Sunkissed Solangelo

☠Nico☠

There was just a tiny itsy problem with Nico's plan. He couldn't find his Stygian iron sword. Will had confiscated the most dependable, handcrafted weapon he had. Will knew Nico too well to trust him to keep his sword by his side and restrain himself from using it.

After checking Cabin 13, the dark obsidian building that was as close a home as he had, and with his sword nowhere to be seen, Nico began jogging towards the camp's vast forest. As he ran, he silently cursed Will for hiding his favorite possession.

He wasn't surprised at how simple it was to sneak away from the infirmary. Everyone was already in the forest, satyrs and nymphs and campers and all. Even the non-participants in the Capture-the-Flag game usually were eager to watch how the teams would play out in the end. The satyrs enjoyed casting bets using an assortment of tin cans and enchiladas; thanks to a trend their leader Grover Underwood began. Nico only half-hoped their jackpot wasn't solely for eating, but he knew better to believe that.

His random thoughts soon dissipated as he reached deeper into the forest. He sensed something was off. The air smelled faintly foul, like a combination of roadkill and rotten eggs. And he couldn't see anyone in his surroundings. Nico's instincts urged him to stay away and retreat.

But instead he marched on, getting a terrible feeling that the campers were in danger; that Will was in danger. The camp's sporting event had never took place this far from the Camp Half-Blood base before. As he pushed aside a broken branch that hadn't snapped completely from its tree, he heard the sniffling. The sound was coming from the tree, which at first made Nico wonder if he really did need the infirmary rest. Immediately though he realized that he had missed the hiding dryad, who was now cowering in absolute fear, hands over her face.

"P-please don't h-hurt me!" the tree nymph cried. Although she hadn't intended to offend Nico, he felt a pang of resentment towards himself. Nico didn't think he was that scary, child of the Underworld or not.

"Hey there, it's okay," Nico said gently, backing away from the tree and holding his arms up as if in surrender. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Oh... you're a demigod..." the dryad muttered, finally uncovering her face and looking up at him. "Sorry about that. I thought you were that monster."

"Monster?!" Nico exclaimed. "What's going on? Where's everyone else?"

"They're that way," the dryad pointed further into the forest. "I'm afraid I can't help with much else. I ran away when the monster attacked a camper. I'm a coward, I know."

Nico repulsed at the word "camper". It could be Will, or any of his other friends. He had to leave. Now.

"Don't say that," Nico said comfortingly. "Thanks for the info, and stay safe."

He didn't wait for a reply. With that, he sprinted away in the direction she had indicated.

As he bolted past tree after tree, he just barely noticed the darkening sky. Clouds gloomed overhead, as if they had been painted black. He imagined the sky perfectly camouflaging with his Hades cabin. Pretty soon, night seemed apparent, contradictory to his knowledge that it was just noon a few minutes before.

That was when he heard the scream, definitely human. Nico pushed himself even harder now. Because the lack of insolation shining through, his visibility was limited. He tripped and stumbled a few times over what was probably fallen branches or logs. But after those rough falls, he stood right back up and continued on.

Finally, he caught sight of what the commotion was. It was atrocious. A towering giant stood at the center of attention with his back towards Nico, Chiron and the campers surrounding him with pointed weapons. Away from the demigods' circular attack method, Nico noticed two children of Apollo, whose names he didn't know, one crouched beside the other. One of them was lying down, without a doubt having been wounded deeply, and the other desperately using their healing abilities. The healer was at a costly disadvantage, though. The complete lack of sunlight tended to drain strength from any Apollo campers.