Astrid Strider Daughter of Apollo

Falling

After struggling to get Dakota to move and onto Nightmare with me, we had grabbed all of our stuff we left in the cave and left Fromlio. I shuddered. Hope I didn't have to ever hear that again! It was about midday, and the skies were clear, so everyone was at least safe.

Thankfully, Leo grabbed all of our clothes before the palace was destroyed, and we were all changed.. "No way was I going to leave my new belt!" Leo had said. I rolled my eyes chuckling and looked to Tobias, "Where are we now?" He narrowed his eyes and looked around. "I think somewhere near where Circe's island sunk? We'll probably be near the sirens in an hour or two... I'm hungry!" He added pulling out his bag.

Surprisingly, it slipped out of of his strong grip and fell towards the ocean. "Hang on Dakota!" I said and whipped into a nosedive after the pack. If we lost it, we wouldn't have enough food. And I'm sure Tobias' shield was in there too. We had found out it could shrink into a bobble head. Yeah, not what you would expect from Chaos... I yanked the back out of the air just as it was about to land in the salty water and flew back up to the others, handing Tobias back the pack.

"A 6 pack?!?" Dakota yelped gripping the saddle -yeah, I put a saddle on my Pegasus- and looked around frantically, though he couldn't really see... "Um, yeah...?" I said looking back at him. "8-pack!" Tobias announced lifting up his shirt to show his abs proudly. I rolled my eyes and lifted up my shirt showing my 6-pack. "I got a 6-pack!" Leo laughed lifting up his shirt. "4-pack." Asha said sheepishly. She didn't show. I understood why she had only a 4-pack. Yes, she is very athletic, but she's not constantly. Remember, she is taking care of us with medicine, with what she know from Will so she spends most of her time learning about each one. We all looked back at Nico expectantly. He looked up from Toby's mane. "What?" He asked.

"What do you have?" Tobias asked. He gestured to everyone else's abs. "No way..." Nico growled, gripping his shirt. "I flew in close to him and said, "Nico, if you don't do it I'll take away your shirt and you'll end up cold." He glared at me. "Try it." He said. I shrugged, "Alright!" I gently pulled the hair at the nape of his neck, making him react and grab the back of his neck, and I yanked his shirt up and over his head so he was shirtless. "Yeah! Shirtless time!" Tobias whooped and ripped off his shirt. I sighed face palming. What was with boys? Then again, it is Tobias...

"Hey! Give it back!" Nico yelped making a lunge for it. I flew out of reach, "Nope. You told me to try you, and I did. I got your shirt." I said. "Plus, you've got an 8-pack, did you know?" I asked laughing. He sighed in defeat. I threw his shirt back to him, it landing on his face. "I'm going to get you back for that..." He mumbled slipping it back on. I shrugged, "Alright, I'll be ready though." I chuckled and flew beside Asha.

"Sup, my fellow fifteen year olds." I said smiling. "Uh, correction, I'm sixteen," Leo said. Asha smiled and hugged him, she was sitting behind him and so Leo was driving. "Whatever, how's your new belt?" I asked gesturing to it. "Great! My old one? It took longer to um... Make new appliances when I needed them, but is one just starts back up in a minute or two!" I gave a thumbs up and nodded in approval. "Power of the gods." I said and flew in by Tobias.

He was stuffing his face with some potato chips. Yeah... I forgot that we hadn't eaten in a while. "Hey, Tobias...." I said raising an eyebrow. He looked at me and smiled offering me a chip but I refused. My stomach felt surprisingly full... "Will we be able to avoid the sirens?" I asked looking back at Dakota who had apparently passed out on my back. "Tobias paused and looked out. "I think so... Maybe not though... We're approaching in about thirty minutes I think..." "Super..." I said sarcastically. "I brought earplugs just in case.... I don't know... I just brought them." I pulled out a little ziplock bag of earplugs.

Tobias ate another chip. "Do you want to avoid them or use the earplugs?" I looked out in the distance and saw nothing but water. "Go through. The pegasi won't be able to make a very long distance farther, so..." He nodded in agreement.

I looked down at the side of Nightmare where in a holster, my bow was being held. I still couldn't believe that it had just appeared out of nowhere. And gold! Wow. It's like Jason's coin! Well, the gold part. Not the coin...

"Hey, Astrid?" Nico called me. I flew in close by and readjusted Dakota on my back so he wouldn't fall. "Yeah?" I said. He looked nervous or even worried. His forehead was crinkled. It was cute. He only did that when he was thinking really hard. "I can't stop thinking about what Koli said about the the two curses... The first one already happened, but what about the second one?" I fiddled with my bracelet. "We'll work through it. I mean Dakota is blind, yes bu-" I was cut off by a weight lifted from my back and the sound of screaming.

I looked down and saw Dakota, arms and legs flailing, down...down...down... I didn't react fast enough and Tobias swooped down and grabbed Dakota before he was engulfed in the ocean. They flew back up and Tobias handed Dakota off to me. "I believe this belongs to you!" He said. Dakota yelped when he was seated and gripped everything he could. "Dude, what the Hades just happened?" I asked grabbing his shoulder. He grabbed my arm. "S-sorry.... I hate being blind. And I know it's only been an hour, but it's freaking hard! Do you have any idea what it's like when I have dreams now? Constant light blinding, and I'm falling through the sky. I didn't think I really was falling until I woke up and grabbed at everything but it was all air. That just scared the life out of me!"

"Oh really?" Nico asked making a ,-_- face. I shook my head smiling and eventually tied Dakota down. "Anyways.... Nico, don't worry about it." Nico made a soft groan, "But that's not easy! It could happen to any of you!" I put my hand on his should and gripped it lightly, "It's okay... If a brick suddenly came out of nowhere and hit Octavian if he were here, as much as I dislike him for destroying my wolf pillow-pet..." I took a deep breath, "I would still save him... He's my half brother...." Nico made a strangled noise. "What was that?" I asked letting go. "That's the noise Octavian would be making if he were here and in my grasp."