Next chapter here! THANKS FOR ALL AMAZING REVIEWS!

Chapter 19 – The flying pig

LEO

Leo didn't know how many times he asked himself why monsters existed. But this monster just made him laugh.

The big creature flying over the ship was…

A pig.

"Okay, what is that?!" Jason asked.

"Come on, Piggy! Show me what you got!" Coach Hedge yelled.

"That's a… Flying pig?" Frank said uncertainly.

"Just… Why?" Piper asked. "Why a pig?"

Only Death Kid was staring at it with serious eyes.

"Have you seen that thing before, Nico?" Hazel asked him.

"Unfortunately, yes. Percy killed it in the second Titan War."

"Oh."

Suddenly, the pig didn't seem so ridiculous anymore. It was flying toward the ship, shrieking furiously.

They weren't flying over Christmas Town of Nowhere anymore. The demigods had gone to sleep after Leo told them that Percy and Annabeth were alive (everyone had asked him why the picture had said that they were dead because of him, but Leo had refused to answer), and when they woke up, it wasn't Christmas anymore. They were flying over the Mediterranean again.

"Well, let's fight Piggy then." Leo said. "Er, exactly how did Percy kill it?"

Nico shrugged.

"I didn't pay so much attention. I was fighting too, you know."

"Perfect." Leo muttered. "Okay, weapons ready, everybody?"

Piper unsheathed Katopris. Jason already held his gladius. Frank raised his bow, aiming for the pig. Coach Hedge was already in process of swinging his baseball bat, and Nico was holding his black sword in his pale hands.

Leo glanced over at Hazel. She had a stern look on her face, but her knuckles were white around her spatha. She looked like a real fighter, beautiful but scary, and the memories of last night washed over him.

He really had kissed her. Now she knew that he liked her, but he had left before she could tell him about her feelings. The truth was that Leo was scared. Hazel maybe didn't like him, but even more terrifying: what if she did?! What were they supposed to do then? She had a boyfriend, and this was the same boyfriend that could trample Leo to death. And, Leo promised Frank to not move it in on his girl.

The pig was coming closer really fast. Leo didn't know if he should be terrified or laughing. A pink, flying pig was going to attack his ship in a few seconds.

Frank started to shoot arrows at the pig. The arrows slowed the pig down, but not much. Soon, it had landed on deck.

Everybody attacked at the same time. The pig was huge, Leo could ride on it if he only could find a way to climb on.

Jason tried to stab the pig in the side, but the pig decided to flap its wings right then, and Jason got hit hard on the head of the fluffy, white wing.

"You did not just flap my boyfriend with your wing!" Piper screamed and aimed for the pig's leg.

Unfortunately, the screaming made the pig see Piper and kick her. Piper crashed into the helm, groaning.

Leo shot fire at the pig's wing. It surely made the pig panic, but it wasn't enough to kill it. But while the big pink creature furiously flapped its wing to kill the flames (it did not work), Hazel jumped up on it and stabbed it in the neck.

The pig stopped. With a PFFT!, it crumbled to dust. Hazel fell down on the floor.

Jason ran to Piper, who managed to say:

"I'm fine. I'm fine."

Leo scanned the deck after damages after the attack, but there didn't seem to be any.

"Well, can we go back to eating now?" Coach Hedge asked. "I'm hungry."

He trotted away. Jason looked worried.

"Does anyone have some ambrosia?"

Frank dug out some from his pockets, and handed the squares to Jason. He fed Piper, who was standing on her feet a minute later.

"Stupid pig." She said. "Come on, let's eat. I'm starving."

Everyone but Leo went to the mess hall again. Leo checked that everything was okay before he could relax.

"Everything looks fine, Festus."

Festus didn't respond. Leo frowned.

"Festus?"

Still no answer.

"Festus, what's wrong?" Leo felt the panic wash over him again. Had the new disk crashed too?! No, it had been perfectly fine before pig-attack…

The pig.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid pig!" Leo said angrily. He couldn't fix Festus while the ship was aloft, and doing it in the water was dangerous too. He could fall or something. It was possible only if they landed, but there was no sign of land, just endless sea.

Leo's mind kicked into high gear. They needed Festus to look out for monsters and possibly kill them with his fire breath. And he helped them find the way and stuff. He couldn't just stop working.

"What the heck am I doing?" Leo asked himself out loud before he started to climb.

Carefully he climbed up to Festus head. He sat down on edge of the ship, trying hard to not look down. He plucked out some tools from his toolbelt and started to work.

When he opened Festus head and found the problem, he wanted to scream.

"Again?! I thought that witch learned her lesson when I fought her!"

The disk was frozen. The wires were covered in ice and snow. Again.

"I'm gonna kill Khione." Leo muttered as he defrosted the disk with a flame. The ice melted slowly, and Festus woke up. He roared loudly.

"Whoa, boy!" Leo said. "Okay, hold still, I have to climb back to-"

"Leo, exactly what are you doing?"

Leo turned to see Death Kid staring at him.

"Er…"

Leo jumped down and grinned, feeling very awkward.

"I was…uh… just checking on Festus."

Nico nodded slowly.

"Okay, then. Piper sent me to come and get you, it's lunch-time."

Leo nodded.

"Tell her that I'm coming in a minute."

Death Kid turned and left. Leo sighed in relief. That guy gave him the creeps.

"Better, Festus?"

Festus roared and breathed fire. A complete show-off.

"I'll take that as a yes. Just… Keep an eye for snow goddesses, okay? I wanna be here when Khione shows herself."

He left with the feeling that everything was spinning. He hadn't thought much about Khione recently, but now he started to get worried. Last time she had decided to try to knock Leo out of the sky, it had ended with Festus crashing. If she could make the whole ship to crash, the quest would be doomed.

It dawned on Leo that Khione maybe was the other enemy his mother had tried to warn him about. But Khione worked for Gaea, so it was still Gaea who tried to kill them… No, it was someone else. Leo was pretty sure that it was someone who didn't work for Gaea.

Thinking of his dream about his mother made his heart ache.

Suddenly, he bumped into Hazel.

"Oh, I'm sorry-" She started, but when she saw that it was Leo, she stopped.

"S'okay." Leo said and grinned nervously. He felt his body growing warm and his heart race.

She doesn't like you. Get over it, Leo thought, but it didn't help.

Hazel smiled a smile that was very faked and hurried off. She didn't even say bye or something.

See? She hates me, the sanest part of Leo said.

Then why did she kiss me two times yesterday? Huh?

Well, maybe she just felt awkward and wanted me to-

"Shut UP!" Leo said out loud.

He hadn't realized that he reached the mess hall. Everybody at the table were staring at him.

"What did you say?" Piper asked.

Leo scratched his head.

"I didn't mean you, guys."

Without saying anything more, he sat down and started to eat. The others stopped staring eventually. They knew that Leo was kinda' weird out of experience.

"So… What now? Are we just going back to doing nothing while the ship is sailing to Greece?" Jason asked with his mouth full of food.

"Well, mostly. But I have something to tell you-"

Leo told them about the frozen disk. When he was done, Piper balled her fists.

"I hate that snow witch."

"Me too. The thing is, we need to be careful. If you see snow or ice on the helm or anywhere else, call for me so I can fix it before we crash."

"Is she really that powerful? She can bring down a whole ship with just ice?" Frank asked uncertainly.

Leo laughed sarcastically.

"She brought down a huge magic bronze dragon with just a little snow. So, yeah."

Frank gulped.

"Any updates about our cupcakes in Tartarus?" Coach Hedge asked Nico and Hazel.

The siblings shared a look.

"Not really. They're alive, but we don't know anything else." Hazel said. "But that's not all, I've been feeling-"

She suddenly flinched and stopped. Death Kid was staring at her with a pointed look, and Leo suspected that he had kicked her under the table.

"That's all." Nico said and cleared his throat.

Leo looked back and forth at Hazel and Death Kid, but they didn't say anything more.

"That's good, right? They're alive. They're fighting. They maybe can make it." Piper said hopefully.

She had charmspeak in her voice, because Leo filled with the desire to nod and agree.

"Listen, guys." He said instead. "It's something I need to tell you-"

Leo didn't want to ruin the others hopes, but they had to know that someone would get trapped in Tartarus. He didn't know if any of them figured that out already, but looking at their innocent and quizzical expressions he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

"What?" Jason asked.

"I-Nothing." Leo said and looked down at his plate. "It's nothing."

The others looked suspiciously at him, but didn't say anything. Leo rose.

"I suggest we should take turns and guard on deck at night. We don't want anything to freeze without knowing about it, we need to be there and fix it immediately if it happens."

Leo left the table.

Okay, I felt pretty stupid because I forgot the name of the pig. It was the something-I-don't-remember sow… Hope that's okay anyway. Bye!