A/N: So I cannot begin to apologize for how long this has taken me to update. Frankly, I've been outrageously busy for the past month, because I've started teaching 8 hours a week, I'm in class for 16 hours a week, and then I'm trying to get into two different honor societies at my school. On top of that, I'm looking for jobs, writing a truly outrageous amount for my history and education classes, and every once in a while I try to sleep. In short, I have had mucho on my plate but I'm trying to shove some stuff aside so I can post more often.

However, there are a few things to keep in mind: 1) I can't promise more than an update a month, probably toward the end of each. If I make two, that's insanely great, but I will very likely be this busy or worse until May. But when May hits, I should have a bit more time in my hands. 2) Chapters might be a bit shorter if I plan on updating more often, as it means I don't have as much time to work between chapters.

I hope you all understand my plight, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Love you all!

The dragon swooped to the ground, and on top of it was –

"Leo?!" said Reyna, staring up in shock at the boy on top of the giant metal reptile. "What are you – what?!"

"Shoot the thing!" shouted someone from the Ares cabin.

"Stand down!" shouted Reyna. "No one go anywhere near him – Leo's in control. I think."

"Hi!" he exclaimed from the top of the dragon, covered in motor oil. "Yeah, I have everything under control, don't you people worry." He hopped off of the big dragon and leaned against the side of it. "Needed a little work, but the boy's going to get us where we need to go."

"Boy," said Reyna, trying to grasp the situation. "You decided it's a boy."

Leo nodded. "Of course he's a boy. Can't you tell from the masculine attributes?" He turned to the dragon as something dark like oil dribbled out of its ear. "You know, I think we look alike."

Percy looked at Leo as if he had suggested they save Hera by building a rollercoaster and punching a cactus. "I have no idea what is happening," he said, befuddled.

"Reyna said she wanted me to get the transportation, so I got it."

Reyna's jaw simply dropped as she stared at Leo, who was covered in oil, grinning broadly, and looking extremely pleased with himself. "You got us a dragon to fly around on."

"I named him Festus."

Piper popped up from the side of the camp. "Festus," she said. "What kind of name is Festus?"

"You named our mode of transportation Happy," Reyna translated quickly in her head. "If it wasn't so brilliant, I'd be forced to hit you."

Leo shrugged. "So can we get going, or what? After I take a quick jump in the shower."

Percy and Reyna exchanged a look. "Take half an hour to pack, get ready – in Leo's case shower," said Percy. "Then I think you people are good to go."

Leo bounced off to the baths to clean some of the goop off of his skin, and Piper darted back into the Aphrodite cabin, glaring at Drew. Reyna blinked as she realized there had definitely been some conflict there. And she'd seen angry Piper. Angry Piper was not something one wanted to mess with.

As the rest of the camp cleared out and Festus stood there staring quite vacantly at Percy and Reyna, Percy rested an arm on Reyna's shoulder.

"You really should be getting your things together," he said gently. "You won't have much time, and you could use every second you have."

Reyna exhaled deeply, letting her eyes close for a moment. "I know," she said, "I'm just – I'm worried."

"About the quest?" asked Percy, looking confused. "But you're Reyna! And, like, I know I don't know you. Heck, I don't even know your last name. But you look like you've got this whole going on a quest thing down pat. Like you've got everything packed up in your brain to go defeat the Snuffaluffagus or something."

"Snuffaluffagus is a character on Sesame Street," said Reyna, "and I used to have everything packed up in my brain. At least, I think so. You seem to have forgotten I got a very thorough bleach and dry clean of my brain recently."

Percy's enthusiasm deflated, but only slightly. "Well maybe this quest will bring the memories back."

Reyna shrugged. "I hope so. Or maybe it'll bring back memories of being someone I don't want to think about." She sighed. "I don't want to find out I'm the bad guy."

Percy, surprisingly, scoffed. "You couldn't be the bad guy. You're the hero of this whole shindig. I can tell. You've got one of those faces."

Reyna sighed. "Well, thank you for the kind, if pop culturally inaccurate, words of wisdom."

Percy managed a smile. "Anytime. This," he sighed, "this is probably the last time we're going to see each other for a while. I'm off to grab my bag…And then I'm looking for her." He closed his eyes, trying to recall something so far off Reyna couldn't even fathom it. "I'm finding her."

Reyna offered a smile she wasn't sure Percy even saw and watched him run off…

And then literally disappear.

She wasn't sure what to make of that, and simply assumed she was dreaming. Or hallucinating from a lack of sleep.

Or something.

After a quick shower during which she tried to ignore the fact that, every time she wasn't thinking, she was singing some boyband song loudly and off key, she threw on some warm winter clothes, packed her very small amount of belongings, and walked over to Festus. Leo, newly washed, and Piper, her hair tied half back in a messy braid with the two little braids by the side of her face the only strands left out, were already standing there.

"Hey, Boss," said Leo, flashing her a smile. "Took you long enough."

Reyna furrowed her eyebrows. "Don't call me Boss, champ."

Leo shuddered. "Alright, I get it no nicknames."

Piper seemed to force a smile and grabbed a bit of Festus' scales that was sticking out and swung herself up onto the massive dragon. "You two coming?" she asked, settling herself but still looking horribly distracted.

Reyna simply nodded and noted Piper's demeanor, running toward the dragon and using the momentum to hook her foot on top of a scale and fly onto the dragon.

Leo, of course, got a little stuck getting up and needed Festus to pluck him by the collar by his huge dragon paw and deposit him right in front of Piper. Leo blushed. "Well, at least you guys know he's reliable." He situated himself better, making sure he wasn't halfway to falling off of the giant dragon. "Very good, very helpful dragon." Leo patted his neck. "Now to infinity – and beyond!" yelled Leo. He looked back at the two girls. "Toy Story!" he said gleefully.

Piper and Reyna only nodded carefully.

This was going to be a long trip.

The long trip was only longer when Reyna realized that the only thing to really grip onto was Piper. Reyna, it appeared, wasn't the best at staying balanced on a flying object without any sort of security, or at least this Reyna wasn't, so Reyna was trying to prevent things from getting horribly awkward by being only slightly less awkward. It wasn't her best plan.

"If you're worried you're going to fall off, you can hold on," said Piper lightly. Reyna could tell she was trying not to laugh.

"No laughing at me," said Reyna, trying to sound stern. "It's not nice to laugh at someone with brain damage."

"Oh, don't be crazy," said Leo, "it's not brain damage if your memories were stolen."

Reyna snorted. "How? How is that a logical theory for when something is or is not brain damage?"

Leo shrugged from his position on Festus. "Because I say so. And what the Captain says goes."

"I'm not sure you can be captain of something that is almost a sentient being," said Piper. There was a weird jolt sending Piper up a few feet into the air. Reyna grabbed around her waist to secure her, and couldn't decide if that made things more or less uncomfortable. "Fine, fine," grumbled Piper, "fully sentient being. No need to try and throw me off…"

Leo chuckled and patted Festus' neck. "Aw, he's just playing."

Piper looked uncomfortable. "Please," she said, "just don't let him kill me."

Leo nodded to Piper, then turned to Reyna. "So where are we headed, Boss?" He faltered when Reyna glared at him. "Er, I mean, Reyna?"

"We're looking for the god of the Northern Wind," replied Reyna. "His name is Boreas."

Leo laughed. "So he's the god of being boring, I assume."

Piper rolled her eyes. "Of course not," she replied, "god of Wind."

"Wind god," said Leo carefully, "meaning wind. Meaning creepy Dylan kid who simultaneously was hitting on Piper and was a wind demon."

"Thank you for reminding me of that," said Piper wrinkling her nose. "Ew."

Leo shrugged. "I call em as I see em," he said. "And besides, it's going to be a while before we get anywhere. I think we're over, like, Massachusetts right now."

"How could you possibly know that?" asked Piper, fighting a laugh.

Leo sighed. "Madam, you should know that I am a genius. I just know things."

Reyna couldn't help herself from chuckling a little bit at that comment herself.

"And I should probably tell you guys," said Reyna carefully, "I had one hell of a dream last night. And s-something else that wasn't quite a dream."

Piper turned around to look Reyna in the face. "Nothing, like, hurt you right?" she asked, sounding concerned. Behind the concern, though, was a bit of anger, like Piper was appalled that someone would have the gall to go anywhere near Reyna. Protective, almost.

Reyna refused to admit that she liked the idea of that.

Reyna shrugged. "Not sure if it was really hurting me, but a voice like ice told me – well, she didn't really tell me much. It was more that she was threatening me."

Leo and Piper's expressions both fell. "Threatened you?" they said, sounding dumbfounded. "Why?"

"And how?"

"And," added Piper, "who was able to breach the walls of Camp Half Blood? I mean, it's supposed to be impenetrable, right?"

Reyna nodded. "It wasn't a person, though. It was…Well, it was more like a thing. A spirit. It made me feel like it was going to cut my throat with its voice." Reyna paused. "Her voice," she amended. "Her. It was a female voice." Reyna shuddered involuntarily.

Piper frowned. "Was is Hera?" she asked.

Reyna shook her head. "Nope. It was completely different. This woman was like ice so cold she'd burn. And the regal way she spoke was different…Not war like as much as thinking she was above everyone."

"Could it be that woman we're all trying to defeat?" Leo asked.

Reyna shrugged. "I mean, it's not like the person left me a business card. 'Evil Incorporated – you supply your sanity, we'll rip it away for a minor charge.' I've got no idea who it is."

Piper sighed, looking like she wanted nothing less than finding whoever interrupted Reyna's sleep and hitting them repeatedly with a shoe. "In short, someone threatened you and we've got no idea who it was."

And they threatened you, Reyna thought. She didn't say anything – she didn't want to make things weirder.

"Did either of you have any weird dreams last night?" asked Piper after a strange silence.

Reyna turned to her. "Involving a wolf and…" Reyna fought to remember. "Well, an announcement that I'm the daughter of Bellona."

"Wolf?" asked Piper. "What?"

Reyna explained the dream she'd had. The wolf, the pain in its eyes that was centuries old, the destroyed land, a home turned to hell.

Leo and Piper just looked shocked. "I'm going to take a wild guess this has something to do with the giants and the creepy lady who's trying to kill us."

Reyna raised a single eyebrow. "Gee, you think?"

"Giants revenge," said Piper carefully. "I can't – I'm trying to remember if there are any bits of information involving giants in Greek mythology. There's something." She furrowed her brow, deep in concentration. "Ugh, that entire movie was wrapped up in the time when I accidentally stole a lawnmower. A lot of it is blocked out."

"A lawnmower?" Leo asked, fighting back a laugh. "What, your grass getting so out of control you simply had to tame it with theft?"

Piper rolled her eyes. "I was a kid – I had issues." She paused for a minute, and then lit up. "Right! Okay, so there were these awful giants, they're the ones we're probably dealing with, who were massive, nearly impossible to kill. Mountain throwing menaces, little cousins of the Titans, that kind of thing. They tried to destroy Olympus after Kronos was defeated. I mean, after the first Titan war. Not the one that happened over the summer."

"The last chapter," said Reyna. "The thing Chiron was talking about."

Leo sighed. "And how come your dad never did a movie involving eating ice cream with kittens?"

"Movie?" asked Reyna. "Your dad's an actor?"

Leo nodded. "The fabulous Tristan McLean, who just about flipped a gasket when he found out Piper –"

"Not now, Leo," said Piper dangerously.

Coughing, Leo correctly himself. "Right. Back to business. Hardcore Jillian-Michaels-from-Biggest-Loser training mentality wolf, four other demigods who should help us eventually, but not now, the evil wind dudes who are hopefully not in cahoots with the wind dude we're going to talk to right now, and someone trying to kill Bos-Reyna," Leo grinned at Reyna as she glared at him after he'd corrected himself. "So that means I should probably wait to bring up the psycho babysitter who used to try and make me play with fire as a kid." Reyna's and Piper's jaws dropped. "Well, that was my dream," said Leo, cheerily. "Yeah, brought back a bunch of memories. I was stuck in fireplaces, and it turns out it was Hera all that time. Go figure. And, at one point? This other lady wearing, like, dirt as a cloak, tried to kill me." He frowned. "Or something. That part's still a bit fuzzy."

"So," interjected Reyna, "this quest is probably only the beginning."

All three of them sighed deeply. "And we couldn't have those other four here now to help because apparently life hates us," said Piper.

"Is it wrong to say that I totally don't want to have to do this?" asked Leo.

Piper shook her head. "I don't want to either, but we have no choice."

Reyna nodded. "We save Hera, or the giants rise to kill everything." She shrugged. "Might just be me but 'everything dead' is a lot worse than 'just some things dead.'"

Leo sighed deeply, which turned into a yawn, which turned into a bigger yawn.

"You might want to consider sleeping," said Reyna, offering a small smile.

Leo nodded, yawning again. "I pr-probably should."

And he promptly slumped against the neck of the dragon, passing out.

Piper yawned as well.

"Are you tired?" Reyna asked. "Did you have any dreams that kept you up?

Piper opened her mouth, about to speak, then closed it again, shaking her head. "I, um, didn't really," she said, sputtering a bit. She shrugged. "Just wanted to, uh, check in with you two."

Reyna recognized the funny sputter, the break in the typically easy cadence of Piper's speech. She knew – she KNEW – that was Piper's response to lying. But she didn't know how she knew.

The memory loss was exasperating, and Reyna's entire mind felt as if it was falling off the back of Festus, ready to make friends with all the confused little kittens dancing the Cucaracha in her dreams. That, honestly, seemed like an easier sentence than what she was dealing with at the moment.

They flew in silence for a while, Leo asleep and Piper beginning to doze herself, and Reyna watching town after town beneath them fade. Leo snored loudly, but it didn't bother Reyna. It meant that he at least was getting some rest.

As time passed- minutes or hours or days, she couldn't be sure –Reyna realized Piper had entirely fallen asleep against her. Before she could stop herself, Reyna brushed a lock of stray hair out of Piper's face and held on to her so she couldn't fall off.

"Sleeping Beauty living up to her name?" called Leo from the front of Festus.

Reyna nearly jumped off of Festus. "You're awake!" she said, sounding shocked.

Leo laughed. "People typically do that," he said. "I'm good on no sleep – sometimes."

Reyna nodded. "I get that. Are we almost there?"

Leo squinted out to the distance, looking at the city. "Maybe?"

Piper began to stir against Reyna, turning slightly and nearly falling off before Reyna caught her. Piper sat up abruptly.

"Whoa!" said Reyna. "Are – are you okay? I'm sorry! You shifted so fast I couldn't –"

Piper began to slow her breathing. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, still looking worried. "Fine, of course. Sleeping while flying isn't great." She shuddered a bit. "I'm gonna not do that again, the falling thing, sound good?"

Reyna and Leo both nodded. "Yeah, no falling," said Leo.

Piper looked out over the land. "Quebec City," she said simply.

Leo stared at her. "And you know that…How?"

Piper put on a ridiculous accent and tone of voice, flipping a lock of hair over her shoulder. "Because my daddy did a movie there!" In an instant the girly, flashy attitude was gone. "No, you dumbo. Just because I'm a kid of Aphrodite doesn't mean I can't read. I've spent a lot of time in cars, and my dad's got a kindle. Thus, I've got my pretty little brain edjumacated."

Leo's eyebrows shot up. "Well somebody overdosed on sass today."

"You'll overdose on your daily dose of stupid if you keep talking," said Piper, but she couldn't hide her grin, and all three of them laughed.

"So, genius," said Leo when they'd calmed down, "if you know so much, what's that castle?"

Piper looked at it more closely. "I'd guess a hotel," she said simply.

"Yeah, right," laughed Leo, "like – oh."

Piper shot him a grin. "Are those valets and doormen?" she asked, an air of false confusion. "Hmm, do they work at hotels?"

"I did not expect the North Wind to stay at a hotel, so I –"

"Guys?" said Reyna, carefully. "I'd appreciate it if the bickering would stop. We're about to get attacked."

"By what?"

Reyna pointed out at what looked like demonic little snow angels wielding swords. "Them."