orenda [leo valdez]

xlvi. Leo's Collection of Grenades

"Wow, wow, wow, you have more? And you didn't show me?" Leo asked, his eyes gleaming with happiness.

"Don't change the subject, babe," She chastised, but her face was glowing.

"Aphrodite gave it to me." Kira's eyebrows rose in that response. She wasn't expecting that.

Kira looked at the watercolor picture, and back at Leo. "I'll show you the others after the meeting, alright?" Leo nodded excitedly.

"I'd like that, Shark Boy."

The hum of the ship's engines changed to a lower pitch. Over the cabin loudspeaker, Festus's voice creaked and squeaked.

"Yeah, thanks, buddy," Leo said. "On my way."

The other six demigods were eating breakfast.

Percy was eating a huge stack of blue pancakes while Annabeth chided him for pouring on too much syrup.

Kira smiled softly. Annabeth had told Kira about Percy's obsession with blue food when they were building Argo II.

"You're drowning them!" she complained.

"Hey, I'm a Poseidon kid," he said. "I can't drown. And neither can my pancakes."

To their left, Frank and Hazel used their cereal bowls to flatten out a map of Greece. They looked over it, their heads close together. Every once in a while Frank's hand would cover Hazel's, just sweet and natural like they were an old married couple.

At the head of the table, Jason sat uncomfortably with his T-shirt rolled up to his ribcage as Nurse Piper changed his bandages.

"Hold still," she said. "I know it hurts."

"It's just cold," he said, but Kira could hear the pain in his voice.

"What's up, guys?" Leo strolled into the mess hall with his fingers intertwined with Kira's. "Aw, yes to brownies!"

He grabbed the last one, from a special sea-salt recipe they'd picked up from Aphros the fish centaur at the bottom of the Atlantic.

The intercom crackled. Buford's Mini-Hedge yelled over the speakers, 'PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!'

Everyone jumped. Hazel ended up five feet away from Frank. Percy spilled syrup in his orange juice. Jason awkwardly wriggled back into his T-shirt, and Frank turned into a bulldog. Kira moved closer to Leo.

Piper glared at Leo. "I thought you were getting rid of that stupid hologram."

"Hey, Buford's just saying good morning. He loves his hologram! Besides, we all miss the coach. And Frank makes a cute bulldog."

Frank morphed back into a burly, grumpy Chinese Canadian dude. "Just sit down, Leo. We've got stuff to talk about."

Leo and Kira sat between Hazel and Jason. Kira avoided most of the groups stares.

"So..." Jason winced as he leaned forward. "We're going to stay airborne and drop anchor as close as we can to Olympia. It's further inland than I'd like – about five miles – but we don't have much choice. According to Juno, we have to find the goddess of victory and, um ... subdue her."

The room went quiet.

With the new drapes covering the holographic walls, the mess hall was darker and gloomier than it should've been, but that couldn't be helped. Ever since the Kerkopes dwarf twins had short-circuited the walls, the real-time video feed from Camp Half-Blood often fuzzed out, changing into playback of extreme dwarf close-ups – red whiskers, nostrils and bad dental work. It wasn't helpful when you were trying to eat or have a serious conversation about the fate of the world.