Leo pov
I was totally buzzing.
The expression on everyone's face when I flew the dragon into camp? Priceless! I thought my cabinmates were going to bust a lug nut.
Festus had been awesome too. He hadn't blowtorched a single cabin or eaten any satyrs, even if he dribble a little oil from his ear. Okay, a lot of oil. I could work on that later.
So maybe I didn't seize the chance to tell everybody about Bunker 9 or the flying design. I needed some time to think about all that. I could tell them when I came back.
If I came back, part of me thought.
Nah, I'd come back. I'd scored a sweet magic tool belt from the bunker, plus a lot cool supplies now safely stowed in my backpack. Beside, I have a fire-breathing, only slightly leaky dragon on my side. What could go wrong?
Well, the control disk could bust, the bad part of me suggested. Festus could eat you.
Okay, so the dragon wasn't quite as fixed as I might've let on.
Then my thoughts drifted over to one person. One girl.
Tori.
I've had a crush on her for as long as I've "known her". Even though Hera probably put these feelings there on purpose, they were real now and were not going away any time soon. But can you blame me for liking her, she is seriously beautiful. Maybe it was the way her sea green eyes shimmered though her glasses? Because when I looked into her eyes the sky's the limit. I was completely helpless. But who was that guy in the picture? Had she remembered something about her life before? Was that a photo of her real boyfriend?
Anyway, I had worked all night attaching those wings to Festus, but I hadn't found an extra dragon brain anywhere in the bunker. Hey, we were under a time limit! Three days until the solstice. We had to get going. Besides, I had cleaned the disk pretty well. Most of the circuits were still good. It would just have to hold together.
My bad side started to think, Yeah, but what if--
"Shut up, me." I said aloud.
"What?" Piper asked. Tori let go of me and sat up.
"Nothing," I said. "Long night. I think I'm hallucinating. It's cool."
Sitting in the front, I couldn't see their faces, but I assumed from their silence my friends were not pleased to have a hallucinating dragon driver.
"Just joking." I decided it might be good to change the subject. "So what's the plan, Water girl? You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something?"
As we flew over New England, Jason and Tori laid out the game plan:
First, find some guy named Boreas and grill for him for information--
"His name is Boreas?" I had to ask. "What is he, the God of Boring?"
Secondly, Tori continued, we had to find to find those venti that had attacked us at the Grand Canyon.
"Can we just call them storm spirit?" I asked. "Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks."
And third, Jason finished, we had to find out who they worked for so we could find Hera and free her.
"So you want to look for Dylan, the nasty storm dude, on purpose," I said. "The guy who threw me off the skywalk and sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds."
"That's about it," Tori said. "Well...there may be a wolf involved, too. But I think she's friendly. She probably won't eat us, unless we show weakness."
Jason and Tori told us about their dreams--the big nasty mother wolf and burned-out house with stone spires growing out of the swimming pool.
"Uh-huh," I said. "But both of you don't know where this place is?"
"Nope." They both admitted.
"There's also giants," Piper added. "The prophecy said the giants' revenge."
"Hold on," I said. "Giants--like more than one? Why can't it just be one giant who wants revenge?"
"I don't think so," Piper said. "I remember in some of the old Greek stories, there was something about an army of giants."
"Great," I muttered. "Of course, with our luck, it's an army of giants. So you know anything else about these giants? Didn't you do a bunch of myth research for that movie with your dad?"
"Your dad's an actor?" Tori asked.
I laughed. "I keep forgetting about your amnesia. That's funny. Heh. Forgetting about amnesia. But yeah, her dad's Tristan McLean."
"Uh--Sorry what was he in ?"
"It doesn't matter," Piper said quickly. "The giants--well, there were lots of giants in Greek mythology. But if I'm there were right ones, they were bad news. Huge, almost impossible to kill. They could throw mountains and stuff.
I think they were related to the Titans. They rose from the earth after Kronos lost the war--I mean the first Titan war, thousands of years ago--and they tried to destroy Olympus. If we're talking about the same giants--"
"Chiron said it was happening again," Tori remembered. "The last chapter. That's what he meant. No wonder he didn't want use to know all the details."
Leo whistled. "So...giants who can throw mountains. Friendly wolves that will eat use if we show weakness. Evil espresso drinks. Gotcha. Maybe this isn't the time to bring up my psycho babysitter."
"Is that another joke?" Tori asked.
I told them about Tía Callida, who was really Hera, and how she'd appeared to me at camp. I didn't tell them about my fire abilities. That was still a touchy subject , especially after Nyssa told me that fire demigods tend to destroy cities and stuff. Besides, then I would have to go into how I caused my mom's death, and...No. I wasn't ready to go there. I did manage to tell the night she died, not mentioning the fire, just saying the machine shop collapsed. It was easier without having to look at my friends, just keeping my eyes straight ahead as the we flew.
And I told them about the strange woman in earthen robes who seemed to be asleep, and seemed to know the future.
I estimated the whole state of Massachusetts passed below us before any of them spoke.
"That's....disturbing." Piper said.
" 'Bout sums it up," I agreed. "Thing is, everybody says don't trust Hera. She hates demigods. And the prophecy said we'd cause death if we unleashed her rage. So I'm wondering... why are we doing this?"
"Leo has a point," Tori said. "If somebody is going to die through Hera's rage, why should we help her. She hates demigods, so do you really think she'll even care?"
"She chose us," Jason said. "All four of us. We're the first of the eight who have gather for the Great Prophecy. This quest is the beginning of something much bigger."
That didn't make me feel any better, but I couldn't argue with Jason's point. It did feel like this was the start of something huge. I just wished that if there were four more demigods destined to help us, they'd show up quick. I didn't want to hog all the terrifying life threatening adventures.
"Beside," Jason continued, "helping Hera is the only way to get me and Tori our memories back. And that dark spire in our dreams seemed to feeding on Hera's energy. If that thing unleashes a king of the giants by destroying Hera--"
"Not a good trade-off," Piper agreed. "At least Hera is on our side--mostly. Losing her would throw the gods into chaos. She's the main one who keep piece in the family. And a war with the giants could be even more destructive than the Titan War."
Jason nodded. "Chiron also talked about worse forces stirring on the solstice, with it being a good time for dark magic, and all--something that could awaken if Hera were sacrificed on that day. And this mistress who's controlling the storm spirits, the one who wants to kill all demigods--"
"Might be that weird sleeping lady," I finished. "Dirt Woman fully awake? Not something I want to see."
"But who is she?" Jason asked. "And what does she have to do with giants?"
Good questions, but none of us had answers. We flew in silence while I wondered if I'd done the right thing sharing so much. I'd never told anyone about that night at the warehouse. Even if I hadn't give them them the whole story, it felt strange, like I'd opened up my chest and taken out all the gears that made me tick. My body was shaking, and not from the cold. I hoped Tori, sitting behind me, couldn't tell.
The forge and dove shall break the cage. Wasn't that the prophecy line? That meant Piper and me would have to figure out how to break into a magical rock prison, assuming they could find it. Then we'd unleash Hera's rage, causing a lot of death. Well, that sounded fun! I had seen Tía Callida in action; she liked knives, snakes, and putting babies in roaring fires. yeah, definitely unleash her rage. Great idea.
Festus kept flying. The wind got colder, and below us snowy forest seemed to go on forever. I didn't know where Quebec was. I'd told Festus to take us to the palace of Boreas, and Festus kept going north. Hopefully, the dragon knew his way, and we wouldn't end up at the North Pole.
"Why don't you get some sleep?" Tori said in my ear. "You were up all night."
I wanted to protest, but the word sleep sounded really good. "You won't let me fall off?"
Tori hugged me tightly and then let go. "Trust me, Valdez. I would never let you fall."
I leaned forward against the warm bronze dragon's neck, and closed my eyes.