Nico Di Angelo Meets Tam Song

Where Are We?

Sophie sat up. The first thing she registered was the soft grass and the giant pine tree with something gold hanging in its branches.

"We killed him!" she heard Keefe yell.

"We did not," Tam replied.

"What?" Sophie asked.

Tam and Keefe were crouching over Nico's body.

"He's breathing!" Sophie pointed to his rising and falling chest.

"But he's not waking up!"

"Be quiet guys." Biana blinked into view next to Tam. "We don't know where we are. What if someone hears us?"

"I wish I did know where we are." Sophie looked around, looking for a landmark or something.

"I thought you were from here," Keefe said.

"The Forbidden Cities are huge, Keefe," Sophie argued. "We may not even be on the same continent where I lived."

"That's lame," Keefe said.

"We're getting distracted from the dead Nico situation," Biana said.

"For the last time," Tam groaned, "he's not dead!"

Nico's fingers twitched. "Kill you," he muttered.

"He's fine," Sophie said.

"Should we be worried about the death threat?" Keefe asked.

"I think we should be more worried about where we are." Tam looked around.

Sophie took the time to consider her surroundings.

They were sitting on a hill overlooking what seemed to be a strawberry farm. Towering over them was a tall pine tree. It still had that shiny thing in it she had noticed earlier. Looking closer, Sophie saw a large lizard wrapped around the tree.

She stared at it and it stared back before sticking its lizardy tongue out at her. Sophie thought she heard it growl.

"I hope Linh isn't too worried," Tam said.

"We should probably get back soon," Keefe added.

"I was worried about moving Nico, but it looks like he's fine." Biana was crouched over him, poking his shoulder.

"All four of us should have enough concentration to cover him on the leap back," Sophie said. She stood up and dusted off her knees.

"Now for the question of the millenium." Keefe hopped to his feet. "Does anyone have a home crystal or a pathfinder?"

Sophie blinked. "I took my home crystal off to go to sleep and forgot to put it back on."

"Who sleeps with a pathfinder?" Biana complained. She remained seated in the grass and was twirling her hair around her finger.

"I got nothing." Tam shrugged.

"Can you try that shadow thing that Nico did?" Keefe asked.

"That's not a shade ability," he answered.

"Well, this is fun." Sophie stared at the grass.

"Should we go down there?" Tam asked, pointing at the house in the middle of the strawberry farm. "Maybe they can help."

"Eh," said Sophie, finding she had zero desire whatsoever to go to the strawberry farm, even though it good potentially help them.

They all agreed and sat down in the grass.

"Now what?" Keefe asked, picking a stick off the ground. He twirled it between his fingers.

"We wait until he wakes up, I suppose," Sophie said with a shrug.