The Blood of Olympus

Chapter 25: Leo

Hey cupcakes! Please enjoy this chapter!

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Chapter 25: Leo

Leo's body hurt. His arms felt raw and exposed, his legs burned, and he felt like he had been caught between a hammer and an anvil.

So altogether, not one of his best days.

Forcing his eyes open, he tried to sit up, and immediately fell back again, his head jarring with pain, his vision swimming.

Gritting his teeth, Leo wedged one arm under him, wincing as he put his weight on it, and slowly levered himself into a sitting position. Shaking his head slightly to clear his vision, he looked around, trying to remember where he was, or why he felt like he had been hit repeatedly with a bunch of baseball bats

It didn't take much of his powers of deduction to realize that he was in Piper's cabin. What did confuse him was why, when he looked down, he saw that he had been lying in a pool of blood.

Slowly, carefully, Leo touched one hand to his aching head. It came back smeared with blood. He closed his eyes, clenching his teeth. He would not throw up.

Opening them, he then looked down at his own body.

And then he rolled over and threw up.

His legs were covered in purple and red bruises and cuts, some still bleeding. Chunks of his clothes were gone, and his arms were crisscrossed with gashes and slashes. One large, ugly wound ran diagonally across his abdomen, and patches of his legs and arms were swollen, like they had been pounded by a hammer. And to top it off, his exposed, scrawny chest was covered in burns.

Leo had never been burned before in his life.

When he was done retching, Leo rolled back over, gasping, and clutched his head in agony as more pain wracked his body. But eventually it got too much, and darkness took him.

When Leo woke up again, he was feeling marginally better, which may or may not have had to do wth the fact that he was covered in white bandages from neck to foot, and his head was covered up like a turban. After blinking several times, his vision came into focus, and he saw a familiar black haired, green eyed guy staring down at him.

Percy's worried face broke into a grin, "Nice of you to join me, Leo."

"Thanks," Leo groaned, shifting in his bed and grimacing as his legs burned, "mind explaining to me why I feel like I've been to Tartarus and back?"

Percy's smile faded, and Leo could have punched himself.

"No!" he said hastily, "I didn't mean...sorry..."

"No, it's ok." Percy said distantly, though it didn't really sound like it, "How much do you remember?"

Leo thought about it. In his head, he could see fuzzy images, and he remembered pain. Lots and lots of pain.

"Not much." he decided, "I remember something about demon grandmothers, and lots of pain..."

"That pretty much sums it up." Percy assured him, "basically you attacked a bunch of spirits of killing and stuff, got really badly injured, and came back down and passed out."

Leo frowned. It didn't sound too heroic.

"Anyways," Percy continued,  "you'll be ok, though some of the wounds might take a couple days to heal, and that's with the nectar salve I used."