LOST AT SEA | jason grace

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧.

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧. 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑑

𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙲𝙻𝙾𝚂𝙴𝚁 they got to Aeolus's palace, the harder climbing got. The winds struggled, rumbling and bumping around. The only one who seemed in a good mood was Coach Hedge. He kept bounding up the slippery staircase and trotting back down.

"Come on, cupcakes! Only a few thousand more steps!"

"Shut up, goat man!" Lorna would exclaim.

As they climbed, Leo, Piper and Lorna left Jason in his silence. He was obviously in a bad mood. Lorna kept glancing back, worried. Because Jason looked really troubled and what Thalia said really bothered her.

They'd told her what Thalia had said on the bridge- how they could save both Piper's dad and Hera- but Lorna didn't really understand how they were going to do that, and she wasn't sure if the possibility had made Piper more hopeful or just more anxious.

Leo kept swatting his own legs, checking for signs that his pants were on fire. He wasn't steaming anymore

Finally they arrived at the top of the island. Bronze walls marched all the way around the fortress grounds, though Lorna couldn't imagine who would possibly attack this place. Twenty foot-high gates opened for them, and a road of polished purple stone led up to the main citadel- a white-columned rotunda, Greek style, like one of the monuments in Washington, D.C. - except for the cluster of satellite dishes and radio towers on the roof.

"That's bizarre," Piper said.

"Guess you can't get cable on a floating island," Leo said. "Dang, check this guy's front yard."

The rotunda sat in the center of a quarter-mile circle. The grounds were amazing in a scary way. They were divided into four sections like big pizza slices, each one representing a season. The section on their right was an icy waste, with bare trees and a frozen lake. Snowmen rolled across the landscape as the wind blew, so Lorna wasn't sure if they were decorations or alive. To their left was an autumn park with gold and red trees. Mounds of leaves blew into patterns- gods, people, animals that ran after each other before scattering back into leaves. In the distance, Lorna could see two more areas behind the rotunda. One looked like a green pasture with sheep made out of clouds. The last section was a desert where tumbleweeds scratched strange patterns in the sand like Greek letters, smiley faces, and a huge advertisement that read: watch Aeolus nightly!

"One section for each of the four wind gods," Jason guessed. "Four cardinal directions."

"I'm loving that pasture." Coach Hedge licked his lips. "You guys mind- "

"Go ahead," Lorna said. She was actually relieved to send the satyr off. It would be hard enough getting on Aeolus's good side without Coach Hedge waving his club and screaming, "Die!"

While the satyr ran off to attack springtime, Jason, Leo, Piper, and Lorna walked down the road to the steps of the palace. They passed through the front doors into a white marble foyer decorated with purple banners that read olympian weather channel, and some that just read ow!

"Hello!" A woman floated up to them.

Literally floated. She was pretty in that elfish way Lorna associated with nature spirits at Camp Half-Blood- petite, slightly pointy ears, and an ageless face that could've been sixteen or thirty. Her brown eyes twinkled cheerfully. Even though there was no wind, her dark hair blew in slow motion, shampoo-commercial style. Her white gown billowed around her like parachute material. Jason couldn't tell if she had feet, but if so, they didn't touch the floor. She had a white tablet computer in her hand.