The Poseidon Girls

Chapter 7 ~ Flying (CORAL)

"Shut up, me." Leo ordered.
"What?" Piper asked.
"Nothing," Leo replied. "Long night. I think I'm hallucinating. It's cool." Well, that sounded bad. If Leo really was hallucinating, who knows what could happen without him noticing?
"Leo, maybe you should land Festus and take a rest." Cass suggested.
"Nah, I was just joking." Leo grinned. "So what's the plan, bro? You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something?"

Jason told us his plan as we flew over New England. First off, we had to find the god Boreas and get information off him.
"His name is Boreas?" Leo asked. "What is he, the God of Boring?" Secondly, Jason continued, we had to find the venti that attacked us at the Grand Canyon. "Can we just call them storm spirits?" Leo requested. "Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks." And, third, Jason finished, we had to find out who the storm spirits worked for, so we could find and free Hera. "So you want to look for Dylan, the nasty storm dude, on purpose?" Leo questioned. "The guy who threw me off the skywalk and sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds."
"That's about it." Jason agreed. " 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 explained a dream he had about a wolf while he slept. If the wolf didn't like weakness, I'd probably have to avoid talking about Camp if I meet her - Camp will just bring back the few memories I have of my brother. And Connor. What? I barely even knew Connor!! This can't be right, people don't randomly think of the name of a boy they barely even know... I'm confused.
"Uh-huh, but you don't know where this place is." Leo said.
"Nope." Jason admitted."
"There's also Giants." Piper added. "The prophecy said the Giants' revenge."
"Hold on, Giants - like more than one?" Leo didn't sound too happy. "Why can't it just be one giant who wants revenge?"
"I don't think so. I remember in some of the old Greek stories, there was something about an army of Giants."
"Great." Leo muttered. "Of course, with our luck, it's an army. 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?" Jason asked. Leo laughed.
"I keep forgetting about your amnesia. Heh. Forgetting about amnesia. That's funny. But yeah, her dad's Tristan McLean.
"Uh - sorry, what was he in?"
"It doesn't matter." Piper answered quickly. "The Giants - well, there were a lot of Giants in Greek mythology. But if I'm thinking of the right ones, they're 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." Jason remembered. "The last chapter. That's what he meant. No wonder he didn't want us to know all the details. Leo whistled.
"So... giants who can throw mountains. Friendly wolves that will eat us if we show weakness. Evil espresso drinks. Gotcha. Maybe this isn't the time to bring up my psycho babysitter."
"Wait, what?" Cass asked.
"Is that another joke?" Piper asked. Leo told us about Tía Calida, a babysitter he had when he was younger who was actually Hera in disguise, and had appeared to him at Camp. He told us about how his mum died when her workshop collapsed, and about a strange woman in earth-coloured robes who seemed to be asleep, and appeared to know the future.
"That's... disturbing." Piper and I remarked.
"'Bout sums it up," Leo agreed. "Thing is, everybody says don't trust Hera. She hates demigods. And the prophecy said we'd cause death if we unleash her rage. So I'm wondering... why are we doing this?"
"She chose us." Jason replied. "All five of us."
"Five? How did she choose Cass and Coral?" Piper asked.
"By making sure they met us." Jason made the answer seem like the most obvious thing in the world. "We're the first of the nine who have to gather for the Great Prophecy. This quest is the beginning of something much bigger." I had to agree with Jason on that - I felt like our quest was the start of something big. "Besides, helping Hera is the only way I can get back my memory. And that dark spire in my dream seemed to be feeding on Hera's energy. If that thing unleashes a king of the giants by destroying Hera -"
"Not a good trade-off." Piper finished. "At least Hera's on our side - mostly. Loosing her would throw the gods into chaos. She's the main one who keeps peace in the family. And a war with the giants could be even more destructive than the Titan War." Jason nodded in agreement. "Chiron talked also about worse forces stirring on the solstice, with it being a good time for dark magic, and all - something that could awaken if Hera was sacrificed on that day. And this mistress who's controlling the storm spirits, the one who wants to kill all the demigods -"
"Might be that weird sleeping lady." Leo 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?" Fantastic questions, pity none of us knew the answers.

We flew in silence for a while, and I guessed Leo was cold - he was shaking like a leaf. The wind started getting colder, and, below us, snowy forests seemed endless.

I didn't know exactly where Quebec was, so I was hoping Leo did.
"Why don't you get some sleep?" Cass asked Leo. Hmm... my best friend seemed to care about Leo a lot... "You were up all night."
"You guys won't let me fall off?" Leo asked. Piper patted his shoulder.
"Trust me, Valdez. Beautiful people never lie."
"Right."