Night of the Hunter

He was the hunter. However, his prey believed it to be the hunter. He smiled, the tables had turned, and the prey hadn’t even realized it. He tightened his grip on his sword, stepping lightly through the forest. He followed the hunted through the thick undergrowth using the thick shadows as cover. His booted feet made little sound as he dodged gnarled roots, low branches and the pulling thorns of the berry bushes.

His prey slipped through the forest as well, but with not as much as ease. It was obvious he wasn’t used to this part of the forest. His prey was loud, his booted feet slipped over the hidden roots. He made his way into the clearing, digging through the tool belt he wore as one might a belt. Cursing under his breath, his prey scanned the forest. But his eyes passed right over where his hunter lay in wait.

By the time he jumped into the small clearing, his sword gleaming in the light, it was too late for his prey to react. He smirked, it was done.

“Holy Hephaestus!” Leo Valdez squeaked as his hunter took him down. Nico’s black sword glowed eerily in the green light of the forest. Nico almost looked happy. He sure as Hades looked pleased. Leo studied the blade that was bare inches from his throat. “Dude, I didn’t even see you.”

“The shadows are thick here.” Nico replied. “Had you looked, you would’ve seen me.”

“I did look!” Leo said indignantly.

“Not hard enough.” Nico sheathed his blade, extended his hand down to help Leo up.

“Thanks.” Leo rubbed the back of his head. He’d gone down hard. “Apparently thick forests aren’t my thing.”

“I could hear you from fifty yards away.” Nico smirked.

“Yeah, yeah.” Leo waved him off. “You’re as good as some of the Apollo kids when it comes to hunting.” Nico frowned. How could Leo know he thought about it that way? “I saw your face. I’ve seen the same gleam in the eyes of some of the monsters who hunt us. I’m glad you’re on side.” Leo sat on a rock, began to fiddle with some parts from his belt.

“Lucky for you, I am.” Nico choose a fallen log for his seat. “What are you making?”

“Don’t know yet.” Leo said distantly. “Just messing around.”

They sat in comfortable silence for several minutes, the only sounds were the leaves shaking in the breeze, bird’s calls and squeaks and grunts as Leo worked on his parts.

“Thanks, by the way.” Leo said.

“For?”

“Helping me out.” Leo said. “Training me.”

Leo had asked Nico to train him in many things. Swordsmanship, tracking, and anything else that popped up along the way. Anything to help Leo stay on top of it, so he could fight monsters no matter the circumstance. The training they’d done today had positioned

Nico in his favorite place-the hunter. And put Leo in his least favorite place-the hunted. It was a mockup of how to react when a monster is stealthy, how to pick out monster movement from the movement of harmless animals and the constant swaying of the forest.

Leo needed to work on that a bit more. Nico was scary good at hunting. Leo had found out what it was like to be the deer, trying to escape from the wolf.

“There.” Leo held up his invention.

“It looks….” Nico cocked his head, studied the squat object. “It looks like a box. Congrats, you’ve designed a Celestial bronze box.”

Leo rolled his eyes. “It’s not just a box.”

“So you agree it’s a freakin’ box.”

“Shut up and watch.” Leo pressed a hidden switch, and the box morphed. It split open, metal sliding against metal. A form took shape. It was now a metal bird, complete with piercing eyes and metal feathered wings. It locked its freaky bronze eyes on Nico. Its beak looked as sharp as a sword.

“Okay, so you created a freaky looking bird.” Nico said sarcasm dripping like acid. “It’s got a good stare.” Really scary stare. The bird looked like a metal hawk. “Not like it
can fly.”

“Ye of little faith.” Leo threw the bird into the air. Instead of crashing and burning like Nico thought, it took wing and soared. It let out a deep, slightly metallic cry, its metal wings clinking together.

“Okay.” Nico relented. “It flies. What else can it do?”

Leo pulled some more parts from his belt, and with a little muttering and an electrical flare up that left his hair standing up, he showed Nico his creation. A small screen.

“Arial surveillance.” Nico muttered as it clicked. It was brilliant.

“Not just that, its heat based. And magic too.” Leo showed Nico what the bird was seeing.

A world bathed in dozens of shades of colors. Thermal vision. Leo flicked a switch, and the colors changed. Now, it measured the amount of magic in an area-in other worlds, how much the Mist was concentrated. The more Mist in an area, the more chance of a monster or demi-god being there as well.

“That is cool.” Nico smiled leaning in close to Leo to look at the screen.

“Yeah, let’s go spy on the camp.” The hawk, controlled by Leo via  remote, winged towards camp. Letting out a cry, it dived towards the dining pavilion. It wasn’t mealtime, so the heat signatures there had to be doing something else. Leo grinned as he changed the birds eyes to their third mode-video camera. Really high-def. camera.

And found two campers making out.

“I didn’t need to see that.” Nico said. The bird quickly turned tail.

“Okay, we’re gunna forget we saw that.” Leo muttered concentrating. They found Percy training with Nerida in the ocean. They both rain on top of the water, slamming powerful waves into each other. Swords clashed, fists punched. They both seemed to be enjoying it immensely. Annabeth was reading on the beach, apparently oblivious to the fight that took part fifty yards from her.

They found the Stoll brothers sneaking pop and other contraband over the camp borders. Clarisse and her boyfriend were talking in the arena, holding hands. They hightailed it out of there quickly as well. Hazel and Frank were laughing on the porch of the Big House, while Jason took part in a volleyball game against the Apollo cabin. Piper, and several other people were trying very hard, but it was damn near impossible to beat the Apollo kids at anything involving a projectile.

After a while, the two boys decided to stop spying on their campmates and get back to training themselves. Leo was again the prey.

He hated it. The feeling of being watched, of being paranoid of every tree’s shadow. He’d watched Nico fade just enough to be hard to spot, and move off. A literal living shadow. Now he was freaking himself out, imagining that every shadow was Nico, ready to slam him to the ground.

He concentrated on moving swiftly and silently, a real pain for him since it required a good bit of concentration. His ADHD wanted to drift to the upgrades he could give Hawkeye, what he’d dubbed his latest invention.

He forced that aside and scanned the woods for a Nico-shaped shadow. He tripped over a
root, cleverly hidden beneath some moss and ferns. As he went down he heard a sound, a sword being drawn. His heart kicked, he pulled his hammer from his belt and managed to deflect Nico’s blade. Not expecting the move, Nico tripped on the same root that had taken Leo down. A root that he hadn’t seen until it was too late.

He slammed on top of the son of Hephaestus, making the breath slam out of Leo’s body. Leo groaned.

“For such a scrawny dude, you come down like a ton of bricks.” Leo gasped. Nico couldn’t speak. He was way, way too close to Leo for comfort. Leo smelled faintly of grease, a bit of sweat, but it was covered with the scent of the forest. Of green leaves and raw dirt. And underneath it all, he smelled-nice. Just nice. A homey scent. Comfort. “Nico?” Leo asked concerned by the boy’s silence.

“Uh.” Nico grunted, scared his voice would crack. “I’m fine.” He pushed up and looked at Leo. His face flush, he stared into brown eyes. Leo stared into black ones. Both boys leaned in, brushed lips.

Leo grinned, stopping Nico before the boy could stand up. “No, no.” Leo scolded lightly. “You caught me. I’m the prey, remember? The hunter never gives up once the prey is caught, right?”

Unable to speak, Nico dived.

They dived into each other.

While the boys were occupied, a certain tree nymph was very proud of herself. Juniper, Grover’s girlfriend, got very bored when Grover was away. Since she couldn’t stray far from her tree, she had to get entertainment somehow. She’d been watching the boys for a while now. To her, it was obvious that they liked each other.

She and another nymph had simply helped speed them along.

After all, tree roots could be very helpful indeed.