Caleo: I Will Find You

Leo's POV 7

a/n: sorry for the long time awaited update loves. hope you're all doing great!

I woke up in a strange room with a bubble on my head, and, honestly, it made the top ten on the Weirdest Ways To Wake Up list.

I looked around for Frank and Hazel and didn't see them anywhere. I tried to get up but was stuck, which got me nervous.

I tried breaking free but couldn't go anywhere, and I sighed, trying again. Nothing.

I was bound with seaweed and for once in my life wished I was Percy. Shaking that thought out of my head, I made a fist, trying to create a flame. That dissolved quickly and I told myself that logic existed, for once. Fire wouldn't light underwater. 

"For the love of the gods," I muttered, wriggling out. Finally, and I mean finally, the seaweed broke.

I stood up, the bubble bouncing around my neck. The room only had my bed and a night table in it, so I disregarded everything and walked out.

I went down a hallway, passing eight of Percy's half-human cousins. When I say half-human, I mean it. These guys were like Ariel- mermaids.

Or, men. Mermen? Mermen.

Nobody gave me a second look so I continued going down the hallway. I started getting scared, because here I was, Leo Valdez, underwater. Fire doesn't work down here. Percy would totally win this one.

I couldn't find Frank or Hazel but wasn't dumb enough to ask. If someone was friends with the Boogie-Octo thing, I could be the next gourmet meal on his menu. Oh, no, I could see it now. Leo Valdez, Spicy, with a touch of demigod zest.

Yum.

I kept my head down as I walked through the underground Mermen Lair, trying not to bring anymore attention to myself. Whenever someone nudged me I got scared, but when a sea lion repeatedly bumped into me, I had a good feeling.

"Frank?"

The animal chased its tail three times then swam away.

I followed him to the other side of the hallway and we slipped behind a door. Hazel stood on the other side with an identical bubble on her head, and I smiled with relief when I saw her.

"Thank the gods. I was getting worried." She said.

I grinned. "I saw mermen."

"Not the time!" Frank barked. He switched back to human form, but instead of a ridiculous bubble, he had an oxygen tank.

"Now that's rude. Getting a fancy-smanshy oxygen tank and not sharing with your friends."

"Shut up, Leo. Listen, we have to get out of here."

"Thanks, Capt. How would you like to do that?" I asked. "The obvious way, or the not-obvious way?"

Hazel gave me the stink-eye and turned to Frank. "How're we getting out? There's no easy exit."

"Who said it had to be an easy exit?" I asked.

"It'd be nice to not have to break things for once," Frank said. "Why can't we just exit like normal people?"

"Yeah, because normal people get stuck at the bottom of the ocean by a sea monster." I said.

Frank ignored me. "I saw some mermaids leaving with dolphins before. Maybe they can bring us up."

"With what pay?" Hazel asked. "Surely they won't do it for free."

"Of course not." Frank said. "They want an assistant down here, working for Poseidon. I volunteer Leo."

I glanced at Hazel, then back at Frank. "You said assistant? As in, like, your whole life underwater, here, working as a slave?"

Frank thought about it. "Yeah, that's what I said."

"Okay, no," Hazel said. "There's got to be another way."

"Yeah!" I said. "I'm not too keen on being old Barnacle Beard's personal back-scratcher for all eternity."

The floor vibrated with a rumble, and Hazel glared at me. "Watch your mouth. We're in his realm."

I rolled my eyes. "The solution to our issue is quite obvious, here. Frank's a tele-switcher-guy. Why can't he just magically transform into, like, a whale or something, and scoop us up and out of this?"

Hazel looked at me. "He's right."

"He's right." Frank repeated.

"I'm right?"

"Yes," Hazel said. "But Frank shouldn't turn into a whale, that'd be too out-of-place."

"Oh, of course. Yeah. Because the bottom of the ocean isn't the right place for a whale. Shucks, too bad we're not in someplace like Arizona. That'd be perfect."

"Shut up, Leo."

Frank closed his eyes, and then he was a hammerhead shark. One eye glared at me and the other looked at Hazel. Hazel shrugged and hopped on, then told me to get on, too.

Honestly, I didn't want to sit on a shark. But it wasn't the weirdest thing I'd done.

And as Frank swam us up to the surface, I couldn't help but think what the gods would throw at me next. There was no way for me to know. All I knew was that I was getting back to Calypso, and nothing was stopping me.