly she's standing by a fallen tree, looking at the tangle of roots where it ripped out of the ground. The roots shift as she stares at them, and then a hand emerges, then an arm, and suddenly Nico's face is peering out.

His skin is much paler than usual, so pale it looks sort of grayish green. And as he moves the rest of the way out, nearly falling twice, it becomes clear that he's weak. He barely manages to stand, using a root to pull himself up, and his whole body is shaking uncontrollably. He's obviously overexerted himself. But he's alive, and uninjured.

Hazel feels such joy at seeing him that she jumps toward him to hug him. But she goes right through and smacks into the tangle of roots, knocking a bunch of dust loose. Nico whips around at the sound of her impact with the tree, but apparently doesn't see anything. Meanwhile, Hazel inhales some of the dust and starts coughing.

When she finally stops, Nico is standing in the middle of the clearing, looking confused. Obviously, he doesn't know about Reyna's capture, otherwise he would've headed off immediately to rescue her. Hazel tries to get his attention, shouting his name, but he can't hear her. He starts walking away, step after shaky step, and Hazel kicks the tree in frustration. A dull thud echoes in the clearing, and Nico whirls around, grabbing at the hilt of his sword. That he heard. Hazel gets an idea. She picks up a sharp rock from the ground and starts scraping at the bark of the tree, writing her message. It works. Then she turns to get Nico's attention again.

He isn't looking her way. She kicks the tree again, but he only looks suspiciously in her direction. She starts to feel frustrated again, but then she sees a pebble on the ground.

Just as Nico turns away from her, she throws it and hits him in the back of the neck. Nico claps his hand to the back of his neck, saying "Ow!" He looks over to where she's standing and takes a few small steps in her direction. Then he stops.

Hazel throws another pebble at him, this time hitting him in the chest. He rubs the spot, and looks right at Hazel. He walks towards her again, moving faster this time, but then he stops again before he reaches the place where she wrote her message.

Hazel rolls her eyes at his stupidity. Then she nails him in the forehead with another pebble.

The look on his face is priceless. Hazel wishes she had a camera. But the third times the charm, as they say, and Nico comes close enough for the words she's written in the bark to catch his eye. He moves closer and starts reading. His eyes get wider and wider.

REYNA CAPTURED. YOU HAVE TO RESCUE HER

AND GET THE ATHENA PARTHENOS TO CAMP. THE

ARGO II HAS ALMOST REACHED ATHENS. THE

GODS' GREEK AND ROMAN SIDES HAVE TO BE

RECONCILED BEFORE THE FEAST OF SPES.

LOVE, HAZEL.

When he's finished reading, Nico looks around wildly. Hazel wishes he could see and hear her, so she could actually talk to him. He reads her message one more time, and then walks briskly away, into the trees. He pauses at the edge of the clearing, looking back where Hazel is. Almost as if he could actually see her.

"Thanks, Hazel. I love you too." He says softly. And then he continues on.

I know that usually demigods can't really do anything in their dreams, but I thought it would make a nice twist for Hazel to be able to do things in her dreams. Since she can manipulate the Mist and all, I figured she was the most likely candidate for EPICLY AWESOME dream powers.

What did you guys think about it?

Oh, and don't worry. Action chapters are coming real soon. I hope. :)