"You just gotta get the timing right!"

I stumbled back once again into the defensive position, holding out my sword to prevent further attacks. I had been caught off my guard yet again, and had another scratch across my face to prove it. Annabeth was attempting to teach me some sword fighting in the practice arena. We had come to the camp earlier this morning after breakfast. Joel was being fawned over by nymphs, and I trusted them enough to keep him safe, I guess... The harsh sun beat down on my skin relentlessly and kinda made me tired, like it weighed me down. But it was hard to focus anyway. Scenes from last night kept popping into my head, distracting me...

Nico had slept in the double bed with us. I couldn't let him take the couch, which is what I should've done. I don't know why I agreed to sleep in the bed with them. Joel did little to separate us with his tiny warm body. Hands brushed, then eyes averted themselves, freezing toes grazed legs, knees bumped knees. Even with my melatonin, I didn't fall asleep. I faced Nico so that I could hold Joel, and eventually his heart rate slowed, his chest rising in falling in rhythm. His back was to me, so I couldn't see his face. But even so, I felt his vulnerability under paper-thin covers.

A whack to the head from Annabeth's sword pulled me from my memories. She laughed at me as I tried to push it out of the way with my own too late. "Maybe you could use a break, huh?" Her eyes sparkled in the light and her hair caught the wind. She looked always ready to click into a fighting stance, even as she relaxed a little and pulled me to the side, away from sharp objects whizzing through the air. "Are you ok?" she asked, the playful air replaced by concern. "You keep dazing out. It's obvious you aren't focused. We should save this for another time."

"Yeah, you really suck," Milo called to me as we walked closer to the side of the arena. He leaned leisurely against the wooden fence, smirking at me cheerfully. "Even I'm better at sword fighting than you are."

I sighed and set the stupid sword down carelessly on the ground. "I'm sorry for wasting your time, Annabeth," I muttered, frustration seeping through my words. "I'm just a little mentally preoccupied today, it seems. And you weren't very helpful, Milo, yelling out sarcasm-riddled jokes at the expense of my-"

"-perfect stance, elegant poise, flawless victory." He laughed again, lightly punching me on the shoulder as we left through the large, open gate. I couldn't help but smile with him and Annabeth. "They'll sing songs about your battle scars," he said as he flicked gently on one of the scratched on my cheek. I pulled away from the sting and playfully ruffled his hair to push his head away.

"AH!" The breath flew from my lungs when he head-butted me in the stomach, toppling us onto the ground. All of a sudden it was like I was unshackled, from everything earthly that could burden me. I was totally and completely at peace- with myself, with my feelings, with friends, with life. I was exuberant. Roughhousing with Milo was like a natural high that caused time to stop and that moment to last forever. We could have been acting a scene on Elysium, in a constant state of wrestling, always laughing and never noticing that we were stuck in a video loop.

"Alright, break it up you two!" Annabeth's voice once again pulled me back to my senses. But the feeling didn't go away, like it usually did, like I expected it to. She fit perfectly into the moment. I realized that I was in a position of defeat, lying on my back with Milo's arm around my neck. "We should get those scars fixed up before you guys make them worse."

"I told you I'm amazing at close-range fights," Milo chuckled as he pulled me up by one arm. His eyes glinted mischievously and his heavy breathing fell into rhythm with mine. The adrenaline was quickly leaving my body. I sent one last desperate hit his way before giving up. I grabbed my bow and quiver from their position against the fence as we walked out, slinging them both over my shoulder.

"You look pretty beat up there." I glanced up to see Will, blonde hair blowing in the breeze, eyes squinted in the light. "Has Annabeth been 'helping' you practice?"

"Hey," she laughed, pulling her hair back from her face. "I really was trying. He just wasn't paying attention."

"I should probably take some ambrosia to heal them faster," I said, touching the one by my collarbone. "Joel will freak out a little if he sees them."

"You know that kids of Apollo can heal by chanting Greek hymns to him, right?" Will asked. Actually, Will, living in the not-Camp-Halfblood world, I wouldn't know that. "Here." He came close and touched my cheek, which stung at the warmth. Then he's humming and whispering something I can't understand, and the stinging is gone. I touch it myself, and there's not even a pucker on the skin to suggest that I was cut. "All better," Will smiled, placing his hands triumphantly on his hips.

"Thanks, man. You'll have to teach me how to do that. That could come in very handy."

I spotted Nico hiding in the shadows of the forest, his piercing stare attracting my attention. I said something absent-mindedly about meeting them later, and walked his way. Past some tents with moaning patients inside, through the tall, spindly trees, until his small form was finally before me. His hands were shoved deep into his pockets again. "Hey," I said, sitting in front of him in the pile of soft and decaying leaves. He settled down beside me, picking at his jacket sleeves unresponsively. The high feeling still lingered. Things felt magical. Anything seemed possible. It muddled my reasoning. Or maybe it de-layered the responsibility and worry from my real personality, or whatever. Like therapists try to tell you about. But whatever the reason, I found myself submitting to the urge to lean my head against his shoulder. It just felt nice. I had no reason behind it. It just seemed to fit the shade, the spotted patches of light, the sound of swords clanging, the chatter of the busy life that is at home here. So I did it.

Immediately after I did, I felt stupid. Embarrassed. So I removed my head and fiddled with the hem of my shirt nervously. Nico had stopped moving, I noticed. It was selfish and stupid of me to give in to something just because it "felt right". Selfish and stupid and inconsiderate. I didn't look at him as I quickly pushed myself up from his side and left, muttering about finding Joel.

I had ruined the moment.

  I could tell that Joel was going to get fussy. He woke up in the middle of the night and just began whining quietly, rubbing his eyes and squirming under the sheets in the dark of the cabin. I pulled him into my arms and pushed slowly off the bed. We were still wrapped in a blanket while we walked out the door into the night air, which was surprisingly not as cold as I had expected. Joel immediately quieted. His breath huffed against my ear in small, warm bursts and he hugged my neck tight. I nuzzled him gently as we made our way through the cabins to the docks by the forest. Percy said he hung out here a lot to think calmly.

Joel stirred at the soft thunk of my feet against the damp wood, the smell of the water, the chill in the air. I carefully sat down at the very end, dangling my sock-covered feet above the water. Joel snuggled under the blanket, his little eyes gleaming in the pale moonlight. I rubbed circles on his back and hummed a Death Cab song. Stay Young, Go Dancing. We sat like this for a while, me humming and Joel listening and sounds mingling with smells mingling with emotions.

"It's pretty," Joel sighed out into a silent moment.

"Mmhmm," I agreed, resting my head on his.

"Your voice is pretty too."

"Thank you." Joel never really spoke about things like that. Not about any music I made, vocal or instrumental. It surprised me. He snuggled into me some more and I lay back onto the dock, my feet still hanging over the edge. And I marveled at the stars. How many there were, and how far away they were, and how that makes that time for those super far-away stars so distant from now, here on earth.

Suddenly I'm dreaming. I hadn't expected to fall asleep. But now I'm drowning in darkness, like I'm miles below the earth without a light and no sound. I'm not even sure if I'm awake or just aware that I'm sleeping and seeing the insides of my eyelids. But I didn't feel Joel with me anymore.

"Hero." Whispers. Echoes. Reverberation. I felt my chest rising and falling quickly, my heart beating in panicked attacks on my rib cage. But I didn't hear anything except those deep, toneless, soft echoes. That alone scared me. I was isolated from everything, even my own senses.

"Drown in the Night," a voice right by my ear whispered.

"Wake up!"

The lights are turned on. The spell is broken. I lay on my side on the dock, curled in the fetal position around Joel's tiny body. The dim moonlight seemed so bright, and I reveled in my erratic heartbeat pounding through my ears. The waves sounded like screams as they scraped against the sand. I was lost in brown eyes so close to me that I saw nothing else. Everything was magnified after the disappearance into nothingness.

"...Hi," I whispered, rubbing my watering eyes. I checked that Joel was still asleep, then struggled against his weight into a sitting position. Nico pulled away from me and sat down beside me. "Didn't think that I'd fall asleep."

"Why the heck are you sleeping on the docks?" he asked. His voices was rough against the silence.

"Joel was getting a bit fussy." I nosed the little guy's head and wrapped the blanket tighter around us. "He needed some time outside."

"...I can feel darkness. All kinds." I stared into the water, focusing intently on each wave. I noticed that my feet were only inches from the icy cold lake, whereas Nico's shoe-clad feet were about three inches higher than mine, still and unmoving. "I felt something from you. It was so strong it was like a magnet. You were all freaked out while you dreamed, too."

I didn't respond.

"...Was it important? Your dream?"

"No." I really didn't think it was. The dream kept coming back, whenever I slept, but I never put a solid meaning to it.

Nico stayed silent. Even without looking at him, I knew he didn't believe me. I sighed into Joel's fuzzy hair and closed my eyes, failing to convince myself that I didn't care if Nico was upset.

"I didn't like the book ending."

I finally turned to glance at him. "Why not?" The nervousness faded slowly away.

He leaned back on his arms, staring out across the lake with that "I don't care" mask on. But I knew it was only a mask. "Well... she kills herself just because she didn't get what she wants, which is to ditch her husband, ditch the responsibility of her kids but still experience the good parts of having them, ditch her life and reputation and everything for a young dude who will probably find someone else to run away with after the thrill of eloping with a married woman is over. She was just bored with her life. That's a stupid reason to die."

I think that's the most I've heard Nico say at one time. At least he seems really into the book. "Yeah, that's pretty much-"

Nico cuts me off, his angry/frustrated rant continuing. "I mean, I understand that... finding the right person is hard. Maybe she made a mistake marrying the dude she did. Maybe Robert really was who she loved and should have ended up with. But they- her husband and herself- they already made commitments to each other. To their children. There are some things you just can't undo, things you can never take back. Just because you're a little uncomfortable doesn't mean you can say 'To Hell with this' and dump your responsibilities on people who trusted you- who you were eternally bound to."

He's really feeling strongly about this. "Well, I agree with you completely," I carefully began. "But this is something I've thought over a lot. Take a look at our parents. Take a look at all the gods. If eternal beings have made this same mistake over and over and over, where is there any proof that it is a mistake at all?"

He didn't have time to answer. We both turned our heads to face the sound of a creak in the wooden boards. A short-ish, redheaded girl was moving slowly towards us in small, creeping steps. A hazy green fog shrouded her whole body, illuminating the night. She walked with a rigid back, green eyes wide open and staring down at me. I wasn't sure if she was a monster or not, but she wasn't all that frightening at first. Then my heart froze when she spoke.

"Hero," she whispered.

It was the same voice from my dream. I quickly set sleeping Joel down and rose into a fighting stance as Annabeth had taught me. My arrows were back in the cabin, but I had a knife that Milo gave me as a present. At the time I had been thinking, "Who gives someone a knife as a 'Let's be friends' present?" Now I thanked all the forces of the universe for it.

"She isn't dangerous, I don't think." Nico stood up beside me, a little uneasy. "Her name is Rachel Dare. She's like the host for the Oracle-"

"What is she doing?" I interrupted, the nervous panic taking hold of me. She didn't look like anything from my dream, but she caused the horrible memories to resurface. The lost, choking feeling of not seeing, hearing, feeling.

I barely noticed Nico's reassuring hand on my arm. "She's having a vision or something. The Oracle is speaking through her."

"Hero," she whispered again, still advancing in slow steps. Eventually she was at most two feet away from me. I trusted Nico, even against the boiling fear in my gut, and left the knife in its sheath. Suddenly she lifted her arm, her fingers outstretched in my direction. I backed away from the close proximity, but she continued walking. My breathing was hard and ragged. Her eyes bore into mine with such ferocity, but I couldn't look away.

Her hand met my chest. My breathing stopped. The green eyes turned completely black.

"Drown in the Night."

And she pushed me off the edge.

"I'm really sorry about earlier. Usually I don't do stuff that physical in a seeing. The Oracle must've really liked you. Well, it makes sense, since you're a son of Apollo-"

Rachel Dare talked almost as much as Milo did. After she was done scaring me to death with her creepy "I'm possessed" stuff and shoving me into lakes, she began talking like there was nothing wrong, asking how she ended up at the lake. Nico had to point out with an incredulous and shocked voice that she had just pushed me off the edge of the dock. That's when I, a wet and sputtering and shivering mess, had finally recovered enough to pull myself out of the freezing lake and back onto the wood which I was tempted to kiss with appreciation. Nico's hand on my back even felt warm. She then started fussing over me and apologizing and did this the whole way back to the sick bay, where I was able to get towels. Nico carried the still-sleeping and very much undisturbed Joel with us. The early morning sun was up and I stood in the first rays,gripping the towel that hung around my shoulders. I clamped my teeth shut to keep them from chattering. "I understand," I said through my teeth. "You can't control it. No harm done. Just a little cold."

"I think I know what I said to you," she said thoughtfully, twirling a lock of her incredibly curly and unbelievably red hair as she looked up at me. "I've had dreams of you, multiple times and frequently." And then she went on to describe my nightmare exactly as it happened every time.

This was getting weird. They both looked at me expectantly, like they thought I had the answer. "...I've had that dream a lot recently, too," I said. My fingers worked at the fabric of the towel. "I had that this morning as well. I never thought anything of it." I felt so uncomfortable. I wanted to smoke, and it hit me out of the blue, really hard. My hands subconsciously felt my back pocket for the familiar, comforting box that wasn't there anymore.

Nico noticed, and I saw him smile when my hands came back empty. Did I see... happiness? Like he was proud of me. Then it disappeared again, and he switched back to serious mode. "That's what I felt this morning, then. I thought you said it was nothing," he muttered, glaring at me.

"I did think it was nothing," I said, rubbing my arm self consciously. He sighed and nudged my shoulder in half-hearted apology.

Rachel yawned, stretching her arms high above her head. "Welp, I'm gonna go back to bed to catch up on the sleep I missed this morning. I'm sure a prophecy about all this will come soon, now that I've met you."

"Thanks Rachel," I replied, smiling tightly at her while suppressing a shiver. Some early risers were just beginning their day, fully dressed and armed. "Nice meeting you."

"And Rachel," Nico called to her as she left. She whipped her head around to look at him inquisitively, her neon-orange Afro swirling around her. His face grew dark and stern, even scaring me a little. "Try not to do something like that to him again."

She let out a nervous laugh, then quickly continued walking. "It isn't her fault," I whispered to him as we watched her go.

His low voice quickly replied, "I know." Even basking in the sunlight, shivers coursed up my spine, not weather-induced.