Solangelo between HoO &TOA

Chapter 14: Meeting the parent. And new sibling.

Happiness now!! but I don't know why it's in first person rather than third. Anyway Will is only meeting one of Nico's parents. The other bit will be explained shortly. I need not say anymore.

Chiron kind of had to let me and Will go, since it was on a god's orders, but we had strict order to summon Jules-Albert to drive us all the way back when it got dark, and to not engage in any fights, unless we were being attacked or another half-blood's life was at stake. And, after his explosion the other day, Nico was NOT going to be using any shadowy powers for the next couple of weeks. We decided to walk into the restaurant and had Jules-Albert drop us in upper Manhattan.

We walked through the park, just as the sun began to set (it's early November) and the sky turned a deep orange. The park was beautiful, highlighted in the pinks, oranges and reds of the sunset, and, just a few blocks away from the restaurant, we heard screams. A child's screams. Before I could stop him, Will rushed off towards the source of the sounds.

A little boy was standing with his back to the wall, a Northern Cyclops holding her club over his head. Will, of course, charged right to the boy and started talking to him, trying to pull him out. I went for the Cyclops. She was rather surprised that Will had come charging in here, and ignored her. I managed to hit her from behind, sucking her soul into my blade. Will pulled the boy off of the ground. He had short dark hair, cropped, like he'd just been at Westover or some other military school, but he was too young, from the looks of him, 7 or 8. He gave off an aura of a demigod, but I couldn't tell who his godly parent was.

'Hi, I'm Nico DiAngelo. What's your name?' The little boy shook his head and looked frightened.

'Nico, give him a little time. He's just met a Northern Cyclops. You know how scary that is.' Will reminded me of my first experience with them; back when I was only 12, in the Labyrinth.

'Yes. Father is gonna be waiting for us. You're probably hungry, aren't you?' I asked the scared boy. He nodded. 'Come with us? We're going to see my dad. We can get you some food there.' Will offered the boy a ride on his back, as he seemed to be rather shaky, and we headed off to La Grande Boucherie.

When we got there, I told the person at the door that we had a table under DiAngelo, and one of our party was already here, and he lead us through. My father jumped when e saw we had an extra member to our party, but after we explained, he told the waiter he was my little brother, and we hadn't been expecting him, but the babysitter cancelled, so could we please have another chair. The waiter nodded and brought over another chair, plus a children's menu.

After our drinks arrived, the boy finally started talking. He told us his name was Marvin and he was six. The guy looked and acted old for his age. His family had kicked him out a month or so back, and he'd been living on the streets since. He'd had a knife until yesterday when he was running from a 'snaky lady', which from his description was obviously a dracnae. I introduced him to my father and Will, and we started a hodgepodge summery of who we are and the Greek gods and goddesses. Marvin seemed generally spellbound by the entire thing, until the food came. He had a pasta dish, and just stared at it like a starved man, until I reminded him it would probably be a good idea to eat, and then he was devouring it like Percy with pizza.

He finished it before the rest of us had even eaten half, and he looked a lot brighter. Suddenly, he started quick firing questions at us.

'How did you find out who your parent was? When will I find out? Will I get loads of siblings? Do you go to school? Did my Mum know about it?????'

Will tried to explain 'Well, I was claimed by Apollo soon after I came to camp, and it really depends, but definitely before your 13th birthday, but probably a lot sooner as recently the gods have become more attentive to their kids due to a friend of ours efforts. It depends on who your godly parent is, like Nico has one sibling, I have several. We can't tell you if your mortal parent knew, as we cannot know unless they brought you to camp herself.'

The rest of dinner went pretty much the same, and at the end, my father pulled me aside.

'Nico, I didn't expect the evening to go this way, but the way William handled the situation with Marvin is amazing. He's an amazing boy and if he makes you happy, then I am happy with him. And with Marvin, I believe he will get claimed pretty soon. Goodnight, Nico' And with that he vanished. I called Jules-Albert and he drove us back to camp with Marvin.

As we entered camp, some campers started at Marvin, but we steered him away, straight towards the big house to meet Chiron. Naturally, Chiron was out of his chair, and Marvin jumped when he saw him, flinching away, but as soon as we explained, he went over and put out his hand for Chiron to shake. Will and I then took him around and just as we went pastmy cabin, a black symbol appeared over his head. I recognised it as the same symbol that appeared over my head in the Labyrynth.

Will and I dropped on one knee, and so did the few campers around us.

'What does this mean, Nico?' Marvin asked.

'The symbol of your father.' I said 'Hail Marvin Prefect, son of Hades, king of the dead , darkness and lord of riches.'

HAHA! I'm mean. I will leave it there. I hope you got my hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy reference. Pleas comment if you did. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful book release day. My local Waterstones didn't have any copies in but hopefully I'll get one soon. D-:

Leave no spoilers about it in comments, and SOLANGELOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FOREVERR

Alice.

P.S Great Zeus I am strange