Caliginosity [ Leo Valdez ]

Explosive Campfires

Livana had recovered from earlier injury and was searching for Nico; she knew he liked hanging around Will so if he was here today, finding the blonde was her best chance. She wandered around camp, walking past the armory and Hermes cabin. After a bit, she peeked into the Hephaestus cabin, seeing Will next to a fully-casted Jake. Leo was plopped onto Becendorf's old bed. "Will!" Livana smiled, skipping up to the blonde. The boy turned and smiled back.

"Hey Liv!" He greeted her. Leo had his arms crossed under his head, watching the both of them closely. Livana was still a little damp from the river, but she hadn't changed clothes.

"Where's Nico?" Livana asked. Will shrugged at her question.

"Not here right now, why do you need him?" he said.

"Ah..." Livana took a second to understand. "Oh he's not here? I miss him...also! He has my sword, I want it because....what is it again? What's the word for when I become things?"

"Oh, shadow-shifting? You want the sword because of shadow-shifting?" Will asked, doing his best to fill in the blanks for her. Livana nodded.

"Yeah what was that bird thing?" Leo asked, standing up from the bed. He took a few pipe cleaners from his pockets and started messing with them. "Are you a shapeshifter, missy?"

"Uh... no. Annabeth said it was shadow-shifting, which is a thing Nyx kids do!" She answered, unable to pick up Leo's fake attitude.

"A sort of mimic," Will explained to him.

"So what, you could copy people too? Or is it limited to birds?"

Livana grew a bit nervous. "Umm I-I can shadow-shift..." she stopped talking when Leo started doing a chicken dance.

"Will, she's not mimicking me. I think Livana's broken," Leo said cautiously. Livana stared at him before looking back to Will.

"Am I being joked about?" She asked him. Will shook his head.

"No I think he's just making a joke in general," Will chuckled. Livana rubbed her head.

"Um. Haha! Good joke!" she laughed. It sounded like a real laugh- not sarcastic or anything; but her smile didn't reach her eyes. Leo stopped dancing and studied her.

"By the way, is your arm okay?" he asked. Livana suddenly looked pale- well more pale than before- and pursed her lips together.

"My...my what?" Her voice became softer like she was afraid.

"Hey it's okay, your arm," Leo pointed to his own arm and wiggled it around. "Is yours okay?" Will tilted his head and looked at her sleeve, noticing most of her forearm was stained red.

"My gods, Liv! Did you get hurt?" the blonde asked, reaching for her limb. Livana flinched and stepped away.

"It's fine, a...spirit got me..." she mumbled.

Leo nodded to vouch for her. "When I saw you at the lake it looked pretty bad. You sure you got it fixed up?" He asked, pulling Will away slightly. Livana studied his behavior. He seemed...much more understanding. Did he know?

"Yes, I fixed it. I really need to see Nico," her voice shook as she spoke. Something in the cabin fell off a shelf and broke, turning the boys' attention away. In a split second, Livana was gone.

-

The conch horn for dinner was blown and the campers made their way to the mess hall with their cabin mates. Leo was left to his own devices in the forges. He had several thoughts about camp, his father, and the Nyx girl- Livana. He was so curious about her; she was pretty, mysterious, sweet, everything good. The boy looked to his hand, remembering his mother. Sadness fell onto his features as the painful memory nested into his mind again. "All I do is hurt people..." he spoke, barely a whisper. Fire ignited in his palm- the flames moving in a dance. It was bright, warm, and beautiful, yet he could only see it as something horrible. He studied the heat for a while longer until the second horn for dinner sounded; this time Leo heard it. He killed the fire in his hand and turned to walk out, but was met by Livana.