Happy belated Remembrance day! *fireworks explode in the background*

And my birthday is coming up! Yay! (Which means now is about the time of my one-year anniversary on FanFiction, because I published my first story on this website EVER around this time 360 days ago, Mount Olympus Dance Party. This makes me so proud.)

IV LEO

LEO WISHED HE HAD STAYED ON OGYGIA. That way he wouldn't have to deal with all his stupid demigod problems.

That dang astrolabe… how long had it been since he got it? A few days. Yes. And he still had no way of getting it to work. It felt like the Athena Parthenos all over again.

He had the crystal. He had the machine. Somehow, they merged together to do something awesome, like shoot laser beams or play Miley Cyrus until your enemies went mad. (Both during and after Hannah Montana.)

But the most frustrating part was that every time he looked at the astrolabe—and really, the crystal—a name appeared in his head.

Calypso.

He sighed, running a hand through his tangled curly hair.

Just forget about it, Leo.

But he couldn't.

He moved the astrolabe to his night table and fell backwards on his bed, staring up at his white textured ceiling. He was supposed to be sleeping. He couldn't. Nothing larger than seven feet had attacked them since Gaios, which meant the boat wasn't constantly lurching to one side or another, threatening to drop him onto the roof. These were good conditions to go to sleep in, he supposed. But thoughts kept running around rampantly in his head, screaming for attention like Directioners at a concert; you couldn't focus on the band because of all the annoying fan-girls around you.

Finally, all his thoughts and feelings about the astrolabe and their course towards Athens and Calypso melted into one and he fell asleep.

-o-O-o-

Leo stood on the helm on the Argo II. The vast Ionian Sea lay clear and calm before him, the boat crashing into the crystal blue waves as tiny butter knives. Up ahead, the sky went on endlessly in every direction with not a cloud in sight. He swore a school of dolphins chattering and jumping out of the water all cliché-like would not have looked out of place. (Hmm… would Frank do that if he asked nicely enough?) In his hands he held an Xbox game controller, which he recognized as one of the ship's regulators.

Beside him stood a woman. For a terrifying moment Leo thought it was Hera (his second least favourite goddess, after Gaea), but it wasn't. Her hair was coffee and lustrous, curving around one of her shoulders in a braid. In one hand she held a long pole used on farms to prod along sheep and goats, and in the other a basket of fruit. She wore a simple white gown and sandals Leo had only ever seen as pictures in textbooks of Ancient Rome. But it was her eyes… her eyes were a soft and warm copper that reminded Leo of the days he used to spend with his mother curled up by the fireplace, making up stories aloud in Spanish. Leo was used to having nightmares, but this woman… he somehow knew she was just trying to help him. A good goddess.

"Here," she said, holding something out to him. "Have a grape."

"Okay…" Leo said hesitantly, taking it. A few moments passed in silence.

"Did you figure it out?"

"Figure what out?" Leo asked, nibbling on his fruit delicately. The ship hit a bump and rocked slightly, but it was nothing he should have been worried about.

"The astrolabe. It is essential for your quest," the goddess replied.

Suddenly Leo was irritated. "Oh, really?" he said sardonically, stuffing the rest of his grape in his mouth and munching on it angrily. "Well, of course we're going to need the all-powerful ancient Greek-ian device that I just can't happen to figure out."

The goddess smiled wistfully, delicately placing a hand on Leo's shoulder. "Do not worry yourself. As you near the island, allow my goat to lead your way."

Island?

Goat?

She might as well tell him to follow the yellow brick road and then paint it green.

The goddess gave him another grape. "Troubles lie ahead," she told him casually, as if they were talking about something as simple as homework. "For your crew, and for your companions at camp. Especially for your friends travelling west."

"Wha—what?" Leo stammered, accidentally dropping the grape. "Reyna, Nico and Coach Hedge are in danger? Or will be?"

"Have faith in them," the goddess warned him, picking an apple from her basket and turning it over. Her fingernails pinched through the skin, leaving tiny crescent marks indented on the fruit. "They are not helpless. Just concentrate on your task. You will need the astrolabe for the rules still apply to the final two, and after the fourth no other help will be available for you."

Then she turned and walked away. For the first time Leo noticed a goat that had been resting by her feet. It looked up at him and brayed.

"So," Leo said. "You're the goat."

The goat sneezed.

-o-O-o-

Leo chose to tell Piper and Jason about his dream.

"So you actually didn't have a nightmare?" Piper asked him incredulously, as if the simple fact were crazy enough.

"Well, the goat was really hideous," offered Leo.

"Doesn't matter. What did she tell you?" Jason asked.

Leo looked out at the sea rolling by them. "She said something about an island nearby," he said. "A goat would lead to something that would help me figure out the astrolabe, which we need. She also mentioned difficulties for Reyna, Nico and Hedge."

Piper tried to play it easy. "Of course they'll have difficulties, they're two powerful demigods and a satyr. Monsters will attack them for sure at least a couple times." But she didn't look convinced.

"Well, we're passing by an island in a couple of minutes," Jason offered unsurely, as if the place could have grown legs and wandered off somewhere else in the last half hour. "That might be the one she's talking about." He frowned, thinking. "What was it called? It started with an I."

"Ithaca," Piper helped.

Leo blinked. "Ithaca?" he asked. "Like, the place where Odysseus lived?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Jason, snapping his fingers.

"Isn't Odysseus that guy who created the astrolabe?" Piper added enthusiastically, catching on.

"Yes! He was! Maybe he left some sort of clues on his island." Leo turned to the Ionian Sea, resting his hands on the railing and gazing outward.

Piper nodded vigorously. "Yeah," she said. "We definitely need to stop there then."

Jason agreed. "I'll go tell the others," he said, and darted off.

Leo sighed contentedly. Finally, things were going his way.

Leo is the most amazing character ever. I was even tempted to make this story all about him, with his own forever first-person POV. (Not really. But if I could I totally would have.)

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These cookies are for the Leo fans, like me.