-ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
THEY took a Taxi, but the car couldn't continue because of a ranger or something- Rebecca wasn't paying much attention.
She was focused trying to figure out what to do in the mountain, and whatever she was feeling about her friends (actually only one of them- it was complicated).
Rebecca had a bad feeling about the whole situation.
The road was hard-packed dirt. No reason at all it should have been soft, but already Rebecca's shoes were starting to sink. Gaea was messing with them.
The view from the mountain was pretty amazing. The whole inland valley around Mount Diablo was a patchwork of towns-grids of tree-lined streets and nice middle-class suburbs, shops, and schools.
All these normal people living normal lives- the kind Rebecca never had.
"That's Concord," Jason said, pointing to the north.
"Walnut Creek below us. To the south, Danville, past those hills. And that way ..." He pointed west, where a ridge of golden hills held back a layer of fog, like the rim of a bowl. "That's the Berkeley Hills. The East Bay. Past that, San Francisco."
Rebecca remembered the last time they had been there together, it didn't really go as planned, it was supposed to be a simple mission.
She grimaced at the memory.
"Jason?" Rebecca touched his arm. "You remember something?"
"Yes ... no." He gave her an anguished look. "It just seems important."
Rebecca wanted to relieve his pain, or something, but that was just because they were kind of friends.
"That's Titan land." Coach Hedge nodded toward the west. "Bad place, Jason. Trust me, this is as close to 'Frisco as we want to get."
Rebecca tried to move her foot, but her boot heels were now completely embedded in the dirt.
"Hey, guys," Rebecca said. "Let's keep moving."
The others noticed the problem.
"Gaea is stronger here," Hedge grumbled.
Rebecca pulled her feet out of the dirt.
"How do we know where the giant is?" Piper asked.
Jason pointed toward the peak. Drifting across the summit was a plume of smoke. From a distance, Rebecca had thought it was a cloud, but it wasn't. Something was burning.
"Smoke equals fire," Jason said. "We'd better hurry."
Rebecca had been a demigod for a good while, she was in good form (even though she had been dead for a good while), but climbing a mountain when the earth was trying to swallow her feet was like jogging on a flypaper treadmill.
Finally Jason crouched behind a wall of rock. He gestured for the others to do the same. Rebecca crawled up next to him. Piper and Leo had to pull Coach Hedge down.
"I don't want to get my outfit dirty!" Hedge complained.
"Shhh!" The brunette said.
Reluctantly, the satyr knelt.
Just over the ridge where they were hiding, in the shadow of the mountain's final crest, was a forested depression about the size of a football field, where the giant Enceladus had set up camp.
Trees had been cut down to make a towering purple bonfire.
The outer rim of the clearing was littered with extra logs and construction equipment-an earthmover; a big crane thing with rotating blades at the end like an electric shaver-must be a tree harvester, Rebecca thought
-and a long metal column with an ax blade, like a sideways guillotine —a hydraulic ax.
Why a giant needed construction equipment, Rebecca wasn't sure. She didn't see how the creature in front of her could even fit in the driver's seat.
The giant Enceladus was so large, so horrible, Rebecca didn't want to look at him.
But she forced himself to focus on the monster and the impending threat.
In his hand, Enceladus held a spear the size of a flagpole. Every so often he dipped its tip in the fire, turning the metal molten red.
"Okay," Coach Hedge whispered. "Here's the plan—"
Leo elbowed him. "You're not charging him alone!"
"Aw, c'mon."
Piper choked back a sob. "Look."
Just visible on the other side of the bonfire was a man tied to a post.
His head slumped like he was unconscious, so Rebecca couldn't make out his face, but Piper didn't seem to have any doubts.
"Dad," she said.
Rebecca swallowed, wishing Tristan McLean would be fine after all, so Piper and Tristan could be father and daughter again.
Tristan McLean was half dead and about to be eaten. The only people who could stop it- four fashionably dressed teenaged demigods and a megalomaniac goat.
"There's five of us," Hedge whispered urgently. "And only one of him."
"He's massive." Rebecca said.
"Okay," Hedge said. "So you, Leo, me, and Jason distract him. Piper sneaks around and frees her dad."
They all looked at Jason.
"What?" Jason asked. "I'm not the leader."
"Yes," Piper said. "You are."
Rebecca nudged his arm, "accept it blondie- you're the main guy."
They'd never really talked about it, but no one disagreed, not even Hedge. Coming this far had been a team effort, but when it came to a life-and-death decision Jason always had answers.
Even if he had no memory, Jason had a kind of balance to him. You could just tell he'd been in battles before, and he knew how to keep his cool. It had always been like that, he was always the leader.
"I hate to say it," Jason sighed, "but Coach Hedge is right. A distraction is Piper's best chance."
Not a good chance, Rebecca thought. Not even a survivable chance. Just their best chance.
They couldn't sit there all day and talk about it, though. It had to be close to noon—the giant's deadline-and the ground was still trying to pull them down.
"Let's boogie," Leo said. "Before I come to my senses."
Rebecca patted him and helped him up, "let's go kick some giants ass."
____________________________
- this was short but whatever
- rebecca now has a faceclaim but
imagine her how you like
- it's rae cambra btw
- good luck to any of you that have
exams or a lot of work load :)
flo <3