safe || leo valdez x oc

eighteen: crazy wind man is crazy

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leo, piper, and i opted to leave jason in his silence. after all, he had reunited with his long lost sister and lost her again in the span of an hour. piper kept glancing back at jason, while i did my best not to look at him.

leo's nervous energy was bouncing off of me in ripples. every now and then, as we walked side by side, he would start swatting at his legs, or matting his hair down just as hephaestus had done to his own beard in the dream vision i saw. frankly, it was a little nerve racking. the prospect of leo spontaneously combusting into a ball of fire every time he got excited about something almost terrified me.

"hey, leo! got you a new dog- OH MY GODS!"

perhaps surprise parties were not in leo's favor.

i could tell he was sorry about what had happened on the bridge. as much as i wanted to be mad, i couldn't bring myself to yell at him or smack him. i knew he really didn't mean it. but, once leo got going, i suppose he was hard to stop.

finally, we arrived at the top of the island.

bronze walls ringed the entire fortress, though i couldn't imagine anything attacking the place. twenty-foot-high gates opened up for us, and a polished purple stone road led up to the main citadel- a white-columned rotunda, greek style, like one of the monuments in washington D.C, except this one had a cluster of satellite dishes and radio towers on the roof.

"that's bizarre." piper noted.

"guess you can't get cable on a floating island." leo said.

my eyes scanned the area around us. "guys, check out this dude's front yard."

the rotunds sat in the center of a quarter-mile walkway. the grounds were amazing- divided into four sections, each one representing a different season.

on the left was an autumn park with gold and crimson leaves. the piles of leaves blew into an assortment of shapes- gods, peolple, animals that ran after each other before scattering back into random leaves.

further ahead, i could see a desert where tumbleweeds scratched strange patterns into the sand- easily, i recognized the greek letters that spelled 'selene', followed by the shape of a bull. then, i saw 'watch aeolus nightly!' etched into the sand before it all faded away.

next to it was a green pasture with sheep made of clouds. several flowers dotted the area, and i swore i could see all the pollen.

and finally, to my right was an icy wasteland with rolling snowmen and a frozen lake. icicles hung from bare trees, swinging perilously in the wind like a threat.

"one section for each of the four wind gods." jason guessed. "four cardinal directions."

"i'm loving that pasture." hedge said, licking his lips. "you guys mind-"

"go ahead." jason said, extremely relieved to be rid of the satyr. i really couldn't blame him. with hedge yelling, "DIE!" at every aura we saw, i doubted we could accomplish much.

while hedge ran off to wreak havoc on springtime, the rest of us walked down the road to the steps of the palace. we passed through the front doors where, in the foyer, purple banners that read olympian weather channel decorated the place.