Solangelo: The Infirmary

An Unexpected Sleepover

Nico didn't go back to camp just yet. He had started making his way there, but when he got to the stream that was used as the territory line for capture the flag, he followed it down stream. The stream quietly kept pace with Nico as he walked. For what felt like hours, Nico marched along, grumbling to himself and planning the deaths of each one of those "good-for-nothing-piece-of-schist-deserving-to-rot-in-Hades-for-damned-eternity-scumbags". After a while Nico started playing a game with himself to see how long he could he make a string of insults. Nico was so engrossed in figuring out insults, he didn't see the massive oak tree in front of him until his face felt it. He rubbed his forehead and started swearing at the tree, the kids, the stream, everything. Stepping back and looking at the tree, Nico realized he had no idea where he was. So Nico took the best course of action; he climbed the tree. When he was about 30 ft up, he looked around for any hint of where camp was. Sighing through his nose, Nico plopped down onto the branch with his back against the trunk. He'd have to follow the stream all the way back to the capture the flag area before he could head back to camp.
Thinking about it, Nico, who was supposed to be resting up in the infirmary, had been out and about in the woods quite a bit in the past few days.
"The stupid, gods damned, monster filled woods." Nico grumbled to himself.
As daylight faded through the trees, Nico now had 28 different ways of killing each of the five kids whose names Nico had banned from ever speaking. When Nico looked up at the sky, with a jolt he saw the stars out. Loosing an angry-and slightly inhuman- growl, Nico pounded his fist on the trunk behind him. It was too late to try to make it back to camp now, with the monsters coming out and while Nico was unarmed. With his pulse quickening, Nico realized how bad the situation really was. Nico's best shot would be to stay in the tree and hope no monsters smelled his scent. With another fit of anger, Nico realized he had been sitting in the tree for hours, and the tree was probably covered in Nico scent. He couldn't move, because it was to much a risk to make any noise or movement that could encourage monsters to come over here, and if they caught his scent, it wouldn't matter where he went, it would be on his tail.
He prayed to his father, to Hestia, to anyone who could possibly be listening and begged them to keep monsters out of Nico's area.
*****
The moon was almost directly above Nico when the first monster came. It looked like one of minotaur's distant cousins, except much smaller and more deer-like than bull-like. It was about the same same size as coach hedge, and even had a club resting on it's shoulder. It was funny to watch because it seemed to strut around with a puffed out chest and exaggerated steps. None the less, Nico held his breath as the deer creature walked right below him. Nico watched in anticipation, waiting for it to smell him. But it passed by without so much as a pause in his step. Nico didn't breathe until the monster had long since faded into the night and Nico was blue in the face. Sighing with relief, Nico slumped back onto the tree trunk and closed his eyes, just for a moment.
When Nico's eyes opened, the moon was nowhere to be seen and the sky was a dull grey. Nico smiled, thinking he could go back to camp, until he looked down.
Three Dracanae, or as both Tyson and Percy called them, "creepy snake ladies" made a circle directly below Nico, piling wood for what looked like a fire they were making. Every few seconds, one of them would steal a glance at Nico anxiously. One of them met Nico's eyes, smiled wickedly, and turned to one of her companions and said something excitedly while pointing at Nico. Leaning back from the scene, Nico realized they were probably building a fire to cook him.
"Oh perfect." Nico looked up at the sky again. It was to risky to try to make it to camp before the sun was actually up. Too many monsters would be wandering back to their caves and holes and wherever monsters go. But he didn't want to attract any more monsters then what he had to deal with already. So now Nico was tired, hungry, trapped, and on the breakfast menu. Just another morning for a demigod.
Nico decided to stall as long as he could and wait for the sun to wake up. He wished Apollo would just get on with it.
Could Dracanae climb trees? Snakes can, but these have an extra snake trunk to deal with. Surely they would have attacked already if they could. They'd probably wait until Nico would be forced to go down for food or water or something, then ambush. Then they'd kill him, cook him, and eat him. Not an option. Nico sat quietly, formulating a plan while the snake ladies formed theirs.