Heroes of Olympus Series. Annabeth Chase X Male Reader Story

Avoiding the Horrors of Frostbite

"L-L-Leo?" Piper managed. "Present and un-gold-ified." Leo was also wrapped in blankets. He didn't look great, but better than Piper felt. "I got the precious metal treatment too," he said.

"But I came out of it faster. Dunno why. We had to dunk you in the river to get you back completely. Tried to dry you off, but ... it's really, really cold." "You've got hypothermia," Jason said.

"We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic—" "Sports medicine."  The coach's ugly face loomed over her. "Kind of a hobby of mine. Your breath might smell like wild mushrooms and Gatorade for a few days, but it'll pass. You probably won't die. Probably."

"Thanks," Piper said weakly. "How did you beat Midas?" Jason told her the story, putting most of it down to luck. The coach snorted. "Kid's being modest. You should've seen him. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning!"

"Coach, you didn't even see it," Jason said. "You were outside eating the lawn." But the satyr was just warming up. "Then I came in with my club, and we dominated that room. Afterward, I told him, 'Kid, I'm proud of you! If you could just work on your upper body strength—'"

"And then he woke up, and went back to eating his patch of grass." The man said, smiling at Piper as he poked at the flames, "Good to see you've had enough beauty sleep warrior princess." She offered a weak smile back.

Jason and him shared a glance, she got the feeling the version Jason had told them wasn't the whole story. But whatever it was, whatever secret struggle they went through, they kept it to themselves.

This whole time, Coach kept talking, "And then the dead guy came in, and he was like 'Wham!' and he said 'Coach is right! Eat your greens' and-" "Coach," said Jason. "Yeah?" "Shut up, please." "Sure." The coach sat down at the fire and started chewing his cudgel.

Jason put his hand on Piper's forehead and checked her temperature. "Leo, can you stoke the fire?" "On it." Leo summoned a baseball-sized clump of flames and lobbed it into the campfire. "Do I look that bad?" Piper shivered.

"Nah," Jason said. "You're a terrible liar," she said. "Where are we?" "Pikes Peak," Jason said. "Colorado." "But that's, what—five hundred miles from Omaha?" "Something like that," Jason agreed.

"I harnessed the storm spirits to bring us this far. They didn't like it—went a little faster than I wanted, almost crashed us into the mountainside before I could get them back in the bag. I'm not going to be trying that again."

"Why are we here?" Leo sniffed. "That's what I asked him." The man also nodded in agreement, waiting for an answer, Jason gazed into the storm as if watching for something. "That glittery wind trail we saw yesterday?"

"It was still in the sky, though it had faded a lot. I followed it until I couldn't see it anymore. Then—honestly I'm not sure. I just felt like this was the right place to stop." "'Course it is." Coach Hedge spit out some cudgel splinters.

"Aeolus's floating palace should be anchored above us, right at the peak. This is one of his favorite spots to dock." "Maybe that was it." Jason knit his eyebrows. "I don't know. Something else, too..." "The Hunters were heading west," Piper remembered. "Do you think they're around here?"

"Gods I hope not. If they smoke bomb me again, I won't be held responsible for my response, crazy lady in my mind or not, and I could do without another lecture." The rest of them looked at him, and he just shrugged and went quiet.

Jason rubbed his forearm as if the tattoos were bothering him. "I don't see how anyone could survive on the mountain right now. The storm's pretty bad. It's already the evening before the solstice, but we didn't have much choice except to wait out the storm here."