Laurel was suddenly standing in a forest clearing near a small creek. She looked around to get a better view of her surroundings, it seemed familiar but how? Her eyes suddenly zeroed in on something entering the clearing— it was her.

She seemed a tad bit younger than her current self, maybe 15 or 16. She looked beat up with golden dust all over her clothes. She saw her past self suddenly drop to the ground— she fainted. Laurel quickly ran up to her past self and tried to check on her but her hands passed through like air.

She suddenly heard more footsteps coming near the clearing and turned her head towards the sound.

What came into the clearing almost sucked all the air out of her lungs.

It was Jason. He too was not in the best condition, she assumes that he just had a run-in with some monsters not too long ago.

She saw Jason look around the clearing cautiously then his widening when they landed on Laurel's unconscious body. He immediately ran to her to check her pulse. When he felt it he swept her up in his arms to carry her out of the clearing.

"That's how you met. On one of your quests a year ago," someone said behind her.

Laurel immediately whirled around with her fists up only to be met with the glowing face of her father, Apollo.

"Why'd you bring me here? What do you want? Please don't tell me it's another poor haiku that you came up with," Laurel asked bluntly.

"Unfortunately, I don't have a haiku this time but that's beside the point. I knew right when you two met, that you'd feel familiar with each other. I'm here to show you why since I'm a great dad like that! Now let's fast forward a bit, shall we?" Apollo said cheerfully then with a snap of his fingers they were in a different scene.

They were in a cave.

She saw past Jason and Laurel talking while curled up together by a fire underneath a shared blanket.

That's when all the memories started rushing back to her.

She was on a quest with one other person— Alex Till from the Hecate cabin. He died after they both got swarmed by a wave of monsters. Monsters that seemingly came out of nowhere. She made it out alive just barely before fainting from blood loss, exhaustion, and grief.

She woke up to someone gently tending to her wounds— a blonde boy that looked around her age.

Jason.

"Hey! You're finally up! I'm Jason," the boy said with a small smile.

"Where am I?" Laurel asked, trying to get up to look around the cave to get a better grip on her surroundings.

"Woah woah! I just finished patching you up! I found a first-aid kit in your awesome bag. I hope you don't mind that I used it. Anyway, I brought you to a cave I found nearby the clearing you passed out at. I'll stay with you until you're fully healed to go on your own," Jason said gently, pushing her gently back flat on the ground.

Laurel assessed the boy with her eyes for a few long seconds before giving the boy a small smile, "I'm Laurel. Nice to meet you, Jason. Thank you for saving my life, I owe you one."

"No, you don't have to worry about it. I couldn't have let someone die if I could help it," he said with a small smile.

Jason also was heading back home after a quest. A quest where they both lost a friend. They spent a month together healing and getting to know each other. Something just felt right between them despite coming from two completely different camps. It was as if Eros struck them both in the middle of the second week together.

The hunting, occasional monsters, taking care of each other's wounds and broken bones. When the bond became stronger, the kisses and cuddles they shared. The bliss they both experienced in that same month.

Something that truly struck her was what happened on their last night together. They were healed for a while but they finally decided to head back home. Across the country, away from one another probably to never meet again.

"I know exactly what happened this night and I'm sure you now remember too," Apollo said casually while leaning on the cave wall entrance still looking at the cuddled up past Jason and Laurel.

"We slept together? Oh hell no, damn teenage hormones," Laurel whispered mainly to herself. She suddenly felt horrified that her father was here with her at this particular moment, "Dad, you couldn't have chosen another moment? You literally got to pick a whole month of moments and you chose this one?!"

"Okay— look, I needed something bold to trigger your memory for when you wake up and look— it worked! There's nothing to be ashamed of, life happens—," Apollo said in defence, raising his hands up.

"I can't believe it..." Laurel said underneath her breath still in shock, staring at the scene in front of her.

"I'm truly not fond of anyone getting together with my amazing beautiful daughter but that Jason boy isn't too bad I guess," Apollo admitted with a small pout on his face, "Now I need to go soon before Zeus begins to sense an illegal dream."

"Why did you want me to remember him? Why did you have to come to me? You could've just sent a regular dream," Laurel asked her father, confused.

"I wanted to see how you were doing. I still care about you guys you know? You're my amazing children! Tell your siblings I say I love them, please? Now I seriously need to go, I can feel a grumpy Zeus presence nearby. I love you sweetie good luck! You got this!" Apollo said while blowing a kiss in her direction.

Then the dream was cut off by a bright flash of light.

~⚡️~
Jason dreamed of wolves.

He stood in a clearing in the middle of a redwood forest. In front of him rose the ruins of a stone mansion. Low grey clouds blended with the ground fog, and cold rain hung in the air. A pack of large grey beasts milled around him, brushing against his legs, snarling and baring their teeth. They gently nudged him toward the ruins.

Jason had no desire to become the world's largest dog biscuit, so he decided to do what they wanted. The ground squelched under his boots as he walked.

Stone spires of chimneys, no longer attached to anything, rose up like totem poles. The house must've been enormous once, multi-storied with massive log walls and a soaring gabled roof, but now nothing remained but its stone skeleton. Jason passed under a crumbling doorway and found himself in a kind of courtyard. Before him was a drained reflecting pool, long and rectangular.

Jason couldn't tell how deep it was, because the bottom was filled with mist. A dirt path led all the way around, and the house's uneven walls rose on either side. Wolves paced under the arches of rough red volcanic stone. At the far end of the pool sat a giant she-wolf, several feet taller than Jason. Her eyes glowed silver in the fog, and her coat was the same colour as the rocks—warm chocolaty red.

"I know this place," Jason said.

The wolf regarded him. She didn't exactly speak, but Jason could understand her. The movements of her ears and whiskers, the flash of her eyes, the way she curled her lips—all of these were part of her language.

"Of course," the she-wolf said, "You began your journey here as a pup. Now you must find your way back. A new quest, a new start."

"That isn't fair," Jason said. But as soon as he spoke, he knew there was no point complaining to the she-wolf.

Wolves didn't feel sympathy. They never expected fairness.

The wolf said, "Conquer or die. This is always our way."

Jason wanted to protest that he couldn't conquer if he didn't know who he was, or where he was supposed to go. But he knew this wolf. Her name was simply Lupa, the Mother Wolf, the greatest of her kind. Long ago she'd found him in this place, protected him, nurtured him, chosen him, but if Jason showed weakness, she would tear him to shreds. Rather than being her pup, he would become her dinner. In the wolf pack, weakness was not an option.

"Can you guide me?" Jason asked.

Lupa made a rumbling noise deep in her throat, and the mist in the pool dissolved. At first, Jason wasn't sure what he was seeing. At opposite ends of the pool, two dark spires had erupted from the cement floor like the drill bits of some massive tunnelling machines boring through the surface. Jason couldn't tell if the spires were made of rock or petrified vines, but they were formed of thick tendrils that came together at a point at the top. Each spire was about five feet tall, but they weren't identical. The one closest to Jason was darker and seemed like a solid mass, its tendrils fused together. As he watched, it pushed a little farther out of the earth and expanded a little wider. On Lupa's end of the pool, the second spire's tendrils were more open, like the bars of a cage. Inside, Jason could vaguely see a misty figure struggling, shifting within its confines.

"Hera," Jason said.

The she-wolf growled in agreement. The other wolves circled the pool, their fur standing up on their backs as they snarled at the spires.

"The enemy has chosen this place to awaken her most powerful son, the giant king," Lupa said, "Our sacred place, where demigods are claimed—the place of death or life. The burned house. The house of the wolf. It is an abomination. You must stop her."

"Her?" Jason was confused, "You mean, Hera?"

The she-wolf gnashed her teeth impatiently, "Use your senses, pup. I care nothing for Juno, but if she falls, our enemy wakes. And that will be the end for all of us. You know this place. You can find it again. Cleanse our house. Stop this before it is too late."

The dark spire grew slowly larger, like the bulb of some horrible flower. Jason sensed that if it ever opened, it would release something he did not want to meet.

"Who am I?" Jason asked the she-wolf. "At least tell me that."

Wolves don't have much of a sense of humour, but Jason could tell the question amused Lupa, as if Jason were a cub just trying out his claws, practising to be the alpha male.

"You are our saving grace, as always," The she-wolf curled her lip as if she had just made a clever joke, "Do not fail, son of Jupiter."

~✨~

2k words
So.. I wanted to be a bit bold with how "they knew each other"

This was originally an idea given to me by my fellow good friend saying it'll be "bold but different" 😬 I decided to just roll along with the idea since she wasn't wrong.

I do want to assure that I made the characters a bit older in both my versions of HOO so they all range from 17-18 currently so this would've happened when they were hormonal 16 year olds which isn't too much of a stretch since it does happen in high school at that age👀

Anyways I hope you like it even if it is a bit shorter🤗