The way I figured it, I spent more time crashing than I did flying. If there were a rewards card for frequent crashers, I'd be, like, double-platinum level.
I regained consciousness as I was free-falling through the clouds, which is literally the stuff of nightmares for most people. Just another day for me. I let out a very masculine, very manly wail that awoke Peri, who also launched into a fit of shrieking. Heh, go figure.
"It's okay, it's okay," I tried to calm her down so that I could think. "Don't worry, I'm an expert at falling with style."
"N-no, no way!" Peri's eyes darted around in a state of panic. "This can't be happening... I thought we had more time... I thought..."
It was normal to freak out in this situation, so I didn't think twice about Peri's rambling. She's probably just not as used to plummeting headfirst towards the earth as me, a seasoned veteran. At least she'd stopped hollering so that I could hear my own thoughts again.
I had a hazy memory of Khione taunting me right before we got shot into the sky. I hadn't actually seen her, but I could never forget that snow witch bitch's voice. I had no idea how long we'd been gaining altitude, but at some point Peri and I must have passed out from the cold and the lack of oxygen. Now we were on our way down, heading for my biggest crash landing to date.
Hooray!
The clouds parted around our tangled bodies. I saw the glittering sea far, far below. No sign of the Argo II. No sign of any coastline, familiar or otherwise, except for one tiny island at the horizon.
I couldn't fly. Peri couldn't swim. Not that it would matter anyway— crashing into the ocean at this height and velocity would be like face planting into cement. We had a couple of minutes at most before we'd hit the water and go ker-splat.
For the first time since I'd known the girl, Peri looked like she might legitimately vomit from fear. It was always so strange seeing her like this. Eyes as wide and frantic as a cornered rabbit. Terrified and helpless, just like when she nearly drowned after the Shrimpzilla attack. She had convinced herself that she was an impenetrable fortress, but in reality she was a house of cards. Omega-Blood or not, she was still a person. I think even Peri herself forgot that sometimes.
"I'm so sorry," Peri began to weep. "I'm sorry I said all of those horrible things to you, Leo. I don't hate you, I didn't mean it—"
"Hey, hey, forget about all of that right now." I wished I could reach out and cradle her face, offer her some sort of comfort even if we were falling to our deaths. "I'm going to get us out of this, okay?"
Peri bit her lip and nodded, her tears lost in the rapid winds as we fell. The doubtful look in her eyes gave me an ominous feeling and shivers ran down my spine. Still, I hoped that I wasn't lying to her. Otherwise this would be a pretty gruesome end to both of our pitiful lives.
I felt remorseful over our stupid fighting these past couple of days, too. If I had known this was going to happen, then I wouldn't have wasted time arguing with her. Lamenting the past wasn't going to change our current situation, though. I've long since lost track of how many times Peri had saved my life in battle. It was my turn to be the hero, but how?
I was still clutching the Archimedes sphere, which didn't surprise me. Unconscious or not, I'd never let go of my most valuable possession. What was peculiar though, was that Peri's hands seemed to have fused with the sphere. On closer inspection, it looked like she had bent the metal around her hands to keep herself strapped tight to the sphere. Since when could she do that? I didn't have time to get that question answered, so I'd have to make sure that we lived through this in order to ask her later.
We will live through this, I thought with a rush of determination.
With a little maneuvering between the two of us, I managed to pull some duct tape from my tool belt and strap the sphere to my chest. This brought Peri and I face to face instead of the awkward, spreadeagled, skydiver reject formation that we were falling in before. I had to force myself to ignore her teary eyes and quivering lips, but at least I had both hands free now. I started to work, furiously tinkering with the sphere, pulling out anything I thought would help from my magic tool belt: a drop cloth, metal extenders, some string and grommets.
Working while falling was almost impossible. The wind roared in my ears. It kept ripping tools, screws, and canvas out of my hands, but finally I constructed a makeshift frame. I popped open a hatch on the sphere, teased out two wires, and connected them to my crossbar.
How long until we hit the water? Maybe a minute?
I turned the sphere's control dial, and it whirred into action. More bronze wires shot from the orb, intuitively sensing what I needed. Cords laced up the canvas drop cloth. The frame began to expand on its own. I pulled out a can of kerosene and a rubber tube and lashed them to the thirsty new engine that the orb was helping me assemble.
"Why couldn't you just take me, Gaea?!" Peri cried out to the heavens in a sudden outburst of emotion. "Why him? WHY?"
What's she talking about? What does Gaea have to do with this? Unless Khione was just one of the Dirt Mother's pawns... Forget it, there's no time to focus on anything but the task at hand!
Finally I made myself a rope halter and shifted so that the X-frame was attached to my back. There was no time to make a second harness for Peri, so I'll just have to hold her. No big deal. We can make it. We can live. The sea got closer and closer—a glittering expanse of slap-you-in-the-face death.
I yelled in defiance and punched the sphere's override switch.
The engine coughed to life. The makeshift rotor turned. The canvas blades spun, but much too slowly. My head was pointed straight down at the sea—maybe thirty seconds to impact. Peri and I locked eyes before our final moments. Her fearful expression had transformed into one of misery, regret, and was that... guilt? She can't be blaming herself for this mess, right?
"My life was kinda shit," Peri said miserably, just loud enough to be heard over the howling winds. "And then I met you... I wish we had more time together."
My eyes burned, but I smiled. "I wouldn't want to die a horrible, painful death with anyone else."
She laughed through her tears, which made my heart swell. I'm so glad that I could hear her laugh just one last time. I supposed it could be worse. I could be dying alone. Instead I was with the love of my life, holding her close, smelling her hair in my face. Finally, I wouldn't have to worry about any annoying gods or dangerous quests. For our last moments, we were the only two beings that mattered to me. My chest warmed at the thought.
No, wait. That's the sphere heating up. Suddenly, the orb on my chest got warm. The blades turned faster. The engine coughed, and we tilted sideways, slicing through the air.
"YES!" I yelled triumphantly.
I had successfully created the world's most dangerous personal helicopter.
Peri yelped in surprise as we shot toward the island in the distance, but we were still falling much too fast. The blades shuddered. The canvas screamed.
"It's hot!" Peri cried frantically. "The basketball is too hot!"
I kicked myself for not anticipating the mechanism overheating. The beach was still hundreds of yards away, and the sphere was heating up quickly. At this rate, we may not even make it to shore before the engine burst into flames.
"Just hold on, we're almost there," I lied, trying to pull something, anything from my tool belt that would help.
"I've got to let go," Peri insisted. "It's too hot. I can't—"
"No, Peri, we're still too high up," I poured antifreeze into an engine valve. "You'd die—"
"Aah, shit!" Peri screeched in pain and released the Archimedes sphere.
I reached out and grabbed her wrist before she could fly away from me. The bottle of antifreeze missed her face by just inches as it was carried by the wind. Peri's palms were red and radiated an intense heat, but her burns didn't look too serious. One of the harness straps that held the sphere to my chest snapped. The bronze orb dangled lopsidedly and threatened to fly off on its own with the helicopter blades. I had to use one arm to hold onto Peri, and the other to keep a grip on the sphere. Her brown eyes darted from me to the Archimedes sphere and back again.
Peri always thought that I cared more about this lost Greek relic than I did about her. But if I truly had to choose between the two, I'd pick her in a heartbeat. But abandoning the sphere in this case would surely lead to certain death. The gears in my brain weren't turning fast enough. What do I do now?
"This is what she meant," Peri croaked.
"Who?" I demanded.
"I-I'm going to let go, okay?"
"What? No! Don't, alright, just let me—"
"No, listen to me!" She urged. "There's no time. We're not both dying today. I'm gonna try and send you as close to land as I can."
"Peri, please," I begged her. "We have to stay together."
This was just like when she faced the eidolons all by herself underground, locking me in that stupid cage for my own safety. Why did she have to be selfless at a time like this? Why did she always have to sacrifice herself? Why didn't she understand that I couldn't live without her in this world?
My voice was cracking. "Please don't do this."
"I'm sorry." She smiled, and her tears floated upwards like an inverted rainstorm. Women are so confusing. How can someone look so sad and so happy at the same time? "Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me. I love you."
The Archimedes sphere spun rapidly before flying into my chest with enough force to knock the wind out of me. It ripped me away from Peri, ripped me away from my sun, my star, my everything. I screamed her name helplessly as it carried me further and further towards the island. Her form grew smaller and smaller until she was just a golden speck hurtling towards the expansive ocean.
The beach was only a hundred yards away when the sphere turned lava-hot and the helicopter exploded, shooting flames in every direction. If I hadn't been immune to fire, I would have been charcoal. Peri would've been charcoal. As it was, the midair explosion probably saved my life. The blast flung me sideways while the bulk of my flaming contraption smashed into the shore at full speed with a massive KA-BOOM!
I opened my eyes, my mind just as tattered as my clothing. Dazed from the crash landing and grief stricken from being separated from Peri, it was difficult for me to tell if what I was seeing was reality. I was sitting in a bathtub-sized crater in the sand. A few yards away, a column of thick black smoke roiled into the sky from a much larger crater. The surrounding beach was peppered with smaller pieces of burning wreckage.
"P-Peri," I groaned.
I struggled to my feet. None of my bones seemed broken, which was good; but mostly I was worried about my love. The image of her face was embedded into my mind's eye. The way she had become so calm... it was like she was expecting this day to come. I'd never be able to forgive myself if she had planned to trade her life for mine all along.
I should have recognized the signs. The weather, the ice, I knew it was all too familiar. My fists clenched. If Peri really was dead, then I was going to track down that damned snow goddess Khione and burn her to nothing. Immortal goddess or not, I'd find a way.
I staggered across the beach, heading for the waves that were ironically docile today. I began to speculate that the god of the sea was mocking me and my strings of misfortune. My voice went raw calling Peri's name as I trudged through the waist deep water. It was too soon to give up hope. Maybe she'd wash up on the shore or cling to a piece of driftwood until I could rescue her. Maybe a group of friendly mermaids would save her, or a giant eagle might catch her before she falls. Okay, those last two were really far fetched, but I just couldn't bear the thought of her dying. She was too strong. She had to stay alive. She had to live.
She just had to.
Wading through the cool water was exhausting, and I couldn't see any flecks of gold in the ocean, so I made my way back to the shore to conserve energy. As I stumbled across the bluff towards the pillar of smoke, I noticed that there weren't any tourists or hotels or boats in sight. This was strange, because the island seemed perfect for a resort, with blue water and soft white sand. Maybe it was uncharted. Did they still have uncharted islands in the world? Maybe Khione had blasted us out of the Mediterranean altogether. For all I knew, I was in Bora Bora.
When I approached the larger crater, I was surprised to see that it was about eight feet deep. At the bottom, the helicopter blades were still trying to turn. The engine belched smoke. The rotor croaked like a stepped-on frog, but dang—pretty impressive for a rush job. If only the damn thing hadn't overheated, then I'd be standing here with Peri. Because of this, I couldn't truly be proud of my handiwork.
I'll find her.
The helicopter had apparently crashed onto something. The crater was littered with broken wooden furniture, shattered china plates, some half-melted pewter goblets, and burning linen napkins. I wasn't sure why all that fancy stuff had been on the beach, but at least it meant that this place was inhabited, after all. I felt a sliver of hope, like my luck might finally be turning around. Maybe someone had seen a blonde chick with a sword fall from the sky.
At last, I spotted the Archimedes sphere—steaming and charred but still intact, making unhappy clicking noises in the center of the wreckage.
"Sphere!" I yelled. "At least I still have you. Come to papa!"
I skidded to the bottom of the crater and snatched up the sphere. I collapsed, sat cross-legged, and cradled the device in my hands. The bronze surface was searing hot, but I didn't care. It was still in one piece, which meant I could use it to help find Peri. Once we were reunited, the two of us should be able to come up with a plan to get off this stupid island and back to our friends.
I was making a mental list of tools that I might need when an unfamiliar girl's voice interrupted my thoughts.
"What are you doing? You blew up my dining table!"
Immediately, I thought: Uh oh.
I'd met a lot of goddesses, but the girl glaring down at me from the edge of the crater actually looked like a goddess.
Red flag number one.
She wore a sleeveless white Greek-style dress with a gold braided belt. Her hair was long, straight, and golden brown—almost the same cinnamon-toast color as Hazel's, but the similarity to Hazel ended there. The girl's face was milky pale, with dark, almond-shaped eyes and lips set in a deep frown.
She looked maybe fifteen, about my age, but I knew that meant nothing when it came to the gods. With that angry expression on her face she reminded me of every popular girl in every school I'd ever attended—the ones who made fun of me, gossiped a lot, thought they were so superior, and basically did everything they could to make my life miserable.
Red flag number two through ten right there.
I disliked her instantly.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" I said in an explosion of anger. "I just fell out of the sky and got separated from my... well, everything! I constructed a helicopter in midair, burst into flames halfway down, crash-landed, and barely survived. But by all means—let's talk about your damn dining table!"
I snatched up a half-melted goblet. "Who puts a dining table on the beach where innocent demigods can crash into it?! Who does that?"
The girl clenched her fists. I was pretty sure she was going to march down the crater and punch me in the face for yelling at her.
That's what Peri would do, I thought miserably.
Instead she looked up at the sky.
"REALLY?" she screamed at the empty blue. "You want to make my curse even worse? Zeus! Hephaestus! Hermes! Have you no shame?"
"Uh…" I noticed that she'd just picked three gods to blame, and one of them was my dad. I didn't figure that was a good sign. "I doubt they're listening. You know, the whole split personality thing—"
"Show yourself!" the girl yelled at the sky, completely ignoring me. "It's not bad enough I am exiled? It's not bad enough you take away the few good heroes I'm allowed to meet? You think it's funny to send me this—this charbroiled runt of a boy to ruin my tranquility? This is NOT FUNNY! Take him back!"
"Hey, Sunshine," I said flatly. "I'm right here, you know."
She growled like a cornered animal. "Do not call me Sunshine! Get out of that hole and come with me now so I can get you off my island!"
"Well, since you asked so nicely…"
I didn't know what the crazy girl was so worked up about, but I didn't really care. If she could help me leave this island, that was totally fine by me. I considered asking her if she's seen a blonde girl with a golden sword anywhere around here, but I thought she might bite my head off if I said the wrong thing. If she's got a boat or something then I can use that to find Peri if she's floating on some driftwood in the ocean. I didn't want to consider the alternative.
I clutched my charred sphere and climbed out of the crater. When I reached the top, the rude girl was already marching down the shoreline. I jogged to catch up.
She gestured in disgust at the burning wreckage. "This was a pristine beach! Look at it now."
"Yeah, my bad," I muttered bitterly. "I should've crashed on one of the other islands. Oh, wait— there aren't any!"
She snarled and kept walking along the edge of the water. I scanned the sea. Just like I'd seen during the fall, there were no landmasses or ships all the way to the horizon. Looking inland, I saw grassy hills dotted with trees. A footpath wound through a grove of cedars. I wondered where it led: probably to the girl's secret lair, where she roasted her enemies so she could eat them at her dining table on the beach. I shivered despite the warm weather.
I was so busy thinking about that, I didn't notice when the girl stopped. I ran into her.
"Gah!" She turned and grabbed my arms to keep from falling in the surf. Her hands were strong, as though she worked with them for a living. Maybe she ripped demigods apart with her bare hands.
Scary.
She glared at me, her dark almond eyes only a few inches from my own. The girl pushed me away roughly. "All right. This spot is good. Now tell me you want to leave."
"What?" My brain was still kind of muddled from the crash landing. I wasn't sure I had heard her right.
"Do you want to leave?" she demanded. "Surely you've got somewhere to go!"
"Uh… yeah. My friends are in trouble. I need to get back to my ship and—"
"Fine," she snapped. "Just say, I want to leave Ogygia."
"Uh, okay." This seemed a bit too easy. "I want to leave—whatever you said."
"Oh-gee-gee-ah." The girl pronounced it slowly, as if I was five years old.
"I want to leave Oh-gee-gee-ah," I said.
She exhaled, clearly relieved. "Good. In a moment, a magical raft will appear. It will take you wherever you want to go."
"Who are you?"
She looked like she was about to answer but stopped herself. "It doesn't matter. You'll be gone soon. You're obviously a mistake."
That was harsh, I thought.
I'd spent enough time thinking I was a mistake—as a demigod, on this quest, in life in general. I didn't need a random crazy goddess reinforcing the idea.
I remembered a Greek legend about a girl on an island.… Maybe one of my friends had mentioned it? It didn't matter. As long as she let me leave. All I wanted to do right now was find Peri and get back to the Argo.
"Any moment now…" The girl stared out at the water.
No magical raft appeared.
"Maybe it got stuck in traffic," I suggested.
"This is wrong." She glared at the sky. "This is completely wrong!"
"So…plan B?" I asked. "You got a phone, or—"
"Agh!" The girl turned and stormed inland. When she got to the footpath, she sprinted into the grove of trees and disappeared.
"Okay," I said. "Or you could just run away."
From my tool belt pouches I pulled some rope and a snap hook, then fastened the Archimedes sphere to my belt.
I looked out to sea. Still no magic raft.
I could stand here and wait, but I was hungry, thirsty, and tired. I was banged up pretty bad from my fall, but I could only imagine what Peri was going through. If I wanted to find her, I might have to kiss up to this goddess for a bit. I was much better at annoying people than I was at baseless flattery, but I was willing to try if it meant that I'd be reunited with Peri. That thought was the only thing keeping me going, the only thing preventing me from crumbling to pieces. For Peri, I'd do just about anything.
So despite my very real concern of being eaten alive, I followed the crazy girl into the rolling green hills.