Burning Passion: A Leo Valdez Love Story

Chapter 23

"No, Pipes. It could be a random group of giant eagles flying in perfect formation. Of course they're Roman!"

{LEO}

"Alright," Naia said. "Time to find the real smart dude."

"Who?" asked Esmeralda. She looked at Naia puzzledly, and fiddled with a loose thread of her nightgown.

"Long story. Basically, we thought we found someone who could tell us what to do next in our quest... he was wrong. So apparently the right one lives in these woods," Naia explained.

"Oh, okay!" she said. "This is so exciting!"

"So let's go," I put in.

We were about five hours of walking into the woods, and none of us had any idea where this dude might be (not even Naia; I'd asked her already, of course).

"Where could he be?" asked Esmeralda. "Maybe hiding in a tree. Or under a rock? Blending in with a pack of unicorns, perhaps! Or riding dolphins in the deep blue ocean? In a cave? A cave sounds good."

I nodded absentmindedly. Too bad I didn't have any location skills. That would be really helpful on quests and stuff. And I'd tried to make a locator-type thing last summer, but it hadn't worked (in fact, it had exploded when I tried to experiment, asking it to find the Aphrodite cabin).

"Does anyone hear anything?" Naia asked.

I shook my head. "Other than crickets, I don't. Do you?"

"No, I was just checking. It always tends to be noises that lead people to wherever it is they want to go."

"Thing is, I want to go to somewhere with food, but sound ain't leading me there," I interjected.

She looked at a path that led off to the side. "I think we should go there."

"If you say so," I said. "You're the boss."

She grinned and turned, moving onto the path. Esmeralda skipped along beside me.

"Leo," she said. "Can you make me a weapon?"

I was surprised at the question, but it was a good idea. If she would be sticking with us for the rest of the quest, she should have something to protect her.

"Sure," I replied. "What kind of weapon?"

"Um, what do you think?" she asked.

"I dunno. I'm not the one to talk to about weapons. You've read a lot of books right? What's interested you from those?"

"Swords... lances... knives... bows and arrows like Katniss... guns?" she asked. "Could you make a gun with celestial bronze bullets?"

I didn't ask how she knew about celestial bronze. "That's not a bad idea," I said. I stepped around a root, not wanting to trip over it. The path was thinner here, with a thicker swathe of trees along the sides. I saw a lot of ferns too. This was a weird forest, not like one I'd ever seen. I could hardly believe we were in the Labyrinth.

"Yay! So you'll do it?" she asked.

I nodded. "It'll take me a while, though, though. Want something until then?"

"What?"

I passed her a knife. "Like it?"

"Yeah, but I still want a gun." She tossed the knife from hand to hand awkwardly.

"Oh, you'll get the gun," I reassured her, patting her head. "It'll just take a day or so."

"Okay!" She grinned widely. "Thank you!" She squeezed me into a hug - only reaching my waist - and skipped over to Naia to share the big news. I grinned.