Astrid Strider Daughter of Apollo

Visited by a Brother

After a lot of crying, running, hiding, and burying -it was right to give Dakota a proper burial- we had finally taken off into the air. "So long London, and soon back to New York..." Tobias sighed. I narrowed my eyes. "Wait, what?" He gulped. "We came here just for the rain, because we knew it would rain... I knew this would be the last image before the one we are about to see..." My eyes widened. "All this way... The Bright Light.... Fire.... Rain.... Blood... and the soft sad smile..." I mumbled. All of this resulted in Dakota's death... I sobbed. It's really unlike me, but I couldn't hold it in anymore.

The pain. I let our the pain of Nico forgetting. The pain of being attacked. The pain of losing Dakota.... Oh gods.... He was only thirteen! He had a full life ahead of him... Why couldn't it have been me? The scar on my leg started to hurt. I gripped it in pain and slipped over board Nightmare.

As I fell, heard everyone scream or yell.

As I fell, I didn't scream...

As I fell, I wanted to end it all....

As I fell, down...

                     down....

                            down....

   Instead of the hard impact I was expecting, I landed in really, really, soft grass. Slowly, I looked up and saw a faded image. A faded image of a familiar person. I scooted backwards and saw... Octavian. He was obviously a ghost, but I still threw dirt at him, which went through him. "Astrid, as much as I hate you," he smirked, "I'm not going to let you die. You still have a quest to complete, and I in the tiniest way fancy you. You have such...." It looked like it was killing him -pfffft- to say it, "amazing... Strength and... Courage..." His face wrinkled like the words tasted bad in his mouth saying it about another person. His sister.

   I stood up and looked around. Nothing but soft grass. "Am I really here?" I asked. He rolled his eyes. "No you idiot, you're still falling, but I just wanted to talk to you." I smiled. "There's the cold-hearted brother I know..." I said sadly, but almost happy too. He scowled and I laughed. His mouth twitched in the tiniest smile, as if trying not to laugh. "Bye, Astrid." He said rolling his eyes. I watched as everything dissolved and I was back the sky.

   Everything must have stopped when I was talking to Octavian, because I wasn't anywhere close to the ground. I twisted my body to look up at the others. Tobias was swooping down to catch me. He grabbed my hand and yanked me onto his pegasus. He started rambling on and on about how crazy and stupid I was to have done that, but I just shifted onto Nightmare and gripped the reins tightly. 

   "What are you going to do now?!? For all we know you could be petrified!" Tobias continued. I looked at him and the others. 

    "We are going to Finnish the quest, for Dakota." I said irritatedly. 

    He narrowed his eyes. "You sound like Octavian." 

   "She was visited by him, that's why." Nico spoke up. 

   "Really?" Leo asked. He was still holding onto Asha who was still unconscious.

   I only nodded...