Arsonist's Lullabye ──── Leo Valdez

𝟐: 𝐋𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐬

─────𝐕𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐬𝐢.

They were rude and they shit everywhere and no matter how much Butch insisted they were "calm and gentle, beautiful creatures", Vincent didn't buy it. He swore he once saw a pegasus laugh at him when he tripped and fell. 

However, he had to admit that the pegasi listened to him. He was no son of Poseidon, he couldn't talk to horses (Vincent really wanted to ask Annabeth if that rumor was true). He was a great charioteer though. Even without Butch, he could have handled the pegasi as long as they didn't fucking laugh at him.

After Vincent brought over the chariot and Butch got the pegasi, Annabeth wasted no time in telling them to take off. In the time it had taken Vincent to convince Will and the Ares cabin, Annabeth had asked permission to leave camp. Chiron of course, hadn't been insane enough to deny it to Annabeth. He was pretty sure she would have left with or without permission anyway. 

Somehow the news of their mission had spread, which is why a few Ares campers slapped him on the back, congratulating him on "taking initiative" to find Percy. Even though Vincent was literally doing nothing except driving the chariot. 

In no time, they had left Long Island behind. 

It didn't take long because of the magic speed burst. Vincent had tried to ask how just the navigation device was able to help pegasi travel such long distances in such short amounts of time, but the Athena and Hephaestus kids started to rant and he got so bored he didn't pay attention. It was like something out of Star Wars. They went into hyperspace or something equally nonsensical. 

By the time Vincent managed to open his eyes, he was flying over Arizona. Most of what they saw from that high up was just a whole bunch of desert. The heat of the sun beat down on him and he sent Apollo a silent prayer for having hot kids. 

The Grand Canyon wasn't hard to spot. 

Vincent's dad had always been an adrenaline junkie. He used to be fearless, always encouraging him to stand up to his fears. Because how could you fear fear itself when fear was in your DNA? Sometimes, Vincent really missed the man. He would have seen the Grand Canyon and wanted to bungee jump or something similarly stupid. 

The canyon was bigger and wider than you could appreciate from a picture. Even the skywalk level was so high that birds circled below their feet. A river snaked along the canyon floor. Banks of storm clouds moved overhead, casting shadows like angry faces across the cliffs. As far as Vincent could see, red and gray ravines cut through the desert like some crazy god had taken a knife to it.

Maybe one of the Greek gods had done it on a dare, Vincent wouldn't put it past them. It sounded exactly like something they would do.

The closer and closer they got to the skywalk, the more Vincent could see the destruction. 

It didn't do anything to calm Annabeth's nerves. 

If the chariot had been any bigger, she would have started pacing. Butch worked on keeping the horses calm as Vincent navigated the chariot. He made the pegasi slow as they began their descent. The horses nickered and snorted a few times, but didn't protest. 

On the horseshoe shaped glass skywalk, he could see three people. They were too far away to tell, but Vincent thought one of them was a girl and one was a blond guy. The last one was hard to see from their angle since they were laying down.

The skywalk itself was in a pretty bad shaped, cracked beyond repair. Vincent was tempted to suggest they land somewhere else, but he was sure Annabeth would probably strangle him. The closer they got, they more details he could see.