ZETA | HAPPY IS A DRAGON: LATIN TRANSLATION IS REQUIRED

Disclaimer: I do not own the Heroes of Olympus series or any of the characters. I only own the character Nerissa Jackson and her original plot lines and dialogue.

"No as in no. N-o." Riss repeated dully, as Drew kept blinking blankly at the daughter of Poseidon. She didn't know yet who the dove was but she knew it wasn't Drew. The daughter of Aphrodite was too dense, too easily threatened and Riss could see Drew easily giving in to persuasion to ditch her 'teammates.'

Nerissa was genuinely disgusted by Drew, feeling that the Aphrodite Cabin had gone to shit after Silena's death. Silena had been strong and kind and beautiful all at once, looking for the beauty on the inside, not the outside. Drew really gave nothing to the Camp and soiled Silena's memory.

Drew turned to Jason. "Look, fighting is all fine, I suppose. Controlling puddles. And people who build things…" She looked at Leo in disdain and Riss bristled. Puddles, a hellhound's ass, she did more than control puddles. "Well, I suppose someone has to get their hands dirty. But you need charm on your side. I can be very persuasive. I could help a lot."

The campers started murmuring about how Drew was pretty persuasive. Piper could see Drew winning them over. Even Chiron was scratching his beard, like Drew's participation suddenly made sense to him. Only Riss was shaking her head adamantly.

"Well…" Annabeth said. "Given the wording of the prophecy—"

"No!" Piper's own voice sounded strange in her ears – more insistent, richer in tone. "I'm supposed to go."

Then the weirdest thing happened. Everyone started nodding, muttering that Piper's point of view made sense too. Drew looked around, incredulous. Even some of her own campers were nodding.

"Get over it!" Drew snapped at the crowd. "What can Piper do?"

Piper tried to respond, but her confidence started to wane. What could she offer? She wasn't a fighter, or a planner, or a fixer. She had no skills except getting into trouble and occasionally convincing people to do stupid things.

"Well," Drew said smugly, "I guess that settles it."

Suddenly there was collective gasp. Everyone stared at Piper like she'd just exploded. She wondered what she'd done wrong. Then she realized there was a reddish glow around her. She looked above her, but there was no burning symbol like the one that appeared over Leo. Then she looked down and yelped.

Her clothes…what in the world was she wearing? Piper despised dresses. She didn't own a dress. But now she was adorned in a beautiful white sleeveless gown that went down to her ankles, with a V-neck so low it was totally embarrassing. Delicate gold armbands circled her biceps. An intricate necklace of amber, coral, and gold flowers glittered on her chest, and her hair…

"Oh, god," Piper gaped. "What's happened?"

At Annabeth's indication, the girl drew her dagger from the cord on her waist and looked at herself. Her hair was perfect: lush and long and chocolate brown, braided with gold ribbons down one side so it fell across her shoulder. She even wore makeup – subtle touches that made her lips cherry red and brought out all the different colors in her eyes.

"You look beautiful," Riss complimented, smiling at her.

Drew's face was full of horror and revulsion, even as everyone stared at Piper in awe. "No!" she cried. "Not possible!"

"This isn't me," Piper protested. "I—don't understand."

Chiron the centaur folded his front legs and bowed to her, and all the campers followed his example.

Riss' eyes glowed, "All hail, Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite."

"Lady of the doves, goddess of love," Chiron continued gravely.

The black-haired girl stumbled, coming out of the trance she was in and was caught by Jason, who, even though Piper looked like a knock-out, didn't take his eyes off Riss. Piper felt a tightness in her chest but couldn't help but just stare at the people bowing around her.

XXXXX

"Three," Chiron ranted, his hooves clopping across the floor of Cabin Three. "The number is three. Why is it, that neither you nor your brother can understand that concept?"

Annabeth and Chiron were in the Poseidon cabin, watching as Riss packed in silence. Finally she spoke, "'And death unleash through Hera's rage.' It says a child of the sea, which can only be me and I just thought…"

She trailed off and Annabeth prompted, "What?"

Riss looked up, lips pursed. "I just thought, that out of the three…if one of us was going to die…then why not the one who ruins the sacred three?"

"You," Chiron realised, aged eyes wide. "If someone was to die, you would try to make it you."

The green-eyed girl nodded slowly and Chiron couldn't help but be in admiration of her. Throughout the centuries, and all the heroes he'd trained, very few had been willing to welcome Death with open arms. And yet, here was a sixteen-year-old who saw it as a very real possibility and was prepared to lay down her life to save three others. Riss didn't see herself as a hero and she was certainly not suicidal but Nerissa Jackson was the type of selfless that everyone worried would get themselves killed.

"They're too young, too inexperienced," the sea-green-eyed girl insisted. She didn't have a suicidal streak in her at all but Riss knew that she offered the least, to the quest and Camp Half-Blood, given that her brother was basically a carbon-copy of her, complete with sarcastic comments and all. "I can save them."

Annabeth pulled Nerissa into a hug, "Percy is missing. I can't lose you too. I refuse to. So don't be a hero…just be…Riss. Come back home."

Riss nodded, but made no promises and watched quietly as Annabeth left the cabin. Chiron looked pointedly at Riss, "You didn't swear on the River Styx."

"I can't make that promise," Riss confessed sadly. She couldn't promise that she'd come home, not with the threats they faced and certainly not with Percy missing. "I don't think I'd ever be able to."

The old centaur nodded in understanding and placed a hand on Riss' shoulder. The girl looked up at him with large, sea-green eyes filled with pain and sadness. "Try to come home." Riss nodded and the centaur left her to her packing.

Sighing, Riss flopped down onto her bed. Gods, she was scared. But Zoë Nightshade had died to protect the people she cared about, had died because of Riss' foolishness. Bianca di Angelo had died too, Riss' fault again. Or at least, that was how she saw it.

If only she and Percy had listened! There had been too many on the quest and the Jacksons had chosen to tag along to find Annabeth. There had always been a loophole for the Jackson twins, something that they had found out on their first quest. Both Riss and Percy could go on a quest together and would only be seen as one person by whatever entity demanded only three on a quest.

To go after Zeus' Master Bolt, Riss, Percy, Annabeth and Grover had gone and Annabeth was worried they'd be struck down the entire time. The Jackson girl was grateful that they hadn't and they had both been able to go, she and her brother were hardly ever apart from each other, and it had been what had finally convinced Riss to sneakily follow the quest with Percy to try and find Annabeth and save her from Atlas.

They were twins – the other halves of each other – and Percy often joked they shared a brain, which was why the Jackson twins sometimes did crazy, stupid shit to protect other people and get the job done in the end.

Percy was prepared to jump off a cliff to find Annabeth after all and had faced off against giant, metal robots and reanimated skeletons to get his beloved Annabeth Chase back.

Riss didn't regret it, finding Annabeth, but she did regret how Bianca and Zoë had died. Now, she could fix this quest. The prophecy demanded four and she could hopefully 'decide' who would die on this quest.

The Jackson girl got up and finally began her packing. It was going to be a long night of restless sleep and worried dreams.

XXXXX

Riss had gotten up early, spent the morning with Annabeth and had met up with Jason. She knew she probably should have stayed in bed but Annabeth gave some advice to her and Jason.

And then Jason had thrown a curveball at the pair.

Grace. His name was Jason Grace and he was Thalia's brother. That had really sent Riss spinning but now they were heading out because Butch had warned them about the dragon arriving at the camp – with Leo on it. The dragon had been terrorizing the Hephaestus cabin for weeks and they had all become increasingly annoyed at it.

"That thing is dangerous!" An Ares girl shouted, brandishing her spear. "Kill it now!"

"Stand down!"

Piper turned to see it was Jason and Riss. Desperately, she tried to squash the jealousy, realising, that Jason and Riss were almost connected at the hip. The only time he'd been alone with Piper was when he formally invited her on the quest after the campfire but even then, he'd barely looked at her and was as polite as usual. Jason pushed through the crowd, flanked by Annabeth and Nyssa, Riss directly by his side.

"Leo," Riss breathed, green eyes wide. "You are my most favourite person in the universe right now. The sky is usually bad enough but this has made it cool."

Jason gazed up at the dragon and shook his head in amazement. "Leo, what have you done?"

"Found a ride!" Leo beamed. "You said I could go on the quest if I got you a ride. Well, I got you a class-A metallic flying bad boy! Festus can take us anywhere!"

"It—has wings," Nyssa stammered. Her jaw looked like it might drop off her face.

"Yeah!" Leo said. "I found them and reattached them."

"But it never had wings. Where did you find them?"

Leo hesitated, "In…the woods. Repaired his circuits, too, mostly, so no more problems with him going haywire."

"Mostly?" Nyssa asked.

The dragon's head twitched. It tilted to one side and a stream of black liquid—maybe oil, hopefully just oil—poured out of its ear, all over Leo.

"Just a few kinks to work out," Leo said.

"But how did you survive…?" Nyssa was still staring at the creature in awe. "I mean, the fire breath…"

"I'm quick," Leo said. "And lucky. Now, am I on this quest, or what?"

Jason scratched his head. "You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, 'festus' means 'happy'? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?"

The dragon twitched and shuddered and flapped his wings.

"That's a yes, bro!" Leo chirped. "Now, um, I'd really suggest we get going, guys. I already picked up some supplies in the – um, in the woods. And all these people with weapons are making Festus nervous."

Jason frowned. "But we haven't planned anything yet. We can't just—"

"Go," Annabeth said. She was the only one who didn't look nervous at all. Her expression was sad and wistful, like this reminded her of better times. "Jason, you've only got three days until the solstice now, and you should never keep a nervous dragon waiting. This is certainly a good omen. Go!"

Jason looked to Riss, who shrugged, "Sounds good to me."

"You ready to go, partner," the blonde boy asked Piper with a smile.

Piper stared at Festus, "You bet."

The three got onto Festus behind Leo, who'd already gotten on. Riss mock-saluted Annabeth, who yelled, "Try not to get blasted out of the sky!"

"Not feeling very supported, Annie!"

Piper raised a brow at Riss, "What does she mean?"

The green-eyed girl gulped, replying quickly all in one breath, "Zeus and Poseidon have a rivalry and Zeus might decide to blast us out of the sky because I'm here. Okay, any more questions? No? Great, let's go."

The other three looked at Riss, wide-eyed, who shifted awkwardly before they took off into the sky aboard Happy the Dragon.

XXXXX

Riss had to admit, flying wasn't the worst thing ever.

But she wasn't doing it again anytime soon. Jason was right behind her and somehow, that made her feel a little bit safer. Piper was in front of them, closest to Leo, who directed Festus through the air.

"Cool, right?" Leo asked while steering Festus.

Riss finally loosened her grip on Fetus' back and Jason's arm, reaching forward to high-five Leo. "Still makes me scared shitless but yeah…cool."

"What if we get spotted?" Piper asked.

"The Mist," Jason said. "It keeps mortals from seeing magic things. If they spot us, they'll probably mistake us for a small plane or something."

Piper glanced over her shoulder. "You sure about that?"

"No," he admitted.

"Reasonably," Nerissa said at the same time. "The Mist is a fickle thing."

Piper saw that Jason was clutching a photo in his hand – a picture of a girl with dark hair. She gave Jason a quizzical look, but he blushed and put the photo in his pocket.

"We're making good time. Probably get there by tonight."

Riss smiled, glad that he had one aspect of his life he could remember – or at least have a little faith in.

Piper asked, "Where are we heading?"

"To find the god of the North Wind," Jason said. "And chase some storm spirits."

Riss piped up, being as positive as usual, "And hopefully not die on the way!"

XXXXX

"Shut up, me," Leo said aloud, causing Riss to snap out of her thoughts about Percy and look at him in confusion.

"What?" Piper asked.

"Nothing," he said. "Long night. I think I'm hallucinating. It's cool."

Sitting in front, Leo couldn't see their faces, but he assumed from their silence that his friends were not pleased to have a sleepless, hallucinating dragon driver. Riss however, shrugged, she'd functioned on less and had somewhat-promising results.

"Just joking." Leo decided it might be good to change the subject. "So what's the plan, bro? You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something?"

As they flew over New England, Jason laid out the game plan: First, find some guy named Boreas and grill him for information—

"His name is Boreas?" Leo had to ask. "What is he, the God of Boring?"

Second, Jason continued, they had to find those venti that had attacked them at the Grand Canyon – "Can we just call them storm spirits?" Leo asked. "Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks."

"And they're Greek names is longer too," Riss agreed.

And third, Jason finished, they had to find out who the storm spirits worked for, so they could find Hera and free her.

"So you want to look for Dylan, the nasty storm dude, on purpose," Leo said. "The guy who threw me off the skywalk and sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds."

Riss sighed quietly, "Quests are always difficult. I just want one quest, where I don't almost die. Maybe we should go to Maine, I heard it's nice this time of year."

"That's about it," Jason said. "Well…there may be a wolf involved, too. But I think she's friendly. She probably won't eat us, unless we show weakness."

Jason told them about his dream—the big nasty mother wolf and a burned-out house with stone spires growing out of the swimming pool.

"Uh-huh," Leo said. "But you don't know where this place is."

"Nope," Jason admitted.

Riss laughed dryly, "Reassuring."

"There's also giants," Piper added. "The prophecy said the giants' revenge."

"Hold on," Leo said. "Giants – like more than one? Why can't it be just one giant who wants revenge?"

"I don't think so," Piper said. "I remember in some of the old Greek stories, there was something about an army of giants."

The green-eyed girl pursed her lips, "I can't really remember. But I think there was an old story of a giant who kidnapped Hera. Maybe it's him?"

"Great," Leo muttered. "Of course, with our luck, it's an army. So you know anything else about these giants? Didn't you do a bunch of myth research for that movie with your dad?"

"Your dad's an actor?" Jason asked.

Leo laughed. "I keep forgetting about your amnesia. Heh. Forgetting about amnesia. That's funny. But yeah, her dad's Tristan McLean."

"No way," Riss chuckled, even though Riss and Piper had been friends, Piper hadn't told Riss her father's name, just that he was an actor. "Drew's gonna pop a blood-vessel!"

"Uh—sorry, what was he in?"

"It doesn't matter," Piper said quickly, waving off Jason's question. "The giants – well, there were lots of giants in Greek mythology. But if I'm thinking of the right ones, they were bad news. Huge, almost impossible to kill. They could throw mountains and stuff. I think they were related to the Titans. They rose from the earth after Kronos lost the war—"

"The first one, thousands of years ago, not the recent one," Riss clarified.

"Right, and they tried to destroy Olympus. If we're talking about the same giants—"

"Chiron said it was happening again," Jason remembered. "The last chapter. That's what he meant. No wonder he didn't want us to know all the details."

Leo whistled. "So … giants who can throw mountains. Friendly wolves that will eat us if we show weakness. Evil espresso drinks. Gotcha. Maybe this isn't the time to bring up my psycho babysitter."

"Is that another joke?" Piper asked.

Leo told them about Tía Callida, who was really Hera, and how she'd appeared to him at camp. He didn't tell them about his fire abilities. That was still a touchy subject, especially after Nyssa had told him fire demigods tended to destroy cities and stuff. Besides, then Leo would have to get into how he'd caused his mom's death, and…No. He wasn't ready to go there. He did manage to tell about the night she died, not mentioning the fire, just saying the machine shop collapsed. It was easier without having to look at his friends, just keeping his eyes straight ahead as they flew.

And he told them about the strange woman in earthen robes who seemed to be asleep, and seemed to know the future. Leo estimated the whole state of Massachusetts passed below them before his friends spoke.

"That's…disturbing," Piper said.

Riss reached forward to squeeze Leo's shoulder in comfort, knowing better than to use the usual 'I'm sorry' or 'It wasn't your fault.' It really didn't make anyone feel better.

"'Bout sums it up," Leo agreed. "Thing is, everybody says don't trust Hera. She hates demigods. And the prophecy said we'd cause death if we unleash her rage. So I'm wondering…why are we doing this?"

"That's what I'm thinking."

"She chose us," Jason said. "All four of us, even though it's only supposed to be three on a quest. We're the first of the eight who have to gather for the Great Prophecy. This quest is the beginning of something much bigger."

"Oh, that's guaranteed," Riss acknowledged, the demigods watching her closely. "I don't just spout godly parents, that'd be boring. I've already predicted that Annabeth, Percy and I are part of the eight of the Great Prophecy – Percy and I count as one camper." The other three shot her looks and she flicked her fingers, "Don't ask. Anyway, you're the next three. Wherever Percy is…there's a possibility he'll find the other two."

"Besides," Jason continued after a moment of silence, just staring at the Jackson girl, "helping Hera is the only way I can get back my memory. And that dark spire in my dream seemed to be feeding on Hera's energy. If that thing unleashes a king of the giants by destroying Hera—"

"Not a good trade-off," Piper agreed. "At least Hera is on our side – mostly. Losing her would throw the gods into chaos. She's the main one who keeps peace in the family. And a war with the giants could be even more destructive than the Titan War."

Jason nodded. "Chiron also talked about worse forces stirring on the solstice, with it being a good time for dark magic, and all – something that could awaken if Hera were sacrificed on that day. And this mistress who's controlling the storm spirits, the one who wants to kill all the demigods—"

"Might be that weird sleeping lady," Leo finished. "Dirt Woman fully awake? Not something I want to see."

"But who is she?" Jason asked. "And what does she have to do with giants?"

They were all good questions, Riss had to admit, but none of them had the answers. They flew in silence and Riss couldn't help but feel useless – her powers were waning and usually, she knew what was going on, but this time, Riss was walking into this quest blind.

Festus kept flying. The wind got colder, and below them snowy forests seemed to go on forever. Leo didn't know exactly where Quebec was. Leo had told Festus to take them to the palace of Boreas, and Festus kept going north. Hopefully, the dragon knew the way, and they wouldn't end up at the North Pole.

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Piper whispered in Leo's ear. "You were up all night."

Leo wanted to protest, but the word sleep sounded really good. "You won't let me fall off?"

Piper patted his shoulder. "Trust me, Valdez. Beautiful people never lie."

"Right," he muttered. He leant forward against the warm bronze of the dragon's neck, and closed his eyes.

Piper glanced behind her, seeing Riss already asleep against Jason's chest. Jason had his face buried in Riss' neck, holding her close to him. The Cherokee girl sighed quietly, Riss and Jason were so in sync and she couldn't find it within her to be horrible to either of them. It was still a mystery, to all of them, why Nerissa Jackson and Jason No-Last-Name seemed so connected even though they truly didn't know each other. Riss shifted slightly, Jason immediately moving to accommodate to the stirring green-eyed girl, ensuring that she was more comfortable. The brunette turned her back on the sleeping pair, looking back out to where they were headed.

XXXXX

Thank you, everyone, for the support this story is getting! I really appreciate it.

I just realised that this chapter was a helluva lot shorter than I hoped it would be. Sorry!

So, this chapter is a teensy bit dark, in terms of Riss being willing to do anything to get the others back to Camp Half-Blood. That's a bit of foreshadowing, actually. And Jason and Riss are getting closer, OOH. Piper's jealous at the moment but I'm not going to make her a bitch or anything - eventually she's going to be the head cheerleaders supporting their relationship...so to speak.

5 REVIEWS PLEASE FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!

~ Raven