Perciper

Chapter 11

Percy pov
Nico shadow travelled us to the underworld, it was dark and gloomy. Nico looked pretty tired. "sorry, it's just coming here is very tiring" he said. We had just come from my moms apartment, she had finally gotten the courage to kick Gabe out. She now had a boyfriend named Paul blowfish(blowfis). He was a school teacher. I had gotten her blessing. It took some persuading, but she finally gave it to me, now here we are. " so" I said " how do we do this?" he led me through all of the dead" first we have to get to the river, I'll explain more there" he said. After a few minutes of walking we broke through the crowd of ghosts. Before us lay a large open valley filled with the dead. Cutting straight through the valley was a pure black river. "c'mon" Nico said dragging me again into the crowd. We eventually reached the river bed. " okay, now what?" I asked. But before he could say anything a ghost interrupted. He was clad in Greek armor from head to toe, the strange thing was he had an arrow sticking out of his ankle, I instantly recognized him" Achilles " I said. " yes I am Achilles, and I am here to warn you" he said" the task you are about to take is a hard one, many do not survive, and the burden you will receive should you succeed is a curse within a gift" he continued" true you may become invincible, but you will also become extremely vulnerable. Heed my warning and turn back while you can." I looked at him" I'm sorry, but I have to do this. To protect my family" I said. Achilles sighed" very well, I cannot stop you, but remember my warning" and with that he disappeared. " well okay then" Nico said. " so how do I do this? " I asked Nico again. " well first off you want to think of a mortal point, a part of you that will remain normal, you want to keep focused on that part of you throughout the trial" he said" I've also heard of something like another mortal point that you must have to obtain the Achilles curse, but I don't think it's true" I was starting to get nervous, what if it didn't work and I died. No. I can't think like that I have to do this, for Piper." alright I've got the spot" I said. It was the small of my back. " alright, just think about that spot and get in the river" Nico said. I breathed in and jumped in the river. Pain was everywhere, it made it hard to think, but I had to concentrate. I focused on my mortal point, but I still felt the pain, like I was dissolving. I started to think about Piper and how much I love her. The second I started thinking about her I felt like I wasn't dissolving anymore. I kept on thinking about her and the small of my back. Not much later I burst out of the river coughing and shaking. Nico ran up to me and helped me up. He handed me some ambrosia. I ate it thankfully."do you think it worked? " he asked me. " I don't know, but there's only one way to find out" I said. I pulled out riptide and uncapped it. I put the blade in my palm and sliced down. I felt no pain. I looked down and there was no mark."well, that answers that" Nico said. "now let's get out of here before anyone notices we were gone" he said. He grabbed my arm and shadow travelled to camp. When we exited we were beside my cabin, it looked to be right after the campfire, just about when I was done training. "it doesn't look like anyone noticed we were gone, see you tomorrow Perce, we need to train more now that you have the curse of Achilles" he said. He waved as he ran off to the big house. I sighed, man I was tired. I entered my cabin and went to my bed I was just about to lay down when I heard someone say" and where have you been? " I whipped around to see Piper standing by the door, arms crossed looking at me for an explanation. "schist."