Nyctophilla {Percy Jackson}

εννέα

ᵒˡᵈ ᵐᵃʳʳⁱᵉᵈ ᶜᵒᵘᵖˡᵉ

"YOU ARE SO BRAVE AND QUIET THAT I FORGET YOU ARE SUFFERING."

⚔⚔⚔

"You'll come back right?"

Dropping the backpack to the ground, I kneeled in front of Nico. Resting my palm on top of his head. "Of course, I wouldn't leave you alone here. Who do you take me for?" I joked.

He shifted. "I just don't want to be alone."

"You won't be," I said. "There are plenty of people here who I'm sure would love to be your friend."

"Yeah but what if they think I'm weird or don't want to play Mythomagic with me?" He whined.

"Firstly, you are weird," I pointed out, making him pout. "But I'm also weird, so you take after me which is a great thing," I winked. "Because I am amazing!" 

"Amazingly annoying," Nico muttered.

I gasped dramatically. "Excuse me, do you want me to not play Mythomagic with you?"

"I'm sorry," he rolled his eyes, smiling. "That you are so annoying."

I glared at him in amusement. It was hard to remain so positive when the thought that two people on the quest will die and that Bianca or I could be one of them. Though the same thoughts were probably going through his head. So the last thing I wanted to do was show him that I was worried about it too. 

After a few seconds, his face dropped, and his body slammed into mine, throwing his arms around my neck. "You have to come back okay, you're as much as my sister as Bianca is."

A sigh released from me as nodded into his neck. 

"Have you said goodbye to her?" I asked. He nodded, his eyes dropping to the ground.

"Estra," Thalia called from the van. Zoe, Bianca, and Grover were already inside. "We have to go."

"Okay," I called, I squeezed him one last time before I pulled away. "Don't cause too much trouble while Bianca and I are gone, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Nico smirked.

⚔

The whole ride, Zoe and Thalia kept arguing. Going back and forth so much that all I wanted to do was cover my ears and scream at them to shut up. What's even worse is that they both wanted to sit in the front and refused to sit anywhere else, so that made the fighting worse.

Bianca held onto my hand, rolling her eyes as the girls kept at it while Grover ate away at soft drink cans. 

"Can we stop for a moment?" Grover asked, metal bits flew from his mouth.

Thalia nodded. "Sure, pull over Zoe."

"No, we must continue our path," she refused, glaring at the daughter of Zeus. "I refuse to lose any more time that can be spent saving Lady Artemis."

"Five damn minutes won't change that, stop acting like a stuck up princess and stop the van," Thalia scowled.

"Thou more a princess than I," Zoe said. "Ye complains like one to father Zeus."

Thalia shook her head. "Oh really? Stop the van and let's have a little talk then. Then you can really hear me complain."

I groaned, sticking my head in between their chairs. "Can you guys not fight for like, two minutes? Forever... preferably."

"Let's just stop for five minutes Zoe," Bianca spoke up. "It wouldn't hurt."

The lieutenant of Artemis sighed, turning off the main ride and into a convenience store parking lot. Thalia huffed, storming out of the van as soon as it stopped and into the store without a word. Bianca followed with Zoe by her side, mumbling about saving Artemis. 

"I'm losing brain cells listening to them," groaning, I jumped out of the van.

Grover shook his head, trailing behind me. "I need some paracetamol."

"What now?" my brows farrowed.

He looked at me confused, adjusting his hat that covered his horns. "Panadol?"

Shaking my head at him, he gave me a bewildered look before walking into the store. Strolling in after him, we split up and looked at the shelves. Grabbing some bottles of water and snacks for the trip. 

After a few minutes, we all meet up and Grover spoke up. "Hey guys, I just did a tracking spell and the acorns say we should go towards D.C, it's our best bet."

We all quickly paid and Zoe, Thalia, Bianca, Grover and I all left the store. 

"Grover, are you sure?" I asked. "It didn't mean anything else?" 

"Well... pretty sure. Ninety-nine percent. Okay, eighty-five percent." 

"And you did this with acorns?" Bianca asked like she couldn't believe it. 

Grover looked offended. "It's a time-honoured tracking spell. I mean, I'm pretty sure I did it right."

"D.C. is about sixty miles from here," Bianca said. "Nico and I..." She frowned. "We used to live there. That's... that's strange. I'd forgotten." 

"I dislike this," Zoe said. "We should go straight west. The prophecy said west." 

"Oh, like your tracking skills are better?" Thalia growled. 

Zoe stepped toward her. "You challenge my skills, you scullion? You know nothing of being a Hunter!" 

"Oh, scullion! You're calling me a scullion? What the heck is a scullion?" 

"Whoa, you two," Grover said nervously. "Come on. Not again!" 

"Grover's right," Bianca said. "D.C. is our best bet."

I farrowed my brows. "Grover's spell thingy-" I waved my hands confused. "Probably would track this monster that Artemis was hunting way better than we ever could. No offence. Not to mention, it could help lead us to her or give us a better clue to finding her than some random guess," giving her a pointed look. 

 Zoe didn't look convinced, but she nodded reluctantly. "Very well. Let us keep moving."

"You're going to get us arrested, driving," Thalia grumbled. "I look closer to sixteen than you do." 

"Perhaps," Zoe snapped. "But I have been driving since automobiles were invented. Let us go." 

"You are like a flea... tiny, annoying and a pest."

"Thy a troll, as thy-"

"Shut up," Grover, Bianca, and I shouted.

I collapsed into the seat. "You two argue like an old married couple. Not the cute kind, the one you want to suffocate with a pillow."