Chapter Text
Chp1
Percy pov
Percy trudged through the snow, thinking about how he even got in this situation. He blamed it on Chiron. He was supposed to be enjoying his winter break with his family, but here he was, freezing in the middle of a forest in Olympia, carrying Nico di Angelo on his back while trying to find shelter to spend the night. A few days before, Chiron had contacted him about a lost weapon, Apollo’s sacred arrow. That’s it. A sacred arrow. Even Apollo felt bad about it, not wanting to waste someone’s time looking for it (He’s changed. It’s a whole thing). But Zeus wanted him focused on some important work on Olympus, so he was forced to send demigods to find it. Chiron decided that this was a mission that required two experienced demigods. He had a point, seeing how much trouble they went through to steal it back from the cyclops den they found it in. Originally, it was going to be three, but Annabeth had to help both Magnus and Sadie with problems in their own pantheons (It’s a whole other story), and Will was busy with the infirmary because of all the new campers coming in for winter break. Every other senior camper they asked was also similarly busy or unavailable, leaving Percy and Nico alone to find the arrow and return it. At least there was a reasonable deadline, the winter solstice, just like- no. He wasn’t gonna think about it.
He and Nico had followed the trail to the outskirts of a city called Tacoma. They’d stumbled upon the lair and had to fight their way out of it, while trying find the arrow without damaging it. He didn’t like fighting cyclops. They reminded him of Tyson. Nico managed to shadow-travel them a few cities over to escape. They landed in a forest near a highway. Nico collapsed almost immediately. Percy wasn’t too worried, seeing that he’d been shadow-travelling them all across the country for the past few days. Will had instructed him on what to do when Nico overdid it, so he fished a kitkat out of his backpack and made Nico eat it before he passed out. It was too cold for them to stay outside for too long, so he needed to find a place to rest soon. Nico was cold. That was the first thing he noticed when he hefted the kid on his shoulders. The next thing he noticed was how light he was. They didn’t carry much winter gear, not knowing exactly where they would find the arrow. He wrapped his jacket around Nico to try and warm him up. He was losing feeling in his fingers and toes. Eventually after walking around for a while, he spotted a rundown, abandoned hut in the distance. He trekked to the hut and forced the door open. He noticed a fireplace in the corner. Perfect.
He placed Nico down next to the fireplace and sat down next to him to try and start a fire. After getting the fire started, he sat back and suddenly felt weak. His adrenaline was fading. He blinked drowsily and passed out. The last thing he thought about was how cold he still felt.