Finding Leo

Chapter 10: Again?

hERE WE GO
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Ally's POV

It's not like we had much time to work things out, or ask many questions.

Ever since I supposedly spewed out that prophecy, Leo seemed on edge. I couldn't blame him; this Gaea lady sounds pretty evil. I was afraid for many reasons. First of all, why didn't Leo want to go back to this Camp he came from? What had happened to him? What's more, three demigods weren't cut out for battling an immortal being of earth. I wasn't cut out for this. At least Leo had his sick fire powers and bright mind, and Eddie seemed like a pretty powerful kid if he could teleport three people hundreds of miles.

And what could I do? Move myself a couple hundred feet and maybe scare Gaea into submission with my glowing blue eyes, that's what. Perhaps I could whack around a softball bat in some monsters' faces if I had ever taken lessons.

We met on the porch at the crack of dawn the next day. I felt half dead from tossing and turning all night, and Leo didn't look much better. Eddie, however, seemed as bright-eyed and bushy tailed as ever.

"Alright, lovelies, lets get started," He stated, cracking his knuckles and shaking out his legs.

I gave him a quizzical look. "Uh... And you're sure you can get us all the way to New Orleans in one jump?"

"Positive. Trust me, it'll be easy."

Eddie's POV

It was not easy.

I was only in the shadows for a couple of seconds, clutching on to Ally and Leo's hands before I crashed onto the asphalt, feeling my companions fall on top of me. My eyes nearly popped out of my head.

I heard Leo's voice from above me. "Ugh, I hate shadow travel. Gives me chills every time."

"Are we here?" Ally this time.

I wheezed from the bottom of our pile, "Guys... Can't breathe."

"Oh, right. Ally, get off."

Once I wasn't being suffocated, I stood beside the two of them, taking in my surroundings. We had just appeared on the sidewalk in front of a Chinese food restaurant, mortals giving us odd looks. We were in the middle of a bustling city, with skyscrapers towering a few blocks away and people talking with a southern twang to their words.

Leo groaned and shook his head. "Oh, come on!"

"What?" I asked, nearly falling over as a wave of drowsiness hit me. I stumbled into the restaurant window. I had to work on shadow traveling without exerting too much energy. If I had to do that one more time, I'd definitely pass out. "Are we in Louisiana?"

The son of Hephaestus made an aggravated noise and crossed his arms. Ally raised an eyebrow. She started to ask, "Is that a no, or-"

"We're in Atlanta again."

Again? I'd never been to Georgia. The comment reminded me how little Ally and I knew about Leo. But right now, we had bigger problems. Most importantly, I'd failed.

Leo turned to me, looking exasperated. "I thought you said you could get us to New Orleans." His brown eyes pierced mine.

I attempted to stand upright on my own, but black spots danced before my eyes and I was forced to lean on the window again. "Look, I really thought I could-"

"Well you couldn't!" Leo snapped angrily, and I lowered my gaze. He was right. I'd had too much faith in myself, and now here we were, hundreds of miles away from our destination and an angry earth goddess out to kill us. We had no way to get to New Orleans until I rested up, and because of me, we were stuck in a city that, from Leo's behavior, apparently wasn't ideal for demigods.

Great.

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WELP. Yeah, this chapter's short, probably because I wrote it all in half an hour. I'm expecting others to be short too, but hopefully with more updates.

And if anyone was wondering why Leo's being so moody, I mean, I would be too if I had hurt my best friends and ran away from the only safe place for someone like me. Just trying to portray him like I think anyone would act after going through so much.

As always, look forward to chapter 12, keep calm, and try to stay weird.