NICASIA stepped out of the athena cabin and headed towards the arena for some early morning training. she really needed to let some steam off after what happened the previous night. she slightly grunted as something collided with her. somebody. that somebody, was luke.
"sorry—" he said before realizing who he ran into. "wait goldie—i was just looking for you" nicasia noticed how he looked stressed. "is- has she left yet?" he said, stuttering over his words, looking both panicked and hopeful.
a frown settled on nicasia's face and her eyes started to burn. "she left last night. i thought she would've told you. i'm sorry, i really am. we're just going to have to hope for the best." she said, trying to comfort both herself and the boy in front of her. she was going to have to do the same thing when niclaus woke up. "tori's strong. she should be able to do this."
luke's eyes filled with tears of fear and grief. he looked over to her. "this isn't right. i promise that one day things will be different. i'll find a way to stop this, to make things right. to stop all of the things they make us do." he said, a look nicasia couldn't quite understand in his eyes.
"i'm sure you will luke." nicasia said. she brushed off what he had just said, assuming that he was just saying that in his grief stricken state. she wrapped her arms around the older boy. they stayed like that for a moment. she hated physical touch more than anything, but nicasia was tired. she was tired of watching this happen every year.
she knew luke was in a lot of pain too. him and tori had been best friends for as long as they had been at camp. they had been completely inseparable and grew into something a little more than friends. now, tori was gone and luke was nearly alone. nicasia knew that he needed that hug, maybe even more than she did.
nicasia pulled away from the hug. she have luke's arm one final squeeze before walking away.
what she didn't know is that she had been right about the hellhound. what she also didn't know is that he had already started his plan to make things right.
nicasia approached the arena, expecting it to be empty at this time. it wasn't her first time coming to the arena this early in the morning. she usually went to the arena after a failed attempt at sleeping. she usually got no more than two hours of sleep per day. it's really hard to sleep when you constantly have nightmares.
when she walked through the entrance, she was surprised to see someone was already there. miles was sending hit after hit to a punching bag, around few meters away from her. as she walked, she decided to make her footsteps audible so he would know she was here. she learned how to move without making any sound on her last quest. he turned to face her when he heard the sound of her shoes hitting the ground.
"hey nicasia." he greeted, a small smile on his face as he rested his arm on the punching bag. the sides of nicasia's mouth quirked up "hey miles." she said as she walked over to a nearby bench and sitting down. "wanna spar together?" he asked. "sure, but you better be ready to lose." she responded. the son of enyo was now glad that she wasn't looking at him because if she was, she would have noticed how he blushed.
she put on the leather arm guard she grabbed on the way there and started to lace it up. once she finished, she stood up and made her way over to the slightly raised sparring platform. "why don't you wrap your hands? every time you hit the bag or spar, you never wrap your hands. you don't want to get all cut up do you?" he said as he stepped up onto the platform. "it makes you tougher." she said with a shrug.
they circled each other for a while, waiting for the other to make the first move. nicasia lunged and sent a kick to his stomach. miles stumbled backwards before throwing a light punch, which nicasia dodged. they went back and forth, their movements quick. they sparred for an hour before calling it a quits.
"this was fun." nicasia said, slightly out of breathe. miles looked at her. "yeah it was. you're not bad for a victory kid." he said teasingly. nicasia punched his arm. "ouch!—okay sorry. you are a good fighter."
"i'll see you around nicasia." he said, rubbing his arm before walking back to his cabin. nicasia watched him walk away before heading back the the athena cabin to shower and try to sleep again.
for the first time in a long time, nicasia had a normal demigod dream. normally when she tried to sleep, she would get haunted by the events of her last quest. she would hear their screams. she would hear claus sobbing. that was why she normally got only two hours of sleep max. she had become afraid of sleeping and every time she did fall asleep she would be woken up by the terrors of her own mind.
this time was different. she was standing on a beach and it was storming. she heard yelling in the distance. she looked over to where the sound had came from. two men, one in a blue toga and the other in a green toga, were arguing. (arguing wasn't really the word she would use since it sounded more like a toddler tantrum.)
"give it back! i know you have it!" the man with the blue toga yelled.
"i don't have it! i already told you!" the one in the green toga yelled back.
nicasia realized who the men were. jup— zues and poseidon. nicasia tried to run towards them, but slowed down because the wind was too strong. the men continued fighting as the sea got more out of control and bolts of thunder shot down from the storm above them.
as she continued to run, it became harder and harder to do so, the closer she got to the two men. eventually it got to the point that she couldn't run anymore, she could only walk. she still tried to walk over to them, but when she tried to take another step, she couldn't. she couldn't move her foot.
she looked down to her feet and gasped in fear at the sight. her foot had turned to stone. she watched, frozen in fear as her legs turned to stone.
the ground beneath her suddenly opened up. nicasia grabbed onto the edge of the pit and tried to pull herself up. her legs felt heavier now that they were stone and she could only use her arms to hold herself up. her hand lost her grip of the slippery sand and she fell into the darkness.
nicasia jolted awake, still feeling as though she was falling. she looked around the cabin and saw that only a few of the athena kids were up. none of them had noticed her panicked demeanor, because they had their noses buried deep into their books. lightly sighing, nicasia got up and got ready for the day.
"that's not fair! why do i have to teach him latin? why can't somebody else do it?" nicasia asked, annoyed that she would now be having to spend more time with percy jackson than she wanted to. she was walking with chiron and percy. she looked at the centaur in front of her with disbelief.
"you are the best latin speaker in camp, nicasia. gaining more knowledge would not hurt him." chiron responded, seeming unbothered. "go, child. his lessons will start now"
nicasia sighed before walking away, with percy following right behind her. she decided a clearing would probably be the best spot for the lessons. the walk to the nearby clearing was a quiet one. neither one of them spoke.
the lesson was awkward to say the least. they didn't say anything to each other unless they were talking about the word they were working on. one thing nicasia had figured out: percy is terrible at speaking and understanding latin. she was relieved when the lesson was over because it was over and also because she was supposed to hang out with donni today.
captain speaks!
another filler chapter💔
honestly i don't know at this point..
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
