Serena walked alongside her long-lost friend, making their way to Cherry Lane. The young demigod couldn't help but notice how much the other girl had changed since they were last together. It had been long enough, however, that Serena didn't question it. Hey, people change, right? It's not something to make a big deal out of...is it? The daughter of Poseidon thought to herself.
"So..." Will said, obviously trying to break the tension in the air. Serena couldn't blame him; it was so thick, she couldn't cut through it with her trident if she tried. "Uh...how do you two know each other?"
"We met back in our hometown at school, before I moved. I remember the day we first met, don't you Serena?" Eclipse said with a faint smile on her face.
Serena smiled in response, recalling the memory fondly. "Yeah, it was too weird for me to forget, mostly because I––" she abruptly clamped her mouth shut, blushing furiously. "Never mind..." she muttered rather quietly, her face still red with blush.
Will frowned and looked at the pair of them strangely, probably noticing Serena's blush. "Serena? Something wrong?"
She shook her head, but her blush was still there. "Nah, it's just–"
"She and I met under strange circumstances, so to speak." Eclipse interrupted, a smile present on her face. She nudged Serena with her elbow. "Isn't that right, Serena?"
The blush deepened on Serena's face, but she chuckled nonetheless. "I guess you could call it that, in some ways."
Will raised an eyebrow. "What kind of strange circumstances? That could mean anything for a demigod, to be honest."
"It's a long story." Serena said, shaking her head. "And really is not important, we have other things that we should be focusing on-"
"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad!" Eclipse laughed, nudging Serena again. "It's one of my fondest memories, getting tripped over on the playground like I was a see-saw. My leg didn't even bruise! And I got my playground bestie from the deal!"
Will let out a surprised laugh. "Sounds like you two were good friends back then. Though, Serena-it's fine if you don't want to talk about it more, I get it. It's not really any of our business, right Nico?"
The aforementioned son of Hades had been looking ahead though the trees, and Will nudged him with an elbow to get his attention. "Hm? Oh, yeah, sure." He muttered, turning his attention back to the path in front of them.
This prompted Eclipse to raise an eyebrow. "Is he okay?"
"You mean Nico? Yeah, he's fine, just a bit distracted. I think all demigods get like this at some point in time, to be honest." Serena said, earning a nod from Eclipse.
"Makes sense to me, I guess," The daughter of Apollo said with a shrug. "Just as long as nobody's hurt, I'm good."
Eventually, the small group reached Cherry Lane, and sure enough, Serena could see about half a dozen monsters that seemed somewhat familiar to her. The detail that stood out the most to Serena was the pitch black fur covering each of the monsters, and most of them had on golden collars. They looked kind of like wolves, which was enough to put Serena on edge.
"Okay. What the hell are those?" Serena said simply, trying to cover up the fear in her mind. She didn't get a response, and she tapped her hairclip to summon her trident. "No response, so are we attacking them?"
Nico drew his Stygian Iron sword and Eclipse pulled an arrow out of her quiver and knocked it in her bow. "I'll take that as a yes, then." Serena said, pulling her trident close to herself.
The monsters seemed to sense them as soon as she said that. One of the monsters' ears perked up at the sound of her voice, and all of the monsters responded by growling at the group of demigods. Serena instinctively shrunk back from the monsters as they growled, backing herself into a tree. Eclipse looked back at her friend and raised an eyebrow before her eyes widened in realization.
"Oh no, Serena, are you still–" Eclipse was cut of by an abrupt nod from the smaller girl. The daughter of Apollo cursed. "Styx, this isn't good."
"What are you two talking about?" Nico asked quickly and somewhat harshly. "Serena's still what?"
"I've told you before, remember?" Serena managed to say, her voice at a higher pitch than normal.
The son of Hades frowned, trying to think. Then he remembered one day that seemed like so long ago when Serena had been startled by a certain hellhound back in Camp Half-Blood. Nico realized that the monsters in front of them very closely resembled large wolves, and his eyes widened. "You're afraid of them, aren't you?"
Serena gave him a quick nod, her eyes still wide and looking at the half dozen monsters that were slowly approaching. "They. . . They look like. . ."
"Dogs?" Will said, but strangely, Serena shook her head.
"Y-yes, that, but that's n-not what I'm saying. They. . . They l-look like jackals. I d-don't like j-jackals, not one b-bit." Serena stuttered out.
Nico looked like he was mentally face-palming himself. "That's why they looked familiar! My father has some of them in the Underworld, but they don't come out often. That's why I couldn't remember them at first."
Eclipse readied her bow. "Looks like they're gonna attack if we don't do something soon. Come on, guys!"
At her words, the monsters pounced. Eclipse managed to shoot one of the jackals coming towards Serena, since the other girl didn't seem like she was ready to attack it herself. "Pull yourself together, Serena!"
The daughter of Poseidon blinked a few times and shook her head, trying to clear the fear out of her mind. "Got it, Eclipse."
Eclipse nodded at Serena before shooting another arrow at one of the monsters. Serena took a deep breath to calm herself before she charged at the closest jackal with her trident. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Nico and Will fighting back-to-back against two of the monsters, but they seemed to be doing just fine on their own. Soon, the jackal in front of Serena had disintegrated to dust at the young demigod's feet, and she moved on to attack another monster.
After a what felt like a while, the four demigods were catching their breath. The half dozen jackals were all dust at their feet, much to Serena's relief.
"Everyone okay?" Eclipse asked after a minute.
"Yeah," Nico responded, and Will mimicked him.
"I think," Serena said apprehensively.
"What do you mean, you think?" Eclipse inquired a bit more harshly than she meant to. Serena flinched away.
"I just have a bad feeling. Like something's gonna happen because of this," she said, gesturing to the dust at their feet.
Nico sighed. "I see what you mean. Let's just set up camp for the night, okay? We need somewhere to stay."
Eclipse responded with a nod. "There's a clearing in the forest behind us that hardly anybody knows about. It's better than standing out on the road here."
"Lead the way." Serena replied without hesitation.
Once they had set up camp, which was really just rolling out sleeping bags, Will began to work on a fire. Eclipse and Serena were talking not to far from him, but far enough that the son of Apollo couldn't really understand what they were talking about. Nico was sitting on the ground across from Will, trying to help with the fire. Soon enough, they got a fire started, the warmth welcome in the chilly spring night air.
"So," Will said after a little while, looking to break the silence. "What do you think of this?"
Nico raised an eyebrow. "This?"
"The quest. This place. Our goal. Eclipse." Will listed, a warm smile on his face. "It's all pretty crazy, isn't it?"
The son of Hades chuckled. "I guess so. I never could have seen this coming, I'll tell you that."
Will's smile brightened. "You're smiling."
"What?" Nico questioned.
"You're smiling."
"So?"
"You don't smile that often." Will said, moving to sit next to the shorter boy.
Nico frowned a bit. "What's that got to do with anything?"
The son of Apollo put an arm around Nico's shoulders, and the dark haired boy stiffened before relaxing again. "I like it when you smile."
"Oh." Nico muttered, feeling heat rise to his face. He was used to Hazel pestering him to smile more often, but he definitely wasn't used to Will saying it.
"What do you think they're talking about?" Will asked suddenly.
"Huh?"
He gestured towards Serena and Eclipse. "Them. What do you think they're talking about?"
Nico thought for a moment. "They're probably just talking about what they've been doing since they last saw each other. They did say that it's been a while for them."
"I guess," Will decided, shrugging. "Anyway, it's getting late. We'd better get some rest while we can."
The son of Hades nodded. He got up to tell Serena and Eclipse that it was time to turn in for the night, and he would take first watch.
"What? No way, Nico. You're more tired than I am, I'll take first watch." Serena said, and Nico was clearly reminded of Percy's stubbornness. I guess it runs in the family, Nico thought to himself. After a few minutes of arguing, Nico reluctantly let Serena take the first watch, since she clearly wouldn't give up. Why that was, Nico would never understand.
"Good night, guys," was the last thing Nico heard before he fell asleep.