Caliginosity [ Leo Valdez ]

A Parasite Needs a Host

When Leo saw Long Island Sound sprawl out below him, he nearly spontaneously combusted.

He exhaled a laugh of pure joy and gripped Festus' reins. "There it is!" he shouted. "That signal worked! It led us home!"

Behind him, Calypso grumbled. "What are you shouting for?" She yawned and sat up. "What's going on?"

"We're home!" Leo whooped. "Camp Half-Blood, your Super Sized McShizzle is back!" He patted Festus' shoulder. "Get us down there, bud!"

Festus whirred his teeth and immediately shot down, sucking all the air out of Leo's lungs. He flew out of the clouds, dipped toward the waters, and blasted over the camp. Some demigods pointed up at them, alerting the others that a dragon had suddenly flown over the valley. As more campers gathered, the more excited they looked. Among the crowd, Leo was able to recognize some of his friends. He saw Percy and his girlfriend Annabeth, Piper, Jason, and Nico di Angelo.

Leo landed his dragon and wiped his forehead. He sighed and slid off Festus, helping Calypso down right after. The campers immediately ran up to them. Some looked unbelievably shocked and happy, others looked like they wanted to kill Leo. His friends looked like they wanted to do both.

As such, the first to arrive at him was Piper, who immediately punched him as hard as possible.

"Ow!" Leo yelped. "What was that for-"

Piper embraced him so tight he swore his ribs shattered. "You fool!" she said. "We were so worried!"

Leo grinned. "Yes, yes, Beauty Queen. I missed you guys too!"

The other demigods arrived. Of course, they took turns punching Leo. Eventually, the whole camp began to take part. It became utter chaos as campers began to punch and hug Leo. Nico took it upon himself to fix this.

He commandeered a dispenser from the snack bar and carried it around, yelling, "The line starts to the left! Orderly queue, guys!"

"Is this really necessary?" Leo asked.

"Yes," said Miranda Gardiner, who had drawn the first number. She punched Leo in the arm.

"Ow," said Leo.

"You're a jerk, and we all hate you," said Miranda. Then she hugged him and kissed his cheek. "If you ever disappear like that again, we'll line up to kill you."

"Okay, okay!"

Miranda had to move on, because the line was getting pretty long behind her. Percy and Annabeth sat at the picnic table with Leo and his companion—none other than the immortal sorceress Calypso. Even though Leo was the one getting punched by everyone in camp, he was reasonably sure he was the least uncomfortable one at the table.

When they first saw each other, Percy and Calypso had hugged awkwardly. They hadn't spoken much after the embrace, but Leo caught them stealing sad glances at each other. He hoped Annabeth didn't notice.

Percy hugged Leo and didn't even punch him. Still, the son of Poseidon looked disgruntled.

"I can't believe it," he said. "You were gone for so long—"

"Six months, I guess," Leo said. "We tried sending more holographic scrolls. We tried Iris messages, dream visions, phone calls. Nothing worked.—Ow! Hey, Alice, how you doing?—Anyway, we ran into one crisis after another."

Calypso nodded. "Europe was particularly difficult."

From down the line, Nico di Angelo yelled, "Please do not mention Europe! Okay, who's next, folks? One line."

Damien White punched Leo's arm and walked away grinning. Leo wasn't sure Damien even knew him. He simply couldn't turn down a chance to punch someone.

Leo rubbed his bicep. "Hey, no fair. That guy's getting back in the line. So, like I was saying, if Festus hadn't picked up on that homing beacon yesterday, we'd still be flying around, looking for a way home. Once, we even got stuck in the Sea of Monsters."