𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕎𝕒𝕣||HoO

𝐗𝐈𝐗

AS THEY were climbing up the cliffs of the floating island she thought about what Leo had said. Jason was a bridge. Hera had exchanged him with someone else: Percy and Lina. Wherever Jason had come from, Lina and Percy were probably there now. Maisie wished Jason could remember more. Then they would be able to get her girlfriend back.

Everyone else seemed to be down too. Coach Hedge was the only one in a good mood. He kept bounding up the slippery staircase and trotting back down, "Come on, cupcakes! Only a few thousand more steps!"

As they climbed, Leo, Piper, Jason, and Maisie all stayed silence. Piper kept glancing back at Jason, and Leo kept swatting his own legs, checking for signs his pants were on fire.

About halfway up, Maisie's side started aching. She wasn't sure if it was from walking up stairs, or if Phoebe's healing. She assumed it was the latter.

"Hey, you okay, Maisie?" Piper asked. She looked concerned.

Maisie removed her hand from her side, "Yeah. I'm fine."

"You sure? We can take a break if you need."

"No, it's okay."

When they finally they arrived at the top of the island. Bronze walls marched all the way around the fortress grounds, through Maisie wasn't sure who would attack this place. Twenty-foot-high gates opened for them, and a road of polished purple stone led up to the main citadel - a white-columned rotunda, Greek style, like a monument in Washington D.C. - except for the cluster of satellite dishes and radio towers on the roof.

"That's bizarre," Piper said.

"Guess you can't get cable on a floating island," Leo said. "Dang, check this guy's front yard."

The rotunda sat in the center of a quarter-mile circle. The grounds were amazing in a scary way. They were divided into four sections like big pizza slices, each one representing a season.

The section on their right was an icy waste, wit bare trees and a frozen lake. Snowmen rolled across the landscape as the wind blew, so Maisie wasn't sure whether they were decorations or alive.

To their left was an autumn park with gold and red trees. Mounds of leaves blew into patterns - gods, people, animals that ran after each other before scattering back into leaves.

In the distance, Maisie could see two more areas behind the rotunda. One looked like a green pasture with wildflowers and sheep made out of clouds. The last section was a desert where tumbleweeds scratched strange patterns in the sand like Greek letters, smiley faces, and a huge advertisement that read: WATCH AEOLUS NIGHTLY!

"One section for each of the four wind gods," Jason guessed. "Four cardinal directions."

"I'm loving that pasture," Coach Hedge licked his lips. "You guys mind-"

"Go ahead," Jason said. 

Maisie was kind of glad the satyr was leaving. It would be hard enough getting on the wind god's good side without Coach Hedge waving his club and screaming, "Die!"

While the satyr ran off to attack springtime, Jason, Leo, Piper, and Maisie walked down down the road to the steps of the palace. They passed through the front doors onto a white marble foyer decorated with purple banners that read OLYMPIAN WEATHER CHANNEL, and some that just read OW!

"Hello!" a woman floated up to them Literally floated. She was pretty in that elfish way nature spirits were: petite, slightly pointy ears, and an ageless face that could've been sixteen or thirty. Her brown eyes twinkled cheerfully. Even though there was no wind, her dark hair blew in slow motion, shampoo-commercial style. Her white gown billowed around her like parachute material. Maisie wasn't sure if she had feet, if she did, they didn't touch the feet. She had a white tablet computer in her hand. "Are you from Lord  Zeus?" she asked. "We've been expecting you."

"Are you a ghost?" Jason asked.

Maisie glared at him. She knew nature spirits did not like to be called something that they weren't.

"I'm an aura, sir," the spirit's smile turned into a pout. "A wind nymph, as you might expect, working for the lord of the winds. My name is Mellie. We don't have ghosts."

Piper came to the rescue, "No, of course you don't! My friend simply mistook you for Helen of Troy, the most beautiful mortal of all time. It's an easy mistake."

Maisie was impressed. Piper was good. The compliment seemed a little over the top, but Mellie blushed, "Oh...well, then. So you are from Zeus?"

"Er," Jason said, "I'm the son of Zeus, yeah."

"Excellent! Please, right this way," she led them through some security doors into another lobby, consulting her tablet as she floated. She didn't look where she was going, but apparently it didn't matter as she drifted straight through a marble column with no problem. "We're out of prime time now, so that's good," she mused. "I can fit you in right before his 11:12 spot."

"Um, okay," Jason said.

The lobby was pretty distracting place. Winds blasted around them, so Jason felt like he was pushing through an invisible crowd. Doors blew open and slammed by themselves.

The things Maisie could see were just as bizarre. Paper airplanes of all different sizes and shapes sped around, and other winds nymphs, Aurai, would occasionally pluck them out of the air, unfold and read them, then toss them back into the air, where the planes would refold themselves and keep flying.

A harpy flew past them. She looked like a mix between an old lady and a chicken on steroids. She had a wrinkled face with black hair tied in a hairnet, arms like a human plus winds like a chicken, and a fat, feathered body with talons for feet. It was amazing she could fly at all. She kept drifting around and bumping into thinks like a parade balloon.

"Not an Aura?" Jason asked Mellie as the creature wobbled by.

Mellie laughed, "That's a harpy, of course. Our, ah, ugly stepsisters, I suppose you would say. Don't you have harpies on Olympus? They're spirits of violent gusts, unlike Aurai. We're all gentle breezes."

"'Course you are," he said.

"So," Piper prompted, "you were taking us to see Aeolus?"

Mellie led them through a set of door like an airlock. Above the interior door, a green light blinked.

"We have a few minutes before he starts," Mellie said. "He probably won't kill you if we go in now. Come along!"

Hi, sorry again for not updating last week. School started two weeks ago and I've been pretty stressed out, plus some health things aren't great. But I hope you like the chapter! As always, comment!