Heroes of Olympus: Next Gen

Luke

When we saw Dad and Grace jump in the water and disappear, my first thought was, "spoiled" But I followed mom to the forge area.

"Your uncle Leo made you your very own weapon, with of course a little magic from the cyclops in the forges of Hephaestus."

"Uncle Leo really did that for me?"

"Of course he did. You know how much he loves to make people happy and put smiles on everyone's faces."

I thought back to that one Christmas night, in new Rome, when everyone was together for the holidays. Even aunt Piper was there, and Aunt Reyna. Even the Hunters of Artemis and our cool Aunt Thalia made room to come visit.
My sister and I, we're probably only 7 back then. But I could still see the pictures inside the flames of the fireplace. Uncle Leo told us to gather around him and the fireplace because he was going to tell a story.

We all loved when Uncle Leo told stories, so we immediately circled around and stayed silent while he spoke.

"We were traveling across the ancient lands, on our quest to stop dirt face-"

"Leo, you know they're only kids, they don't know exactly who she is." Aunt Piper said.

That was when I picked the time to speak up.

"Isn't that Gaia? The one who is earth itself?"

My mother looked at me very proudly and said "Well done Luke, you've been remembering your studies."

"Yes, well if we can get back to the guy that's gonna tell you a story, that'd be great."

Everyone turned their attention to him. "Team Leo for the win!" He said And he smiled.

"When we were on the quest to stop that face of potty sludge, when the Argo ll, which was Festus in his ship form, was in bad shape."

"Because you shot an entire ballista on new Rome." Said dad

"Which was because I was possessed by a Greek version of a ghost, which correct me if I'm wrong, but you had also gotten possessed and in turn, got knocked out by blackjacks hoof?"

Dad looked at Uncle Leo with distaste but said nothing, while all the kids, including mom started laughing.

The flames erupted with words appearing that said: Leo da man.

"So anyway, we had to do an emergency landing in the middle of the great salt lake in Utah to find some supplies. Your aunt hazel went with me to get a sheet of celestial bronze that was in a place we did not expect."

Aunt Hazel chuckled a little and started fanning her face with her hand.

"When we found the sheet, it was past a bunch of nymphs under a pond with a handsome fella staring down into it."

All the kids leaned forward in anticipation.
"It was Narcissus. The guy who fell in love with his own reflection"

All of the kids including me, toppled over in laughter.

"Dad, you can't fall in love with your own reflection, that's silly!" Sammy said

"Well this guy sure did. He thought his reflection was another person entirely! The only reason he might've not recognized that, was 1) he was under a curse, and 2) the celestial bronze was making his skin look way more tan than he actually was, which if you ask me, did make him look better."

The crowd chuckled.

"So there he was, surrounded by nymphs, when we met one in particular, Echo.
She was cursed to only say the last lines of whatever she heard."