orenda [leo valdez]

li. The Unpredictable Variable

❝you don't know what you've got until it's gone❞

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Kira was pretty bad at being a giant.

Every few steps, she'd stumble and try to play it off, but the monsters around her kept glancing at her, like they knew who she was and they were just waiting to eat her.

It was a comforting thought.

Kira's stomach had been doing flips ever since she'd left Leo's arms.

She was extremely worried to leave him, but she knew she needed to be helping the team kill Dirt Face, not waiting on Argo II. She was a fighter, and she was waiting for a fight.

She glanced down, trying to not trip on her own feet again.

She was about fifteen feet tall, her skin was a sickly pale with a green tint, with platinum blonde hair that felt like a bale of hay. Her clothes were tattered and charred, but at least nothing was showing.

Every couple minutes, she would glance down at her hands, and if she concentrated hard enough, her palm glistened until she could see her olive skin.

She was on the lookout for Earthborn. According to Hazel, she was supposed to make Percy, Annabeth, and Piper into some kind of Neanderthals.

She could hear some sort of chanting, a low, ominous drone in the distance, which didn't help her shaking palms.

Kira caught sight of a Earthborn cutting down three others. All three melted into heaps.

She lumbered over, but the Earthborn who she assumed was Piper, didn't know it was Kira.

She sliced at her, and Kira had to pull out her sword and block the jab.

"Kira?" The Earthborn hissed, noticing the familiar sword. Kira nodded, and Piper's disguise shimmered for a moment, showing her her best friend.

Kira let out a relieved smile, but she wasn't sure how it came out as a giant.

They skirted a patrol of Cyclops. The girls each dropped a vial of Greek fire in the slings. With luck, as soon as they tried to load the catapult, it would explode in their faces.

They kept moving silently, side-by-side. Gryphons roosted on the colonnade of an old temple. A group of empousai had retreated into a shadowy archway and appeared to be slumbering, their fiery hair flickering dimly, their brass legs glinting. Hopefully the sunlight would make them sluggish if they had to fight.

Whenever they could, the girls slew isolated monsters. They walked past larger groups. Meanwhile the crowd at the Parthenon grew larger. The chanting got louder.

Kira's nerves were on overdrive, just as they were in Tartarus. She knew they were extremely outnumbered, and if the monsters found their disguises, they were all dead. They were relying on Hazel for a lot, and if the girl got tired and lost concentration, they were in major trouble.