It didn't take long for Jason to realize that wasn't actually Leo's scream that they heard. It wasn't his first run-in with a cyclops. But it still was eerie.
"Guys, it's just a cyclops," he assured them, beckoning for the group to head back to the crash site.
"Just a cyclops?" Frank muttered, the nervousness in his voice clear, "And I take it we're fighting against just Gaea too."
Hazel patted his head comfortingly, "Fine, Jason. But we still don't know where Leo is. And if a cyclops learned to mimic Leo's voice to make that screaming sound, it means Leo has to be nearby."
"So we look for Leo?" suggested Frank, "Then head back?"
"If we keep wandering around for Leo, we might end up walking into a trap!" Jason argued, clenching his fists, "Let's just go back."
"I mean, you do have a point," Frank mumbled, standing awkwardly between his two companions.
"So you're leaving Leo?" Hazel cried, tears swelling in her eyes, "Some friend you are. Everyone's been so thoughtlessly caught up in the quest you don't notice how bad he'd been looking lately!"
"Wow, that's rude. Leo looks fine!" Jason said protectively. He wasn't going to let anyone - not even Hazel - insult Leo.
"I didn't mean it like that. I meant the bags under his eyes. How his smiles don't look genuine. How he tries too hard with everything and jokes whenever he's in the spotlight in order to take the attention away from himself."
"You sure have been paying attention to him," Jason opposed her, a little freaked out by how much she seemed to know. He regretted his next words the instant they came out of his mouth, "You got a crush on him or something?"
Frank froze and Hazel stiffened, her hands clenching into fists.
"No," she said in a low voice, "I don't. And you don't even know what's been going on between us three," she waved her arm in Frank's direction, "so just drop it."
"Fine," Jason mumbled, forcing himself not to get too angry and start a thunderstorm, "I'm going back to the crash to make sure everyone's still okay. We've obviously had no luck finding Leo. For all we know, it'll be like that time he disappeared for a while then just showed up with no explanation."
"There was an explanation!" Hazel insisted, "He told you about Ogygia! But nobody ever actually listens to him, so you wouldn't even know!"
She stomped in outrage as Jason walked away, his hair spiky from static as he took deep breaths to calm himself.
"Let's just go, Frank. We can find Leo, just the two of us."
Frank stared at the ground, still hurt from Jason's comment. "I actually need a couple minutes. I'm tired from climbing so fast and would like to catch my breath." He gave him a weak smile, "How about I catch up to you in a few?"
Turning around, Hazel left him, unable to stop the tears from forming in her eyes. She felt like the only person who actually seemed to care about Jason - in an entirely platonic way, Jason was completely off - but she wished she could just tell everybody else about him.
Leo was always a trickster, and he was good at putting on a show. His jokes proved that. But Leo was always pretending. Pretending he was just the happy, sassy, goofy mechanic that they all knew. Pretending he wasn't feeling more and more lonely and hurt inside each day. And unless Hazel did something, he was going to keep pretending.
"That's why I've gotta find him." she said aloud, now running through the forest.
