A cold wind blew and snow was falling. The chilliness put all the demigods in an even worse mood as they trudged on through the snowy landscape.

The six heroes (plus one Satyr) had landed their ship near a snowy town set in the vicinity of a scenic mountain. They needed a break to regroup before continuing their quest; to rest, gather supplies, and most of all try to recover emotionally.

Luckily, Nico was doing better, which counted one more demigod to fight alongside them. They had begun to travel to Epirus, with Nico's direction. But after many days of travel, they decided to rest for a day. The entire time Percy and Annabeth were in their thoughts.

However, some act of fate brought another small challenge to the six demigods. The great messenger god, Hermes, appeared in their path, hovering with his winged shoes over the frozen earth. He told them something of importance: Something valuable to their quest is at the top of the mountain, the same mountain they just happened to land next to.

Coincidence? Doubtful, Leo thought, frowning at the god. Leo knew it was only so long until some random god came along and had some hazardous chore for them.

After much persisting, the heroes gave up on trying to find out what the item was. The god insisted it was a secret. And, leaving the demigods in a much more frustrated mood then when he arrived, Hermes vanished. The friends blinked at each other, deliberating what to do next.

They all looked up the snowy mountain. "Well, I guess this is our first obstacle," Piper said, emotionless.

The rest of the demigods nodded absently, having no will to go on a side quest. But they did anyway. They made quick preparations, and set out after the mystery object. The group decided that Coach Hedge and Nico would stay on the ship and keep watch. Nico still wasn't at full strength; they didn't want him to slow them down. Plus, Leo figured he could help with the coordinates. Leo secretly wished that Frank had stayed on board. He had really been pining for a moment when he could just speak with Hazel, without the annoying ding-dong watching his every move.

He kept having dreams about Sammy Valdez. Every night. It sort of haunted him, in a way, and he wasn't sure if his ancestor was trying to send him a message or what. Whatever the reason, it was starting to freak Leo out. That's why he wished he could just talk to Hazel, just for a second… Maybe she knew why he was having crazy visions.

He couldn't make much sense of the dreams; scenes of Sammy and Hazel, settings back in the 1940's, all sorts of things that just confused Leo. The dreams and visions kept him awake, late at night, his mind reeling. The images were so confusing; Leo knew he had to share them with Hazel, before he went mad. But there was never a time.

He just pushed it away and tried to focus on important demigod-ish things. Things besides girls and random ancestors.

But the whole time he climbed the snowy mountain with the other demigods, Hazel kept reappearing in his mind.

The five demigods plowed on, pushing up the mountain. There were scattered trees and large rock faces. The landscape wasn't exactly forgiving. But really? When was anything easy for them?

The snow and ice was very erratic, some places thick, and others, thin. They had to maneuver around big snow drifts and across ice patches. It was very dangerous, but nothing a group of demigods couldn't handle.

After scaling the mountain for at least half the day, all the demigods were growing tired. They trudged even slower, and it seemed as if the mountain kept growing taller. The cold had chilled them to their bones and they felt as if their muscles were freezing up.

Piper tripped and fell face-first into the snow. When she landed, she looked as though she was content in just staying there, with no motivation to go on. Jason grunted, heaving her up out of the snow. She stood and shook her head, making snow fly everywhere. She looked at all of them with angry eyes, peering at them through snow covered bangs.

"This can't be what Hermes wanted us to do! We're not getting anywhere!"

"Oh, come on Pipes! We'll get there eventually!" Jason said, a little too forcefully. The rest of the demigods nodded numbly, as they continued to tread on.

Leo glanced behind him to see Hazel walking several paces behind the group. He looked back at Frank, who seemed to be pre-occupied with a granola bar he had just fished out of his back-pack. Leo resisted the urge to laugh at Frank, before falling back, in stride with Hazel.

As he approached he noticed she didn't look as foul as the rest of the demigods. She wasn't frowning or panting or complaining about the never-ending mountain. She was just walking. Walking peacefully behind the group, flicking at the icicles on the trees as she passed them.

"Hey."

"Hi," Hazel brightened, as if she was getting tired of walking alone. "Nice of you to join me."

"Well," Leo stuck his hands in his pockets, and smiled sheepishly, "I'm getting tired of all that complaining too."

"You're tellin' me!" Hazel laughed. "They were complaining far before we were even halfway there!"

Leo laughed out loud, realizing it was true. They were all acting like babies, him included. "Yeah, you're right." He looked down at the ground and kicked a frozen rock.

"So, Hazel… I wanted to ask you about something." Leo began, sounding way too awkward for his liking.

"Anything," She smiled.

"Um… I've been seeing…" Leo bit his lip.

"Seeing what?"

"Well—" Leo was interrupted by a loud Crrrack!

"Wha—What was that?!" Hazel glanced around.

Crrrack!

Their attention then focused on the ground. "I think it's coming from our feet!" Leo said. The two looked at each other in panic, searching for a way out. Leo didn't exactly have time to think of a good plan, so he used what first came to mind.

"Run!"

Leo grabbed Hazel's hand and they began running on the ice and snow.

But the cracking became louder, and they hadn't run very many steps before it became deafening in their ears. The ground below them opened, like the mouth of a beast, and began swallowing them whole. Bits and pieces of the ground under them fell away. Hazel screamed bloody-murder as she began to fall first. Leo tried to find a foothold, to no avail. Everywhere he stepped, the ground just fell in. He finally found a sapling tree rooted to the ground. He held onto it with one hand and Hazel with the other.

"Hold on!" He yelled.

Leo pulled, struggling to heave their weight. Hazel screamed as her feet began to dangle.

Soon, he was almost out of the falling ground. He was about to pull them up when— Crrr...crrr… CRACK!

The tree and the ground beneath it caved, and they were sliding into the hole. Leo, Hazel and the tree, all falling with the snow and the ice.