Nico and Will - Beginning at the Infirmary [Solangelo fanfic]

A Rude Awakening

Nico's eyes shot open as a sharp pain overtook him. He stood up only to feel his body being dragged backward. He focused his gaze at the foreign source of discomfort. One of the cleaning harpies was kneeling over him, her long, bony fingers wrapped around his ankles, clawing at his flesh in an attempt to strengthen her grip. Her scarlet plumage glistened in the moonlight as she flapped her arms forward against Nico's legs. 

"You're a little bony for my taste, but I'm on a diet anyway," crowed the harpy. 

Nico snarled and tried to kick away her hands. "Get out of my way. I was on my way back to the Hades Cabin anyway." 

"Oh, now why would I do that? Campers out of bed after curfew are fair game for harpies," she pouted. "And you little runts are always too fast, or can fly, or light yourselves on fire, and don't let us catch you. It's not usually this easy."

Nico attempted a smirk but winced at the pain in his ankles. "Who said I was going to make this easy?" His gaze flickered up to the sky; he watched as a storm cloud edged its way towards the moon. As a son of Hades, child of the Underworld, child of shadows, he knew he had seconds until darkness hit. 

"Don't be stupid. You're right in within my grasp," the harpy cackled.

"Don't be so sure," Nico murmured. Suddenly his surroundings were shrouded in shadows. He squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on his coffin-like bed with velvet pillows in the Hades cabin. He felt his grasp over his own body slacken as he let himself melt into the shadows and grasp the dark threads of the Duat (the realm of the dead that exists parallel to the living) that would pull him back out. 

A screech echoed across the beach. "So close, yet so far!" lamented a voice that grew more and more distant. 

Nico felt his limbs turn to lead as he struggled to pull himself back out of the Duat. His forehead beaded with sweat, and the pain in his biceps screamed in protest with every pull he attempted. At last, Nico's fingers grazed the steps to the Hades cabin; his hands savored the familiar glossy wooden finish. He was halfway there. He just needed to find the strength to push himself the rest of the way. However, even as this thought occurred to him, he felt his left hand lose its grip as it faded into to an almost mist-like consistency. It cant be, Nico thought. I'd been dreaming about my fading limbs, hadn't I?

Abruptly, Nico's thoughts were cut off by a warm, callused hand pulling him to his feet. The last thing Nico remembered seeing was a golden halo of hair, scintillating in the moonlight, before his eyes rolled back into his head, and he felt his body free-falling.