First Person: Audrey

"WHOO-HOOO!" I bellowed into the sky. Riding this dragon was one of the best feelings ever! Sure, I liked the water, and I felt far away from it up here, but that feeling of weightlessness, of actually flying was totally worth it! The air was freezing cold up here, but the dragon provided enough heat to keep us protected in a bubble. Seat warmers FTW (for the win)! The grooves on the dragon designed like high-tech saddles, so they were comfortable, and we'd found a way to hook our feet in the chinks of the armor, like in stirrups, and use the leather safety harnesses cleverly concealed under the exterior plating.

We sat single file, Leo in front, then Piper, Jason, Emily, me, Veon and Zyanya. Leo held the reins steering, as though he'd done it all his life. Leo was a serious mechanic, and he'd done most of the work on Festus back at the bunker. Though Festus hadn't been completely repaired, I'd managed to clean him up and, with Leo's help, assist in fixing some of his mechanics, and Emily just comforted Festus when he was awake before heading back to the camp, planning to warn them to stand down when we arrived. Clearly, she'd gotten side tracked.

My water bottle was now mixed with Tabasco sauce (I'd managed to keep the oil and water from mixing thankfully), but I could refill it with clean water later. Leo's new tool belt was awesome. It had the ability to summon anything that could fit within the pockets, and that meant he could summon near every tool he needed, and when he put them, or anything else, back in, no weight added. Of course, that didn't give him a sword (or a chainsaw as he tried to request when we first got it) but it was still cool.

I didn't really care if we were going on a dangerous quest right now, or that we'd never be able to go back to our normal lives as we were officially claimed. Right now, I was just living in the moment. And at the moment, I was on a giant mechanical dragon, flying over the grey winter clouds of Connecticut, whooping and not caring who heard me.

"Cool, right?!" Leo called over the wind.

"What if we get spotted?!" Piper asked.

"The Mist!" Jason said. "It keep mortals from seeing magic things! If anyone spots us, they'll probably see a small plane or something!"

"You sure?!"

"Not really!" I noticed Jason was clutching a photo in his hand, one of a girl with dark hair. He quickly slipped it in his pocket when Piper turned around and saw it. "We're making good time! We'll probably get there by tonight!" Piper looked suspicious about the photo, but decided against questioning.

"Where are we heading?!"

"To find the god of the North Wind, and chase some storm spirits!"

"And what about us?!" Veon asked.

"We're going with them!" Zyanya shouted.

"I thought you said-!"

"I did! And I was telling the truth!" I turned back to see she had an arm wrapped around his waist, and I rolled my eyes. The two were so a couple. Zyanya was perfectly able to keep her balance on this dragon without holding onto him. Heck, if this dragon did a barrel roll she could stay on with her hands still free. I hadn't seen everything there was to see of her powers, but I'd seen her fighting before, and I knew enough about her to know she was doing that purposefully. Or, she'd done it without thinking and neither of them have realized it yet. With the speed of their relationship, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.

"So what's the plan, bro?" Leo asked. "You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something?" I'd learned from my little time working with Leo at the shop that he was like a more outgoing version of Emily. He was looking on the bright side, cracking jokes when he could, not taking things too seriously. Emily took things a bit more seriously yet still tried to see the good side in people, and situations, as well.

As we flew over New England, Jason explained the plan. We were to find some guy named Boreas and grill him for information -

"His name is Boreas?" Leo interrupted. "What is he, the God of Boring?"

Then we were to find the Venti (wind creatures or something) that had attacked them back at the Grand Canyon before they'd come to Camp Half-Blood -

"Can we just call them storm spirits?" Leo asked. "Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks."

And then we were to find the people the storm spirits worked for to go and free Hera. Simple. What could possibly go wrong? (I know many things that could.)

"So you want us to go look for Dylan, the nasty storm thing, on purpose?" Leo summed up. "The guy who sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds and tossed me off the skywalk?"

"Sounds like you guys had a great time at the Grand Canyon," I muttered.

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

"Oh yeah?" Zyanya asked. Jason explained that he'd had a dream last night about a big, nasty, mother wolf and a burned out house with stone spires growing out of the swimming pool.

"And you don't know where this place is?" Emily asked.

"Afraid not."

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

"Hold on, giants?" Leo asked. "Like, more than one? Why can't there just be one giant that wants revenge?"

"There are definitely an army's worth of giants that have ever existed," Zyanya said.

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

"Your dad's an actor?" Jason asked. Of course I knew of Tristan McLean, but it wasn't like I was a fan girl or anything. Must've been tough, growing up with a famous dad. If she ever got attacked by monsters, no one would believe her. They'd just say she was a good actor like her father, no one taking her seriously. Granted, apparently no demigod I know of had been attacked by monsters before the age of 12. Thirteen was the most common age, twelve was for one or two people who were unlucky enough to accidently run into a monster that sensed they had a god's blood within them. As an 8 year old, my parents didn't believe me about my first attack. The only person who did was…Mrs. Stevenson. She'd believed me, because she was just like me, or had been in the past. I once again fingered my necklace that was secretly a dagger. Maybe Zyanya had given me a sword, but this dagger would always feel more comfortable as my weapon.

Speaking of weapons, Veon now had both a sword and a lance. He could apparently change his clothes at will now too, having gotten his regular outfit back. Still, I'm not just gonna forget the whole toga thing. Good to have ammo against him if he ever found something against me. He had his black sword at his left hip, and his lance sheathed into a cuff on his right wrist, his shield on his left. He was fully armored up, equipped with weapons and new powers, and it was hard to believe that near two days ago the biggest thing we had to worry about was the math test on…well today.

"The giants, well, there were lots of giants in Greek mythology," Piper was saying. "If I'm thinking about the right ones, they're bad news. They're huge and almost impossible to kill. They could throw mountains, and were related to the Titians. They rose from the earth after Kronos lost the war - I mean the first Titan war, thousands of years ago - and tried to destroy Olympus. If those are the giants we're talking about…"

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

"Okay…so giants who can throw mountains, friendly wolves that kill us if we show weakness, evil espresso drinks, and yeah, great. Gotcha. Maybe this isn't the time to bring up my psycho babysitter."

"Is that a joke?" Piper asked. Leo explained the story of his Tía (Aunt, if my Spanish isn't failing me) Callida, who turned out to be Hera somehow, and she'd appeared at camp before but only he'd seen her. Apparently she'd kept calling him her hero and making him do a bunch of crazy things, playing with knives, facing a snake, when he was only a toddler.

Back at the workshop, he'd told me, and had previously explained to Emily while they were out looking for Festus, he was fireproof and had the ability to summon fire to his hands. Apparently the people of Cabin Nine said anyone with power over fire was considered dangerous and previous people who were like that destroyed a bunch of stuff, so it wasn't a surprise when he chose not to tell them about his fire abilities. Not to mention that Emily and I had gotten him to tell us about how his fire abilities led to his mother's death. If he'd brought up the mention of his abilities, it may have eventually led to that, and he wasn't ready to share that story again so soon. He just said his mother died when the machine shop collapsed and left it at that, keeping his gaze forward. Then he told us about this woman in earthen clothes who seemed to be asleep and know the future.

"That's…disturbing," Piper said when he finished.

"You have no idea," Zy muttered behind us and I barely caught it over the wind.

"The thing is, everybody said don't trust Hera and stuff, that 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 again?"

"She chose you," Zyanya said. "The three of you are the first of the seven of the Great Prophecy. The quest is only the beginning of something bigger."

"What about us?" I asked.

"You three are a part of another prophecy. One involving the one Veon told back at the campfire." Veon's expression darkened to a point I'd never seen before. I guess all this scary stuff had just gotten more serious than a few monster killings back in middle school. Now he was genuinely scared for what that prophecy meant. Sure, I liked making fun of him, but he was still my friend, and the fact that I made fun of him and he still was my friend proves how close a bond we have. Besides, now I know he and I are officially cousins. No way was I gonna let him face that prophecy alone. Em and I would be there no matter what.

"Besides," Jason was saying. "Helping Hera is the only way to get my memory back, and that dark spire in my dream seemed to be feeding on Hera's power. If that thing unleashes a king of the giants in return for destroying Hera…"

"Not a good trade," Piper agreed. "At least Hera is sum what on our side. Losing her would throw the gods into chaos and a war with the giants could be even more destructive than the Titan War."

"Much worse," Zyanya agreed.

"Chiron also mentioned the worse forces stirring on the solstice," Veon said. "It's apparently a good time for dark magic, and something could awaken if Hera were sacrificed on that day. This mistress who's controlling the storm spirits, the one who wants to kill all demigods and such-"

"Might be that weird sleeping lady," Leo finished. "Dirt woman fully awake? Not really something I'm eager to see."

"But who is she?" Emily asked. "What does she have to do with the giants?"

"Maybe they serve her or something," I suggested. "If she gets one giant up and running, he can do her dirty work, no pun intended, and wake more until there are enough of them to wake her and not enough of us left to stop her."

"So then we're going to have to stop that chain reaction by helping them with this quest," Emily said resolutely. After all our negativity, Emily's one declaration raised our spirits just a bit. As Festus kept going, the air turned colder as we continued north to where Boreas's palace, which was apparently in Quebec. Leo didn't know where that was, but told Festus to take us to Boreas and the dragon flew north, so all we could do was hope he knew the way so we didn't end up in the North Pole.

Leo ended up falling asleep, Piper making sure he didn't fall off, and I ended up falling asleep too with Emily (who had gotten some sleep when she went back to camp to inform everyone of our arrival) and Veon watching over me. It was nice up here, but sleeping on a dragon thousands of feet in the air wasn't very comforting. I ended up falling asleep anyway against the warmth of the dragon, and it was nice to finally rest after all the craziness of today and yesterday.

When I woke up, we were over a city on a cliff overlooking a river. The plains around it were coated with snow, and the city itself glowed nicely in the winter sunset. The buildings were crowded together inside high walls like a medieval town, older than anything I'd seen before, at least in real life. Maybe I'd seen something in a text book during school, but it was so boring I didn't bother to remember. In the center was what I assumed was a castle, with massive red brick walls and a square tower with a peaked, green gabled roof.

"Tell me that's Quebec and not Santa's workshop," Leo muttered, also waking up.

"Quebec City," Zyanya confirmed. "One of the oldest cities of North America. Founded around sixteen hundred or so."

"So, you know your history." I looked to see her give a "you have no idea" face. I wondered Zy's story. Was she an immortal or something? With her power…was she a god? "If you know so much, what's that castle?"

"I believe it's currently a hotel."

"Heads up, guys," Jason interrupted. "We have company!" Rising from the top of the tower were two winged figures, angry angels with nasty-looking swords. Festus didn't like them, clearly, as he dived, swooping to a halt in midair, wings beating and talons bared with a rumbling noise in his throat that it didn't take a Hephaestus kid to recognize.

"Steady boy," Leo said. "I don't think they'll appreciate being torched."

"They look like storm spirits," Jason said. "I don't like this."

"No, and we'd best get on their good side if we wish passage," Zyanya said. As the angles got closer, I could see they looked solid, and not what I'd imagine a storm spirit might look like. They looked like regular teenagers, actually, but I'd learned that anyone could be a monster in disguise, and as they got ever closer I saw they had icy white hair and feathery purple wings. Their bronze swords were jagged like icicles and their faces looked similar enough that they might be related, but not twins.

One was the size of an ox with a bright red hockey jersey, baggy sweatpants, and black leather cleats. The guy clearly had been in too many fights, as both his eyes were black, and I could see several of his teeth were missing when he grinned. The other's icy white hair was long and feathered into a mullet, and he wore pointy-toed leather shoes, too tight designer pants, and an awful silk shirt with the top three buttons open. He couldn't have weighed more than 90 pounds, and he had a bad case of acne, and that was coming from a girl who'd been in high school for three years. I didn't really know what to make of them, but I knew that this was gonna be rough.

The two pulled up in front of the dragon, and hovered, swords at the ready.

"No clearance," The hockey ox guy grumbled.

"Excuse me?" Leo asked.

"You have no flight plan on file," The mullet one said with a French accent and I'm sure was fake. I may not like Spanish, and I haven't gone to French class, but I had enough friends to know what a proper French accent sounded like, and what a fake one sounded like. "This is restricted airspace."

"Destroy them?" The ox one asked. Festus began to his steam, ready to defend them and Jason summoned his sword.

"Hold it," Zyanya said, using a real French accent and everyone looked to her. "Calais, Zethes, I apologize for the inconvenience, but we are rushing." The second guy stared at her thoughtfully.

"Hey…you look different."

"So do you, Zethes. These are my friends, by the way. Introduce yourselves."

"I am Cal!" The ox man said proudly, as though it had taken him a while to memorize that sentence.

"Short for Calais," The other one who had to be Zethes explained. "Sadly, my brother cannot say words with more than two syllables-"

"Pizza! Hockey! Destroy!" Cal shouted.

"-which includes his own name," Zethes finished.

"I'm Cal. And this is Zethes! My brother!"

"Wow," Leo said. "That was almost three sentences, way to go man!" Cal grunted in pleasure.

"Stupid buffoon," Zethes grumbled. "They make fun of you. But no matter. I am Zethes, which is short for Zethes, and the ladies there-" He winked, to Piper and Emily most likely (as I wasn't exactly Aphrodite material at the moment) but it was more like a facial seizure. "They can call me anything they like. Perhaps you would like to have dinner with a famous demigod before we destroy you?" Piper made a sound like gagging on a cough drop while Emily smiled, clearly forcing it though.

"That's…nice," She said.

"We are very romantic people. We Boreads."

"Boreads?" Jason repeated. "Like the sons of Boreas?"

"Ah, so you've been told of us! I'm flattered, Zyanya." He tried to wink and her and she rolled her eyes. He clearly missed that as he continued. "We are our father's gatekeepers. So, you understand, we cannot have unauthorized people flying in his airspace or large creaky dragons, scaring the silly mortal people." He pointed down and I realized that some people were noticing us. I wondered what we looked like with the mist, but an airplane flying by could be explained. We were holding still, and flying too low to be a plane, so we couldn't hold out for very long. I wondered if the two brothers could be seen too.

"This is why, sadly, unless this is an emergency landing…" He brushed his hair out of his acne covered face. "We shall have to destroy you painfully."

"Destroy!" Cal agreed enthusiastically. Zyanya held up her hand, holding on to Veon noticeably with her other, as she leaned out from the back of our group and sent out a wave of clear energy. It looked like the ripple above your grill when you heat it up, but in a directional wave towards the two brothers. Instantly, their swords steamed before literally melting into nothing but steam that disappeared into the air.

"No destroying," She said sternly, a deepness returning to her voice that happened when she went more Zyanya then Lucy. "Take us to Boreas, Zethes." He grunted, clearly unhappy about the loss of his weapon.

"I don't know…sister would have an avalanche if we allowed-"

"I'll handle her." He still looked hesitant, but then Emily spoke up, smiling and pouring her new charm speak into her words. It wasn't really charm speak, but it was a kind of kind aura that made anyone want to be nice around her. She couldn't use her smile to convince someone to fight someone else or hate someone else, but she could urge them to be peaceful, or, like with Piper, she could encourage them to stand up for themselves for a good cause.

"Please, sir, our dragon is malfunctioning. It could crash any minute. If you'd be so kind as to escort us to Boreas, you won't be punished and we will be on our way before you know it!" Festus shuddered helpfully, turning his head and spilling gunk out of his ear and ruining a black Mercedes in a parking lot below. Hope that guy has insurance. Water isn't very useful in removing an amount of oil that large.

"No destroy?" Cal whimpered. Zethes pondered for a moment before giving them another spasmodic wink.

"Well you are pretty, I mean right. A malfunctioning dragon could be an emergency…and if you promise we won't get in trouble…"

"Destroy them later?" Cal suggested, which was probably as close to friendly as he got.

"It may take some explaining…but we can leave that to you, Zyanya. Father has not been kind to visitors lately. But yes, come, faulty dragon. Follow us." The two pulled out flashlights with little orange cones, like the ones traffic controller guys use on runways, and they swooped towards the hotel's tower.

"Follow them," Zyanya ordered.

"I wonder why Boreas hasn't been kind to visitors," Jason muttered.

"He just hasn't met us," Leo said. "Festus, after those flashlights!"

"Whoo!" Emily whooped in agreement. This was our first step into real danger, I realized. Hopefully nothing went wrong, and Zyanya had a plan here, because otherwise, we might just be walking into a den of psychos fully willing to kill us.


And now we know Zyanya knows some people, and could even be a god. Please review and give any feedback or suggestions on the story. School is a thing for me, so the flow of stories may not be as fast as these first chapters, but I love writing so I'll keep it going as best I can and hopefully entertain readers who love FanFic and this series.