The Sword of Justice

004

After a few minutes, Chiron came back with two backpacks. Both the backpacks were dark blue. It was visible that the bags were filled. Nico and Will held their arms out and Chiron gave a bag to each of them.

"I think that everything you might need is in there."

The boys nodded. They had no idea what they might need, but Chiron had experience with quests. They trusted him enough to be convinced that probably everything they would need was in the bags. 

"I think it's the safest not to travel to Italy in one try." Chiron suggested.

"Where do you want us to stop? In the middle of the Atlantic ocean?" 

Will chuckled, "We can stop on the Azores." he suggested.

Nico had no idea where the Azores were, Will read his look and smiled.

"The Azores are islands in the Atlantic ocean. They kinda belong to Portugal."

Nico remembered now. Bianca once told him she wanted to go there when she was older and had a job. They would go there together. He swallowed.

"Allright, hold my arm and we can go."

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When Nico and Will appeared on the Azores, Nico immediately passed out. Will planned to catch him, but even that didn't go as planned.

Nico fell face-first onto the ground.

"Shit," Will grabbed Nico and threw him over his shoulder, he was determined to find a place where they could get some rest. 

The journey felt like hours for Will, but in reality, it was only ten minutes. 

He had found an abandoned tree house, and he was sure that was a perfect place to sleep. It wasn't the best place, but at least they could stay there for a while before continuing their journey to the fountain in Rome.

Will wasn't sure if the ladder could hold his and Nico's weight, so he placed Nico against a tree and went to check it out for himself first. 

He placed his feet on the ladder and climbed to the top. It felt safe. 
The tree house itself was a little dirty at some places, but it was big enough for the two of them. Will decided he should go for it. 

He climbed down the ladder and picked Nico up, again.

The ladder felt less firm with two people instead of one, but they had to get up. 

Will made sure that Nico lied down comfortable, he folded the blanket in Nico's backpack as a pillow and placed it under Nico's head.

"Sleep well, Death boy." 

He smiled at the sight and lied down next to Nico on his own blanket. 

It was comfortable, until Will heard something rustling outside the tree house. Instinctively, he grabbed his bow and arrows and peeked outside.

The monster that was outside was a monster he had never seen before in real life, but he knew what it was from the books he read some time ago. The creature was a Harpy. The Harpy was half-human and half-bird. And fortunately, the monster had only smelled him and  hadn't spotted him yet. 

Fast, Will shot three arrows. Two of them hit the monster in a perfect spot and the monster turned to dust. 

"What was that?" a sleepy voice behind Will mumbled. 

Will turned around and was ready to shoot until he saw it was Nico. He let out a sigh in relief and sat down next to him.

"A harpy, there might be more of them outside. You can sleep, I'll take the watch. I'm not tired anyway." 

"So your archery practice wasn't for nothing." Nico smirked.

"Just sleep, Nico." Will gave him a reassuring smile and Nico went off to the blankets again. Will watched him until it looked like he was asleep and went to the opening in the tree house again.

It looked like the coast was clear, but some monsters were really talented at finding hiding places. But even without that talent, it wasn't difficult to hide here. Trees were everywhere. 

Will wanted to check out their surroundings, but he couldn't leave Nico alone while he was asleep. If a monster smelled him, he would be dead. 

Their backpacks were still in the corner of the tree house, exactly where Will had placed them when he searched for a blanket. He picked one of them up again and placed some ambrosia in his jeans. They couldn't leave everything in the same place. If the backpack would be stolen or lost, they wouldn't have any ambrosia left, and Will wanted to prevent that scenario. 

He grabbed the bottle of water and drank from it, he didn't realize how thirsty he was until the water touched his lips. In a few seconds, the bottle was empty. 

Will also found a small notebook at the bottom of the bag. He studied it, and opened it after a few seconds. There was a message.

Dear heroes,

Fortunately for you, the water bottles are refillable. Just say what you want to drink to the bottle and it will appear in it. 

Don't lose them, they will be of use.

Chiron. 

Will smiled, they didn't have to worry about dehydration, yet. 

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Hey guys,

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If you find some spelling/grammar errors, feel free to tell me that too. It will make the story better :)

~Veronique