Hello my guys. So, Leo is just like 'Why me? Why me? I didn't ask for this!' and I love him for that.
Replies:
Weirdhead: And now it's fight time!
The Official Clarisse: Maybe so- but I like the sorta pep talk in this chapter better :) And yeah, they really have to save Hera and Jason doesn't remember enough to get there safely anyway yet.
Guest: Jupiter doesn't really bother with his kids in cannon, so probably not any that didn't really happen in cannon- and I don't think there are many of those. And you have to wait and see who the Grandmother and the daughter are.
Undeath9087: Very true- in fact in the chapter I'm writing right now one of the character's is like 'Hm, I wonder if I can get the guy we're talking to to give me a quick therapy session' which does not work well for them. As for waiting until the couple get back together, you'll have to wait a little while, it won't be a quick fix. And yeah, we're getting to the fun now- I enjoy the chapters coming up- Leo gets to shine a bit.
Noir Nyan: Hahahahahah. You hate me, how sweet, I love it. And yeah, I've just progressively got worse as I wrote and I don't even feel guilty if I'm being honest.
Leo took a deep breath, "Jase- I wish we could stay longer and help you figure things out but-" he looked down at his feet, a grim look on his face as he lifted his foot with a sucking squelching noise. "We need to get moving. Now."
The others noticed the problem.
"Gaea is stronger here," Hedge grumbled. He popped his hooves free from his shoes, then handed the shoes to Leo. "Keep those for me, Valdez. They're nice. "
Leo snorted. "Yes, sir, Coach. Would you like them polished?"
"That's varsity thinking, Valdez." Hedge nodded approvingly. "But first, we'd better hike up this mountain while we still can. "
"How do we know where the giant is?" Piper asked.
Jason pointed toward the peak. Drifting across the summit was a plume of smoke. From a distance, Leo had thought it was a cloud, but it wasn't. Something was burning.
"Smoke equals fire," Jason said. "We'd better hurry."
"Yes." Calypso laid a reassuring hand on Piper's shoulder, we should."
Leo was a demigod. He'd know about that fact since he was thirteen years old. He'd trained most days, he'd practised with his big sister and his brothers.
He'd been on dozens of quest- some bigger than others, and he'd fought in a war. He thought he was in good shape. But climbing a mountain when the earth was trying to swallow his feet was like jogging on a flypaper treadmill.
In no time, Leo had rolled up the sleeves on his collarless shirt, even though the wind was cold and sharp. He wished Aphrodite had given him walking shorts and some more comfortable shoes, but he was grateful for the Ray-Bans that kept the sun out of his eyes. He slipped his hands into his tool belt and started summoning supplies—gears, a tiny wrench, some strips of bronze. As he walked, he built—not really thinking about it, just fiddling with pieces.
By the time they neared the crest of the mountain, Leo was the most fashionably dressed sweaty, dirty hero ever. His hands were covered in machine grease.
The little object he'd made was like a windup toy—the kind that rattled and walked across a coffee table. He wasn't sure what it could do, but he slipped it into his tool belt.
He missed his army coat with all its pockets. Even more than that, he missed Festus. He could use a fire-breathing bronze dragon right now. But Leo knew Festus would not be coming back—at least, not in his old form.
He patted the picture in his pocket—the crayon drawing he'd made at the picnic table under the pecan tree when he was five years old. He remembered Tía Callida singing as he worked, and how upset he'd been when the winds had snatched the picture away. It isn't time yet, little hero, Tía Callida had told him. Someday, yes. You'll have your quest. You will find your destiny, and your hard journey will finally make sense. And she'd mentioned it again when they'd met in the Labyrinth- he'd been so sure that Percy was going to swing for her, it was the first time he'd really felt like he had family since his moms death, the moment he knew he'd do anything for her. Then she'd died and left him again, and he'd not been able to save her. Some hero- and in a way he blamed himself- maybe if Typhon hadn't- but dwelling on that did no good. It would drive him insane.
Now Aeolus had returned the picture. Leo knew that meant his destiny was getting close; but the journey was as frustrating as this stupid mountain. Every time Leo thought they'd reached the summit, it turned out to be just another ridge with an even higher one behind it.
First things first, Leo told himself. Survive today. Figure out crayon drawing of destiny later.
Finally Jason crouched behind a wall of rock. He gestured for the others to do the same. Leo crawled up next to him. Piper had to pull Coach Hedge down with help from Calypso.
"I don't want to get my outfit dirty!" Hedge complained.
"Shhh!" Piper said.
Reluctantly, the satyr knelt.
Just over the ridge where they were hiding, in the shadow of the mountain's final crest, was a forested depression about the size of a football field, where the giant Enceladus had set up camp.
Trees had been cut down to make a towering purple bonfire. The outer rim of the clearing was littered with extra logs and construction equipment—an earthmover; a big crane thing with rotating blades at the end like an electric shaver—must be a tree harvester, Leo thought—and a long metal column with an ax blade, like a sideways guillotine—a hydraulic ax.
Why a giant needed construction equipment, Leo wasn't sure. He didn't see how the creature in front of him could even fit in the driver's seat. The giant Enceladus was so large, so horrible, Leo didn't want to look at him, and Leo had seen monsters before- seen some of the worst there were, which meant when Leo could barely stomach it it had to be bad.
But he forced himself to focus on the monster.
To start with, he was thirty feet tall—easily as tall as the treetops. Leo was sure the giant could've seen them behind their ridge, but he seemed intent on the weird purple bonfire, circling it and chanting under his breath. From the waist up, the giant appeared humanoid, his muscular chest clad in bronze armor, decorated with flame designs. His arms were completely ripped. Each of his biceps was bigger than Leo. His skin was bronze but sooty with ash. His face was crudely shaped, like a half-finished clay figure, but his eyes glowed white, and his hair was matted in shaggy dreadlocks down to his shoulders, braided with bones. From the waist down, he was even more terrifying. His legs were scaly green, with claws instead of feet—like the forelegs of a dragon. In his hand, Enceladus held a spear the size of a flagpole. Every so often he dipped its tip in the fire, turning the metal molten red.
"Okay," Coach Hedge whispered. "Here's the plan—"
Leo elbowed him. "You're not charging him alone! Gods I'm starting to understand why Clarisse loves you so much- your plans are as bad as Percy's were."
"Aw, c'mon. "
Piper choked back a sob. "Look." and Calypso was wrapping an arm around the other girls shoulder, pulling her close to try and comfort her, and also just in case she tried to make a rush for her father.
"We're going to save him. Leonidas and Jason will think of something." Calypso's expression almost screamed 'Please think of something!'
Just visible on the other side of the bonfire was a man tied to a post. His head slumped like he was unconscious, so Leo couldn't make out his face, but Piper didn't seem to have any doubts.
"Dad," she said.
Leo swallowed. He wished this were a Tristan McLean movie. Then Piper's dad would be faking unconsciousness. He'd untie his bonds and knock out the giant with some cleverly hidden anti-giant gas. Heroic music would start to play, and Tristan McLean would make his amazing escape, running away in slow motion while the mountainside exploded behind him.
But this wasn't a movie. Tristan McLean was half dead and about to be eaten. The only people who could stop it—three fashionably dressed teenaged demigods, one newly mortal daughter of a Titan who he noticed with concern, was looking very pale, and a megalomaniac goat.
"There's five of us," Hedge whispered urgently. "And only one of him."
"Coach, you seem to be missing one simple fact." Leo pointed out slowly, eyeing him with an exasperated expression.
"Yeah?"
"He's a freaking thirty foot tall giant and we can't kill him without the help of a god."
"Okay," Hedge said. "So you, me, and Jason distract him. Piper and Calpyso sneak around and free her dad."
They all turned their gazes to Leo- even Jason- and personally Leo felt like that was not fair. "What- why are you looking at me-"
"Leo-" Jason gave a strained smile, "You've done most of the leading-"
"Only because you have amnesia- technically this is your quest."
"I still have amnesia." Jason pointed out, shaking his head, "Leo, right now you're the one who has real life battle experience that you can remember- the stuff we've dealt with so far on the quest isn't the same. You said yourself that you fought in the battles against Saturn."
"You're capable Leonidas." Calpyso gave him a gentle smile, "You know you are." she leaned over, pressing her lips to his cheek. "Did you not help win the war-"
"I barely fought- I was mostly back up on Festus-"
"Zoe told me that you went with them to treat with Prometheus- that you challenged the Drakon to buy time for Clarisse to arrive. She told me that you were one of the few demigods who went up to Olympus for the final-"
"I wasn't- I ended up just guarding Thal's and Annabeth- that was just Percy and Luke I don't-"
"C'mon Valdez." Hedge snorted, "You're as much of a leader as your sister was. Or are you gonna make Mr 'I don't remember my home address over there' lead us?"
"I-" Leo looked at Jason, who gave a reassuring smile.
"Listen dude- I trust you. This- I feel like I usually have to lead but I don't- it doesn't feel right and having you stepping up- that's been good. And you've done a real good job Leo."
"Oh I hate my life sometimes." Leo let out a huff. "Okay. Well I hate it but Coach's plan is probably the best even if it sounds suicidal- Cal, you help Piper get her dad out- if you can get him out of the way and sheltered see what you can do for any injuries he has." Leo didn't even notice that he was trying to stand like Percy had when she'd lead them into battle, straightening his back as much as he could while sat, holding his head high.
"Of course." Calypso squeezed Piper's shoulder, and Piper stared at Leo for a long moment before lunging at him, hugging him tightly, so hard he felt like he could hardly breath.
"You're the best friend I could ever ask for Leo you know that?"
Leo hugged her back, "Yeah yeah, tell that to my family okay?" he pulled back, "You two go along the ridge." he didn't add, 'and wish us luck' because he was pretty sure that that wouldn't actually help with their morale.
And as soon as the two girls were moving Leo, Jasona and Coach Hedge headed towards the clearing, Leo pulling a dagger from his toolbelt.
As they walked into the clearing Jason summoned his golden lance.
And since Leo was apparently the leader he decided that meant that he was probably the one who should announce their presence, which he did, by calling out, "Hey there ugly, I'm looking for a giant, enchilada or something, have you seen him around? He's probably twice as big as you- no offence shorty-" he ignored the exasperated look that Jason gave him at that- after all, they'd voted him the leader it was their own fault.
Enceladus stopped chanting at the flames. He turned toward them and grinned, revealing fangs like a saber-toothed tiger's.
"Well." the giant rumbled, twitching with annoyance. "Isn't this a nice surprise. It's Enceladus. Not-"
"Are you sure? I really thought it was Enchilada." as Leo spoke he kept the giants attention on him as his friends moved, inching sideways- and Leo
desperately wanted to go for the bulldozer- he felt like he could use the bulldozer.
"You really are as annoying as I've heard." the giant growled the word as Leo tried to start to inch towards the bulldozer without giving his plan away, dipping
his free hand into his toolbelt, where he'd slipped his little wind up gadget.
Thankfully the attention was drawn away from Leo then.
Coach Hedge shouted, "Let the movie star go, you big ugly cupcake! Or I'm gonna plant my hoof right up your—"
"Coach," Jason yelled. "Shut up."
Enceladus roared with laughter. "I've forgotten how funny satyrs are. When we rule the world, I think I'll keep your kind around. You can entertain me while I eat all the other mortals."
"Is that a compliment?" Hedge frowned at Leo. "I don't think that was a compliment."
Enceladus opened his mouth wide, and his teeth began to glow.
"Scatter!" Leo called.
Jason and Hedge dove to the left as the giant blew fire—a furnace blast so hot even Festus would've been jealous. Leo dodged behind the bulldozer, a rough plan forming in his mind as he wound up his homemade device, and dropped it into the driver's seat. Then he ran to the right, heading for the tree harvester.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jason rise and charge the giant. Coach Hedge ripped off his canary yellow jacket, which was now on fire, and bleated angrily. "I liked that outfit!" Then he raised his club and charged, too.
Before they could get very far, Enceladus slammed his spear against the ground. The entire mountain shook, and Leo found himself flying off his feet, landing hard, head smacking the ground painfully, stunning him.
Well. That was not good.