The Untold Stories (Heroes of Olympus)

X - NICO

CHAPTER 10

NICO D. 

        ==============Ten-nen-nen=Di-Angelo=========

            After escaping death time ago in my sleep during my talk with Bianca, we decided to hike some more. I didn’t pay much attention during the trip since there was nothing peculiar in it anyway. After some time, we stop.

Here we were right now, halfway through our trip to Camp Half-Blood with a gigantic statue of Athena as our load. I could say that out trio is a very weird and might be an awkward one.

            A Praetor. A Roman Praetor.

            A goat. And a very noisy and annoying one.

            A troubled kid who crushed on someone who’s impossible to get.

            I clenched my fists as I thought of everything that had happened in my life. I hate life, but I also hate death so there’s nowhere for me to run or hide or end up in that makes me happy.

            I was too focused on my thoughts that I bumped into someone. And well, that someone is Coach Hedge.

            “Watch it” He said, trying to be annoying though what was clearly written was exhaustion.

            “We can rest here for the night everyone” Reyna announced, pulling on the leader card. Nobody said who was the leader but it was clear that she was, being able to lead a whole camp, leading two other people probably was nothing for her anymore. Me, being someone who just kept his thoughts to himself, I just nodded in acknowledgement.

            For the first time, I actually scanned my surroundings; we were actually up on a hill with the breeze blowing in my face and don’t seem to bother the statue at all. I must say I’m still amazed that we were able to carry such a load.

            Reyna was nowhere to be seen while Hedge was making himself comfortable. I decided to venture into the woods. I didn’t need sleep; I was close to death anyway.   

            I went a little deeper doing some routing and heard sobbing and crying. I followed the source and ended up seeing Reyna’s back on me and her muffled sobbing.

            It seemed to be something that only happened once in a lifetime. I’ve never seen Reyna ever cry before. She looked so vulnerable and weak and I feared I look just as much the same as she does all the time.

            Suddenly, I felt very uncomfortable from where I stand. There she was, sitting on a chopped tree while I was facing her back. I’ve never been the sociable person or the one that cares for others that much since Bianca died but now I feel like a sense of security.

            Probably because she was part of the team and it would be hard to survive without her especially with Coach Hedge.

            Deciding to at least try and comfort her, I took silent steps until I was a feet away from her.

            “Reyna?” I started which caused her to jump in panic and almost, almost fall to the ground. “Whoa” I suddenly said.

            She then held her heart like it was leaping out, which must’ve been somehow true, calming down, she quickly wiped away all the tears that were making her face wet.

            “You scared me” She said, pointing out something that was visible. “Don’t just sneak like that” She scolded me which made my lips curve into a small smile. It wasn’t the first time somebody told me something like that and it was something I was definitely used to.