2 Chiron’s Package

A boy sat in front of a pine tree and watched the sky. He had eyes that shined like stars on a black canvas and had a swirl of icy white and raven black as his hair. After a few moments of silence, the boy closed his eyes and let out a soft breath.

The clouds above him were a dark stormy grey and would let loose a torrent of rain and thunder. One would expect the boy to be drenched in rainwater by now, however, a thin silvery barrier shielded the boy.

"What are you doing out here again Nel?" Asked a girl who was slowly walking up to the tree. "sight seeing? In this weather?"

Without opening his eyes, Nel calmly replied to the girl. "I'm on guard duty today. Chiron told me that he was expecting something to arrive sometime from today to tomorrow. Why are you here?"

"To check up on you, you just suddenly disappeared after dinner. Don't you want to sing along in the campfire with the rest of us?"

"I like sitting out here under the night sky, even if I can't see it. It makes me feel relaxed and warm."

"Warmer than the campfire? I seriously doubt it."

Nel finally opened his eyes and glanced up. Looking down from above was a pretty looking girl with beautiful stormy gray eyes. She had curly blonde hair and a deep tan, making her seem very athletic looking.

Upon seeing her face, Nel let out a smirk. "You would be surprised Annabeth. Anyways, Chiron said it was important that I stay up and watch. I don't want to disappoint him."

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't fall asleep Frosty Head. You'll catch a cold in this weather."

"Not before Ares cabin learns to forgive."

"Ha, good one."

"See ya Ms. Plan it All."

Nel watched Annabeth leave with a smile on his face before staring back into the sky.

The pitter patter of the raindrops hitting the leaves and the occasional rumble of thunder was oddly calming. Even Nel didn't understand why he felt this way. During the night, he would safe and protected and would feel strangely energized and this feeling would only serve to grow stronger during the winter. He had almost near-to-perfect night vision and rarely slept at night. He didn't need that much sleep, he noticed, only about two hours a day were required for maximum performance.

Nel opened his palm and a flurry of snow started to dance across his palms. The cold was always something he found to be comforting. It was never too cold or even hot for him. He would automatically cool down durning summer days and would feel perfectly fine in sub zero temperatures.

All of these weird powers of his gave him hints on who is godly parent was yet nothing seemed to match. There was no Greek god who had night vision and could control snow. Absolutely no one. Even Chiron was stumped.

Nel let out a sigh. Thinking about wouldn't help him figure out a thing. For now, he had to wait on his parent to claim him as their own.

Nel was about to close his eyes once again when he saw something out of the corner of his eyes.

A big-bull man was attacking a a group of three people. One was an adult woman with long brown hair, the other was a black haired boy with sea green eyes, and the last was a very familiar figure with brown hair and a bad case of acne getting dragged on the floor. Grover.

"HOLY MOTHER OF-" Nel grabbed a horn and blew into it, warning everyone else before dashing out into the dark. The closer he got, the more panicked he got.

"Food!"

"Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."

Nel saw the bull-man lower his head and attack the black haired boy, who miraculously dodged it. But Nel knew that the boy wouldn't be lucky a second time. Sure enough, the bull turned towards the lady.

He grabbed at a cross shaped pendant on his chest and tugged at it, causing the chain to break. Immediately in its place, a bronze metallic bow sprung out and a quiver full of arrows than magically found its way on his back. Without a second of hesitation, he knocked the bow with an arrow and released it.

The arrow struck the bull-man in the back of the head and bounced off making the bull-man roar in pain and turn towards Nel still very much alive.

He was definitely going to complain to the Apollo cabin about the quality of their arrows if he made it out alive.

Nel sent a nod towards the black haired boy and lady. "Hello, I am a counselor of Camp Half Blood. I know the bull-man to your front may look intimidating but please remain calm and get past the pine tree. I'll hold it off for now."

"Food!"

"And please take Grover with you."

The lady and boy nodded before dragging the unconscious Grover away.

Now, it was just the ugly bull-man and Nel. Seeing the infamous Minotaur up close, Nel had to say, it was a lot more intimidating than he thought it would.

It was seven feet tall, his arms and legs like something from a biggest muscle competition. He wore no clothes except a pice of white clothing around his loins. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points that Nelian wished were on his arrows.

"Let's have some fun shall we Mr. Minotaur?"

The Minotaur let out a roar and charged at Nel with a surprising speed, who responded by knocking his bow again and firing. The arrow once again hit the Minotaur on the head and uselessly reflected off.

Right after seeing that the arrow was useless, Nel rolled to the side, dodging the outstretched hands by an inch. He threw away the bow and started to run back toward the pine tree.

He saw that Grover and the black haired boy had made it safely across the silvery barrier and was watching him with a worried look. To his utter dismay, the lady still hadn't made it past.

"LADY OVER THERE! ENTER THE BARRIER ALREADY IF YOU WISH TO ESCAPE A CERTAIN PAINFUL DOOM!"

The lady shook her head sadly. "I CAN'T GET PAST! I'M A MORTAL!"

"DI IMMORTALES!" Screamed Nel. He could almost feel the nasty breath of the Minotaur behind him. "ARE THE OTHER CAMPERS HERE YET?"

"THEY ARE COMING! THEY JUST NEED A LITTLE BUT MORE TIME!"

Nel let out a groan before turning around and bending his back backwards. He felt an whoosh of air rush past his nose and a grunt of anger as the minotaur's fists barely missed his face. Nel then pushed himself off of the ground and raised his palms towards the beast.

The temperature did a sudden drop as ice started to cover the entire ground and the rain changed into snow. The ice quickly crawled up the Minotaur freezing him in place.

Even then, the Minotaur struggled to break free and the ice cracked faster than it could form.

"IN ZEUS'S NAME SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!" Yelled Nel desperately as he felt his strength quickly drain away.

To his immediate surprise, the black haired boy leaped onto the Minotaur and grabbed onto one of the horns with both hands.

Snap.

The Minotaur let out a shriek as the horn came off his shoulder. With one night surge, all the ice holding the Minotaur back broke and the boy was flung off the Minotaurs head.

Already trembling from exhaustion, Nel threw out his hands towards the Minotaur wand sent out spears of ice to penetrate through the Minotaur's chest. The ice shattered upon hitting the monster however, managed to penetrate the thick hide and expose the red flesh between.

Seeing the black haired boy on the floor in a daze, Nel yelled at him. "STAB HIM IN THE CHEST!"

And with a final heave, the boy held the broken horn and thrusted into the open wound.

The Minotaur roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind. And the black haired boy collapsed onto the floor.

Extremely worn out, Nel also fell to the floor and took deep breathes. He heard many footsteps and voices approach him.

One of them was Annabeth.

"You are late, Ms. Plan it All."

"What in holy Hera happened here Nel?"

"Chiron's package arrived with a very angry delivery guy who didn't get a tip."