Hazel Levesque
I'm still shaken up from what happened.
It's been two hours at most. Two hours since Jason and Frank found us clinging to the rope ladder. Two hours since they found out that Calypso and Leo were missing. Two hours since Calypso and Leo fell into Tartarus.
We managed to get the statue into the stables, like Leo had originally planned. It wasn't proper to stick Athena, goddess of wisdom in a place designed for horses, but no one really cared. It's what Leo was going to do, and we carried it out.
We rely more on Leo than noticed. He keeps our spirits up with annoying jokes and stupid remarks. He keeps the Argo 2 going. He communicates with Festus, his stupid yet important metal dragon head.
Leo is a key member of the Eight.
So is Calypso. She is the unspoken leader. She works with Leo to map our courses. She keeps everything held together.
And now it's falling to pieces.
"It's not your fault Jason," Pipers voice rings across the room. "It's not any of ours."
We're currently having a meeting, discussing our next move. Well at least we should be discussing our next move, instead we've been discussing Calypso and Leo's move- well, fall into Tartarus.
"I should've been quicker," Jason mumbles. "I should've been down there to fly them back up."
"Jason!"
"No, he's right," Frank says. "I should've been down there too, I could've saved them."
I just shake my head at him in a resigned manner. First Jason, now Frank. It's wasn't their faults, it was the statue's. When it had dropped, it had shaken the floor, crumbled it. The statue survived, Calypso and Leo didn't.
"Silence," a new voice orders, Zoé's. "Calypso and... Leo will make it to the Doors, regardless."
"She's right," I agree. "They're not dead, I would sense it. They will fight their way out of Tartarus. Calypso is probably the strongest demi-titan in the world." I glance at Zoé before continuing. "And Leo is one of the strongest demigods out there."
"What we need to worry about, is meeting them on the other side," I finish.
"The House of Hades," Zoé nods. "In Epirus."
"It's one of Dad's temples," I explain. "If we can seal the Doors from both sides, the monsters can't escape Tartarus."
"For a while at least," Annabeth finishes. "We'll still have to get through Gaia's forces. She won't leave the Doors unguarded."
"Until we reach the Doors, Gaia's going to throw everything she's got at us," Jason puts in.
"We've got a month at most," I say. "That's what Ephialtes and Dad said."
"It's going to be difficult," Frank says.
"What else is new?" Percy asks sarcastically. "When have our lives ever been easy? This is just another challenge. We've just got to toughen up a bit."
"Percy's right," I say.
"Annabeth, do you know how to sail the Argo?" I ask.
Annabeth nods tightly, "Leo didn't exactly leave a instructions pamphlet, but I know enough."
"Good," Jason says. "Can you get us going?"
Annabeth nods and hurries off, I go after her and follow her to the engine room.
"We need to pick a route to take," I say.
Annabeth smiles and nods at me in agreement.
"Here," Annabeth brings out an old map and unfolds it.
"The most direct route is through the mountains," Annabeth says, her fingers tracing our route.
I nod and step to the side as she moves around the room, flicking switches and pulling levers. As Annabeth presses a button, I feel a slight shift in the metals beneath me and I peer outside the small barred window and watch the clouds drift past us.
"It's my fault, you know?" Annabeth says from behind me.
"The statue shouldn't have dropped, the ship is perfectly capable of handling it's weight. I freaked out, and accidentally hit a switch..." Annabeth trails off.
"It's not your fault, Annabeth," I say fiercely. "It's not your fault, it's not Frank's fault and it's not Jason's fault! It's Gaia's fault, not ours! It's her fault Leo's mother died when he was young. It's her fault I died before. It's all her fault!"
I storm out of the room, angry at not Annabeth, but Gaia.
I go to the railing of the ship and just watch the scenery passing below me. That's when I see it. The giant purple wave of mist and of course, the dust streak racing away from it. A strangely beige coloured animal moving at incredible speeds.
"Arion," I breath.
I rush to the helm where Annabeth has repositioned herself.
"Stop the ship!" I demand, coming to an abrupt halt.
"What?" Annabeth says in confusion. "But we just got-"
"Arion's here," I say breathlessly. "Get me as close to the ground as you can get and I'll use the rope ladder."
Annabeth looks at me doubtfully, "Are you sure?"
"Yes! Hurry up!"
Soon Annabeth starts lowering the ladder and I climb carefully onto it. The ladder slowly comes closer and closer to the ground while Arion speeds towards me.
I jump the last part of the ladder, too excited to wait any longer as Annabeth lowers me and the ladder down.
In the blink of an eye, Arion is standing in front of me. I fling my arms around him and bury my face in his flank.
"Where were you?" I ask, elated.
Arion neighs at me impatiently and skitters nervously.
"You want to take me somewhere?" I guess.
Arion neighs what seems like a yes. Gods, I should've brought Percy down with me.
"Hazel?!" Annabeth yells.
"He wants to take me somewhere!" I yell back, answering her unspoken question.
"I'll be back!" I yell.
"And if you're not?!" Annabeth questions.
"Just trust me!"
I reach the top of the rope ladder and pull myself up. Jason, Piper, Percy and Frank have gathered on the deck and are waiting for me.
"We can't go across the mountains," I say, brushing past Jason and heading towards Annabeth.
"And why not?" Annabeth asks quizzically.
"Mountain gods, children of Gaia," I answer. "They'll destroy the ship and we haven't got Le- someone to repair it."
"Where do we go then?" Piper asks, perched unsafely on the railing.
"Around the mountains, take the sea route," I say, wincing at the thought of the sea.
"That's a long detour," Frank grunts. "It might take several more days."
Several more days until we will know if Calypso and Leo made it out. It doesn't matter. I know it's important for us to be there at the same time as them, but the sea is the safest way, and the only way if we want to survive.
"Hazel, what exactly did you see?" Percy asks slowly.
"Nothing," I say, flinching as I look Percy in the eyes.
Percy grabs me by the shoulders and I cringe.
"This clearly isn't nothing, Hazel," Percy says firmly.
I wriggle loose of Percy's grasp and slip past him, "It's fine."
I walk quickly to my room and close the door softly behind me. I collapse on my bed and stare up at the wooden ceiling.
My thoughts are swirling around with no direction, giving me a headache. I keep coming back to one thing.
Percy.
Oh my gods, how do I tell him? How do I tell her? They'll understand its not my fault, right?
Someone knocks on my door.
"Hazel?"
I quickly sit up and swing my legs over the edge of the bed, "Come in."
Frank enters the room holding two mugs, "Hi."
I pat the edge of my bed and scoot back onto my bed so that I'm leaning against the back of my bed. I curl my legs up beneath me as Frank comes over and sits gingerly on the edge of my bed.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
Frank looks even more embarrassed, "I just came to check on you. You seemed really worried about something. Here, I made some hot chocolate."
Frank passes me a mug and I cup it in my hands, letting the warmth sweep through me.
I manage a tired smile, "Thanks Frank, that's really sweet of you."
Frank blushes and tries to cover it up by taking a sip of his hot chocolate.
"Could you tell me what's wrong?" Frank asks, blushing. "Maybe I can help, somehow."
I sigh, "I can't Frank. I'm sorry, but I don't think you can help with this one."
It's inevitable, you cannot stop fate.
I take another sip of hot chocolate, "The Fates are horrible."
Frank looks slightly more relaxed as he sips at his hot chocolate, "Yeah, they suck."
"They never give heroes a break," I continue.
Frank glances at me, unsure where I'm going with this. I'm unsure too.
I don't consider myself a hero. Compared to Percy and Annabeth and Calypso and Jason and even Piper, Frank and Leo. I'm a dead girl, surrounded by living people. People smart and strong enough not to get themselves manipulated like I did.
I finish my hot chocolate and stare at the empty cup.
Frank plants a kiss on my forehead, "I've got to go. Night Hazel."
"Goodnight," I say back as he takes back my empty mug.
But I know I won't be getting much sleep.
I wake up after about five hours of sleep to near darkness.
I check the clock on my bedside table. 5:00.
I sit up carefully and sigh, I know I won't be able to get back to sleep.
I get up and change into something less crumpled, not bothering to check what it is. I brush out my hair and pull it into a loose ponytail. I brush my teeth and head out to the kitchen.
I carefully pull a pan out from a draw, making sure not to bang it against anything so I don't wake anyone. I grab the necessary ingredients for a pancake and double my mental recipe. I measure out the flour half absentmindedly.
Piper taught me how to make pancakes. And Calypso. It was a long and painful process and I have now learnt not to trust the stove. It's too powerful and you need to set it a lot lower than recommended, if you don't want to burn anything.
I crack an egg and add it to the milk, then repeat the process. I mix in the flour mixture and turn on the stove. I fold the mixture before scooping it into a spoon and carefully dropping it onto the pan. I wait thirty seconds before I check the pancake. Sure enough, it's browned. I flip the pancake and wait before taking it off and putting it onto a plate.
I freeze when I see that I've subconsciously taken out seven plates. I pick up two before placing one back down and putting the other away in the cupboard.
I sigh and finish off the pancakes, piling them all onto the same plate and covering them with a tea towel to keep them warm.
I turn to the large pile of dishes and start to wash them. The floorboards creak and I tense up before relaxing. I turn to greet whoever is here and freeze.
"Hi, P-Percy," I manage before turning back to the dishing.
I rub fiercely at a mark that won't come off as I hear Percy come closer to me.
"Hazel," Percy says softly, turning me around. "You can tell me what's wrong."
Percy's genuinely upset. I can tell. But I can't tell him.
"Nothing's wrong, Percy. I don't know what you're talking about," I deliberately turn back around and work on the dishes again.
I apply some more dishwashing soap to the mark and rub at it persistently. It slowly comes off and I grab a mug. The mug I used last night.
I hear Frank come in behind me, yawning. "Did someone make food?"
I edge away from a still annoyingly close Percy and point at the plate.
"I made pancakes, go wake the others," I say.
Frank takes a close look at my pale face before nodding and leaving the room.
I grab a pair of tongs from the draw and brush past Percy and towards the plate. I empty two pancakes onto each plate and take out the maple syrup.
Percy sits down at the table and I place the syrup in the middle of the table.
I pick up two plates and place one in front of Percy, averting my eyes, and place another plate next to him. I go back to the counter and pick up another two before walking back to the table. I falter slightly when I come to Leo's chair but I place the plate next to his spot.
Piper comes into the room and spots me. She smiles in a friendly manner and picks up two out of three of the remaining plates. I smile back weakly and pick up my own plate before making my way to my normal spot next to Frank.
Frank sits beside me and gives me a quick kiss before digging into his pancakes. Gradually, the rest of the Eight and Zoé wander in and start eating.
After one pancake I lose my appetite. I pick at the food on my plate before pushing the plate towards Frank.
I get up and leave the room, ignoring Frank calling me back.
There's nothing you can do to stop it, Hazel Levesque.
-SAW
