The Winds Of Heaven (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

17. Gone With The Wind

As Y/N and his friends climbed the cliffs of the floating island, the only one who seemed in a good mood was Hedge. He kept bounding up the slippery staircase and trotting back down. "Come on, cupcakes! Only a few thousand more steps!"

The rest of them left Jason in his silence. They could sense his bad mood. You couldn't expect anything else from someone who'd found his sister and lost her in less than an hour, and in the process had learned that his mother was one of the worst parents you could hope for.

Leo kept swatting his own legs, checking for signs that his pants were on fire. He wasn't steaming anymore, but the incident on the ice bridge had really freaked him out. Leo hadn't seemed to realize that he had smoke coming out of his ears and flames dancing through his hair. If Leo started spontaneously combusting every time he got carried away, they were going to have a tough time taking him anywhere. Imagine trying to get food at a restaurant. I'll have a cheeseburger and—Ahhh! My friend's on fire! Get me a bucket!

Finally they arrived at the top of the island. Bronze walls marched all the way around the fortress grounds, though Y/N couldn't imagine who would possibly attack this place. Twenty-foot-high gates opened for them, and a road of polished purple stone led up to the main citadel—a white-columned rotunda, Greek style, like one of the monuments in Washington, D.C.—except for the cluster of satellite dishes and radio towers on the roof.

"That's bizarre," Piper said.

"Guess you can't get cable on a floating island," Leo said. "Dang, check this guy's front yard."

The rotunda sat in the center of a quarter-mile circle. The grounds were amazing in a scary way. They were divided into four sections like big pizza slices, each one representing a season.

The section on their right was an icy waste, with bare trees and a frozen lake. Snowmen rolled across the landscape as the wind blew, so Y/N wasn't sure if they were decorations or alive.

To their left was an autumn park with gold and red trees. Mounds of leaves blew into patterns—gods, people, animals that ran after each other before scattering back into leaves.

In the distance, Y/N could see two more areas behind the rotunda. One looked like a green pasture with sheep made out of clouds. The last section was a desert where tumbleweeds scratched strange patterns in the sand like Greek letters, smiley faces, and a huge advertisement that read: WATCH AEOLUS NIGHTLY!

"One section for each of the four wind gods," he guessed. "Four cardinal directions."

"I'm loving that pasture." Coach Hedge licked his lips. "You guys mind—"

"Go ahead," Y/N said. He was actually relieved to send the satyr off. It would be hard enough getting on Aeolus's good side without Hedge waving his club and screaming, "Die!"

While the satyr ran off to attack springtime, Y/N, Annabeth, Ethan, Jason, Leo and Piper walked down the road to the steps of the palace. They passed through the front doors into a white marble foyer decorated with purple banners that read OLYMPIAN WEATHER CHANNEL, and some just read OW!

"Hello!" A woman floated up to them. Literally floated. She was pretty in that elfish way Y/N associated with nature spirits at Camp Half-Blood—petite, slightly pointy ears, and an ageless face that could've been sixteen or thirty. Her brown eyes twinkled cheerfully. Even though there was no wind, her dark hair blew in slow motion, shampoo-commercial style. Her white gown billowed around her like parachute material. Y/N couldn't tell if she had feet, but if so, they didn't touch the floor. She had a white tablet computer in her hand. "Are you from Lord Zeus?" she asked. "We've been expecting you."

Y/N tried to respond, but it was a little hard to think straight, because he'd realized the woman was see-through. Her shape faded in and out as if she was made of fog.