The Moon and the Stars || Heroes of Olympus

Chapter 56

Two days of travelling across the Adriatic since Venice had left me itching for a proper fight. Scuffles with minor monsters had my power building up under my skin with no release.

In an attempt to calm the storm, I practiced drawing patterns in the air before bed, but it did little to help.

I drifted off to sleep, my dreams filled with silver clouds. From the mists, a figure stepped out.

Dark sienna skin glowed in the cool light. Her curly dark hair was pulled back, making her face seem sharper than usual. A small sprout twisted around her fingers, growing steadily.

"Hi, Ash." I said warily. Ersa's talk of rebellious nature spirits had me worried about Ash. Like all dryads, she was passionate about the planet, and she was known to take drastic forms of revenge. Once, I managed to beat her in a footrace. The constant tripping over tree roots for the next month wasn't worth it.

She smiled. "Hello, Neo. How are you doing?"

"Same old, same old." I shrugged, pushing down my fear. "You know how it is - monsters trying to kill us, meeting gods - the usual. You been up to much?"

The mists gradually receded to reveal a dark forest, birds chirping off in the distance. I wasn't sure if that was more or less eerie than the silver clouds.

"No, not really. How was Venice?"

I narrowed my eyes. "How'd you know I was in Venice?"

"I heard it through the grapevine." Most people would take that as a metaphor, but Ash was half-dryad, she meant it literally.

"It wasn't so bad. Got chased through the city by a mob of monsters, met my sister who's also Jason's sister. She was a little worried about the local dryads." I said tentatively. As far as I knew, you couldn't die in a dream, but I didn't want to test that theory.

Her eyes glinted in the cold light of the mists. "Yes. There's been a lot of talk of what the humans have done. It may lead to a revolution if we're lucky." She seemed to be gauging my reaction, watching me carefully.

"It's not very well timed though." I pointed out.

"I'd argue that it is well timed. How else do we get you to listen?"

"Ash, the entire world is at stake." I insisted. "We're on the brink of war between the two camps, the giants are rising and the gods are in no shape to help. I don't think anyone's going to listen when there's so much else going on."

She huffed in indignation. "I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree then. By the way, I spoke to Annabeth the other day."

That caught my attention. Ever since Rome, I hadn't been able to shake the worries about what the two of them were going through. "Really? Is she ok? What about Percy?"

"They're alive, at least they were. Probably not for much longer though." She raised an eyebrow at my look of dismay. "They're in Tartarus, Neo. Demigods don't last long down there."

"I'm already worried enough, there's no need to - "

A high pitched scream tore through the mist and I jolted awake.

-Ω-

I jumped out of bed, dashing down the hall to the source of the screaming, screeching and .... farting? The door to Hazel's room was crowded with the rest of the crew and I had to jump to see over Jason's shoulders.

Luckily, it was only a weasel, though it wasn't Frank so I wasn't sure where it came from.

Once everyone calmed down, Hazel explained that Hecate had sent the furry creature. It was very strange and I could tell that Leo was trying hard not to make a joke, but it seemed just crazy enough to be true.