A/N: Not a good chapter but meh. At least you get one. There's not gonna be another one for a few weeks, but there will be a new chapter for 'Son of Jupiter' within the next week, so look out for that.
Song: 'Hear Me' – Imagine Dragons.
July 18th.
Naples was a huge city. Leo got lost no less than seven times and he was about to put his foot through a window. Finally, he just headed in the direction of the mountain, deciding that if he came up against any dead ends he was just going to climb over them. He was sick of trying to find a way around them.
Finally, he reached the foot of the volcano, one of the forges of his dad. And there stood Khione, her silky blue robes fluttering around her legs in the afternoon breeze. She was as beautiful as ever, yet Leo had slightly mellowed towards her following the events at the Wolf House six months earlier. It was strange at how they had gone from being enemies to allies in just a few months and a few whispered words.
"Leo Valdez," the goddess said in that soft yet cold voice of hers. She had not yet turned around, but could probably sense his fire powers like she had the last time.
"Hey Khione," Leo said with a grin, pushing his sweat dampened hair back from his face.
"I am surprised you came," Khione said, turning to face Leo at last. "I never expected this of you. The last time we met, you were loyal to your friends."
"Times change," Leo said with a shrug, moving to stand next to her. "The others made it clear they didn't like me, so I left them. They'll get along fine without me."
Khione grunted. She held out her pale, tiny hand to Leo. "We must go. The initiation begins within an hour."
"Initiation?"
"Just take my hand, Valdez."
Wondering what initiation Khione was talking about, he warily took her hand. Almost immediately, he was yanked off of his feet and thrown around in what felt like a blizzard for a minute until he landed face first on a cracked marble floor.
"Ow," he complained. Khione was snorting and cackling above him. A large, throaty laugh that reminded Leo of grating stones joined in with Khione. The laugh went right through him and almost made him freeze where he lay.
When he looked up, he wished he hadn't.
Standing over him was a giant. He was taller than Enceladus and Pophyrion, and looked ten times more menacing. Horrifyingly, he reminded Leo of his very own father, Hephaestus. The giant had certainly captured the blacksmith god's ugly looks. The left side of his face was squashed, and his nose reminded Leo of a squashed tomato. Burns covered the giant's face and meaty arms. He was bald and clean shaven, and wore only a torn and filthy kilt around his waist. In his enormous right hand, he carried a hammer that Coach Hedge would be jealous of.
"Leo Valdez," the giant rumbled, and Leo resisted the urge to shudder. "Son of my enemy."
"Sorry, do I know you?" Leo asked, getting to his feet and brushing imaginary dirt from his clothes. "I highly doubt it though, since yours is a face I wouldn't forget. It'd give anyone nightmares."
The giant made a deep growling noise in the back of his throat. Leo decided that if he was going to be a part of Gaia's army and that if he was to work with this guy, he was going to have to keep the jibes and comments to himself.
"Watch it, kid," the giant growled, glaring down at Leo.
"Leo, this is Mimas, the bane of Hephaestus," Khione said. The corners of her lips turned up in a smug little smile when she saw Leo blanch.
Once upon a time, when Leo had been working on the engine of the Argo II, Annabeth had decided to come down and annoy – oh, sorry, educate – Leo on the giants. She'd told him of Mimas, who, according to the myths, was either killed by Hephaestus or Ares. Most sources apparently said it was Hephaestus who killed Mimas with molten iron. At the time, Leo had thought of Annabeth's ramblings as a distraction from trying to fix the stupid engine. He'd never thought he'd actually meet the giant.
"You're going to be working for me from now on," Mimas growled, crouching down and glaring at Leo. He jabbed one finger (which was bigger than Leo) at the terrified son of Hephaestus. "So learn some respect, or I will crush you."
"Yes sir," Leo said, giving the giant a small salute.
"Come, Valdez," Khione said, taking Leo's arm. "It's time for the initiation."
Leo still wondered what she meant by that, but, when he found out, he wished he could've joined Gaia's army in a less painful way.
The initiation took place in an ancient temple that was falling to pieces. In fact, the whole mountain they stood on was falling to pieces. It looked like an ancient Greek city that had fallen to ruin and disarray. It might've once been a beautiful city, but now it was overgrown with vines and trees, with mist hanging low over the place, making it hard to see. And there were monsters crawling all over the place. Cyclopses, harpies, centaurs and even one or two renegade gods.
Khione led Leo past them all. Most of the monsters were curled around pit fires, roasting meat and roaring loudly. Some of them sneered at Leo, who just grinned and saluted them, as he'd done with Mimas. The giant was following Leo and Khione, making the ground shake with each step.
In the centre of the ruined temple sat a large fire. Surrounding it were three more giants. One looked like an overgrown hunter, complete with blood-soaked arms, animal fur cloaks and a pure gold bow with matching arrows. Next to him stood a warrior, holding a sword in one hand and a lance in the other, a boar-shaped helmet covering his face and giving him a sneaky, evil appearance. The last giant was as tall as Mimas, but a lot thinner. From the looks of him, he was built for speed rather than bulk. He was thin and lithe, with sandals that had actual eagle wings on either side.
"Leo Valdez, meet Gration, Pelorus and Hippolytus," Mimas said, gesturing to each of the giants in turn, "My kin."
"Let us get this over with," Gration hissed, scratching at the dried animal blood on his cheek. Annabeth had once mentioned that Gration was the bane of Artemis, the hunting goddess, which explained why he had enough animal skins to give an activist a heart attack. "I have a goddess to hunt."
"And I have demigods to kill," Pelorus, bane of Ares, growled.
"Peace," Hippolytus, bane of Hermes, said, tapping his silver lance against the cracked marble floor. The sound echoed throughout the temple. "This will not take long."
"Over here," Khione said, leading Leo to the fire. Sitting in the flames was a brander in the shape of a 'G', possibly for Gaia. The metal glowed orange from the heat. Leo's stomach twisted. They weren't going to brand him, were they?
Apparently, they were. Khione took hold of the brander and lifted it out of the fire. For once, Leo was actually scared of the heat.
"Leo Valdez," Khione said, "Gaia has chosen you to be a member of her army. Should you accept this gracious offer, you shall put into the apprenticeship of Mimas, bane of your father. Any betrayal on your behalf shall be punishable by death. Do you understand?"
Leo's mouth felt thick, but he managed to say, "Yes."
"Then I welcome you to the army."
She grabbed Leo's left arm and pushed back the white sleeve of his shirt. Then, she pressed the white hot brander against the skin of his forearm.
He forced himself not to scream. It was hard, but he managed. To stop himself, he just bit on his tongue until he drew blood and the pain stopped. For the first time in his life, he understood the pain of burning, and would never wonder why people made such a big deal over it. When he dared to look at his arm, he almost fainted. The 'G' shaped burn in his arm was a patch of blistering skin that reminded Leo of an acid burn.
Khione was smiling. Clearly, she enjoyed his pain.
"Now," she said, "To your duties."
Her body turned to snow, from the feet upwards. The snow swirled and joined the mist that clung to the top of the mountain. Gration, Pelorus and Hippolytus moved away one by one, off to do their own duties. Mimas grinned down at Leo, and he decided he wasn't going to have a good time with the giant.
"Come with me," Mimas said, and, of course, Leo had no choice but to follow him.
Mimas led Leo back towards where they came from, and then down a steep, black slope. They passed through an archway the size of the Athena Parthenos, and Leo's mouth dropped open.
They were in a workshop. One of the best workshops Leo had ever seen. It was enormous, bigger than the whole of Camp Half-Blood. There were cranes and towers and kilns and fires as big as houses. Swords, lances, spears, daggers, helmets and shields lined the walls. Ballistae and cannons sat in the corner, awaiting use. Every tool Leo could ever want sat on the work tables. Leo ran his hand over a crystal jar that contained Greek fire, before turning back to Mimas.
"This is all yours?"
"Yep," Mimas said, stroking one of the ballistae. "I make all of this. Gration wants me to use cyclopses, but they're no good. Well, in my opinion. Hephaestus loves to use them. Thinks of them as loveable pets. I see them as nothing more than soldiers to use in a fight."
"Huh." Leo didn't really agree with that. Tyson, Percy's half-brother, was awesome. In the rare moments that he was at camp, he'd work with Leo in the forges. He'd shown Leo how to make impossible trinkets and weapons, including a flaming sword (which Leo had somehow managed to blow up).
"We need to get to work," Mimas grumbled, moving over to one of the tables. "Pelorus wants another five hundred swords to equip the dracanae, and at least a thousand helmets for the centaurs. On my own, I can make half of that amount in three days. With you, we can do it faster. Let's get to work."
