the winemaker's daughter [ percy jackson & the olympians ]

chapter forty-five

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙸𝙽𝙴𝙼𝙰𝙺𝙴𝚁'𝚂 𝙳𝙰𝚄𝙶𝙷𝚃𝙴𝚁༉‧₊˚.[𝙿𝙴𝚁𝙲𝚈 𝙹𝙰𝙲𝙺𝚂𝙾𝙽 & 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙾𝙻𝚈𝙼𝙿𝙸𝙰𝙽𝚂]

chapter forty-five: we're taken home to meet the family

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BEFORE MRS. o'leary ran directly into a tree with percy, and ashanti on her back, the dionysus girl knew her weird day was only going to get plenty weirder.

now, the demigoddess absolutely adored roller coasters, like literally any other person on the planet, well, that didn't have crippling anxiety after seeing the third installment of final destination, or had a completely rational fear of heights. but shadow traveling with mrs. o'leary was in a complete different ballpark than some superhero themed chain of coaster parks across the united states. things were a bit different traveling on a hellhound. they were going so fast, it felt like the skin on her face was peeling off, and being left behind in the strong winds. the darkness felt thick, and cold shivers climbed up the back of her spine.

it wasn't a completely horrible experience, but ashanti wasn't overly fond of the way her curls looked afterwards. it was for almost a complete minute, they couldn't see anything but pure darkness. the only thing she could feel was the softness of mrs. o'leary's fur, and her hands wrapped around percy's waist, grasping his t-shirt as if it were some type of lifeline that would guide her out of the darkness.

finally, the shadows seemed to melt off, and present them with an entirely new scene: a cliff in the woods of connecticut. at least, ashanti guessed it was connecticut. she had never been, but that's where nico said they were heading. she assumed it looked connecticut-ish, or should she say connecticut-y? either way, it had plenty of trees, low cut stone walls, and really, really big houses. down one side of the cliff, a freeway cut through a ravine. down the otherside was someone's backyard. the property was huge – a lot more wilderness than lawn. the house was two stories, white colonial. it looked old time-y, exactly like the kind of house they'd show in a revolutionary war movie. despite it being right on the other side of the hill from an entire freeway, it still felt like the absolute middle of nowhere.

a light glowed from a kitchen window, and a rusty old swing set hung from an apple tree. it was a picture perfect family home, and exactly what ashanti pictured in what she wanted in a house when she was growing up in. not at all like the low-income apartments in los angeles she'd lived in with her mom her entire life before finding camp half-blood. she looked around the property, astonished that it was luke's home. after all, who in their right mind would ever want to leave such a place?

mrs. o'leary staggered a bit, and nico's words of advice to them before they left rang back. he'd told them carefully that shadow-traveling would drain her tremendously. first, percy slipped off of her back, then he graciously assisted ashanti so they'd be standing side by side. the hellhound let out a huge, but toothy yawn. it was so loud, it would've scared off a t-rex. she turned in a little circle, then flopped down so hard, the ground shook.

nico appeared to ashanti's side, and scared the living daylights out of her. she almost swung, but instead, lunged forward to grab him as he stumbled toward the ground. he appeared as if the shadows had created him, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "i'm okay," he managed, patting her hand a bit so she'd let go of him, her grip a little tight as she snatched him from the ground.