5. eden is afraid of disappointing others

3.2K 152 126
                                    

They'd been riding on the dragon for a while when Jason bolted upright and shouted, "Cyclopes!"

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

They'd been riding on the dragon for a while when Jason bolted upright and shouted, "Cyclopes!"

"Whoa, sleepyhead." Piper said.

Eden turned her head to glance at the two and offered a small smile to Jason as a way of saying 'I'm glad you're alive.'

"D-Detroit," Jason stammered. "Didn't we crash-land? I thought—"

"It's okay," Leo said. "We got away, but you got a nasty concussion. How you feeling?"

"How did you—the Cyclops—"

"Leo ripped them apart," Piper said. "He was amazing. He can summon fire—"

"It was nothing," Leo said quickly.Piper laughed. "Shut up, Valdez. I'm going to tell him. Get over it."

Piper told the story of how Leo single-handedly defeated the cyclopes (Leo tried to butt in that Eden helped but she denied it) and how they only had minutes to repair Festus before the Cyclopes reformed. She also mentioned how Ma Gasket spoke of a kid in a purple shirt.

"I'm not alone, then," he said. "There are others like me."

"Jason," Piper said, "you were never alone. You've got us."

"I—I know...but something Hera said. I was having a dream...." He told them what he'd seen, and what the goddess had said inside her cage.

"An exchange?" Piper asked. "What does that mean?"

Jason shook his head. "But Hera's gamble is me. Just by sending me to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way-"

"Or save us," Piper said hopefully. "That bit about the sleeping enemy—that sounds like the lady Leo told us about."

Leo cleared his throat. "About that...she kind of appeared to me back in Detroit, in a pool of Porta-Potty sludge."

And at that moment Eden wanted to drop being a demigod. She drew the line at crazy sleeping ladies threatening people in a bunch of waste.

"Did you say...Porta-Potty?" Jason asked.

Leo told them about the big face in the factory yard. "I don't know if she's completely unkillable," he said, "but she cannot be defeated by toilet seats. I can vouch for that. She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge.'"

"She's trying to divide us."

"What's wrong?" Jason asked. Eden thought that was cute and disgusting, that they loved each other so much they could tell when the other was upset.

"I just...Why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?"

"Enceladus?" Jason asked, voicing Eden's question. Of course, she'd read a bit about him, but she didn't think anyone mentioned the giant. But Piper bringing him up couldn't be a coincidence, and it only heightened Eden's nerves about the evil earth woman.

afraid ツ l. valdezWhere stories live. Discover now