A.N. LAST UPDATE UNTIL DECEMBER PEOPLE. I'm doing NaNoWriMo and therefore putting most stories on Hiatus. Might update 'Fleeting Earth Hours' so if you like my writing, please check on that story. Thanks to: ThePotatoKing, Guest, Guest 2, CreCra, Lulu, Riley, KekuleSalavador, KILLINGhope14, pipermclean516, KTDLover, FanFictionLover13, Tyler, Mohamed and Hshh for reviewing. You guys mdeme smile so I'll give you cookies (::) (::)

Sorry about the fail of a chapter that this is. Really short...but then again, I wrote it in half an hour.

The Blood of Olympus

IV

LEO

Nothing screamed trouble like huge, feathery birds that seemed to breathe fire. Leo didn't know whether or not these were the striges Jason had warned them about, but he found himself rather doubting that Jason had actually ever seen one of these gigantic birds before. Jason would have probably sounded more worried.

Part of Leo was worried about Hazel who had been posted on guard duty. If she hadn't seen these lumbering beasties, then what chance did that give her wellbeing? Seriously hoping that she was just unconscious – Leo didn't particularly want Frank to kill him – Leo turned to check out the area where Hazel should have been.

Her sword, golden and almost hidden behind some ropes, glinted at him accusingly. Leo swore.

And then his ship collapsed.

Well, the rigging on one side anyway, and holding on tightly, screaming so loudly that Leo felt his eardrums popping, was Hazel. She grabbed her sword, pressing her back to the inside ledge of the Argo II.

She spotted Leo watching her and waved. He waved back; half glad she was okay, half planning her murder for destroying his beautiful baby.

Later on, Leo supposed that it was his own fault for not paying attention or noticing that Hazel was screaming for him to turn back to the wheel.

When Leo did, the monster beat him to it.

"Oh man," breathed Leo. He took a step back and another; two beady black eyes followed his movements. Leo very slowly reached one hand towards his tool belt. Then he leapt backwards into the shelves, causing everything he had so painstakingly organised so that nothing explosive was next to anything that might set it off and all the paper work was piled in alphabetical order (Annabeth's work).

The strige had jerked its chest forward, spreading its wings wide so that they crushed against the wooden pillars on either side of it. It gave a warning shriek, as if to tell Leo 'beware, my territory now'.

"You wish my feathered friend," said Leo, gripping his hammer tightly between his fingers. "But no one crashes my boat and gets away with it."

Then he lunged towards the strige, waving his hammer like a mad man and screaming a really fearsome battle cry like: "Aaagghhhh!"

Yeah, Leo was a real old fashioned hero.

Once he had reduced his bird to a pile of feathery dust, Leo put Festus on autopilot before jumping down onto the deck and running towards where Hazel was, spinning around and round, kicking some serious monster butt. Leo was impressed but as there was still a whole back-up flock of the monsters heading towards them he decided to lend a hand.

He jumped into the fight going in for back to back with Hazel straight away as the circled. "You took your time," muttered Hazel, stabbing a strige in the wing.

"Ungrateful," said Leo reprovingly, "and for your information I had my own battle up there."

"I could see that – watch out- " Leo automatically ducked and felt the air sliced in two above his head as a huge claw swiped over him, possibly searing a few hairs from Leo's scalp but definitely missing the original target of Leo's head.

"I could see that," continued Hazel, "but in the time it took you to beat one, I had taken about three."

"Yeah, these ones are all feather-brains," defended Leo, pointing with his hammer when, as if to prove his point, two striges head banged and then fell from the railing of the Argo, limp and splayed out as they disappeared around the side of the boat. Leo absently wondered what the mortals would think the two gigantic birds falling from the sky would be. "Oh look, there go two pigeons." "My one was smart."

Suddenly a huge wall of flames sprung up around them, catching on the sails and what was left of the mast. The back-up squad had arrived.

"Hey!" a muffled banging sound drew Leo's attention to the door leading below deck. A strige was parked conspicuously in front of it and noises that sounded like voices. Leo smirked: Yeah bird-breath, we have our own standby crew. Edging towards the door, Leo plunged straight in the flames, feeling them tickle over his skin with the barest sensation of warmth.

There was a squawk of surprise as Leo emerged on the other side of the fire, not only not burnt to ashes but completely unscathed. Leo summoned two fireballs; one clenched around each fist and stood for a moment soaking up the feeling of power as he stood over the cowering strige guarding the door before throwing both balls at it.

The strige burst into a flaming feathered panic bomb as it half-flew, half ran towards its flock, screaming a high pitched shriek. Its herd scrambled back in alarm and as the alit bird caught up with them, Leo swung back the door to the lower decks.

Immediately the rest of the seven spilled onto the deck, revealing that they had been pressed against the door together. Within seconds Percy had gathered the situation and, with Jason, sprang into battle. Frank took a little longer to get to his feet, before barrelling toward Hazel who was mercilessly stabbing at more striges.

Annabeth and Piper had drawn their weapons and joined Leo, defending the lower barracks and prow of the boat from overgrown birds, desperate to escape.

Leo grunted as he brained another strige. He looked up to see Percy doing his cool 'son of Poseidon' thing and spraying the boat with water, as Jason swept like a blond superman in the almost completely destroyed rigging, tying up loose ropes and hauling the sails up.

Spotting Leo, he zoomed down. "I've done my best," he said. "But the damage is pretty bad. Nothing you won't be able to fix though." Leo nodded, swallowing a lump in his throat.

He watched his ship, flames being dowsed in water, but still wrecked and battered from so many trials. Leo hoped that he and his friends would come out of this war better than the Argo II.