Percy Jackson: The Curse of Memory

Chapter 14.

Thalia's POV:

Thalia's grip tightened on her bow. The dragon, what she assumed was a dragon emerged from the net so fast that she couldn't tell what she was looking at. The fire was too bright for her to stare at, but she needed to stay focused. Finally, she got a good view of the monster. She couldn't help but think he looked like that one dragon from the Viking movie.

Nico watched the dragon's every step. He turned slowly. The dragon's icy eyes glared daggers at him while scraping his claws against the turf. Thalia studied the dragon carefully. The dragon stepped back. Thalia then realized it was gonna lunge at Nico.
Nico however, was ready. He ran to the left, jumping over the tail. He used his sword to slice a patch of scales clean off, leaving a nasty cut, blood dripping out of the sides.
The dragon howled into the night sky.
Nico was fast to get to the other side of the dragon, but the dragon was faster. The dragon's eyes blazed with anger, no longer looking icy. Steam poured out of the dragon's nostrils. "This isn't over, dragon," Nico said dragon as if the word was made of acid and was burning up his tongue.

The dragon spit fire from his mouth, igniting the turf under him. Nico ducked as the tail swung over his head. If he didn't look back at the dragon, his neck would have been sliced of clean by the tail. Nico walked back as the dragon watched him, waiting for his next move. Then, he dropped his sword. It hit the ground with a rather loud crunch. Thalia heard Percy's breath stop for three heartbeats. "What's this kid doing?" He muttered. Nico backed away more. The dragon's nasty glare didn't want to leave Thalia's mind. And it wasn't even aimed for her. She found herself starting at the dragon's eyes. The dragon's pupils dilated. His loud breath could be heard a mile away. "You're good, dragon, " Nico said, but it wasn't a type of compliment. He said it with no emotion, kind of like it was a throw away comment, just to stall the dragon. "But not that good." Nico backed up some more, then he squat down and placed his bloody hand onto the field.
His fingertips gently pushed into the turf. The dragon got ready for whatever Nico had planned. But apparently, this creature wasn't ready at all.

A low grumble escaped the ground. The dragon was clearly familiar with whatever was going on here. Thalia noticed how the dragon lost all his confidence at the moment. She smirked. This creature wouldn't stand a chance.

Nico's eyes squeezed shut in concentration. His eyebrows furrowed. The fire burning in the back made Nico look as he was surrounded by a bright aura, almost as if he was glowing. His left cheek was covered with ash. The wind brushed his raven black hair against his nose. Time seemed to stop and Thalia noticed every little detail about the world. The fires, the dragon, the ground splitting apart.
The dragon saw this as a chance to attack him. But something appeared behind him. It looked as if a human's skin and hair were all ripped away.

In other words, a skeleton.

More skeleton warriors appeared. Coming at the dragon in all directions. Since the dragon was busy dealing with warriors of the dead, Nico had seem this as a opportunity to get up. "You work with fire."
The dragon managed to swipe at some, resulting in many piles of bones. "I work with death." The dragon had numerous deep scrapes. Even one of his claws had gotten pulled off. "I think we both know the one who already wins." The dragon flapped his leathery wings in protest. Nico gestured at the skeltons then to the dragons, causing all of them to run at the beast. Percy and Thalia watching the battle with wide eyes. Suddenly, Thalia was glad he was on their side and not the other.

Just then, the last skeleton warrior had disappeared into a pile of bones then turned to dust, leaving only the echo of the bones collapsing as if they were beads clinking together. The dragon was left with just Nico di Angelo.

There was no point in shooting her arrow now.

The dragon limped towards Nico as he backed away towards the net. His back slammed onto the crossbar, but he showed no sign of being frightened.
The dragon opened his mouth and a ball of fire started building up. Nico then stared in bewilderment, as if the pride and confidence hag gotten ripped away from him. The dragon screeched into his ear when Nico tried to punch his throat with no effort. He reached for his sword, which was useless because it was about twelve feet away. His sword remained (of course) put. The fire seemed to ignore the Stygian iron, turning the turf golden brown.

Percy was trapped. Thalia was trapped. Nico was trapped.

Their luck disappeared so long ago that Thalia wouldn't have believed that a blond boy popped up from the fire beside the dragon. His sky blue eyes mixed with the marmalade color of the fire. They were beyond mad, furious. Like he couldn't believe this creature was about to blast Nico to pieces. His eyes fell on Nico. His expression softened for a second. Then he pulled out a cinnamon brown ukulele with golden strings (yes, you read that correctly) and jammed it into the dragon's mouth. Pieces of wood flew everywhere, resulting in the flames to tower over Nico. "Chew on something else," He growled.

The dragon whimpered then fell to the ground, but not before letting out some poisonous steam. Nico looked at the floor then back at the blue-eyed boy, then collapsed into his arms. He held him in the "prince catches the princess" way, or in this case, the "prince catches the prince." As he walked through the only clear path, he became less blurry. Thalia squinted and could see he was dressed in a blue flannel, an orange shirt exposed at the neckline. A necklace of clay beads was strung around his neck.

He picked up the stick Nico threw with his free hand but didn't bother blowing out the flames on the tip."What the Hades are you doing?!" Percy rasped. He didn't seem to care about the no-moving-in-these-chains rule at this point. Stupid. They tightened around his neck. The other person looked at him, and then he finally looked sorry for the first time this night. He also looked a bit fearful, like one wrong move and his life would go, poof. He gulped then through the burning stick at the start of chains that wrapped around Percy.

He looked at Thalia, his expression unreadable. He whispered something she couldn't process, it seemed like a prayer. Prayer? With all the smoke clogging her lungs and the heat taking over her brain, she felt way to dizzy. Maybe a nap would be nice. Or shooting the arrow, that would be even better. Maybe that wouldn't go so well with an unconscious Nico lying in his arms.

The fire surrounded her, then made its way up the chains. The last chance she had of escaping had vanished, just like herself.