Hazel always knew that someone would try to take the precious metals that she accidentally unearthed from the ground, but she never thought that the "someone" would be a magpie.

It was an ordinary day for Hazel, or at least as normal as it could be being a Roman demigod. She was mindlessly walking off to try to find supplies for the Argo II. She doesn't even remember what she was thinking about; maybe it was about her past or about the war with Gaea. None of that mattered for she soon forgot after she tripped over a chunk of platinum and started rolling down a hill.

After she reached the bottom, she regathered herself. It took a while for her head to stop spinning, but eventually she managed to get up and walk without falling right back down. After she brushed the leaves and dirt off, she trudged up the hill back to where the metal was.

'A huge chunk of platinum shouldn't be too hard to find' Hazel thought to herself as she made her way back up the hill. She was proven wrong as it took her a half an hour to find the metal again. When she finally found it, she was relieved. 'Now you can go back to where you came from' Hazel says to the metal in her head.

Before she sank it back into the ground she studied it from a few minutes. Usually she could guess where the metal came from or what it was used for years ago, but for some reason, she couldn't with this one.

After a few more minutes of pondering, Hazel decided to give up since her friends would worry about her. She closed her eyes and concentrated; she willed the metal to sink back into the earth. She opened her eyes back up and the platinum was gone.

'Good," she thought to herself, 'And I still have time to find supplies!' She prepared to continue walking when she caught a glimpse of a tiny piece of metal that was hidden among the tall grass. As she bent down to get a close look at it, she could tell it was platinum as well.

"You didn't want to go down with bigger chunk did you?" she asked out loud, "Well, you are going to have to buddy." She closed her eyes, but then heard something that sounds like a seagull being strangled.

She opened her eyes to find a bird only a couple feet away from the metal looking at it and then looking at her in sharp movements. It looked like a crow except for the white patch on it back.

"Well, hello," Hazel said to the strange bird. It opened up his white beak and let out another noise that was the sound Hazel heard before. It hopped a few inches closer to the metal.

"Oh, no you don't," Hazel said with a hint of warning in her voice. She doubted that the bird could understand her, but she didn't want it to be cursed. The bird moved even closer; it was only about a half a foot from it.

"You don't want this metal Mr. Bird," she said also moving closer to the metal. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on the metal, but she soon heard another screech. She reopened her eyes once again to see the bird swoop and grab the piece of metal in its beak and fly away.

"No!" Hazel yelled after it, but the bird was gone.

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"I cursed it Nico! I'm a bad person!" Hazel said as she burst into Nico's cabin below deck. She ran over and tackled him with a hug. Nico almost choked on his apple as Hazel hung onto him. He tried to change his position to try to comfort her even though he had no idea what was going on.

"Wait what?" he said, "Start from the beginning." Hazel started from the beginning and told him about the bird touching the cursed metal and how it's going to meet a horrible fate because of her.

"Hazel that's not your fault" Nico says reassuringly, "From what you described to me, the bird sounds like a magpie."

"Magpie?" Hazel says scrunching up her nose, "That sounds like an old, stale pie." Nico laughs.

"Well, they are attracted to shiny stuff so the one you saw probably couldn't help itself and took it."

"But now it's cursed because of me!"

"No, it's not your fault Hazel. It was stupid enough to take the metal." Hazel laughed softly.

Suddenly the two demigods heard a scream from above them. They looked at each other and then at the same time jumped up and scrambled to the door. They rushed up to the top deck where they saw Leo standing over something. They ran over to Leo's side.

"What is that icky dead pigeon doing on my ship? Leo exclaimed. Hazel gasped. Nico looks at her and sees a horrified look on her face.

"That's not a pigeon Leo, " Nico stated, "That's a cursed magpie."