LOST AT SEA | jason grace

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞.

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞. 𝑚𝑎𝑐𝑦'𝑠

𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚈 𝙵𝙻𝙴𝚆 peacefully through the winter sky as if nothing had happened.

"I'm not alone," Jason said after explaining about the other kid the Cyclopes claimed to have eaten, the one in the purple shirt who spoke Latin. "There are others like me." He said excitedly.

"They got eaten by Cyclops." Lorna reminded him.

"You're gonna get eaten by Cyclops," Jason mocked.

"Could've sworn we started the quest with 17 year-olds," Piper said. "But we somehow ended up with 5 year-olds. Did you guys shrink overnight?"

Jason rolled his eyes before straightening his back. "There was something Hera said. I was having a dream..."

He told them what he'd seen, and what the goddess had said inside her cage.

"An exchange?" Piper asked. "What does that mean?"

"Maybe she wants to play secret santa." Lorna mumbled.

Jason shook his head. "Hera's gamble is me. Just by sending me to Camp Half-Blood, I have a feeling she broke some kind of rule, something that could blow up in a big way- "

"Or save us," Piper said hopefully. "That bit about the sleeping enemy- that sounds like the lady Leo told us about."

Leo cleared his throat. "About that ... she kind of appeared to me and Lorna back in Detroit, in a pool of Porta-Potty sludge."

"Did you say ... Porta-Potty?" Jason asked.

Lorna told them about the big face in the factory yard.

"I don't know if she's completely unkillable," Leo said, "but she cannot be defeated by toilet seats. I can vouch for that. She wanted us to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge.'"

"She's trying to divide us." Piper choked up.

"What's wrong?" Lorna asked.

"I just ... Why are they toying with us? Who is this lady, and how is she connected to Enceladus?"

"Enceladus?" Jason asked.

"I mean ..." Piper's voice quavered. "That's one of the giants. Just one of the names I could remember."

Lorna got the feeling there was a lot more bothering her, but she decided not to press her. She'd had a rough morning. 

Leo scratched his head. "Well, I dunno about Enchiladas- "

"Enceladus," Piper corrected.

"Whatever. But Old Potty Face mentioned another name. Porpoise Fear, or something?"

"Porphyrion," Lorna said. "He was the giant king, I think."

"I'm going to take wild guess," Jason said. "In the old stories, Porphyrion kidnapped Hera. That was the first shot in the war between the giants and the gods."

"I think so," Lorna agreed. "But those myths are really garbled and conflicted. It's almost like nobody wanted that story to survive. I just remember there was a war, and the giants were almost impossible to kill."

"Heroes and gods had to work together," Jason said. "That's what Hera told me."

"Kind of hard to do," Leo grumbled, "if the gods won't even talk to us."

They flew west, and Lorna became lost in her thoughts- all of them bad. She wasn't sure how much time passed before the dragon dove through a break in the clouds, and below them, glittering in the winter sun, was a city at the edge of a massive lake. A crescent of skyscrapers lined the shore. Behind them, stretching out to the western horizon, was a vast grid of snow-covered neighborhoods and roads.