Shadows and Magic

Chapter 3

beware of the sticks."

Nico groaned. Apparently, Apollo's skills in haikus had not improved during his trials.

"We have to find him." I need to find out more, Nico thought. But he realized his vision was dimming. No, I need to know what happened, whether help will come. Listening to Will talk about his monster encounter had brought back Nico's memories of his attack. He knew he was stuck in a building, probably dying of his wounds. Show me what's happening! But there was no use. The world flipped around him and he landed on a sunny field. He turned around, and Nico was face to face with Bianca di Angelo. His sister was in front of him, looking blurry, in a ghost-like form. But this couldn't be true. She had chosen to be reborn. 

"Bianca?" Nico whispered quietly. Bianca didn't even acknowledge what Nico said, but grabbed him by the shoulders with an iron grip and said firmly, 

"WAKE UP" 

Nico woke up, sitting upright rigidly, and immediately saw half a dozen people staring at him, eyes open in shock. Nico wasn't even startled, his mind still jumbled up in the confusing events of his dream, but let his instincts take over, flipping upright and backing into the shadows behind him. He winced slightly at his injury, but didn't let it show to the strangers in front of him. After his brain had caught up with what was happening, confusion began to replace the lack of emotions he was feeling. A bit of pain began to flood him, along with shock. Nico had a quick mental debate on whether he should whip out his sword, but decided against it. It was best to have the element of surprise later if these people, or monsters, attacked. 

"Who are you." 

Nico fixed everyone in the room with a deadly glare, keeping track of his surrounding. There were two redheads, a male and female, two tall looking men, one who was looked pretty shabby, the other with black, messy hair, a woman with ridiculously pink hair, and a old looking man with a peg leg and a bright blue eye that kept swiveling around and giving Nico the chills.

The old man pointed a stick at Nico threateningly, and before Nico could scoff on how stupid that was, he roared a weird sounding word.

"Stupefy!"A beam of red light shot out of the knobby stick. Nico felt himself being slammed backwards against the wall, his arms and legs going numb. After freezing for one or two seconds, Nico was slowly able to regain control of his body, and he tried to push down the waves of agony he was feeling. 

"Wha?" He croaked out. Everyone else was looking pretty surprised too, as if that wasn't supposed to happen. They all stared at Nico, momentarily stiff with shock and.. was that fear?

Nico was aware that he creeped people out, with a habit of appearing and disappearing into shadows, but he had no idea why these weirdos would be scared of a boy being slammed against a wall by one of their own using a stick. 

If anyone should be terrified, it should be him. 

Nico didn't let it show though, it was best to intimidate a potential enemy first, and not expose your weakness. You need a show of strength. 

He was in a room with a couch and a long table, all looking quite furnished. But there was something wrong in the room, a force of darkness Nico was both familiar and not familiar with. It took him a moment to realize it was coming from the shabby looking man. It felt like the same sort of dark he had experienced with when facing Lycaon. The thought brought back bad memories of Coach Hedge, Reyna, and him nearly dying. The scar on his arm where Lycaon had scratched throbbed. 

"You," Nico narrowed his eyes as he stared at the shabby man, "you're a werewolf." Slowly, he reached into the hidden sheath strapped to his leg. He drew a silver dagger and palmed it. All six people before him widened their eyes in shock, and the shabby man flinched at the sight of the weapon.

"What's wrong, Lupin?" The pink haired woman asked.

"The dagger... it's silver. Legend has it that's the only thing that could kill a werewolf..."

"How did you know he was a werewolf?" asked the thin man, shock and suspicion sneaking into his sentence. 

He was ignored.

"You never answered my previous question," Nico hissed, "Where am I?And,  who. Are. You."

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So, how did I do?

Sorry if I got the time zones and stuff confused, I'm not a math person.