━━ chapter thirty-one
front line
( leo )

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅。.。༅:*·ﾟﾟ·⭑

━━Leo supposed he could now put flying a helicopter on his 'I Never Thought Even I Would Have Been Crazy Enough To Do This' list━a list he never constructed until he realised he was a demigod ... and after everything they've been through on this quest so far, he was pretty sure he'll need another mental notebook to write everything down.

The sun was going down as they few North over the Richmond Bridge and Leo couldn't believe the day had gone so quickly. (Nothing like ADHD and a good fight to the death to make time fly!). Piloting the chipper, he went back and forth between confidence and utter panic. If he didn't think about it, he found himself automatically flipping the right switches, checking the altimeter, easing ack on the stick and flying straight. If he allowed himself to consider what he was doing, he started to freak out. He imagined his Aunt Rosa yelling at him in Spanish, telling him he was a delinquent lunatic who was going to crash and burn. Part of him suspected she was right━but it might not just be the helicopter he would crash and burn.

"You okay?" the voice from beside him immediately seemed to push away his Aunt Rosa's displeasure, and he risked a glance away from the view in front of them to see Savreen arch a gentle brow at him in the copilot's seat.

He knew that if he lied, she could tell. She could read him and understand him sometimes better than he could understand himself (or he should say━always could), and that was scary sometimes. But sometimes, it also hurt. Leo didn't believe in much━he barely believed in himself, let alone things that were meant to be and things that were not: God's destiny or the Gods' or whatever. But to have found Savreen after years ... for the connection they had since little kids to still be so strong━that despite how many times he had ran away, had kept on moving, somehow, he had ran all the way back to her.

It didn't matter what their parents thought of each other━their battles and their disputes; the things Hephaestus did and the way Harmonia and her children were cursed for it ... at least, it didn't matter to him. Because despite it, here they were. And while Leo felt the need to run away from everything and anyone, he never felt the need to run away from her, because when two people were wanted by no one in the world, they knew they at least had each other.

But it hurt, because Savreen was beautiful. And she smiled so sweetly. And she made his heart go wild and his cheeks burn so much he had to make sure his nose wouldn't be set alight. She was kind, and she was caring, and she understood him━she was his best friend, and she was also more than that ... but to her, he never was━and he was sure he never will be.

And that was why, even if he knew she could tell he lied, he forced the smile on his face and said, "Yeah, 'course I am. Captain Leo is all aces." She frowned, and she went to say she didn't believe him, and so he cut her off and said: "Are you okay?"

She nodded, and sent him another pretty little smile. She tucked some of her long dark hair behind her ear. She tenderly brushed her fingers over a bruise that was forming on her cheek. Her hand had a cut on it; the blood was now dried. It didn't seem to bother her anymore. "I'm okay," she said softly. "A little tired, but we got through it."

Leo let out a long breath, agreeing with her. "And that was only the beginning."

She nodded, "It is only the beginning."

Together, they decided to watch the scenery outside. The sunset basked a glow over Savreen, and her skin seemed to glow with it; turning a brilliant shade of bronze and copper━golden and stunning. Leo found himself staring; he could't help it. He just watched, almost breathless by the way she took a breath, peaceful no matter what they've been through and no matter what they were preparing to face. He didn't think or panic about what his hands were doing, or how he was driving the helicopter━he just focused on her, and he felt at peace, too.

Leo pursed his lips. Within that basking sunset glow, there was a pink dusk, and it reminded him of the look in her eyes when she somehow commanded those wolves. None of them had mentioned it since━not even her. He believed they were all a little confused and scared on what it was, or what it meant.

"Sav," he began carefully.

"Yeah?" she glanced at him.

Leo's brows furrowed, "What happened ... in that cave with the wolves, how you seemed to like ... control them ... did you know you could do that?"

Immediately, he watched her hand dart down to where he knew her mother's necklace was tucked away and hidden. "What do you mean?" she mumbled.

"You know what I mean," he said to her. "I saw it━we all saw it. Did you know you could do it? You said━you told me you were claimed ages ago━"

"I didn't know I could do it," Savreen interrupted him in a hushed whisper. "I didn't━I don't know what it was. I just ... I just got scared, and I was scared you guys were going to get hurt and ... and I just wanted it all to stop."

Leo continued to frown, "It came from your necklace━purple light. And then the wolves ... they just listened to you."

Savreen hung her head. Her hand travelled down to hold it within her pocket. "It's an amplifier," she said sadly. "It amplifies everything about the wearer━it makes them young and beautiful ... they'll never age. It will amplify the tragedy of someone's life━and it amplifies power ... at least, that's what Hera told me."

Leo could hear the fear in her voice━the distaste and bitterness; the complete blame and shame she held. She thought that anything that might go wrong, would be her fault, because of that necklace; because of his father, and it made Leo vow ... he vowed, right then and there, to find a way to free her from that necklace. To free her from his father's curse. If there was a promise out there that could never be broken, he made it━and he will fulfil it, to let her have happiness for once in her life.

"You think the necklace amplified that power?" Leo muttered.

She nodded. She didn't look happy about that fact at all. "Yes ... Hera said something about me being her gamble ... I don't want to be a gamble. I don't want to know how to control this ... I just ... I just want it to go away. I just ..."

"You just want to be back on that roof?" Leo offered, already knowing where she was going.

He managed to get back her smile. She met his gaze shyly, "Back in that field. Hiding from Ana Mari seems far less scary━simpler." Savreen then sat up, an idea striking her. "Maybe once this is all over, we should just run away together━somewhere far away, where there are no gods, and no monsters ..."

Leo started to grin. His heart swelled━he quite liked that idea. "Somewhere I can have a mechanic shop━"

"That doubles as a taco shop━"

He chuckled, "━Yes, exactly! That would be amazing!" when he realised he said all of this in Spanish, he quickly translated it for her while she giggled. It was sweet music. "And what would you do?"

She shrugged, as if she hadn't quite thought of it. Leo supposed she never had the chance━or thought she would ever have the chance. "Maybe ... I don't know ... maybe I would become a teacher. I can teach pre-schoolers."

Leo's grin became a sweet, gentle smile, "I can see that."

Savreen hunched up. She pursed her lips to herself and there, for a second, Leo thought he saw a blush dust her cheeks. And without realising, as he flew the helicopter━flicked switches and changed gears, he tapped a rhythm on the wheel. A sentence in Morse Code that was very special to him, I love you.

Taking a deep breath, Leo decided to change the subject━he spoke up to the others sitting in the back and opened up the comm line. "So!" He grinned to himself a little when he saw both Jason and Piper visibly wince. "What's the Wolf House?"

The other two shuffled closer. Jason knelt down between their seats, "An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley. A demigod built it━Jack London."

Leo couldn't place the name. "He's an actor?"

"Writer," said Piper. "Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?"

Leo scoffed at the very thought of the fact that there were famous people who were demigods, "Demigod Cinematic Universe━" he muttered to himself.

"Yeah," said Jason, nodded to Piper━either not hearing what Leo said, or choosing to move past it. "He was a son of Mercury━I mean, Hermes. He was an adventure, travelled the world. He was even a hobo for a while. Then he made a fortune writing. He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion━the Wolf House."

"Named that 'cause he wrote about wolves?"

"Partially. But the site, and the reason he wrote about the wolves━he was dropping hints about his personal experience. There's a lot of holes in his life story━how he was born, who his dad was, why he wandered around so much━stuff you can only explain if you know he was a demigod."

The bay slipped behind them and the helicopter continued North. Ahead of them, yellow hills rolled out as far as Leo could see.

"So ..." Leo was trying to understand, "... Jack London went to Camp Half-Blood?"

"No," Jason shook his head. "No, he didn't."

Savreen shifted so she sat sideways, frowning at Jason with her cheek leaning against the edge of her seat. "So ... what do you mean?" He met her gaze. "Are you ... do you remember something from your past?"

"Pieces," he admitted. "Only pieces. None of it good. The Wolf House is on sacred ground. It's where London started his journey as a child━where he found out he was a demigod. That's why he returned there. He thought he could live there, claim that land, but it wasn't meant for him. The Wolf House was cursed. It burned in a fire a week before he and his wife were supposed to move in. A few years later, London died, and his ashes were buried on the site."

"And ... how do you know all this?" asked Piper.

A shadow crossed Jason's face. Probably just a cloud, but Leo could swear the shape looked like an eagle. "I started my journey there, too," he said. "It's a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaea can claim it━use its power to entomb Hera on the solstice and raise Porphyrion━that might be enough to awaken the earth goddess fully."

And like that, Leo knew they needed to get there as quick as they could. He kept his hand on the joystick, guiding the chopper at full speed━racing towards the north. He could see some weather ahead━a spot of darkness like a cloud bank or a storm, right where they were going. Piper's father had called him a hero earlier. And Leo couldn't believe some of the things he had done━smacking around Cyclopes, disarming exploding doorbells, battling six-armed ogres with construction equipment. They seemed like they had happened to another person. He was just Leo Valdez, an orphaned kid from Houston. He'd spent his life running away, and part of him still wanted to run. What was he thinking, flying towards a cursed mansion to fight more evil monsters?

His mom's voice echoed in his head: Nothing is unfixable.

Except the fact that you're gone forever, Leo thought.

Seeing Piper and her father back together had really driven that home. Even if Leo survived this quest and saved Hera, he wouldn't have any happy reunions. He wouldn't be going back to a loving family. He wouldn't see his mom.

The helicopter shuddered. Metal creaked and Leo could almost imagine the tapping was Morse code: Not the end. Not the end.

He levelled out the chopper, and the creaking stopped. He was just hearing things. He couldn't dwell on his mom, or the idea that kept bugging him━that Gaea was bringing souls back from the Underworld━so why couldn't he make some good come out of it? Thinking like that would drive him crazy. He had a job to do.

He found himself glancing back at Savreen again. He thought about the joking promise they made each other━a dream of running away. It might not ever happen, but if they both survived this ... Leo realised that he will still have her. They'll still have each other.

That gave him some strength.

He let his instincts take over━just like dying the helicopter. If he thought about the quest too much, or what might happen afterwards, he'd panic. The trick was not to think━just get through it.

"Thirty minutes out," he told his friends, though he wasn't sure how he knew. "If you want to get some rest, now's a good time."

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅。.。༅:*·ﾟﾟ·⭑

━━Jason passed out immediately. As soon as he strapped himself into the back of the helicopter, he was out like a light. Which, after everything he had just done to defeat a huge giant, Leo believed he sort of deserved it. Savreen had drifted off to sleep herself━much more gracefully, as she did with everything━but soon she was completely out of it, too; exhausted after what had happened, and they all needed it before what they were about to face. But Piper and Leo stayed wide awake.

After a few minutes of awkward since, Leo said, "Your dad'll be fine, you know. Nobody's gonna mess with him with that crazy goat around."

Piper glanced over and Leo was struck by how much she had changed. Not just physically. Her presence was stronger. She seemed more ... here. At Wilderness School she had spent the semester trying not to be seen, hiding out in the back row of the classroom, the back of the bus, the corner of the lunch room━as far as possible from everyone else. Now she would be impossible to miss. It didn't matter what she was wearing━you would have to look at her.

"My dad..." she murmured thoughtfully. "Yeah, I know. I was thinking about Jason. I'm worried about him."

Leo nodded. The closer they got to that bank of dark clouds, the more worried Leo got, too. "He's starting to remember. That's got to make him a little edgy."

"But what if ... what if he's a different person?"

Leo had had the same thought. If the Mist could affect their memories, could Jason's whole personality be an illusion, too? If their friend wasn't their friend, and they were heading to a cursed mansion━a dangerous place for demigods━what would happen if Jason's full memory came back in the middle of a battle?

But then he glanced back at their friend sleeping in the back, looking ridiculous as he always seemed to have been in Leo's misguided memories. And he decided, "Nah, Jason's Jason. No matter what memory we were given, I bet you he's still the oblivious, too-scared-to-break-the-rules, loses-his-shoe-at-the-Grand-Canyon Golden Retriever we knew him to be." Piper managed a slight chuckle at this, deep down knowing he was right. "And besides, after all we've been through? I can't see it. We're a team. Jason can handle it. And if he doesn't? I'll just knock him over the head with a screwdriver or something to make him fix his shit up."

Piper's chuckles slowly faded. She smoothed her blue dress, which was tattered and burnt from their fight on Mount Diablo. "I hope you're right. I need him ..." she cleared her throat. "I━I━I mean ... I need to trust him..."

"I know," Leo sent her a quick, knowing smile. After seeing her father break down, Leo understood Piper couldn't afford to lose Jason as well. She had just watched Tristan McLean, her cool, suave movie-star dad reduced to near insanity. Leo could barely stand to watch that, but for Piper━he couldn't even begin to imagine. He figured that would make her insecure about herself, too. If weakness was inherited, she'd be wondering, could she break down the same way her father did?

So, he said, "Hey, don't worry. Pipes, you're the strongest, most powerful beauty queen I've ever met. You can trust yourself. For what it's worth, you can trust me, too. And Savreen, too━even if she's completely missing this whole conversation━" he went to gesture to her beside him until the helicopter dipped in a wind shear and Leo almost dropped out of his skin. He cursed and righted the chopper.

Piper laughed nervously. "Trust you, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah━shut up, already."

But he grinned at her, and━for a second━it felt like he was just relaxing comfortably with a friend.

Then they hit the storm clouds.

At first, Leo thought the rocks were pelting the wind-shield. Then he realised it was sleet. Frost built up around the edges of the glass, and waves of melted, slushed ice blocked his view.

"An ice storm?!" Piper shouted over the engine and the wind. "Is it supposed to be this cold in Sonoma?!"

Leo wasn't sure, but something about this storm seemed conscious and malevolent━like it was intentionally slamming them.

Jason and Savreen woke up quickly. Sav jumped in the copilot seat, scrambling to sit up right with quick breaths and wide eyes. It took her a moment to take it what was happening, but once she did, her startled shock turned to fearful bewilderment. Jason crawled forward, grabbing their seats for balance. "We've got to be getting close."

Leo was too busy wrestling the stick to reply. Suddenly it wasn't so easy to drive the chopper. Its movements turned sluggish and jerky━the whole machine shuddered in the icy wind. The helicopter probably hadn't been prepped for cold-weather flying. The controls refused to respond, and they started to lose altitude.

Below them, the ground was a dark quilt of trees and fog. The ridge of a hill loomed in front of them and Leo yanked the stick, just clearing the treetops.

"There!" shouted Jason.

A small valley opened up before them, with the murky shape of a building in the middle. Leo gritted his teeth and aimed the helicopter straight for it. All around them were flashes of light that reminded Leo of the tracer fire at Midas' compound. Trees cracked and exploded at the edges of the clearing. Shapes moved through the mist. Combat seemed to be everywhere.

He set down the helicopter in an icy field about fifty yards from the house and killed the engine. He was about to relax when he heard a whistling sound and saw a dark shape hurtling towards them out of the mist.

"Out!" he shouted. "Out━OUT━!"

They leaped from the helicopter and barely cleared the rotors before a massive BOOM! shook the ground, knocking Leo off his feet and splattering ice all over him. He coughed and rolled a few paces before he finally came to a rough stop━his arms and legs scratched through his pants and shirt from loose twigs and rocks.

He got up shakily and squinted through the mist. The largest snow-ball━a chunk of snow, ice and dirt the size of a garage━had completely flattened the Bell 412.

"You all right?!" in moments, Jason was at his side. Piper and Sav were with him. They all looked fine expect for being speckled with snow and mud━and a few scratches here and there.

"Yeah," Leo shivered as he steadied himself, letting out a final cough. He pushed his hair off his face, "Guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter. Or an apology. Probably both."

Piper pointed south. "Fighting's over there." Then she frowned. "No ... it's all around us."

She was right. The sounds of combat rang across the valley. The snow and mist made it hard to tell for sure, but there seemed to be a circle of fighting all around the Wolf House.

Behind them loomed Jack London's dream house━a massive ruin of red and grey stones and rough-hewn timber beams. Leo could imagine how it had looked before it burned down: a combination of log cabin and castle. But in the mist and sleet, the place had a lonely, haunted feel. Leo could start to believe how the ruins could be cursed.

"Jason!"

Following the girl's voice, a figure emerged through the fog. Thalia's parka was carked with snow. Her bow was in her hand, and her quiver was almost empty. She ran towards them, but made it only a few steps before a six-armed ogre━one of the Earthborn━burst out of the storm behind her, a raised club in each hand.

"Look out!" yelled Leo. They rushed to help, but Thalia had it under control. She launched herself into a flip, notching an arrow as she pivoted like a gymnast and landed in a kneeling position. The ogre got a silver arrow right between the eyes and melted into a pile of clay.

Thalia stood and retrieved her arrow, but the point had been snapped off. "Damn it! That was my last one." She kicked the pile of clay resentfully. "Stupid ogre."

"Nice shot, though," offered Leo a little awkwardly, but she ignored him━as usual.

She met them halfway, giving Jason a quick hug and nodding to the rest of them. "Just in time. My Hunters are holding a perimeter around the mansion, but we'll be overrun by any minute."

"By Earthborn?" asked Jason.

"And wolves━Lycaon's minions." Thalia blew a flesh of ice off her nose. "Also storm spirits━"

"But we gave them to Aeolus!" protested Piper, suddenly quite horrified.

"Who tried to kill us," Leo reminded her━not at all surprised by anything a God did at this stage. He quickly learnt they changed sides and changed their mind as quick as the wind━especially a wind God. "Maybe he's helping Gaea again."

"I don't know," said Thalia. "But the monsters keep re-forming almost as fast as we can kill them. We took the Wolf House with no problem: surprised the guards and sent them straight to Tartarus. But then this freak snowstorm blew in. Wave after wave of monsters started attacking. Now we're surrounded. I don't know who or what is leading the assault, but I think they planned this. It was a trap to kill anyone who tried to rescue Hera."

"Where is she?" spoke up Savreen.

"Inside. We tried to free her, but we can't figure out how to break the cage. It's only a few minutes until the sun goes down. Hera thinks that's the moment when Porphyrion will be reborn. Plus, not monsters are stronger at night. If we don't free Hera soon━"

She didn't need to finish the thought. Leo, Savreen, Jason and Piper followed her into the ruined mansion.

Almost immediately, things started to go downhill. They reached the mansion pretty easily amongst the chaos of battle, but as soon as Jason stepped over the threshold, he immediately collapsed.

"Hey━whoa━!" Leo caught him, struggling a little with his friend's sudden drop. "Hey, hey, hey━None of that, man. What's wrong?"

"This place..." Jason shook his head. He suddenly looked very sick. "Sorry ... sorry, I ... It came rushing back to me."

"So you have been here," said Piper.

Savreen was quick to help Leo pull Jason back up, supporting his other side as Thalia said: "We both have." Her expression was grim, like she was reliving someone's death. "This is where my mom took us when Jason was a child. She left him here, told me he was dead. He just disappeared."

"She gave me to the wolves," murmured Jason. "At Hera's insistence. She gave me to Lupa."

"That part I didn't know," frowned his sister. "Who is Lupa?"

An explosion shook the building. Just outside, a blue mushroom cloud billowed up, raining snowflakes and ice like a nuclear blast made of cold instead of heat.

"Maybe this isn't the time for questions," suggested Leo. "Show us the goddess."

Once inside, Jason seemed to get his bearings. The house was built in a giant 'u', and Jason led them between the two wings to an outside courtyard with an empty reflecting pool. At the bottom of the pool, just as Jason had described from his dream, two spires of rock and root tendrils had cracked through them foundation.

One of the spires was much bigger━a solid dark mass about twenty feet high, and to Leo it looked like a stone body bag. Underneath the mass of fused tendrils he could make out the shape of a head, wide shoulders, a massive chest and arms, like the creature was stuck waist deep in the earth. No, not stuck━it was rising.

On the opposite side of the pool, the other spire was smaller and more loosely woven. Each tendril was as thick as a telephone pole, with so little space between them that Leo doubted he could've got his arm through. Still, he could see inside. And in the centre of the cage stood Tía Callida.

She looked exactly like he remembered: dark hair covered with a shawl, the black dress of a widow and a wrinkled face with glinting, scary eyes. She didn't glow or radiate any sort of power. Sh looked like a regular mortal woman: his good, old, psychotic baby-sitter.

And it brought him some satisfaction to see Hera so humbled.

Leo dropped into the pool and approached the cage. "Hola, Tía," he greeted, smug and casual. "In a little bit of trouble?"

She crossed her arms and sighed in exasperation. "Don't inspect me like I'm one of your machines, Leo Valdez. Get me out of here!"

Thalia stepped next to him and looked at the cage with distaste━or, maybe she was looking at the goddess. "We tried everything we could think of, Leo, but maybe my heart wasn't in it. If it was up to me, I'd just leave her in there."

"Ohh, Thalia Grace," the goddess sneered. "When I get out of here, you'll be sorry you were ever born."

"Save it!" snapped Thalia. "You've been something but a curse to every child of Zeus for ages. You sent a bunch of intestinally-challenged cows after my friend Annabeth━"

"She was disrespectful!"

"You dropped a statue on my legs!"

"It was an accident!"

"And you took my brother!" Thalia's voice cracked with emotion. "Here━on this spot. You ruined our lives. We should leave you to Gaea!"

"Hey," Jason quickly intervened. "Thalia━sis━I know. But this isn't the time. You should help your Hunters."

Thalia clenched her jaw. She took a deep breath. She seemed to be blinking back tears of anger. But in the end, she relented. "Fine. For you, Jason. But if you ask me, she isn't worth it."

With that said, Thalia turned, leaped out of the pool and stormed from the building.

In the silence that followed, Leo turned to Hera with a sort of grudging respect, "Intestinally-challenged cows?"

"Focus on the cage, Leo," she grumbled. "And, Jason━you are wiser than your sister. I chose my champion well."

"I'm not your champion," said Jason sternly. "I'm only helping you because you stole my memories and you're better than the alternative. Speaking of which, what's going on with that?"

He nodded to the other spire. Maybe Leo was imagining it, but it felt as if it had grown even taller than the last time he had glanced at it.

"That, Jason," said Hera, "is the king of the giants being reborn."

Piper and Sav shared a look; they both made a face. "Gross," they muttered together.

"Indeed," said Hera. "Porphyrion, the strongest of his kind. Gaea needed a great deal of power to raise him again━my power. For weeks I've grown weaker as my essence was used to grow him a new form."

"So, you're like a heat lamp," said Leo. "Or a fertiliser."

The goddess glowered at him━he couldn't care less. This old lady had been making his life miserable since he was younger than a toddler. And she had help make Savreen's life miserable since before she could remember━Leo had little care if he insulted her.

"Joke all you wish," clipped Hera. "But at sundown, it will be too late. The giant will wake. He will offer me a choice: marry him, or be consumed by the earth. And I cannot marry him. We will all be destroyed. And, as we die, Gaea will awaken."

Leo frowned at the spire, "Can't we blow it up or something?"

"Without me, you do not have the power," said Hera. "You might as well try to destroy a mountain."

"Done that once today," said Jason.

Hera wasn't impressed with their comments. "Just hurry up and let me out!"

Jason scratched his head. "Leo, can you do it?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. He tried very hard not to panic. "Besides, if she's a goddess, why hasn't she busted herself out?"

Hera paced furiously around her cage, cursing in Ancient Greek. "Use your brain, Leo Valdez. I picked you because you're intelligent. Once trapped, a god's power is useless. Your own father trapped me once in a golden chair. It was humiliating! I had to beg━beg him for my freedom and apologise for throwing him off Olympus."

"Sounds fair."

"Yeah, pretty fair━"

"━A reasonable punishment━"

"━Sounds pretty deserved."

Hera gave them all the godly stink-eye. "I've watched you since you were a child, son of Hephaestus, because I knew you could aid me at this moment. If anyone can find a way to destroy this abomination, it is you."

"But it's not a machine, Tía. It's like Gaea thrust her hadn't out of the ground and ..." Leo felt dizzy. The line of their prophecy came back to him: the forge, the dove and their harmony shall break the cage. "Hold on. I do have an idea. Sav, Piper, I'm going to need your help. And we're going to need time."

The air turned brittle with cold. The temperature dropped so fast, Leo's lips cracked and his breath changed to mist. Frost coated the walls of the Wolf House. Venti rushed in━but instead of winged men, these were shaped like horses, with dark storm-cloud bodies and manes that crackled with lighting. Some had silver arrows sticking out of their flanks. Behind them came red-eyed wolves and the six-armed Earthborn.

Piper drew her dagger. Savreen pressed her ring and her chakram sprung out with a shrill cling. Jason grabbed an ice-covered plank off the pool flor. Leo reached into his tool belt, but he was so shaken up, all he managed to grab was a tin of breath mints. He quickly chucked one in his mouth and shoved them back in, hoping nobody had noticed, and drew a hammer instead.

One of the wolves treaded forward. It was dragging a human-size statue by the leg. At the edge of the pill, the wolf open its maw and dropped the statue for them all to see. It was a sculpture━a sculpture of a girl: an archer with short, onyx hair and a surprised look on her face.

"Thalia━!" Jason rushed forward, but they pulled him back. The ground around his sister's statue was already webbed with ice. Leo fared if Jason touched her, he might freeze, too.

"Who did this?!" he yelled. His body cracked with electricity. "I'll kill you myself!"

From somewhere behind the monsters, Leo heard a chilling laugh━loud and clear. Hauntingly beautiful, but ice cold. A woman stepped out of the mist in her snowy white dress, fixing a silver crown atop her black hair. She regarded then with icy brown eyes. "Bon soir, yes amis," Khione purred. She gave Leo a frosty smile. "Alas, son of Hephaestus, you say you need time? I'm afraid time is one tool you do not have."

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅。.。༅:*·ﾟﾟ·⭑

a/n: I get apologetic when a chapter feels similar to rick's ... which end up like most of my chapters cos I have like no time in life anymore. the last thing I want to do is have you guys feel like you're reading the same chapter all over again, but I try my best to add in extra dialogue and extra descriptions I feel fit the characters, especially when it isn't a savreen chapter.

but either way, here's a Leo chapter!! we're getting closer and closerrr ...

(sav and Leo are being too cute at the start omfg)

okay, let's talk about the pjo god casting before I have to get ready to drive and pick up my sister

(I got a car, by the way!!)

I actually like lin as hermes.

and I like the guy who's gonna play hades.

I think what the problem is, is because we as a fandom have spent so long finding our own cast, imagining our own fan cast and these characters as our own images in our heads, that seeing them actually cast as people we never imagined is kinda jarring. which is why imma be mad if people hate the casting of Poseidon if it isn't logan. which it probs won't be.

like tom hiddleston was never gonna be hades lol.

it isn't an uncommon thing for casting directors to cast an older experienced cast - but not always super famous and known - actors for the supporting cast for younger actors. like Harry Potter. you'll have a mix. like Lin is a super famous choice, and he is familiar with Disney - which you also gotta remember this is through Disney as well. but on the other hand the actress for sally (for me at least) I haven't seen around that much. and then Dionysus is a famous comedy actor in a bunch of sitcoms for reappearances, but he's being slotted into this scenario which is sorta a mixture. the surrounding cast for walker, leah and aryan - and the rest of the kids in the cast is also there for support and to be sure they can work well with children.

you saw this in Harry Potter. and I think they're trying to separate from what the movies did and casted a lot of very very famous actors and actresses to try and make the series seem like it'll be a blockbuster hit.

they'll have a few castings that will bring in audiences from other Disney watchers, people are definitely gonna watch the series if they've never seen it cos of Lin - and I think he'll do an interesting take on Hermes. then, they'll have a few castings that are quite unknown, as a safe-keep if the series doesn't go as well as they hope (money wise, I mean, because more famous actors are higher-paid). and then they'll cast actors who are quite good with children like with Harry Potter. you'll notice that there's an ongoing theme with the casting for Percy Jackson, too, is that rick has said quite a few of them enjoy the book, or their own kids have enjoyed the books.

and considering the themes of percy jackson surrounding the kids and their parents, is family, and the love a child searches with a missing parent - especially one that they know where to find them, know who they are and know how great they are, and are constantly trying to prove themselves to them - only to rarely ever speak or see them.

I think when you look at it that way, Lin is going to be a great Hermes.

these gods are supposed to be parents, and they're gonna look like parents. they're casted to be trying parents that are messing up constantly.

!They're not going to be casted for the older fans to simp over.!

also the story behind the actor for Hephaestus fits the character so well and I'm super excited to see him on screen - and how they incorporate it.