𝐎𝐏𝐀𝐋𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒༄ • Jᴀsᴏɴ Gʀᴀᴄᴇ

Chapter 25

"Gaea?" Leo shook his head. "Isn't that Mother Nature? She's supposed to have, like, flowers in her hair and birds singing around her and deer and rabbits doing her laundry. "

"Leo, that's Snow White," Piper said.

"Okay, but—"

"Listen, cupcake. " Coach Hedge dabbed the espresso out of his goatee. "Piper's telling us some serious stuff, here. Gaea's no softie. I'm not even sure I could take her. "

"Well, now we know we're in trouble," Said Freya sarcastically. 

Leo whistled. "Really coach?"

Hedge nodded. "This earth lady—she and her old man the sky were nasty customers. "

"Ouranos," Piper said. She turned to Freya. "You know anything about them?" 

Freya let out a breath. "I know about them alright. Ouranos practically invented bad parenting- he threw their first kids- the cyclopes, straight into Tartarus." 

"Ouch," Jason grimaced. 

"Yeah," Freya went on. "You can imagine Gaea wasn't particularly pleased about that. So she bided her time. Later, they had another set of kids- the twelve titans- but Gaea was afraid they'd get chucked into hell too. So she went over to her son Kronos-" 

"Isn't that they big bad guy you defeated last summer?" Leo asked. 

"Right. And Gaea's the one who gave him the scythe, and told him, 'Hey, why don't I call your dad down here? And while he's talking to me, distracted, you can cut him to pieces. Then you can take over the world. Wouldn't that be great?'"

Silence greeted her, but she had expected as much. 

After 2 minutes of uncomfortable stillness, Piper sucked in a breath. "Well, she's no Snow White, that's for sure." 

"Nah, Kronos was a bad guy," Hedge said. "But Gaea is literally the mother of all bad guys. She's so old and powerful, so huge, that it's hard for her to be fully conscious. Most of the time, she sleeps, and that's the way we like her—snoring."

"But she talked to me," Leo said. "How can she be asleep?"

Gleeson brushed crumbs off his canary yellow lapel. He was on his sixth espresso now, and his pupils were as big as quarters. "Even in her sleep, part of her consciousness is active—dreaming, keeping watch, doing little things like causing volcanoes to explode and monsters to rise. Even now, she's not fully awake. Believe me, you don't want to see her fully awake. "

Freya looked towards mount diablo. "We will if she's getting more powerful,"  

"She must be the one raising the giants too," Added Piper. 

"You know what will happen if she wakes all of them up, right?" Asked Freya looking around the table and meaning to get a look at everyone's expression, but only settling on Jason's blue eyes. "If their king comes back—this guy Porphyrion-" 

"He'll raise an army to destroy the gods," Jason put in. "Starting with Hera. It'll be another war. And Gaea will wake up fully. "

Gleeson nodded. "Which is why it's a good idea for us to stay off the ground as much as possible. "

Leo looked warily at Mount Diablo. "So ... climbing a mountain. That would be bad. "

Freya's heart sank as she closed her eyes. She opened them again when Piper spoke, her voice quiet. 

"We can't go, it's too dangerous." 

Freya started, "Piper-" 

"You kidding?" Gleeson belched and showed them his blue carnation smile. "Who's ready to beat stuff up?"