the great wave | percy jackson

𝑖 - hazel

How hard was it to cross one stupid mountain range? Hazel hit the deck as she almost ate boulder for the fourth time that night. Most of the projectiles directed at them missed the mark, but unfortunately this one crashed into the foremast, sending sails, spears, and Nico di Angelo crashing to the deck.

"Nico!" Hazel scrambled over to her brother as Leo brought the ship level.

"I'm fine," Nico muttered, kicking folds of canvas off his legs.

She helped him up and towards the bow. Below, the clouds parted just enough to reveal the range of peaks below them. Menacing at each summit was a mountain god–one of the numina montanum, in Latin, or ourae, in Greek. Whatever you called them, they were nasty, and they'd been blocking the Argo's way all along the Apennines.

"Stupid rock gods!" Leo yelled from the helm. "That's the third time I've had to replace that mast! You think they grow on trees?"

The final person on deck frowned. "Masts do come from trees," Asphodel Tran said, voice raspy from disuse.

"That's not the point!" Leo exasperated as he shot a Celestial bronze cannonball at the nearest numina. "Ha!" he yelled as his projectile found its mark.

Mere seconds later, a boulder whistled through the air off to their starboard side. "Get us out of here!" Nico yelled.

Leo muttered some unflattering comments about numina but turned the wheel. The engines hummed. Magical rigging lashed itself tight and the ship tacked to port. The Argo II retreated northwest as they had been doing for the past two days.

"Well that was sucktastic," Leo said as soon as they were away from the mountains. "Should I wake the others?"

Hazel was tempted to say yes, but their fellow crew members had taken the night shift and earned their rest. A few weeks ago, she wouldn't have believed that anyone could snooze through a numina attack. Now, a new monster threatened their crew every few hours; whenever she got a chance to sleep, she was out like a coma patient.

"No," Hazel sighed. "They need rest. We'll have to figure out another way on our own."

"Huh," Leo scowled at his monitor. Ever since their friends Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus, the son of Hephaestus had been working quite nearly non-stop. Hazel worried about him, but part of her was also relieved by the change. When Leo was in full form, he looked and acted too much like Sammy, Hazel's first boyfriend. Back in 1942.

"Another way," Leo muttered. "Do you see one?"

A map of Italy glowed on the screen before him. The green dot that represented the Argo II blinked on the western side of the Apennine Mountains, just a few hundred miles north of Rome. Their path should have been simple–straight east over the Apennines and the Adriatic Sea. But it hadn't worked out that way. Each time they tried to cross the spine of Italy, the mountain gods, sons of Gaea, attacked.

"It's our fault," Ash murmured as she trailed her fingers over the map. "The numina can sense us."

Hazel glanced at her half-brother. Since they'd rescued him from the giants, he'd started to regain his strength but was still painfully, painfully thin. His clothes hung off his skeletal frame, dark hair framing hollow eyes, and his olive complexion had turned a sickly greenish white.

In human years Nico was barely a year older than her, but that didn't tell the whole story. Like Hazel he'd come from a different era, but had lived most of his demigod life alongside Ash, daughter of Thanatos. The three of them had only recently been united yet happened to have a lot in common. For one, the knowledge that children of the Underworld rarely led happy lives. For another, from their shared information they'd discerned that their biggest challenge lay in the House of Hades–a challenge they'd collectively decided to keep secret from the others.