House of Hades

XXII-- Nico

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XXII—Nico

Nico was completely torn. He didn’t know what decision was the right one to make. There were only two, and neither of them ended well. It was a lose-lose situation. The only way off this island was to break Cephalus’ curse, and apparently, the only way to do that was to burn Frank’s firewood—his lifeline. But if they didn’t, they would be stranded on this island forever, and the world as they knew it would come to an end.

“It’s okay,” Frank repeated. “I’m willing to sacrifice myself. I mean, if Hazel did it, I can, too, right?” He sounded more like he was reassuring himself than anyone else.

“But Frank--” Piper began to protest.

She was interrupted by Cephalus’ deep voice. “It’s the boy’s choice to make, not yours,” he snapped at Piper. Turning to Frank, he confirmed, “And if he’s sure, that he wants to do it… Well, it was foretold by the Fates. He has no choice.”

Nico took in the terrified yet determined look on Frank’s face. “Frank, are you sure you want to do this?”

The son of Mars looked down at the small stub of wood. Looking up, he nodded. “Positive.”

“Alright, then,” Cephalus said. “We best be going.”

Nico frowned.

“Going?” Piper asked. “Where?”

The mortal turned towards the island’s rocky terrain behind him. “The sacrificial grounds.”

Nico took a shaky breath. “This day just keeps getting better and better.”

Out of breath and gasping for air, Nico shook his head, attempting to move the long, black hair that was obstructing his vision. They were climbing the mountain’s rocky face, trying as hard as they could to hold on. One wrong move, and they would plummet to their hard, cruel deaths below.

As Nico struggled to find another nook or cranny to place his hands and feet in, his annoying hair kept on flopping in front of his eyes.

Stupid hair, he grumbled. Now I really wish I didn’t refuse the haircut Hazel offered me.

He turned his head from side to side, looking to see what progress the others were making. Cephalus and his weird dog, Laelaps, were way ahead of them, scaling the mountainside with ease. Clearly, years of lonely island life had taught him a few things, namely, rock climbing.

Piper didn’t seem to be having any trouble, surmounting the rock face almost as easily as the mortal and his dog.

Frank was right next to Nico. The poor guy clambered up the mountain slowly and clumsily, stopping for way longer than was necessary to find a safe place to step.

Nico stopped observing the others and focused on ascending the mountain’s face himself. Luckily, he had been at Camp Half-Blood long enough, and had undergone enough training to know how to rock climb. That part of training had always been a mystery to Nico. I mean, when would he ever need to know how to climb a huge slab of rock. It turned out that even after numerous arguments with Chiron about the practicality of the exercise, and even more tantrums, the old centaur was right. It was a useful skill to learn, and it was bound to come up during a quest.