Children of The Big Three, Book 3: Titans Curse

Chapter Five: Division in the Ranks

"Oh. Hey Thalia."

Nico was currently speaking with the kid that; Nico believed, Percy gave his life to save. Thalia had to admit that seeing the guy did give her a sour feeling in her mouth, but it did dissipate because she knew now that Percy Jackson was alive and kicking.. Metaphorically. She shook her head, she was allowing herself to get off topic. She was still a bit mentally messed up from that odd dream sequence, but managed to pull herself together for the time being.

"Nico."

Nico sighed, said, "One sec Ethan." Then turned his attention back to Thalia. He raised an eyebrow toward his friend. "Did you-"

"We need to talk in private."

"Thals, I really don't have the-"

"Now, Nico."

"How bout you stop interrupting me for a start, yeah?" Nico snapped at Thalia, a frown coming to his face. "My friend died after saving Ethan, so excuse me if I want to make sure the kid is at least comfortable."

"He's not dead; Nico."

"Thals, we both know that's just the first stage of grief."

"I had a Demi-God dream, dude."

Nico paused a moment, "Gimme a minute, Ethan. Important camp stuff had come up." The kid, apparently named Ethan, had no problem going away for a bit, in fact, he seemed rather eager to be off on his own. In the meantime, Thalia and Nico went off on their own, finding a rather secluded part of the forest in which to speak.

Thalia told Nico the details of her dream, mentioning only the prophecy she had heard, and of Percy's imprisonment. She felt the other experience she had was to personal to share. Hades, she felt like she wasn't even supposed to know that, and she kind of felt weird that she did. She tried not to think about it, but the mental image of a child, who was embarrassed to have someone find out about their situation was stained in her mind. The ear piercing sound of his scream, along with sounds of Percy's current struggles refused to leave her ears. Thalia knew it was childish, but.. She wanted to make everything right for her friend. She knew she couldn't magically make everything better for him; that's not how real life worked. This wasn't some fairy tale where she could just give him and hug and a kiss and suddenly all of his problems were solved. But.. She couldn't help it! Ever since his kidnapping, every thought she had seemed to come back to Percy Jackson. Whenever she ate, she thought about wether Percy would like what she was eating or not. Whenever she spoke, she thought about what Percy would say. When she did something, she wondered what Percy would do, or what jokes he'd make, or what'd he'd think, or-Well, you get the idea. Nico had this contemplative look upon his face, which Thalia really hadn't been expecting. She had wanted him to jump for joy and preemptively grab his things. The reaction she got was just.. Slow and cathartic. Serious Nico had made an appearance. She didn't really like serious Nico.

"This is.. A lot." He sighed.

"I know, it's a whole bunch to take in, but let's look at what's important here."

"There's a lot of that too. They're setting a trap for Percy's rescuers."

"And apparently there's another prophecy."