𝐖𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐂! percy jackson

xviii. The Land Beyond The Gods

━━ chapter eighteen
the land beyond the gods

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅。.。༅:*·ﾟﾟ·⭑

    ━━Aeroplanes or cannibals? Come on, no contest, at all. The answer is obviously the cannibals.

    Percy, in all honestly, would much rather be driving Grandma Zhang's Cadillac all the way to Alaska with fireball-throwing ogres on his tail rather than sitting in a luxury Gulfstream. But Fiona sat next to him, so he could guess it was okay. He had flown before, he knew that much. The details were hazy, but he remembered flying a pegasus called Blackjack━and that he really liked doughnuts. He had even been in a plane once or twice. But a son of Neptune (Poseidon, whatever) didn't belong in the air. Every time the plane hit a spot of turbulence, Percy's heart raced, and he was sure Jupiter (Zeus, whatever) was slapping them around. In the end, he found himself reaching out and gripping Fiona's hand. She arched a brow at him but didn't let go. Instead, she gave it a squeeze as if to tell him, it's okay.

    He tried his best to focus as Frank and Hazel talked. Hazel was reassuring Frank that he had done everything he could for his grandmother. Frank had saved them from the Laistrygonians and got them out of Vancouver. He had been incredibly brave. Frank kept his head down like he was ashamed to have been crying, but Percy didn't blame him. The poor guy had just lost his grandmother and seen his house go up in flames, he had every right to cry over that. As far as Percy was concerned, shedding a few tears didn't make you any less of a man, especially when you had just fended off an army of ogres that wanted to eat you for breakfast.

    (Though, Percy still couldn't get over the fact that Frank was like a distant relative. What would that make him? Frank would be his ... what? Great-times-a-thousand nephew? Yeah, far too weird for words).

    Frank refused to explain exactly what his family gift was, but as they flew north, he did tell them about his conversation with Mars the night before. He explained the prophecy Juno had issued when he was a baby━about his life being tied to a piece of firewood, and how he had asked Hazel to keep it for him. Beside Percy, Fiona tensed, and she gripped his hand tighter. But she managed to tell Frank that she was going through something similar with her necklace, explaining the story of how her brother Nico had passed it over the day she found out she was a daughter of Pluto.

    Some of Frank's story, Percy had already figured out. Hazel and Frank had obviously shared some crazy experience when they blacked out together, and that they had made some sort of deal. It also explained why even now, out of habit, Frank kept checking his coat pocket, and why he was so nervous around fire. Still, Percy felt a strong sense of admiration. For both him and Fiona. Both of them had their lives dangling like faint string, ready to be cut off at any moment, and yet here they still were, embarking on a quest knowing that it could very well end in their deaths. And for Fiona, it most probably will. He didn't like that. Percy was determined to make sure Thanatos won't steal her away back down to the Underworld. He won't let that happen. He'll fight the god if he had to.

    "Frank," he said, "I'm proud to be related to you."

    Frank's ears turned red. With his head lowered, his military haircut made a sharp black arrow pointing down. "Juno has some sort of plan for us, about the Prophecy of Eight."

    "Yeah," Percy grumled. "I didn't like her as Hera. I don't like her any better as Juno."

    He glanced at Fiona next to him, remembering their conversation last night. She had told him that it didn't matter whether he was Roman or Greek, she trusted him all the same. He doesn't know why that had meant so much to him, but it had. He wanted to tell her everything he could remember about his old life, but was also scared━afraid of what, he wasn't particularly sure.