The Blood of Olympus(On Hold)

Chapter Nine (Edited)

Nico's POV
"Nico!" Reyna yelled as she landed into marshy waters.

"I'm sorry! You try transporting two people, a giant statue and a crazy goat-man across the world! It's not that easy," Nico explained as he took in his surroundings. They had landed in someplace where, to what they saw, was definitely not inhabited by humans. It was some kind of rainforest with patches of land and lakes of green water scattered all over. It smelled like an old sewer and all they could see were trees, trees, and more trees. Nico looked up and couldn't even see the sky, because of the canopy of leaves above him.

"You could've at least tried to make sure all of us were on dry land."

"Geez, stop trying to boss everyone around." He muttered.

"What was that? Hm? What did you say," She interrogated. "I'm being bossy? Reall-"

"GUYS!!!!" Coach Hedge ran past Reyna knocking her over. "We need to leave now!"

"Watch where you're going and why?"

"Tha......." He trailed off staring up as the huge beast now towering over them. The monster had the head of a human and his body was a huge lion. He had a spiky and leathery tail was shooting deadly arrows everywhere.

"You," Nico said in disgust, his teeth gritted together. "You were the reason Percy and my sister had to go on that quest to get Annabeth! My sister died because of you!"

"Oh, but that was all your stupid sister's fault. None of her choices were influenced by me." The manticore said in his thick French accent. "But now, your deaths will be my doing."

And with that he charged them.
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Nico drew his Stygian Iron sword, and started closing in on the monster, along with Reyna who had grabbed a large branch and was approaching with him. Coach Hedge hadn't moved an inch from where he was standing just a moment ago. His expression looked either awe or fear, probably both, but Nico had no time to waste trying to figure out emotions. His number one priority: kill.

Nico swung his sword and bashed the monster in its leg, it barely flinching as it shot more spikes in his direction. He ducked quickly as soon as "Dr. Thorn" threw his tail to one side, attempting to knock him over. Nico looked up right when an arrow was shot and felt the sharp substance graze his ear. He grabbed it in pain and fell to the ground.

Wait, he thought. How is he throwing things from behind me, that isn't fair!

But he was wrong as more arrows were shot at the monster. He scooted back into a tree, as protection from the projectiles that were about to kill him. Reyna looked as confused as he did, as she was hiding behind a fallen trunk. As she began to mouth the word who, Coach Hedge came into view, slinging arrows at the manticore who was slowly grumbling to dust.

"How... You just..... Wow," Reyna stated in awe. "Thanks."

"Well, your welcome. Now let's go."

"Okay..... Yeah, let's.... let's go..." Nico mumbled, then looked at Reyna. They stared at each other in confusion then started walking with Reyna and and Coach Hedge.
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The look of this place was definitely not worth the long walk, to Nico. They all tripped, fell, and ran into many trees along the way, and not only that, but there were bugs- not just things like Mosquitos and flies, but the insects that were bigger than Nico himself. They made lions look tiny. The bugs weren't the worst though. Whenever the wind blew the leaves, (that by the way were gigantic) they whispered to Nico, telling him he wasn't strong enough or wasn't the best at anything and that did not help his mood.

Nico walked up old, creaky steps leading to a small shack on a hilltop in the forest. The first sight of any human remains since they landed there. It was made out of old, moldy wood and didn't look very welcoming. The walls were falling apart, and if a strong enough gust of wind came, pieces of the roof came off. The only color on the outside of the hut was a small, bright blue rocking chair moving back and forth with the gentle breezes. The steps Nico was walking on were a broken down walkway to go to the front door.

Nico and Reyna were by themselves so that Coach Hedge could watch the Athena Parthenos, but he only agreed to, after a long conversation concluding that Coach Hedge would watch the statue, then Nico and Reyna would look for any signs to tell them where they were.

Nico walked up the last few steps on the path, then hopped onto the small porch in front of the hut. He took in the surroundings from up close, but all he could sense was the stench of rotting meat in the air. Not very helpful if trying to lighten a mood.

"This place doesn't look very promising," Reyna told Nico as she inspected the wood, poking at one of the walls, watching as the wood squished like jello. She curled her lip, "This is just disgusting."

"Yeah, I think disgusting is an understatement, but we're never going to find anything unless we knock so... You can knock." Nico said backing away a little bit, causing the floor under him to creak.

"Fine," She grumbled. She knocked on the dark wood.

Nothing happened.

She knocked again.

Again, no answer

"Ugh, we walked all the way here and no one answers. Great job, Nico!"

"Hey, it's not my fault! You were the one leading anyways, I didn't do anything!"

"Of course, you didn't do anything! You never do anything! If I had my way I would make you clean New Rome with a toothbr-"

"Come in!" A shrill voice called from inside. Reyna and Nico looked at each other, as if saying 'Who was that?' They opened the door slowly and took a look inside.
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It was the complete opposite from what they expected. First of all, it was huge! Most of the room had a rustic cabin feeling, with the new wooden floors, tall glass windows, high ceilings, and a wide open floor plan. It had most of the furniture that a normal cabin would except this one had glass vases and bottles filled with different liquids and potions of all different shapes, sizes, and colors. The bookshelves were even filled with potions and only books.

In the very back of the room, stood a small only woman in a black robe, standing next to a cauldron with green smoke coming out, but it changed colors depending on what liquid she put in. She look at the two with a smile and waved.

"Come over here! Come, come! I hardly ever get visitors." The old lady gestured them near her, and when she saw their hesitation, she waved both of her hands in different directions, and soon Reyna was seated in a big fluffy red chair and Nico was sitting on a foldable chair facing the woman. At first Nico thought it was unfair that he had to sit in a fold able but he then realized how comfy it was and changed his mind.

"Ah, son of Hades and daughter of Belona. Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets and Magic! Have you come to see the new gift shop I've installed," She said as she pulled a lever on the wall and something projected a picture of a small gift shop onto the wall, then the lady flicked her hand and it became real. "We have all of my latest potions. We have things for headaches, sore tails, burnt toungues, and many more! I can cure anything! Well, almost anything, it really depends on the severity."

"Um, ma'am. We didn't come to see the gift shop. It's very nice, but we just wanted to know where we were. We kind of got lost." Reyna said and Nico nodded his head.

"Oh ho-ho. I can't tell you that," she said as she "laughed". "If I told you you might tell other people before I can sell you one of my potions. But if you must know you really aren't in any one place. I mean look outside. Five minutes ago we were in some rainforest, and now were in the magical city of Paris."

Reyna looked at Nico as he did the same. 'Oh no' "Oh, don't looked so worried, Paris is just as wonderful as the rainforest. It's not that bad."

The two ran to the door, only to be met by the old woman, her humanly figure melting away, revealing a inhumanly beautiful woman in Nico's opinion. "Oh, how about you stay. I haven't had dinner yet, maybe you could join me."

And suddenly Nico felt the urge to stay and have dinner with this lady.

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A/N: so this chapter was a little different because I edited it. The first version that I published was pretty bad so I decided to add some more and hopefully it made it a little better. I might do this in the future. Just post something little and then write edited in the chapter name. So if any chapter says that, it'd probably help to read it again even if you've read it. So bye! Hope you like it!!