Cabin 13

15| Waiting for Ice to Melt

The tip of Nico's sword lingered over Will's head. 

Nico blinked, wondering what had made him stop mid-swing. And why Will had stopped dodging his attacks.

Nico and Will's eyes locked onto each other. Will slowly pushed the sword tip away, never looking away and Nico silently letting him without any objection.

"Why did you stop?" Will asked, looking up at Nico with wide blue eyes.

Nico's eyes dropped, falling on the random block of ice encasing Will's foot. 

Nico pointed the sword tip at it, "I suppose I'm waiting for it to melt."

"Oh, I assumed it was you who did that, but I guess that's not really possible." 

Will took an arrow from his quiver and started bashing the tip into the ice, slowly chiseling at it, not making much progress. Nico watched silently, trying to come up with a real answer to Will's question.

Lost in thought, Will looked up at him, "Hey, uh, you mind?" he said gesturing to Nico's sword.

''Oh, yeah." Nico stepped forward, thrusting his sword into the ice, shattering it, freeing Will's foot, "I should go."

Will looked up at him in surprise for a moment but then just nodded. 

As Nico quickly walked off, the crowd died away, a few people going to check if Will was okay. 

Chiron stood, disapprovingly, making sure everyone quickly got out of the woods safely, trotting over to Will, "We're going to have a talk later, young man," before walking him and everyone else back into the camp's boundaries and sending him to the infirmary to make sure he hadn't caught frostbite.

Piper, caught up to Chiron, speaking in a hushed voice, "That could have been bad."

"I agree, Percy is becoming reckless."

Piper frowned, concerned, "I just don't understand. Why? Surely Percy wasn't like this before he met Annabeth."

"Well, she died, not disappeared from his memories," Chiron said, solemnly.

"About that, it's what I've been trying to explain all day. I... took Percy's guilt away with charmspeak, and in doing so I think I stripped him of all connection to her. Accidentally, of course!" she said, then carefully explained all the details on the walk to the Big House.

"Of course! Percy is just adjusting," Chiron explained his theory, "You see it's really quite logical, Annabeth and Percy were a team, Annabeth was the brain and Percy was the heart. Now you're only left with passion without any reason or logic. So whenever Percy feels like doing something, he simply does." 

"But Percy has his own  brain. How could he just lose all common sense?" Piper didn't think Percy for a dumb jock.

"Well of course, but he has relied only on his heart and gut to tell him what to do, leaving the rest to Annabeth. Now that she's gone completely, without any emotion attached, Percy just doesn't know something's missing. Take it from me, I was his teacher, he consistently follows his heart, without using his head."

Piper slowly nodded, ''I guess that makes sense, he's passion without logic. Left following his heart blindly."

Chiron stopped, putting his hand on her shoulder, "This is dangerous, Perseus is a very powerful demigod, we can't leave him like this, he's unpredictable. It seems this is only something you  can truly fix."

"The whole reason I did this was because  I know Percy is all heart. And losing someone he cares so deeply about could send him over the deep end of the ocean! If this is bad, I can't imagine what guilt-ridden, angry Percy would be like. Certainly not any better!" Piper burst.

"Piper," Chiron said in a soft tone, "are you doing this for  Percy, or because you  don't want to see Percy heartbroken?"

Piper looked down, a single tear fell from her eye, "He was Annabeth's rock, I just— want him to stay strong! My best friend just died, and I can't bear the thought of a broken Percy. He was always the positive one, everyone's powerful protector."

Chiron nodded, "But it must be done. Percy would hate it if he knew he was acting like this to his friends, especially just after Annabeth's death."

"That's the thing, I don't know what I did to make him like this. I don't know how to help him! I've already tried everything I could think of!" Now the tears were pouring down, "I can't reverse it!"