Harry Potter and the Norse Gods

{26} A Failed Christmas

MAGNUS

Of course, we couldn't even make it through a Christmas dinner without disaster. We should be sitting inside, by a warm fire, laughing and talking and eating delicious food and forget about the war for a moment, but instead, we were here. Trudging through the snow away from the burrow so we could follow a lead given to us by Gaia. 

I couldn't help but feel annoyed by her, even though her lead, if it panned out, would give us a massive advantage. Taking down someone who seemed to be a major player in this war would be huge, and given that that person - Titan - was Atlas, whom everyone (especially Percy, Calypso, and Storm) seemed to have a personal grudge against, it would likely greatly lift spirits as well. 

Though maybe not like Christmas would as there was - as always - a high chance of injury or death. 

"We're here," Annabeth announced, "Is everyone ready?" 

"To die?" Leo asked, "Sure, I mean, I've done it once already. Taken the thrill out of it really." 

He wasn't wrong. The fear of death did lose its edge after a while. I had died dozens of times - I was dead. Although, that wasn't to say that the thought of absolute death didn't scare me. Life as an einherjar wasn't much of a life, but - at least in my opinion - it was better than nothing. And outside of Valhalla, I could die.

And we were going up against a Titan. And not just any Titan, one that's had to hold up the sky for millennia, one who killed his own daughter. And we were going in almost completely blind.

This was beginning to sound a lot like my first death. 

My look of worry was mirrored by almost everyone else in the group, except for Storm,  who just looked pissed off, and Leo, who was still trying to keep up a joyful facade. 

"Are we going or not?" Storm said, shattering the uneasy silence. 

"We're going," Percy declared. 

"Grab hands," Nico instructed. 

Will grabbed his, and we all followed suit, forming a circle. Before I had the chance to second guess myself and maybe consider stepping back, we were gone. 

= = =

I was expecting us to drop into some kind of war zone, and I had my hand on Jack in preparation. 

That was not what we found.

Instead of a field full of monsters, or a crowded room full of monsters, or a dungeon full of monsters, we landed on a sunny beach. 

Luckily, there weren't any people around to see us. The ocean stretched out, sparkling blue, in front of us, and a cliff towered over us from behind, its walls curling around to shield us from the rest of the world. The sun shone overhead, and the only clouds I could see were so small and wispy that I wasn't even sure they counted as clouds. 

It was all oddly serene.

Storm was the first to move, stalking down the beach until she reached the edge of the of the rock wall when she stopped and turned around, a look of pure fury on her face.

"There's nothing here," Storm announced.

"Are you sure you got the coordinates right?" Calypso asked Nico. 

"Of course I'm sure," he said, bristling angrily, "She lied to us." 

"Why would she do that?" Jason asked, frowning. 

"Why do you have to ask? She's Gaia," Storm snapped. 

"No, he's right," Annabeth said cautiously, "She wouldn't send us on a wild goose chase if she didn't need us out of the way."