Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Rick Riordan does.
Also: Swear words alert!

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Percy was done with the manticore. He flicked his wrist in exasperation- loads of water came from the nearby creek and a few ponds, crushing Dr. Thorn, and sending him back to Tartarus.

That stunt was particularly exhausting, since it took a lot of water to crush a monster like Dr. Thorn.

He was about to sit down for a few minutes when he heard a distant scream. It sounded familiar...

He headed towards the sound, finding a large fire on the way, and extinguished it with some water.

He heard another shout, "Go away!"

The voice was definitely familiar. A few seconds later he heard a very loud shout, "Oooh, MARSHMALLOW!"

A growl followed that, and another yell.

Percy suspected that person was a demigod. He went towards the sound faster, before hearing a rustle in the leaves from the tree above him, and a small figure falling with a scream.

His reflexes were pretty much the reason he managed to catch the person. But dropped him in surprise the next moment, when he realised who the person was: Leo.

"Ow!" Leo fell face first into the dirt. He turned up, and he did not look good. His face was covered with dust- that was normal for him, actually- he was littered with cuts, and worst of all, he had a big gash on his stomach, and he looked like at least 10 of his bones were broken.

But there was no time for either of them to say anything, as the next moment, with a growl, Percy's old friend the Nemean Lion, jumped down the tree.

"That explains a lot," He muttered as he picked up riptide, which he had dropped to catch Leo.

"Hey, you!" He shouted, running slightly away from Leo, hoping to distract the lion. Thankfully it worked. The lion's tongue was bleeding, which meant that his friend had also figured the its weak spot.

Leo groaned, getting up, while the lion growled at Percy in distaste.

"You growl a lot," He murmured, as it ran towards him. He kept himself still, until it pounced, opening its mouth for the meal, where he shoved his sword down the monster's throat, taking a step back.

It howled in pain, and almost immediately went still, dissolving into golden dust, and leaving nothing but it's a jacket from its pelt.

Percy ignored it, and ran towards his injured friend. Sure, he had been angry at him for bringing Calypso back, but he was mainly angry at her, not him. It really wasn't Leo's fault, and Percy actually admired how he had done things his way, instead of waiting for someone else to do it.

At the moment, the son of Hephaestus was leaning against a tree, surprisingly still conscious, "You're a good fighter," Leo said, popping in some ambrosia in his mouth, "You've even learnt to fight in style. Interesting."

Percy rolled his eyes, and helped Leo up to his feet, letting his friend lean on him for support, "Shut up. Right now, you need medical treatment."

"You've also learnt some fancy words," Leo noted.

A few minutes into walking, with Leo's occasional cursing, they both reached his mother's house.

He knocked on the door, and it was opened by none but his mother, Sally Jackson. She had gotten grey strands of hair, and there were a few more wrinkles on her face, but she still looked beautiful as always.

Her eyes brightened once she saw him, "Percy- Oh, dear, is that Leo?"

So-named person gave her a thumbs up, "Yup. And I'm not a ghost, I'm 100% alive."

Sally smiled, and ushered them both inside, where Will Solace and Nico di Angelo were both sitting on the sofa, urgently talking.

From the way they looked, Percy guessed their conversation went like this:

Nico- No, no, no.
Will- Calm down. Yes.
Nico- Camp Half Blood. Go back.
Will- Stop being an idiot, we're staying here.
Nico- .... You are bitch.

Will grabbed Nico's hand, "No, di Angelo, you are not-"

He caught sight of him and Leo, and his expression went from his current one to panic, to relief, to anger, and then to concern. Quite a lot of expressions if you asked him.

"Leo! Where the Hades have you been?" Nico glared at him, after giving Percy a quick apologetic glance.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Will went into doctor mode.

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Nico was not happy to be in Percy's house. He had already suffered enough, and he seriously didn't need any more of a burden.

They had been going to his house to ask about Leo, but turned out, they both had already encountered each other.

Will quickly went into doctor mode, checking him and Percy for injuries- which they obviously had- and giving them both the full medical service.

Sally- Percy's mother- went back to baking cookies, though she was still keeping a watch on what was happening.

Nico decided he'd rather not get into conversation with Percy, and went to Iris-Message Piper, Jason, and the rest of his friends at Camp Jupiter, who had the wits worried out of them.

Now that he thought about it, they could've easily sent an IM for Leo. He mentally slapped himself, as he asked Sally for permission to send an IM.

She smiled, "Of course. There's a fountain in the bathroom right ahead."

He nodded and contacted his friends, telling them the news.

Piper looked like she was ready to walk right through the IM and give Leo a really hard slap, "Oh gods, that idiot... I can bet a 100 drachmas that he did it because of the prophecy."

Jason frowned, "I don't think so. Maybe he did it for another reason, the prophecy being a plus. I can bet 200 drachmas on that."

"How about-"

"Okay," Reyna interrupted their fight, "Let's discuss that later. And please, no betting. You both can go to Camp Half Blood if you want," she turned towards Nico through the IM, "And thanks for informing us Neeks-"

"No one's gonna stop calling me that anytime soon, am I right?" he muttered.

Hazel grinned, "Nope. Anyway, see you later," Frank-the-bird chirped, probably agreeing with her. Why had he shapeshifted into a bird? Nico didn't know.

"'Kay, sis. See ya." He swiped his hand through the mist, breaking the message.

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"Go back to your master, the gods, whatever," Calypso charmspeaked the cyclops, "Tell them that they can go fuck themselves, but I'm not going to 'resume my punishment'."

As if in a trance, they all disappeared, off to send their message.

For days now, the gods' had been sending monsters for her to return to Ogygia, and she was really done with their schist.

Out of the blue, a wolf pounced on her. She quickly got a thin knife hidden in her jacket, and stabbed the wolf. It howled in pain, and Calypso took out her knife, wiping the golden blood on the inside of her red cotton jacket, which was coloured white.

She recognized the wolves, one of Artemis's wolves. If the goddess of hunting herself was tracking them down, she was in trouble.

Sure enough, the next moment, much more wolves came towards her, the hunters behind. They gasped as they saw the dead wolf, while she twirled the knife in her hands.

Running away was useless, and charmspeaking wouldn't be good enough: she had learned that her magic was much weaker than before she left the island.

The wolves were the first to attack. 

[A/N:

No, the other chapters won't really have other swear words so chill, K? 

Anyway, this chapter is also short, but I did what I could.
So... That's really it, so c ya in the next chapter!]

Anndd, I'm just gonna sum up this chapter with a quote real quick:

I have a dam problem.