CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
The first time Leo met Calypso's family, he began to understand why Calypso was so wary of seeing them again during the flight to San Francisco.
The flight wasn't too strenuous. Festus' autopilot meant Leo spent most of it sleeping. He leaned forward slightly, very used to resting in all sorts of positions since the Quest of the Seven and Calypso rocked forward, letting her head rest against his back, her hands loosely locked around his waist.
It was nice, Leo though drowsily as he woke.
The night sky was beginning to retreat as Apollo's first sun horse took to the skies in a blinding dawn light. But was it his imagination or was it coming up faster than usual?
He yawned and glanced down at the electronic map implanted in the back of Festus' head, shocked to see their little marker blinking on the west border of Nevada. As they passed a small community town overhead, he watched an early bird jogger look up and gape.
"Come on, buddy. Higher than that." Leo mumbled, tapping the bronze dragon's guidance systems with a sleepy finger. "Or we'll end up on the news again."
"What is it?" Calypso mumbled from behind him. "What's going on?"
"We're in Nevada. Or California. I think." Leo smacked his cheek lightly, trying to concentrate.
Annabeth's warning flooded back to his mind and he realised the dawn was approaching more quickly with a cuss.
"Damn, I think Annabeth was right." He calculated the flight time to Mount Orthys on Festus' guidance system based on only 9 hours of daylight.
"How long until we reach the Garden?" Calypso peered over his shoulder, her nose cold as she buried it in his neck.
"We'll be there in another four hours." Leo muttered. "Hopefully."
"Hopefully?" Calypso echoed before sighing. "I suppose it's not too bad. If we find somewhere to land Festus and move on, that will only take-"
"What do you mean?" Leo frowned. "Can't we take him with us?"
Calypso shook her head, her loose hair hopelessly tangled by the wind. "Once we reach the borders, we should only travel on foot. I don't think Ladon would take kindly to us bringing another dragon into his garden."
"Man, I hate these kinds of places. No allowances for pets." Leo complained as they continued on. The quiet was nice for a while but Leo's ADHD wouldn't let him stay silent forever.
"So do you really hate your sisters?"
Calypso sighed. "They are my father's daughters."
"…isn't that kind of the point?" he wondered, hesitantly.
She paused to collect her thoughts. "I mean to say, they're like him in ways I am not. In ways I used to admire, in fact."
"Did you guys, like, hang out a lot when you were younger?" Leo asked, wondering if the questions were foolish.
"I told you I was raised by my mother in the sea. But when I was small, Atlas would show me his kingdom on land. The Hesperides lived there too. I must've been quite a nuisance to them at the time, but they never made me feel that way."
"What were they like?" he wondered. He'd always been secretly fascinated by the thought of siblings. Even now, he could scarcely believe he had a whole cabin of them back at camp waiting for him.
A tiny, wistful smile crept up on her, almost reluctantly. "They used to play with me, even though they were long grown before I was born. I liked having sisters. It was lonely in my mother's palace. Arethusa used to braid my hair for hours. I learned the harp from Erytheia, even though she used to tease me at how awful I sounded."
"They don't sound so bad." Leo pointed out, sharply aware of the bitterness in Calypso's voice.
"They weren't." she agreed with another sigh. "But as I said. They are my father's daughters before they are sisters of mine. It makes them clever but ruthless."
When she went quiet, Leo turned as best he could on Festus' back, reaching out for her hand. "What happened?"
Calypso didn't meet his eyes. "When we were brought before the Olympians, I thought that whatever our punishment, at least we would face it together. It was my only small mercy, in the face of our father's defeat. When Aegle stepped forward, I…I thought she was so brave. But she told them I was responsible for their crimes. That I was our father's lieutenant. That I had commanded his armies against Poseidon's realm, that I had personally sunk the cities he held dear."
Leo's heart sank so fast it left him nauseous. "She hung you out to dry? Just like that?"
"I should have known. I'd watched them abandon Zoe when she acted against our father's wishes, when she helped that hero of hers." Calypso's voice was quiet and sombre. "I should have known they would cut me loose. One bad apple spoils the barrel."
Leo tried to picture Calypso in her youth standing before the Olympians, looking just a little younger than she did now. A girl who had lost her father and her kingdom in one swoop, facing eternal punishment for supporting him. In his imagination, four girls who looked just like her stood in the background, silent and unblinking.
Calypso's bitterness suddenly made perfect, blistering sense.
"We can stop." He said instantly, the words pouring forth. "We don't have to go. I swear, I didn't know, I wouldn't make you-"
"It was literal millennia ago, hero." Calypso stilled his words, looking rather touched by them all the same. "I have forgiven their cowardice. They did what they did to protect themselves in the face of an uncertain, dangerous enemy. And I didn't tell you so you pity me. I want you to understand how dangerous they can be. They were raised at the knee of the Titans' greatest general." She clutched his hand suddenly. "And a sun horse of Apollo is no meagre prize, they won't part with him easily and the Hesperides don't play fair. Promise me you'll resist their offerings, hero."
"I promise," Leo assured her, his heart heavy. "But how do you know they'll have the horse?"
"Because no one enters the Garden without them knowing." Calypso replied, gravely.
"Hey, I got something," Leo called out as he scrolled through the updates to Festus' map. "Someone tagged a late night asteroid hit nearby."
Calypso frowned. "How can someone tag a star? Tag with what?"
"It means- you know what, I'll explain it when we get back to camp." Leo rolled his shoulders out, tapping the attached photos.
Calypso craned her neck over his shoulder and nodded. "They definitely look like craters to me." She agreed as Leo brought up the photos a passing tourist had snapped on his cell phone.
"Totally crazy asteroid collision last night," Leo read, unsteadily as he focused on the words. "Left a crater the size of my house! Still ablaze but hasn't set fire to the forest area. So weird! Sounds like the Mist, hard at work."
"Excellent," she sighed. "We'll grab the bridle, grab the horse and get the hell out of the garden before I have to talk to my sisters."
"You sure you don't want to see them?" Leo checked as Festus swooped down toward the new destination. "I mean, it might be good for…closure, or something?"
Calypso didn't reply for a long time but as the rocky peaks of the Sierras came into sight, she sighed. "I don't need closure, Leo." She said, sounding tired. "I stopped caring about them a long time ago."
Below them, green forestland burst outwards, encircling pale clear lakes and bulging mountaintops, a rough kind of haven. When they passed over one lake, Leo could see their reflection mirror clear and sharp below.
"It's kinda nice, huh?" he called over the wind as Festus sped on.
She rested her chin on his shoulder and studied the range with a small smile. "I like it." She announced in reply. "It feels quiet."
He didn't know how he understood but he did. Despite the sounds of birds and fauna, the slow flow of water, the general buzz spreading out from beneath the canopy, it felt quiet and kind of peaceful in a way Leo knew would drive him nuts eventually. But even he had to admit the mountains had their merits, even to a city-slicker like himself.
"Over there!" Calypso suddenly called out, pointing to their right where a perfect circle had been pressed into the earth, squeezed between the foot of one of the mountains and a huge clear lake. At its centre lay a bonfire flickering with bright reds and golds, generating enough heat that Leo could feel it a mile away. The bridle. It was so close-
And ringed with a small crowd of mortals who looked mesmerized by the flames.
"Damn," Leo cursed as Festus landed out of sight, shielded by several enormous oak trees. The crowd was mostly hikers although there seemed to be a couple of men in fire-suits who looked irritable and confused by the live fire and their inability to extinguish it.
"We're never gonna sneak in there without everyone seeing us."
He really could've used Annabeth's enchanted Yankee's cap right about then.
"We need a distraction," Calypso murmured, studying the crowd of about twenty people intently.
"Like what?" Leo whispered back, digging through his tool belt aimlessly.
Her gaze suddenly slipped toward Festus, thoughtfully. She tapped a finger to her lips and narrowed her eyes. "I have an idea."
Leo couldn't help but feel wary. "Am I going to like this idea?"
"Probably not."
"You're right, I don't like this idea." Leo told her flatly as Calypso slathered more mud and dirt onto Festus' back.
"Oh shush, Festus loves it." She replied, smirking as Festus rolled about the dirt until the bronze of his mechanical hide was encrusted with filth.
Festus tucked his wings into his body to make sure they were covered as well.
"Come on, I just cleaned his wings last week." He added petulantly.
"They were just going to get dirty again eventually."
"Do you know how hard it is to wash him down?" Leo whined as the two continued, Calypso making sure there wasn't so much as a skerrick of shimmer to his beautiful dragon left to be seen.
"It'll be fine, it's not like we've got much longer to go." She pointed out, unable to hide her mirth when Festus let out a satisfied croaky purr.
"You can hose him down next time and then we'll see how you like being roasted because the pressure's too high." Leo grunted with a frown. "I'm just saying, is it really necessary?"
"Leo, a girl sprinting out from the forest screaming at the top of her lungs might distract them for a little while." Calypso explained, patiently as she ripped the neckline of her shirt slightly and brushed dirt onto her cheeks and knees. There were purplish red berries on a tree nearby that she smeared on to her t-shirt as well. "But not unless there really is something chasing her."
"Fine." Leo sighed, turning his attention back to the crowd of mortals so he didn't have to watch Calypso besmirching his favourite mechanical monster. If all it took was a dip in the ocean for Festus to clean off, he wouldn't care but no, the dragon was without a doubt the prissiest bather in the entire camp. He even gave the Aphrodite girls a run for their money which amused Piper to no end but it was all well and good to giggle when you weren't the only fire proof demigod at camp.
Before she left, Calypso kissed him hard on the mouth, the move ruined by her enormous grin. "I'll see you soon, sweetie." She said, teasingly.
"You're enjoying this too much!" he called back as she and Festus moved quietly through the forest towards the camp.
Leo edged closer himself until he was as close as possible without being seen and waited. He was watching as the fire-fighters ushered people back with concerned expressions. They were trying to use a fire extinguisher on the huge bonfire when he first heard the blood-curdling scream.
Even though he knew it was fake, Leo's heart still leapt into his throat and he was close to nailing his feet into the earth to prevent him from standing up.
The crowd immediately turned toward the forest behind them and the mountains beyond it, expressions ranging from curious to fearful to annoyed. Another scream and a few of the hikers looked concerned enough to step forward.
"Help, please someone! Anyone!" Calypso's voice wailed, filling the clearing beside the lake. The hikers began to talk amongst themselves, several pairs splitting off and moving closer to the forest with worried expressions. "Please!"
When she finally burst out from the tree line, Leo had to silence his laughter because Holy Hades, Calypso should've been an Apollo kid for all the drama she put into her little trick. Her shirt was covered in dirt, and she'd obviously messed her hair into a hopeless tangle with leaves and twigs.
"Please, you have to help!" she shrieked as two campers stepped forward to grab her elbows when she looked ready to collapse.
The fire fighters had grabbed their radios and were obviously calling for back up while Calypso swayed precariously.
"Way too much fun," Leo murmured to himself as she dug her fingers into one man's thick coat and clutched her forehead with the other. One of the younger hikers looped his arm beneath her shoulders, tugging her perhaps a little too close with a little too much eagerness.
"There was- there was some kind of bear-" she babbled and several of the women surrounded her, trying to calm her down.
"Oh, come on," he snorted under his breath. "You're not even injured."
But Calypso had obviously gotten even more creative with the berries because there was more of the thick, syrupy juice smeared to her cheeks and dripping down her neck.
"A bear?" one of the fire-fighters echoed, critically. "They're not meant to be around here this time of year."
The words seemed to stir a degree of doubt amongst the crowd but Calypso reigned them back in before they strayed too far. "No! No, I'm sure of it, it was a monster, a huge beast!" she wailed, arms flying everywhere.
Leo could only roll his eyes as he watched them coo and fawn over his poor injured girlfriend but her next words made him nearly choke.
"…my boyfriend, I think it caught him! He just wasn't fast enough, he couldn't escape- oh Leo, why?" She howled and the crowd began to converge on her even more, bonfire entirely forgotten.
"Oh, I'm dead now?" he stuttered, astounded and slightly amused. "Such a loving girlfriend."
As though hearing him, Calypso's eyes flitted into the tree line for a moment and she winked at him for just a second before she began to tear up. "It was just horrible."
"Give me a break," Leo groaned. Seconds later there was a rapid thump thump thump from inside the forest and Calypso screeched.
"It's back!" she screamed. "It's going to kill all of us!"
"Now, let's just settle down." One older man, a park ranger by the look of it said. "I'm sure it wasn't a-"
"BEAR!" one camper suddenly yelled out as Festus exploded from the trees, covered in dirt and growling like a dragon possessed.
The group yelled and cried out, splitting in every direction like startled ants and Leo knew the second the bonfire wasn't being watched. While Festus pretended to chase around some campers and Calypso let loose more piercing screams, Leo barrelled forth and knelt beside the enormous bonfire which seemed to glow brighter in his presence.
"Come to papa," he muttered, lighting up his hands and plunging them into the middle of the fire. It didn't hurt but the sensation wasn't like the forge or a campfire, not like he was used to. This felt sort of thicker and pinchy, like the fire was waiting for him to suddenly become vulnerable.
His hands found a strap at the centre of the flames and pulled hard. With a heave, Leo rocked backward, a bright red leather bridle with golden metal attachments in his grip, pulsing with heat and light as bright as the sun itself.
For a moment, Leo was tempted to study the strange object but when he glanced toward Calypso, she was already running toward the trees where Festus was beginning to retreat, the campers still racing away from them.
Pushing himself to his feet, Leo tucked the bridle into his belt and followed after them, sensing the bonfire growing dimmer and smaller now that the centre of its power had been removed.
When they reached Festus, Calypso was already aboard, patting the dragon down and smiling. "What a good bear you make, Festus." She crooned sweetly and Leo pouted.
"We are having a long discussion about lying about my death when we get back to camp Sunshine." he told her sternly but the humour was beginning to crack his grin open wide. He dug his feet into Festus' side and pulled himself aboard, swinging one leg over until he was sitting in front of Calypso.
"You didn't like being mauled by a fake bear?" she wondered, innocently.
"That is a lame ending!" he complained as they took off, the bridle warm inside his tool belt. "I want to be taken down in a blaze of glory! Like, defending the universe from aliens or something."
She snorted and locked her arms around his waist. "Next time I'll be sure to think up a more dramatic fate for you, hero."
Leo sniffed but he was still grinning. "That's all I ask."
The morning sun was already turning to noonday overhead by the time they reached the foot of Mount Orthys. Leo had to be doubly careful to make sure Festus wasn't too conspicuous as he steered the dragon slowly up the mountain, ducking into the dry forests every now and then to avoid scaring the crap out of the mortal hikers.
About two thirds of the way up, Festus growled lowly and hovered, refusing to go any further.
"I think he smells Ladon the drakon." Calypso guessed as Festus landed near the empty path. A little further ahead, the path turned off sideways to an archway decorated by enormous white marble columns.
Through them, Leo could see long, silvery green grass and explosively bright coloured flowers. It looked like paradise on earth. Leo was struck by the similarity to Calypso's old garden on Ogygia and wondered if she'd found her inspiration from visiting her Dad as a kid.
Festus shook his head and snarled in warning as they dismounted, grabbing their backpacks. "It's okay, we'll be right out with Apollo's magical pony and then we'll go home." Leo promised as Calypso moved towards the arch.
Leo followed her and nearly staggered back when the breeze picked up. "What is that?" he wheezed and Calypso looked like her eyes were watering with the stench too.
"Ladon's breath has only gotten worse with age I think." She muttered as they passed through the archway.
Immediately, it was as though the skies were darker here, the sunlight coming from closer to the horizon, the clouds surrounding it sprayed with orange and pinks. It was ruined by the horrible decaying smell that reeked from deeper amongst the trees, close to where an enormous apple tree with glistening gold fruit poked over the canopy.
"This is the garden of eternal twilight, Leo." Calypso answered his surprised look. "It is always like this here."
They moved on, passing through the trees and plants, keeping an eye out for a runaway sun horse named Aeothon. What did a sun horse look like anyway? Did it glow gold like the Apollo cabin back at camp?
"We'd better find Apollo's stupid horse soon or I'll asphyxiate." He coughed as they approached the tree of golden apples, hoping he could still use his taste buds after this was over. It seemed like the smell was on his tongue as well as his eyeballs and inside his nostrils.
"I don't think we'll have to look for long." Calypso said, grimly. "Look."
He followed her gaze and there in the distance, lay an incredible golden drakon with dozens of the heads each one more terrible than the last sleeping coiled around the trunk of the tree.
And there, beside it, slept a bright orange horse.
A/N: TO GO OVER. EVERYTHING.