My Moonbow (Solangelo)

Chapter 9

TW: description of blood and gore

Nico's heart hammered inside his ribcage.

How was he going to defeat a Stymphalian bird? Even the great Heracles himself had received help from a goddess to be able to beat them.

How had it gotten inside camp? He decided he didn't have time to waste thinking about that. The creature turned it's beady eyes at him, a fierce look coming from them. It flew upwards, away from the girl, and emitted a loud screech.

It was calling its mates.

But none came. Instead, the bird spread its wings and shot some feathers from his plumage. Instinctively, Nico covered his head with his arms and lunged backwards. He could feel the feathers making cuts all over his skin, making his whole body ache.

He took cover behind some tree's trunk. His grip on his sword was so tight his knuckles were white. He peeked over the side, trying to catch glimpse of the girl. He really hoped she was alright. He needed to help her, he needed to think. How had Heracles defeated those things? A rattle. He had used a rattle to scare them away. But where was he going to get a rattle from? He didn't have time to look for one.

Would his sword work? He doubted it. Though he had hurt the bird in some way back then. He didn't have any other option, did he? When he was gathering all the courage he could manage to face the bird, a crazy idea crossed his mind.  

He remembered something he'd learned in a Monster Assault techniques lesson once. It was about a fruit, a small, purple-like berry, that grew in some parts of the Camp's woods and was extremely poisonous. If he could smash some of them over his sword's surface, it'd be much easier for him to kill the Stymphalian bird. 

Smiling at his own cleverness, Nico glanced around. How was it the plant was supposed to look like? A thin vine with a small purple fruit. He looked up towards the tree's leaves, and smiled triumphantly. 

In one of the branches, there was a vine wrapped around it. Nico cursed under his breath as he realized how far the fruits actually were. 

"Sorry, Will," he murmured, and shadow traveled to the closest firm branch of the tree. 

He took a second to regain his balance, and reached for the vines. He was careful not to touch the berries so much, he didn't want to get an allergic reaction to the poison. He threw a few in his jacket pocket, and began squashing them against his sword. He winced. He had took so long polishing it. But it was for best...

When he thought it was enough, he took a deep breath, and made a mental timeline to what he was going to do next. Shadow travel to where the bird was, take it by surprise, charge, kill. Easy, right? He just had to do it.

And he did. He appeared behind the bird, and charged rapidly, making a clean slash through its body. It shrieked, before falling to the ground. Nico slashed it again. This time it disappeared to golden dust.

"There you go..." Nico sighed. He could feel his own heartbeat in his ears. He looked around groggily. He saw a trail of blood in the ground, and followed it with his sight. The girl. He went over, and saw her curled up behind a tree, gripping her side tightly. She didn't seem so buff like that.

"Are you o–?" His question was cut off when she moved her hand the sightless to the side, revealing the blood. He caught his breath. Just then did he notice the black feather laying a couple inches from her in the ground, all soaked in blood.

"Okay... let's just–" He kneeled to her side. "Let's take you to the infirmary, yeah?"

She nodded grimly. Her face twisted in pain as Nico tried to put an arm under her armpit. He helped her to walk back to camp. The sun was already setting, and he wondered how long had they been there, if only a couple minutes or even more. 

The girl had started to pant as they arrived to the infirmary door. 

"Nico?" Will appeared in the doorway, a confused frown adorning his perfect features. "Alliah... what–?"

"She's hurt." Nico didn't bother to elaborate as they made their way past Will.

"Alright. Bring her here." Will quickened his pace, adopting his confident doctor attitude, and guided them to one of the individual rooms. Alliah let out a chocked shriek as Nico placed her as carefully as he could over the stretcher. Will took his stethoscope from his neck and examined Alliah's vital signs. Without speaking a word, he went over the cupboard to bring something.

(Triggering scene) He placed a cube of Ambrosia on Alliah's lips, and she chewed on it weakly. Nico watched intently as Will rolled up the girl's shirt to examine the wound. He cleaned the blood with a piece of gauze to have a better sight of it. A gash of skin was separated from its place, hanging slightly loose under her ribcage. Even Nico had to look away from the dizzying picture. (End of triggering scene)

Will sighed. "You'll need a surgery," he spoke kindly to Alliah, and reassured her with a smile. He turned to Nico, "thank you for bringing her here right away." Nico could understand the hidden meaning behind that sentence. If you hadn't, she wouldn't have made it. He just nodded once, and stood to leave.

"Could you please call Kayla over? I need an extra pair of hands." Will spoke from his spot as he put on some latex gloves. Nico nodded, and did as he was asked.