Never Leave Family Behind (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Chapter 10

Nico gave me a piggy-back as we continued across the Underworld.

I hid my face in his shoulder. We walked for a while before I heard Nico say "Uh oh."

I looked up from his shoulder. Up ahead was a river. It wasn't very wide but the water looked very fast. And black.

"The River Lethe," Nico explained, "We'll never make it across."

"There's got to be a way across Percy said as we approached the bank. Nico let me down and I peered at the water closely.

It didn't look very nice.

I saw Thalia kneel down next to the water.

"Careful! This is the river of Forgetfulness," Nico warned. "If one water gets on you, you'll start to forget who you are."

Thalia took a big step back.

"I know this place," Thalia said. "Luke told me about it once. Souls come here if they choose to be reborn, so they totally forget their former lives."

"Who's Luke?" I ask.

Thalia and Percy looked sad at that. "He used to be a friend," Thalia responded after a moment."

After a moment Nico spoke up.

"So any idea's on how to get across? Swimming's not an option."

"I could shoot an arrow across, maybe anchor a line to one of those rocks," Thalia offered staring across the river.

Nico looked at her and responded, "You want to trust your weight to a line that isn't tied off?"

"Your're right," Thalia said with a frown. "Works in movies, but... no. Could you summon some dead people to help us?"

"I could," Nico said, "but they would only appear on my side of the river. Running water acts as a barrier against the dead. They can't cross it."

"What kind of st-" Percy starts before looking at me, "uh... silly rule is that?"

"Hey, I didn't make it up," Nico said turning to look at Percy.

"It's water, isn't it? I'll have to control it. Maybe I can redirect the flow long enough to get us across," Percy explains.

With no further objection Percy moved the few steps towards the river.

"Stand back," he warned. "Here goes nothing," he mumbled to himself before lifting his arms up above his head. The water followed him creating a giant arc over the river bed.

"Go," he tells us, "I can't hold this for long."

We scrambled across the river climbing up and down the river backs. Thalia was the first to make it across and turned to pull me up the edge.

"Come on Percy! Walk!" She yelled across the river to Percy as we both helped Nico up.

He took a step forward and I saw him stumble from here. Holding up a magic river must be exhausting.

"I can't make it!" he called back.

"Yes you can! We need you!" Thalia responded.

We watched with crossed fingers as Percy stumbled across the riverbed. He was halfway before he stumbled again.

"NO!" Thalia yelled as the water went crashing down. I let out a gasp as Nico pulled both of us back to avoid the splash.

There was a shocked silence. The only sounds were the river rushing by and the whispers that raced slowly along the edge of my mind.