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CHAPTER SEVEN
a walk in the park
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JASON YELLING ABOUT Cyclopses startled Dorothy out of her daydream. She jumped from behind him, the glaze over her eyes now gone as she leaned forward, concerned. Jason was propped up against her when he slept, now that he was upright, she did not need to have her hands on his waist to keep him steady, yet her hands remained there.

"You're alright," Dorothy spoke calmly, hoping to soothe Jason, he was heaving in gulps of air as if he wasn't able to breathe properly in his dream. He assessed Leo who was in front, driving. He then looked back at Dorothy who had Piper behind her, he seemed to be confused by the fact that they were flying peacefully. The winter sky had a biting chill but it wasn't too bad with Festus being a heater and her jacket taking care of the rest.

"D-Detroit," Jason stammered. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought—"

"It's okay," Leo said. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?"

Jason closed his eyes as if he remembered the pain in his head, Dorothy wished she could just give him a little more ambrosia or nectar, but she knew that she couldn't. Jason in pain and alive was better than Jason dead.

"How did you—the Cyclops—"

"Leo and Dorothy ripped them apart," Piper said. "They were amazing. Leo can summon fire—"

"It was nothing," Leo said quickly.

Dorothy scoffed.

"Leo did most of the work, turns out I'm useless when it comes to machines I'm not familiar with," Dorothy chuckled, "I was able to get my shots in though."

Piper laughed. "Shut up, Valdez. I'm going to tell him. Get over it."

Piper went on about how Leo used the machines— cranes she called them, and how in the end, it was Leo using his fire and Dorothy finishing off the chain that killed Ma Gasket. They also noticed out the dust was already reforming so they high-tailed it and also fixed up the dragon with just enough time to hear the Cyclopses roaring for revenge.

Dorothy could see guilt on Jason's face when she assessed him again, she lifted a hand to his arm and gave him a reassuring squeeze. She has seen that look on her father's face when they've lost people or had close calls on jobs that he worked.

When Piper told him about the other kid the Cyclopes claimed to have eaten, the one in the purple shirt who spoke Latin, Jason lifted his hands to his temples and rubbed, his brows etched together to pair with the frown on his face.

"I'm not alone, then," he said. "There are others like me."

"Jason," Piper said, "you were never alone. You've got us."

"I—I know ... but something Hera said. I was having a dream..."

Jason told them what he'd seen, and what the goddess had said inside her cage.

"An exchange?" Piper asked. "What does that mean?"

Jason shook his head.

"But Hera's gamble is me. Just by sending me to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way—"

Dorothy felt like the answer was right in her face, there were still some missing pieces, and she felt like Annabeth's boyfriend was one of them. Dorothy leaned her head against Jason's back, all this information at once was going to make her head hurt just as bad as Jason's.

"Or save us," Piper said hopefully. "That bit about the sleeping enemy—that sounds like the lady Leo told us about."

Leo cleared his throat.

"About that ... she kind of appeared to me back in Detroit, in a pool of Porta-Potty sludge."

Jason shook his head as if he was taken aback by something. "Did you say... Porta-Potty?"

Leo explained to Jason and Piper what he and Dorothy saw before they went and fought the Cyclopses.

"I don't know if she's completely unkillable," he said, "but she cannot be defeated by toilet seats. I can vouch for that. She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge.'"

"She's trying to divide us." Piper snaked her arms around Dorothy's waist. She was tense, Dorothy could feel it.

"Something troubling you?" Dorothy asked, looking back at the girl.

"I just... Why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?"

"Enceladus?" Jason asked.

"I mean..." Piper's voice quavered, her eyes going wide. "That's one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember."

If Dorothy wasn't exhausted from the rough morning they all had, she would be pressing Piper for more information, but at the moment, she was hungry, slightly dirty, and needed a nap, she was sure that was most of the reason her head was also starting to hurt.

Leo scratched his head. "Well, I dunno about Enchiladas—"

"Enceladus," Piper corrected.

"Whatever. But Old Potty Face mentioned another name. Porpoise Fear, or something?"

"Porphyrion?" Piper asked. "He was the giant king, I think."

Jason straightened up a bit, he looked like information was clicking in his head, and he wasn't happy about it.

"I'm going to take a wild guess," he said. "In the old
stories, Porphyrion kidnapped Hera. That was the first shot in the war between the giants and the gods."

"I think so," Piper agreed. "But those myths are really garbled and conflicted. It's almost like nobody wanted that story to survive. I just remember there was a war, and the giants were almost impossible to kill."

"Heroes and gods had to work together," Jason said. "That's what Hera told me."

"Kind of hard to do," Leo grumbled, "if the gods won't even talk to us."

They grew quiet after that, Dorothy took in the sky, relishing the sun that warmed her through her clothes, the clouds around them made such a beautiful picture in her mind. She wished cameras were easier to carry around, she'd like to see this view every day.

Leo lowered the dragon below the clouds and what Dorothy saw horrified her. Below them, shining under the winter sun, was a city at the edge of a massive lake. A mass of buildings that were tall enough to touch the clouds lined the shore. Behind the massive buildings, stretching out to the western horizon, was a large grid of snow-covered neighborhoods and roads.

"Chicago," Jason said.

The mention of the City made Dorothy shudder.

"I know that it doesn't matter anymore, but for the sake of being honest, I want to tell y'all I do have a significantly large bounty here in the city," Dorothy frowned, "I swore I'd never come back to this place but I guess fate finds humor in messing with me."

"What did you do?" Piper asked, her arms shook and Dorothy wasn't sure if the girl was cold or shuddering from the idea of what Dorothy did.

"I killed someone," Dorothy couldn't look at anyone, "his name was Cornelius Billings, he started a gas company and it was making a lot of money, we robbed a stagecoach carrying payroll and the guy hired Pinkerton's to take care of us, he managed to get one of us, and he made an example out of her, brutalized her, dismembered her, he even had his men mutilate her body before they left it for us to find..."

Dorothy took in a shaky breath as she looked out at the glittering lake.

"I stalked his home for a week on my own, I followed him to his private ferry, and it was right there," Dorothy pointed out the ferry docks a few miles away, "I shot him dead on the pier, every lawman in the city was on me and Jonathon... that dumb bastard he helped get me out and get me back to my father and we all got out of there like a bat out of hell. Then they followed us West and that's when I heard about the train full of those rich folk who were headed to California, the money that we stole that night was then stolen again by Jonathon, and that's how we both ended up in that saloon."

Dorothy didn't want to cry, but tears stung her eyes.

"I abandoned my father after basically setting the law on him and the rest of my family."

"You couldn't have known what Jonathon was going to do," Piper assured her, "and you didn't know that was Hera putting you in a trap, I'm sure your father knew how much you loved him."

Dorothy nodded, giving Piper a grateful smile as she looked down on the city. She's always hated big cities, no matter where she went, but it did help that nothing looked the same. It was easier to pretend that she didn't kill a man.

"Well we're finally in Chicago, one problem down," Leo said, trying to lighten the mood after the confession Dorothy made. "We got here alive. Now, how do we find the storm spirits?"

Jason snapped his attention to something below them. Dorothy had no idea what to make of it, it was small, dark, and fast. The thing shot down toward the huge, cloud-height buildings, weaving between them and constantly changing course and changing shape—and, just for a moment, it became the smoky figure of a horse.

"How about we follow that one," Jason suggested, "and see where it goes?"

It was easier said than done. The Ventus moved swiftly, making sharp turns around corners, and never stayed at the same height. Dorothy was getting dizzy just watching the thing.

"Speed up!" Jason urged.

"Bro," Leo said, "if I get any closer, he'll spot us. Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."

"Slow down!" Piper yelped.

The storm spirit dove into the grid of downtown streets. Festus tried to follow, but his wings went out too far. His left wing clipped the edge of a building, slicing off a stone gargoyle before Leo pulled up. Dorothy looked back to see the stone crashing onto the ground, startling the people down there who ran before they could get hit.

"Get above the buildings," Jason suggested. "We'll track him from there."

"You want to drive this thing?" Leo grumbled, but he did what Jason asked.

After a few minutes, the storm spirit revealed itself again, zipping through the streets with no apparent purpose—blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve.

"Oh great," Piper said. "There're two."

She was right. A second Ventus blasted around the corner of a large building that looked like another hotel and linked up with the first. They moved in sync like they were dancing, shooting to the top of a massive building, bending a tower, and diving back down toward the street.

"Those guys do not need any more caffeine," Leo said.

"I guess Chicago's a good place to hang out," Piper said. "Nobody's going to question a couple more evil winds."

"More than a couple," Jason said. "Look."

The dragon circled over a wide avenue next to a lake-side park. Storm spirits were converging—at least a dozen of them, whirling around a big machine that glowed. What in the world were the mortals seeing? Dorothy looked around and saw nobody paying any attention to the whirlwinds.

"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Leo asked. "I wanna throw something at him."

Dorothy was mesmerized by the glowing machine. Two tall structures stood on either end of a reflecting pool. These structures glowed with faces, she desperately wanted to know how that even worked, flashing the combined image of a giant face that spewed water into the pool.

Dorothy glanced over at Jason and noticed the nervous look on his face as he also took in the reflection pool. The structures flashed and Dorothy looked back only to let out a small gasp. It was that woman's face again, of course, it wasn't human fecal matter and other chemicals anymore, but it was her face.

"Leo..." Jason said nervously.

"I see her," Leo said. "I don't like her, but I see her."

Then the structures went dark. The venti swirled together into a twister and skittered across the fountain, kicking up a waterspout almost as high as the structures. They got to its center, popped off a metal circle that led into the Earth and disappeared underground.

"Did they just go down a drain?" Piper asked. "How are we supposed to follow them?"

"Maybe we shouldn't," Leo said. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?"

"We don't have many options," Dorothy frowned, "that bitch wakes up in two days and kills everyone, we just have to hope that she doesn't pull anything until we find wherever she's keeping Hera.

"Put us down in that park," Jason suggested. "We'll check it out on foot."

Festus landed in an open area between the lake and the city. The signs said Grant Park, it was a field of ice and snow. Steam hissed out under Festus' feet from touching the snow. Festus flapped his wings unhappily and shot fire into the sky, but there was no one around to notice. The wind was icy cold and stinging Dorothy's eyes as she looked around, the people who lived here were definitely in their homes.

They dismounted, and Festus stomped his feet. One of his ruby eyes flickered, so it looked like he was blinking. It started doing this after Leo got him working again, which made Dorothy frown.

"Is that normal?" Jason asked.

Leo pulled a rubber mallet from his tool bag. He whacked the dragon's bad eye, and the light went back to normal.

"Yes," Leo said. "Festus can't hang around here, though, in the middle of the park. They'll arrest him for loitering. Maybe if I had a dog whistle ..."

He rummaged in his tool belt but came up with nothing.

"Too specialized?" he guessed. "Okay, give me a safety whistle. They got that in lots of machine shops."

This time, Leo pulled out a big plastic orange whistle.

"Coach Hedge would be jealous! Okay, Festus, listen." Leo blew the whistle. The shrill sound
rattled through Dorothy's ears and she wanted to slap him upside the head for it but just as soon as he made the sound, it stopped. "You hear that, come find me, okay? Until then, you fly wherever you want. Just try not to barbecue any pedestrians."

The dragon snorted in agreement. Then he spread his wings and launched into the air.

Piper took one step and winced. "Ah!"

"Your ankle?" Jason asked as Dorothy put Piper's arm over her shoulders, taking some of her weight from the girl. "That nectar we gave you might be wearing off."

"It's fine." She shivered, and Dorothy wished she had another jacket.

"Let's get out of the wind," he suggested.

"Down a drain?" Piper shuddered. "Sounds cozy."

They wrapped themselves up as best they could and headed toward the fountain.

According to the plaque, it was called Crown Fountain. Most of the water was drained out, there were still some small spots of water but even that started to have a slight freeze. It was like a sixth sense in Dorothy had awakened, making her want to run as far away as possible from this thing, unfortunately, she had to ignore it.

They stepped to the center of the pool. No spirits tried to stop them. The giant walls stayed dark. The hole in the ground was easily big enough for a person, and a ladder that led down into the gloom.

Jason went first. Dorothy didn't know what to expect but her nose was uncomfortable with the faint smell of human waste. Now she really wanted to run. When she got to the bottom and stepped back for Piper and Leo, she looked around to see the stonework for the tunnel they were now in. The air was warm and dry, with only a trickle of water on the floor.

Piper and Leo climbed down after them.

"Are all sewers this nice?" Piper wondered.

"No," Leo said. "Trust me."

Jason frowned. "How do you know—"

"Hey, man, I ran away six times. I've slept in some weird places, okay? Now, which way do we go?"
Jason tilted his head, listening, then pointed south. "That way."

"How can you be sure?" Piper asked.

"There's a draft blowing south," Jason said. "Maybe the venti went with the flow."

It wasn't much of a lead, but nobody offered anything better. Unfortunately, as soon as they started walking, Piper stumbled. Jason was closer to her to catch her, Dorothy winced at her splint, whatever the Cyclops did to tie Piper up, it practically shattered the wood, Dorothy would have to fix it up for her before they moved on.

"Stupid ankle," she cursed.

"Let's rest," Jason decided. "We could all use it. We've been going nonstop for over a day."

An idea struck Dorothy's mind and she looked over at Leo who noticed her face and seemed to grow wary.

"Leo, could you build a bow and make a few arrows for me?"

All three of them looked at Dorothy like she was out of her mind. She had a sheepish smile on her face now.

"I wanna hunt some food down for us, nothing crazy, just a couple of squirrels, but I don't know if these guns will do the job or just destroy the meat," Dorothy explained.

"I don't uh, eat meat," Piper frowned as they started to get settled in.

"I'll find something for you then," Dorothy furrowed her eyebrows, she had heard of some folk who only ate plants and such, but they had to be rich to buy enough food like that to stay at a good weight. No matter, Piper needs to eat and if she doesn't want meat, Dorothy will find something for her.

"Dorothy it's a city out there, people aren't going to like you shooting squirrels out of the few trees they have," Leo pointed out, yet he was still fastening a bowstring for her, "especially the police."

"Well," Dorothy shrugged as she accepted the bow he made, and soon, a quiver full of arrows came out of his belt, "it won't be the first time I ran from the law in this city, I'm sure they're still dumb enough to think they can catch me."

Dorothy got a few chuckles from that as she looked up at the ladder she just came down.

"I'll be back soon, build a fire while I'm gone, squirrel doesn't take long to cook," Dorothy smiled before climbing up the ladder and getting the hell away from the reflection pond.

The sky was growing darker as Dorothy made her way through the parks, scanning the tree lines while she looked for any kind of movement, with this weather, it was likely that the squirrels would be grouped on a tree somewhere, but she took into account that the city was different now, with all this new technology she wasn't sure how much would change the local wildlife.

She went East through the scenic parks which she was sure was more beautiful in the spring and summer, but she didn't focus on the scenery too much. Dorothy was cussing out the city's lack of trees when she ended up on a plot of land the sign called Butler Field when across the street, she saw a green house with a couple of lights shining inside.

Dorothy thanked the gods as she ran for it, the empty streets giving her immediate access to the garden she ran up on. A lot of the vegetation outside was covered in snow and ice which killed a lot of the edible plants she was able to identify, but when she got closer to the greenhouse, it was like she was finally catching a break. She walked inside, finding plenty of vegetables still healthy and alive and ripe for the picking. There was a basin in the back of the greenhouse for people to wash their vegetables and a couple of bags for people to take their food in.

Dorothy was quick to get any bell peppers she saw, a quick cut from her knife and she had a few heads of broccoli and a couple of cucumbers. There was a giant container of what appeared to be an assortment of nuts. Dorothy grabbed one of the small plastic bags she saw on the shelf next to the container and started grabbing fistfuls of nuts to shove into the plastic. Whatever they don't eat could last them the rest of this job, or quest, as Rachel and Chiron called it back at camp.

She almost dismissed the original idea of hunting squirrels until the rustling of the plant leaves behind her made her drop the bag of nuts into the pile and spin around. She quickly notched an arrow into the bow and looked around. There was no one but her in the greenhouse, which made her suspect some wildlife was around. Dorothy could hear a chittering of squirrels, there were at least three from what she heard.

Her eyes narrowed as she raised her bow and stepped around the towers of plants. When she moved down another row, she found all three of the squirrels munching away on a head of broccoli. The three of them were large, probably from how good they were eating. She quietly moved to find a way to get all three of them before they ran, they were perfectly lined up.

Dorothy pulled her arrow back with as much strength as possible and when all three squirrels lifted their heads in sync, she loosed. The arrow lodged into all three of them and before they hit the ground, Dorothy used her magic to catch them and put them in the basin at the back of the greenhouse. She went back to filling her bag with nuts, grabbed a couple of extra bags, and made her way to the basin.

There was a metal hook sitting on the edge of the basin, the opening hovered over the basin. Two notches sat on either side of the hook and when Dorothy tilted her head and twisted one, water came shooting out of the hook. She gasped and jumped back from the basin as she watched the water drain into the hole at the bottom of the basin.

"Wow," she marveled as she got to work on the food. She cleaned the dirt off the vegetables way faster than she would at a river somewhere, and then she cleaned her kills as best as she could. The arrow was out of their heads and cleaned before it was put back in the quiver that sat against her back.

Blood was mixing into water in the basin and the blood wasn't going to stop until she skinned the squirrels and dressed them. It would be easier to do next to a fire, so she used some of the plastic bags and vines of the cucumber plants to tie around the squirrel's heads, catching the blood. After that, the vegetables went into her satchel and the extra vine was used to tie the squirrels together by their feet.

With a satchel food of food and three dead squirrels on her belt, Dorothy figured this was the best she could do until they were back at camp where food was free and she didn't have to hunt for anything.

Following her own footsteps in the snow, Dorothy found herself back on Butler Field when flashing red and blue lights came out of a car that sat on the street. Confused, Dorothy stopped to see two men get out of their car, the lights still flashing. They were in the same uniform and when the lights flashed red again, Dorothy could see on the side of the car the words "Cook County Sheriffs Department". The lawman that Leo mentioned wouldn't like her hunting squirrels.

"Ma'am," was the only thing Dorothy heard the first officer say before she ran north, heading straight for that scenic park that she marveled at earlier.

She was always faster than most people, she thought it was because of her lifestyle but now she wondered if being a Demi-god was the real reason. Dorothy looked over her shoulder to see that the police weren't as close as she needed them to be for her misdirect to work. She made an obvious trail in the snow that led to the stone paths that would take her to the lake, and just before she could get caught, she used her powers to lift herself into the trees overhead.

Below her, she noticed the two policemen going right where she needed them to.

"Dispatch, be advised, we're in on foot pursuit of a young woman, around 15 to 17 years old, with brown hair and possibly brown eyes wearing a black cowboy hat, a bow and quiver of arrows, and has two holstered guns," the other man who had gotten out of the car spoke into the device as they looked down at the trail she made in the snow. "She also has three dead squirrels hanging off her belt."

"Unit 32, please clarify, you said she has dead squirrels?" The device asked.

"Affirmative, she's running for the lake, we may need backup to trap her in," the first officer who originally spoke to her on the field said.

The two ran for the lake after that. She hopped between tree branches in the direction of the reflection pond where the group waited. She wanted to laugh, but she wasn't sure if the sound would carry.

At the edge of the tree line, Dorothy hopped down and rolled, spreading the impact, and took off running. The police were running in the opposite direction behind her but she wouldn't stop running until she was underground. The run to the pond was quick and she practically fell down the ladder when she got to the center of the pond.

She was greeted by the smell of a small fire and the warmth of the sewer. Dorothy sighed in relief when she made it to the bottom of the ladder, her chest heaving as she sucked in breaths of air.

"Police?" Leo asked, a smirk on his face as he took in her wild eyes and wind-blown hair.

A smile grew on Dorothy's face as she nodded. Opening her satchel, she pulled out the bags of vegetables and untied the squirrels. She laid out the largest plastic bag she took and put the squirrels on that, immediately getting to work on skinning and dressing the squirrels.

Leo had taken the time to fasten a spit over the first for Dorothy, which she was grateful for. It looked like either Jason or Leo went up and grabbed whatever dry sticks they found and maybe even got some branches from a tree and broke them up as best as they could. She had the three squirrels spinning over the spit in no time. Piper was nearly green and that's when Dorothy finally figured out why Piper refused meat. If Leo or Jason were as disgusted as Piper, they didn't show it and they didn't say anything either.

"There was a greenhouse full of vegetables and a bunch of nuts," Dorothy opened up the bag she grabbed after wiping her hands clean and showed them the food.

The three of them were quick to dig into what she had found, although Piper could only pick at the nuts as she watched the squirrels over the fire. It seemed that while Leo worked, Jason was stewing over his guilt and Piper was trying to find a way to elevate her foot.

When Dorothy thoroughly cleaned her hands of the blood with a rag she had in her bag, she chewed on a cucumber, rotating the squirrels with her free hand. An idea came to her and she thought up a rotation spell in her mind. Her hand began to have a smoky-purple mist swirl around it until it seemed to latch onto the end of the spit. When she pulled her hand away, it kept spinning, the mist remaining there.

A proud smile graced her face as she took another bite from her cucumber.

"It wasn't your fault," Piper said. Dorothy looked up to see she was talking to Jason. That's what he was stewing over, Detroit.

He looked at her blankly. "What?"

"Getting jumped by the Cyclopes," she said. "It wasn't your fault."

He looked down at the coin in his palm. "I was stupid. I left you alone and walked into a trap. I should've known..."

He was going back into his mind and Dorothy snapped her fingers like Annabeth did to wake him up.

"This stuff happens, those Cyclops have had an appetite for our kind for years, it's not that you're too dumb to see a trap, it's that Ma Gasket is very skilled at setting them."

"Hey." Piper nudged his arm. "Cut yourself some slack. Just because you're the son of Zeus doesn't mean you're a one-man army."

A few feet away, Leo worked on the fire. He hummed as he pulled supplies out of his pack and his tool belt. Dorothy didn't even want to question what he was doing.

"I know this must suck for you," he said. "Not just the quest, I mean. The way I appeared on the bus, the Mist messing with your mind, and making you
think I was... you know."

She dropped her gaze. "Yeah, well. None of us asked for this. It's not your fault."

She tugged at the little braids on each side of her head. Dorothy frowned, confusion etching her eyebrows together.

"How did you all meet?" Dorothy asked, pulling everyone's attention to her, "I heard a little bit about the Grand Canyon, but it was all vague."

The three of them shared looks as if diffusing out who would tell her. Eventually, Piper rolled her eyes and locked them onto Dorothy. She explained how Jason woke up on the bus and how Piper's memories were manipulated to believe that she was in a relationship with Jason. And how she and Leo were supposed to be school friends with Jason for a year. Then she explained what happened at the Grand Canyon with the wind spirits and their Satyr protector, Coach Hedge.

Dorothy looked at the three of them with wide eyes.

"And I thought I was having a rough time in the saloon," Dorothy joked as she looked back at the squirrels, she wanted to give them a few more rotations before taking them off, she'd rather have overcooked meat than the other way around.

"Back in the factory," Jason said, "you were you going to say something about your dad."

"Was I?" Piper asked, Dorothy narrowed her eyes as she looked at the girl.

"Piper," he said, "he's in some kind of trouble, isn't it?"

Over at the fire, Leo stirred up some of the vegetables together in a pan, he had cut them up to be eaten in smaller pieces. "Yeah, baby! Almost there."

Piper looked on the verge of tears. "I... I can't talk about it."

"We're your friends. Let us help."

That seemed to make her feel worse. She took a shaky breath. "I wish I could, but—"

"And bingo!" Leo announced.

He came over with four plates stacked on his arms like a waiter. Three of them had a squirrel and an assortment of vegetables on them, forks included. Dorothy's eyebrows furrowed together at what the fourth plate had.

"Leo," Piper said in amazement. "How did you—?"

"Turns out the belt makes tofu," Leo said proudly, handing the plates out, "eat up, beauty queen!"

Dorothy was grateful Leo got the squirrels off the fire when he did, they were cooked perfectly and while they weren't seasoned like she was accustomed to, her stomach didn't care. While they ate, Leo tried to lighten the mood and joke around.

After Piper ate, Jason encouraged her to get some sleep. Without another word, she curled up and put her head on her bag. In two seconds she was snoring.

Jason looked up at Leo, who was obviously trying not to laugh.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking lemonade Leo had made from canteen water and powdered mix. Dorothy couldn't get enough of it.

"Good, huh?" Leo grinned.

"It's amazing," she forced Jason to take it so she didn't drain the canteen. He seemed to understand that and gave it back to Leo.

"You should start a stand," Jason said. "Make some serious coin."

But as he stared at the embers of the fire, something flickered on his face.

"Leo... about this fire stuff you can do... is it true?"

Leo's smile faltered. "Yeah, well ..." He opened his hand. A small ball of flame burst to life, whirling around his palm. Dorothy straightened up as she watched it, becoming entranced by the way the flame danced.

"That is so cool," Jason said. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Leo closed his hand and the fire went out. "Didn't want to look like a freak."

"I have lightning and wind powers," Jason reminded him. "Piper can turn beautiful and charm people into giving her BMWs, and you've seen the magic Dorothy has. You're no more a freak than we are. And, hey, maybe you can fly, too. Like jump off a building and yell, 'Flame on!'"

Leo snorted. "If I did that, you would see a flaming kid falling to his death, and I would be yelling something a little stronger than 'Flame on!' Trust me, Hephaestus Cabin doesn't see fire powers as cool. Nyssa told me they're super rare. When a demigod like me comes around, bad things happen. Really bad."

"Maybe it's the other way around," Jason suggested. "Maybe people with special gifts show up when bad things are happening because that's when they're needed most."

Leo cleared away the plates, and Dorothy helped, putting the bones in a bag which earned her a weird stare from the boys, she would explain the spell she read about later. "Maybe. But I'm telling you... it's not always a gift."

Jason fell silent. "You're talking about your mom, aren't you? The night she died."

Leo didn't answer. He didn't have to. The fact that he was quiet, not joking around—that told Jason enough.

"Leo, her death wasn't your fault. Whatever happened that night—it wasn't because you could summon fire. This Dirt Woman, whoever she is, has been trying to ruin you for years, mess up your confidence, and take away everything you care about. She's trying to make you feel like a failure. You're not. You're important."

"That's what she said." Leo looked up, his eyes full of pain. "She said I was meant to do something important—something that would make or break that big prophecy about the eight demigods. That's what scares me. I don't know if I'm up to it."

"She's trying to get in your head, make you overthink and turn on yourself," Dorothy tilted her head, "she sees the good in you and she's scared. She knows how powerful you really are and she's probably figured out now that pissing you off with your mother's death was the wrong move. I know you're scared Leo, we all are, but trust me, I think you're going to be the one to save us all."

Leo poked at the remnants of his fire, turning over red-hot coals with his bare hand. A faint smile hinted on his face but it faded to something more... pensive.

"You ever wonder about the other four demigods? I mean... if we're half of the ones from the Great Prophecy, who are the others? Where are they?"

Dorothy frowned, she wished she had more answers, she wished she had her father's journal, surely he would have written down what Hecate told him. She wanted to get back to camp more than ever now. But for the sake of her life, and Prudence, they needed to see this through.

"I don't know," Jason said at last. "I guess the other four will show up when the time is right. Who knows? Maybe they're on some other quest right now."

Leo grunted. "I bet their sewer is nicer than ours."

Dorothy snorted and nodded in agreement as she looked. The draft picked up, blowing toward the south end of the tunnel. There was a chill in the air that made her button up her jacket.

"Get some rest, you two," Jason said. "I'll take first watch."

Dorothy almost thought for a second Jason could charm speak too. She remembered that she hadn't slept since her first and only night at camp. The command pushed something in her to unconsciousness as she leaned over and laid her head on his shoulder, her hat falling into her lap.

Her dreams weren't like that night either.

She wasn't in a body, but she was able to see her father's camp. If she wanted to see something closer, she would have to push her consciousness in that direction. Prudence wasn't among the horses on the edge of camp, grazing what little grass there was. Duke wasn't there either. Dorothy looked around the camp and found that Johnathon's tent was missing. Was this a memory from before?

The camp was somber, Juan's guitar sat untouched, and the campfire was on the edge of becoming embers. Josiah Trelawney was quiet in his tent, Dorothy wouldn't have known he was in it if the lamp inside wasn't on, illuminating his figure in the cloth.

He was hunched over his cot, it looked like his head was in his hands. Dorothy pushed into the tent to find her things missing. More like they were never unpacked from the wagon. She assumed Jonathon's things were there too. On the small table next to her father's cot sat his gun and a letter.

Dorothy drew closer to the table, recognizing Jonathon's handwriting.

Dorothy, it read,

I can see what you don't want the others to see. I can feel you pushing your intentions into my mind like they were my own. I didn't know that you also knew of your mother's gifts, but the hint is taken. I know what we have to do, don't worry about the preparations, I'll make it look quiet, they won't notice until we're gone. I love you with everything in me and some more after that. It'll be hard but we'll be together and that's all we need. We can do this, I'll meet you at our spot when it all goes down.

Yours and only yours,

Jonathon.

Dorothy reeled back from the letter and looked back at her father.

"It's not true," Dorothy wanted to sob, she felt herself lowering to his line of sight, "I went after him to get the money back, I promise."

Josiah pulled something out of his pocket, and Dorothy recognized it immediately, she had forgotten that she gave it to her father before they got on the train. It was an ad in the paper for a plot of land up in the North West, large, fertile, enough space for the gang and that house she dreamed of. Something that she wouldn't have given him if she was planning on betraying him.

Relief, that her father knew better, and grief because they both knew he couldn't do anything. A look of anger seemed to be washing over Josiah's face and he snapped up. Dorothy pushed herself back to the wall of the tent, watching in horror as her father destroyed his cot and stormed out. She was hot on his feet as she followed him out, watching as grabbed a lantern and threw it into the pile of embers.

The explosion of the campfire had a few people coming out of their tents. Josiah went into the tent and came right back out with the letter Jonathon wrote, tossing it into the flames.

"Dorothy," Josiah's voice trembled, "my daughter, would never betray us, I don't know what hallucination that boy was under, but she was not leaving us..." he fell to his knees at the edge of the flames, "she was not leaving me."

Ms. Catherine stepped forward, she was visibly upset, her tear-stricken face illuminated by the revived fire. The flames danced in the reflection of her watery eyes. She put her arm around Josiah who leaned into her shoulder, sobbing. Dorothy had never seen her father cry even in the privacy of her tent.

Now, he's out in the open for the whole gang to watch him fall apart. The rest of the gang came out of their tents from the commotion, one look at their father and they knew what was going on.

"Maybe someone at Camp Half-Blood can find her," Adelia spoke up, "maybe the Oracle can tell us something about her future."

Josiah looked up at her, his eyes widening. It was like something clicked in his mind.

"Jonathon also mentioned wanting to go to camp for the first time," Josiah got up with the help of Catherine, "if Dorothy's tracking him, he may be leading her there, she doesn't know who her mother really is yet."

Josiah looked back at his tent and then at the rest of the gang.

"I'm going back to Camp Half-Blood, I don't expect any of you to follow me, she's my daughter, she's my responsibility," Josiah wiped at his face.

"Hey," Mr. Taylor grunted as he came out of his tent with his shotgun, "she's your daughter, but she's our family, we're all going."

*.·:·.⟐.·:·.*

7k words

hello hello hello!!!

welcome back to another crossroads update and oh em gee look at her!! This one was getting to be particularly difficult but only because I had to keep googling what was invented or not. People were really living in the TRENCHES in 1860s america like wtf..
also, I had to look up what the hell rick was talking about with the crown fountain because he was calling those giant screens monoliths in The Lost Hero and I was getting tired of trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about and y'all.

what the hell is this. what the fuck are art majors on in Chicago?? Because I want what they're having.

I want to know your thoughts on the Trelawney gang and see what kind of predictions you have about their fate !

also!! Medea's in the next chapter!! I'm very excited for this next one since it'll be Dorothy's first time ever seeing a MALL!!! (Comment some things that you would find in a mall that you think would send Dorothy into a coma)

thank you and see you all at the next update!!!

— greta!