Storms suck.
Leo didn’t have the faintest idea what Frank and the others were doing down there, and at that moment he didn’t particularly care. He had issues of his own, thank you very much.
When the storm had begun to set in, Grover and Hazel had climbed up to the pilot’s seat and they’d hoisted up the basket with their backpacks so that it wouldn’t be carried away by the wind. Now they were seated along the metal shaft of the plane, where Leo was the only one who had proper holdings. As a result, Grover dug his fingers in the fabric of Leo’s shirt and kept hitting his ankles with his hooves as he tried, and failed, to find footing.
“Just so you know, dude,” Grover yelled in his ear. “This is just a one-time thing. There won’t be no Greo going on here.”
Leo, being familiar with the new trend of ‘shipping’ that the seasonal demigods had brought to them that summer, laughed. “Are you kidding? We should be Lover, Leo and Grover. It’s like it was meant to be.”
“Is this our cue to start singing cheesy Disney songs?”
“Guys!” Hazel called from the back. “Could you stop the flirting?”
The wind was strong and pulled and pushed the plane around with irregular tugs. The rain had long since soaked all three of them and Leo had trouble seeing ahead of them. They heard thunder in the distance and Leo wondered whether it was all that smart to continue flying – not that there was any place to land.
“What’s that noise?” Grover wondered suddenly. Leo concentrated and heard the creaking noise of the horn faintly over the blowing of the wind.
“HAZEL! ANSWER ME!”
“That’s Frank!” Hazel said, reaching for the horn.
“So nice of him to worry about us as well,” Grover muttered dryly.
“LEO! GROVER! HAZEL!”
“Oh, there we go!”
Leo pulled the horn from his controls and handed it to Hazel. She was just about to answer as the sailplane stuttered suddenly, as if it had flown into something solid. Hazel dropped the horn, which now dangled uselessly from the basket underneath. Both Hazel’s and Grover’s weight threw Leo forward and he ended up on the nose of the plane, keeping a deadlock on the only lever he could still reach. This caused the flaps of the wings to turn and sent the plane in a steep dive.
For a second, he could only scream, as did the others. But then, with a grip almost as strong as his on the lever, Grover grabbed his wrists and pulled him back up. His hands shaking, Leo pulled the lever back as he clung to the metal plates underneath him. “WHAT WAS THAT?!” he screamed, his voice peaking.
“I think that was fate,” said Grover. “And I don’t think it wants us to find Ogygia. Maybe this was a stupid idea, maybe we should’ve just made sure no one can ever enter the place again. The gods could curse Gaea as they did Calypso, couldn’t they?!”
“No,” Leo said, not necessarily answering his question. “We have to go there.” In a quieter tone, he added, “I have to go there.”
“What?!”
Leo’s heart fell as he realised how close he was to telling the truth. He kept his lips together, only to push them apart again in an ‘AAH’ as a bolt of thunder only just missed them. A disfigured horse head appeared out of nowhere, followed by a thick belly of electric blue streams.
Leo took the controls and flew around in an attempt to get away from the ventus. He hated the things, hated them even more than he hated storms, which, in that moment, was quite an accomplishment. Problem was that he couldn’t make the plane stray too far, as that would mean losing their connection with downstairs.
