The confidence in Bianca's eyes surprised me. So much, in fact, that I decided to trust her.

I charged toward the tree with fresh confidence. We could win this! We we're demigods!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Gods help us.

I slashed and jabbed at every monster I could find. At first, it was easy. The front line has already been mostly cut down. Once I worked my way into the middle, it got harder. I felt like I was drowning in monsters. Soon I started to get tired, and that was bad, because it didn't seem like any monsters were disintegrating.

Eventually, I figured it was time to put my powers to the test. Concentrating on the top of Thalia's Pine, I felt myself melt into shadow and reappear in the branches.

And what greeted me was a scary, scary sight. There were monsters everywhere. I could just make out a flash of celestial bronze here and there, but my problem was, they were nowhere near the middle.

I scanned the mass of fighting monsters and demigods, looking for anyone who was injured.

I heard a scream somewhere off to my right. Bracing myself for another jump, I found the person who had just screamed, targeted her, and went for it.

I usually didn't jump more than twice, and I had never tried with a second person, so getting myself back into camp was horrible.

I landed in the infirmary and lurched forward, dropping the girl who had gotten hurt as I went. She and I hit the ground with a thud. I stayed there for a moment, trying to steady myself. The girl next to me groaned. I sat up with a grunt and flipped her over.

"What's your name?" I asked. "C-Cat," the girl replied, shaking. I looked down at her stomach. She was bleeding heavily. "Blood status?" I checked, unsure of how much ambrosia ms nectar I could give her.

"I'm a half-half-b-blood." She answered. She sucked in a shuddering breath. I nodded once and rushed over to Chiron's ambrosia and nectar stores.

I was a little dizzy from shadow traveling, and as I worked my way back over to Cat, I was unsteady on my feet. She watched me with dull blue eyes, the light fading rapidly.

"Open your mouth." I ordered, kneeling and fingering the ambrosia in my hand. Cat followed my demands obediently. I shoved the little square into her mouth. "Chew,"

Cat chewed painfully slow. I already had the nectar ready. I bounced on my knees impatiently.

Finally, Cat opened her mouth again. I tipped half of the canteen down her throat. She swallowed quickly.

"Are you alright?" I asked, shaking her a little bit.

Cat's eyes were clouded. "I'll be fine." She whispered. I winced, not assured by the weak tremble in her voice.

I set down the half full canteen (because the glass is always half full) on one of the tables, and moved Cat to the bed next to it. She gave me a grateful look before closing her eyes.

I watched her chest rise and fall closely. Her breathing was steadier now. Satisfied, I sighed and braced myself for another jump.

•••

Landing back on that battlefield was like jumping off the high-dive.
Head first.
With nothing to protect yourself.
Into a pond.
A really shallow pond.

So, to sum it up, not enjoyable.

I lurched forward and had the good fortune of stabbing a monster through before I landed on the ground. This is the only time I will ever appreciate falling in the middle of a battle.

"Asha?" Bianca's voice called behind me. I heaved myself to my feet. "Oh hey!" I said as cheerily as I could manage.

"You look like someone just chewed you up and spit you out." Bianca muttered, looking me over. "Hey, love you too." I laughed, spinning around and chopping a monster in half.

Bianca shoved her arm backward as jabbed her blade into a monster's...OH GODS TOO LOW, TOO LOW!

Bianca winced and pulled back, a disgusted look on her face as the last of the monster blew away. I shoved my fist into my mouth to keep from laughing. That moment had been incredibly awkward, disgusting, and worth it.

We were close enough to laugh in the middle of a life-or-death battle. I was proud of that. I'm sure Bianca was too.

This is where we made our mistake, though. As we laughed, I felt a pair of slimy hand wrap around my waist. I screamed. Bianca tried to stab the monster that had me, but she was already being dragged away.

"NO!" I wiggled out of the monsters grasp and grabbed Bianca's outstretched hand.

•••

A/N: PAUSE! I feel the need to share this. When I wrote the word grasp above it auto corrected to grapes. "I wiggled out of the monster's grapes." Ew.
Just...ew.

•••

Bianca wrapped her fingers around mine. The monster grabbed me again, yanking me his way. My arm felt like it was being torn out of its socket, and by the look on Bianca's face, she felt the same way.

"Let go, Asha!" She yelled at me. "What!? ARE YOU INSANE, WOMAN!?" I screeched, struggling against the monster's strong hands.

"Trust me!"
"But-"
"Asha trust me!"

I squeezed my eyes shut and relaxed my grip. I felt Bianca's fingers slip away.

"We'll find each other, Asha!" Her voice seemed to follow me as I bounced along with the monster. I had no confidence left, and by now all of the fight was drained out of me.

Exhausted, I hung limply from the arms of my kidnapper. I heard people scream my name, but nobody stopped the monster, and at this point, I didn't care. I was ready to accept what was coming.

The monster suddenly slowed down. At first, I thought somebody was trying to stop the beast and save me, but that wasn't the case. The monster was picking up another friend.

"Oh, hey!" An all-too-familiar voice called to me. Jack. Of course, it had to be Jack.

Before I could say anything, the monster let out a deafening yell and banged my head against something. I blacked out.