Nature's Innocence

Chiron quickly decided that it would be better to leave the campers to their victory than have crazed nymphs and satyrs running about to start another battle. So, suffocating his queasiness, he tenderly picked the girl up by an arm and hefted her onto his back. He winced at the squelching sound her stomach made as the arrow slipped off. But the girl didn't seem to notice. Instead, she had begun spitting and hissing and yowling for her release as Chiron galloped away. For some reason, the fight had started up again.

"Leave me be!" the girl screamed in the centuar's ear. "They shall kill him if you don't let me go!"

"I'm taking you back to the Big House so we can heal you!" Chiron insisted calmly. "And kill who? There was no one with you."

"Just turn around!"

"Why--"

"Go back!"

When Chiron just kept running, she decided she'd have to take matters into her own account. She leapt off the centuar's back, but stumbled in her landing with a grunt. Blood soaked her blue shirt and the hand she clutched to her side. Needless, she sprang away down the hill on light feet and dove once again into the fray. She immediately engaged with a bulky Ares kid, but quickly slashed him across the face. He stumbled away with a scream, leaving the girl to claw her way to the center.

There she found what she was looking for: a young, silver-and-gold cub battling with a group of Hermes archers. With a desperate screech, she managed to distract them and lunge forward for the cub. As she fled from the archers' arrows raining down, Chiron cantered tensely up. He slung her onto his back again. Her wound was bleeding nonstop now, and she looked extremely pale and sick. Chiron galloped at topspeed back to the Big House as she slumped forward unconscious. The lion cub kept her upright by prompting her with his shoulder. It growled nervously over her as its clear blue eyes followed the trails of blood.

Dionysus was the one to meet them at the door. Chiron didn't even have to say anything for the wine god to understand who this girl was, because he had probably already heard. The centuar trotted into the Big House's living room.

"She's unconscious. Fetch the nectar," panted Chiron, setting the girl down on the couch. The lion cub leapt off his back and began grooming her hair.

Normally, Dionysus would have pointed out rather angrily that he was one of the great gods of Olympus, but this matter was important.

"No, not nectar," he said as he disappeared out the door. "She needs clear spring water." There was the sound of whispering grass as a nymph ran off. A few minutes later, Dionysus walked in again with a clay jug of water in his hands. He handed it to Chiron, who tentatively poured a handful of it into her gasping mouth.

Almost immediately, her eyelids blinked open. Amber eyes with narrow pupils glinted in a panick for a moment, then turned dark in a glare. She laid a hand protectively on the lion cub's neck.

"You took me into your camp." It was a flat statement that came in a dangerous whisper. "Fool...I told you who my father was. You know my anatomy. You've seen my lion. What is the purpose of bringing a dangerous creature such as me into your safety?"

Chiron smiled gently, giving a mental relieved sigh. "Camp Half-Blood is open to all demigods, just like you. Once you have gone through the invisible borders, you are under my charge."

"Not much of a reason."

The lion growled in agreement.

Dionysus, who had been leaning silently against the wall before, suddenly stepped in. "We need to know your name, you know," he pointed out loudly.

The girl's eyes narrowed at the wine god and her lip curled disgustedly. "That is not for any god to ask directly, Dionysus," she hissed. "I leave in the morning, Chiron," she added, turning to the centuar.

"Of course not!" he replied, lifting her shirt and beginning to cover her wound with gauze. "This wound will keep you here for months. Your internals will have to heal and your skin, too. There's absolutely no way you could be up and walking by tomorrow morning."

"What do you mean 'not for any god to ask directly'?" Dionysus fumed. "What is your name?"

"You really think I would say after you demand it from me like a spoiled child?" she sneered with a snarl.

"Um..." Chiron was growing nervous now. The crabby wine god was purely enraged now; even from where he stood, Chiron could plainly see the purple vein threatening to pop. "Please, what is your name, demigod?" he asked softly as he dabbed gauze onto her wound.

She flinched at his touch, but seemed calmed by his gentle manner. She answered through gritted teeth:

"I am Nyx."

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