SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

100 - warrrrrr

LISTEN, WHEN BRIAR felt the ship fly into the air, she might've lost her mind.

She'd been in her room when it happened — her empty room, devoid of furniture, because she'd forced her mother to teleport her stuff to Camp Jupiter with her pleading face. She'd mastered it throughout the years. Reyna could only withstand it sometimes.

She'd looked at a wood handlebar thing, wondering how it'd gotten there and why it was in her room before when she felt the familiar sensation of being in the air.

Then she'd grabbed the handlebar just as she definitely felt herself being slapped across the world.

Briar didn't know what happened. She'd completely blacked out. She must've hit something, because a part of her forearm was bright red.

When her stomach wasn't churning and her center of balance seemed alright, she staggered out of her room and up the stairs to inhale the fresh air above with the rest of the crew. At least they seemed as disoriented as she was.

"Go!" Leo yelled. "Go, go, go!"

For once, Leo's tone was deadly serious.

They'd talked through their evacuation plan, but that slap across the world had made Briar's mind sluggish. Judging from the others' expressions, they weren't in much better shape.

Buford the table saved them. He clattered across the deck with his holographic Hedge blaring, "LET'S GO! MOVE IT! CUT THAT OUT!"

Then his tabletop split into helicopter blades and Buford buzzed away.

Frank changed form. Instead of a dazed demigod, he was now a dazed grey dragon. Hazel climbed onto his neck. Frank grabbed Percy and Annabeth in his front claws, then spread his wings and soared away.

Jason held Briar and Reyna by the waist, ready to fly, but Briar made the mistake of glancing down. The view was a spinning kaleidoscope of sky, earth, sky, earth. The ground was getting awfully close.

"Leo, you won't make it!" Jason shouted. "Come with us!"

"No! Get out of here!"

"Leo!" Briar tried. "Please –"

"Save your charmspeak, Briar Rose! I told you, I've got a plan. Now shoo!"

Briar took a last look at the splintering ship.

The Argo II had been their home for so long. Now they were abandoning it for good – and leaving Leo behind.

Jason harnessed the winds, and he, Reyna, and Briar shot into the sky.

The ground wasn't much less chaotic.

As they plummeted, Briar saw a vast army of monsters spread across the hills – cynocephali, two-headed men, wild centaurs, ogres and others she couldn't even name – surrounding two tiny islands of demigods. At the crest of Half-Blood Hill, gathered at the feet of the Athena Parthenos, was the main force of Camp Half-Blood along with the First and Fifth Cohorts, rallied around the golden eagle of the legion. The other three Roman cohorts were in a defensive formation several hundred yards away and seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack.

Giant eagles circled them, screeching urgently, as if looking for orders.

Frank the grey dragon flew alongside with his passengers.

"Hazel!" Reyna yelled. "Those three cohorts are in trouble! If they don't merge with the rest of the demigods –"

"On it!" Hazel said. "Go, Frank!"

Dragon Frank veered to the left with Annabeth in one claw yelling, "Let's get 'em!" and Percy in the other claw screaming, "I hate flying!"

Briar, Reyna, and Jason veered right towards the summit of Half-Blood Hill.