Chapter 30

Jason's P.O.V.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry," Piper flung her hands.

"No, no, it's fine," he added reassuringly. But it sure had pained a lot. While Piper was redressing his wound, her hand had accidentally rubbed against it. Pain shot up inside him like electricity, but he had managed to contain it with just an Ouch at least.

"You sure you're okay?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah I'm fine," he sighed exasperatedly, holding his t-shirt above so that Piper could redress his wound.

Percy and Annabeth were having a conversation on pancakes, and Hazel and Frank were studying a map. Leo and Natalie were discussing something slowly.

He and Natalie had become best friends so fast it felt like the blink of an eye. Remembering their first meeting, when Natalie had pinned Leo to the wall on sword point, Jason smirked. Who would know those two could be so close? Natalie, being so disciplined, controlled, even having been offered the post of praetor numerous times, whereas Leo, casual, funny and extremely ADHD.

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!" Buford the wonder table's voice echoed across the room.

Annabeth sighed. "Leo, we told you to stop that."

"Hey, it's nice. Feels good to hear the Coach's voice!" he protested.

"Besides," he added. "There should be a chaperone, even if it is a table, to make sure people don't have hangouts in the pegasus stables."

Annabeth looked up like - Why do I have to deal with this?

Natalie smirked. Percy shifted guiltily.

"So…once we reach Olympia, who's going to look for Nike?"

Annabeth leaned forward. "Nike is the goddess of victory. She sure does like a nice and good competition and fights. Her children at camp," she sighed. "Well, the thing is we can't send anybody who are prone to fight with each other in her presence."

She looked at him and Percy.

"So that means my bro Jason and I are going to go together," Percy said.

"Yup. So can't you and Natalie," Annabeth told him. "You both are children of Neptune. That would make you more prone to pick up a fight with each other, even though you won't. But we can't take risks."

Natalie nodded. "Frank can go. Mars and Neptune will make a good pair, I guess."

"And me," Leo bowed like he had just given an awesome performance. "Hephaestus is pretty much neutral."

"Yeah," Piper said. "Ignoring the fact that Ares has an affair with his wife, and he's supposed to be the Greek form of Frank's dad."

"Precisely," Leo added.

"It won't be a problem," Annabeth said. "Hephaestus doesn't have much enmity towards Ares after the net incident."

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"

Annabeth cleared her throat. "So, as we were saying. Percy, Frank and Leo are going. Hazel, you can go. Hades won't be bad along with them, and well, the four of us went to Ithaca, so you four can go on to Olympia."

"Sure," Hazel smiled.

Pain shot up inside him again. He flinched, but nobody saw him. They were all busy.

A metallic noise came from above.

"Reached Olympia," Leo intoned. "Docking in a minute."

"Come on," Pecry said, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Time for some action."

Jason got up. He had to go to the deck to at least wave them goodbye.

"Oh no you don't," Piper said sternly.

"Why?"

"You need to rest."

"Come on, it's just the deck."

"Fine," she huffed.

After his injury, Piper had become that fussy mom who always kept telling him what to do and what not. Jason appreciated it, but it was annoying sometimes. Of course, his wound hurt. But he wouldn't let it stop him, he did not want to appear weak.

He leaned on Piper and went above the deck. Percy, Leo, Frank and Hazel descended down, waved them goodbye, and left.

"You know we should really try that Odontotyrranos horn on you," Natalie said. "What's the use of keeping it just like that. You're injured, we can heal it."

Jason grimaced. "It's just a stab wound. It'll heal. We can't waste that horn. Not when we're so close to the Feast of Spes."

"We used it on my wound where Polybotes had grazed me," she argued, holding up the back of her palm. A little scar was visible, a souvenir of the wound from Polybotes' trident which she had gotten while fighting him.

"We knew it wasn't healing because Polybotes' trident was magical. Something magical was the only cure for it. This is just a stab wound from a sword Varus was holding, nothing enchanted. It'll heal just like any other injury."

Even though Jason was saying this, he felt that he was wrong. The wound would have healed at least a little.

Natalie raised her hands in surrender. "Fine!"

"Guys, let's not fight, okay?" Annabeth sighed. "I and Natalie will stay guard on the deck. Jason, you go down to your cabin and rest. Piper, you look like you haven't slept properly too. Go and sleep, we'll take care of the ship."

"Wake me up if something happens," she said, gesturing to Jason to come.

"Yeah. Go, we'll take care of this."

Author's note :-

I know it's not a big chapter but since we already know what happens with the peoples whose POVs we have in books, I'm trying to cover up what we don't see. Like, background scenes. I'll try to keep uploading regularly. Thanks, bye!