CHAPTER VII ——
TOO HIGH FOR COMFORT.

It was silent for a long time, Mare had shuffled her backpack off her body and in front of her, careful to not let it fall. Sure, Leo had supplies, but he'd never even heard of a quest before today so Mare wasn't ready to put all her faith into him yet.

"Shut up, me," Leo spoke suddenly.

"What?" Piper asked, leaning forward.

"Nothing," the son of Hephaestus said. "Long night. I think I'm hallucinating. It's cool."

Mare's faith only walked further away from Leo, and back towards herself. The idea of a sleepless, hallucinating demigod driving the dragon they were currently on wasn't exactly a comforting one.

"Just joking." Leo said, like he hadn't dropped a major bomb on them. Mare wasn't sure if she believed him. "So what's the plan, bro? You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something?"

Jason laid out their game plan, as they flew over New England. Mare hadn't realised before how many cities had New in their name. First, they were to find Boreas and ask him politely for information, or Mare would hopefully be able to manipulate him into giving them the information. Hallucination manipulation came in handy more times than people thought.

"His name is Boreas?" Leo had to ask. "What is he, the God of Boring?"

Second, Jason continued, as if Leo never spoke. He seemed to easily tune him out, they had to find those 'venti' that had attacked them at the Grand Canyon—

"Can we just call them storm spirits?" Leo asked. "Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks."

"Their real name is Anemoi Thuellai, so we should probably call them that instead. It'll be better if we're not disrespectful before the fight even begins."

Leo raised an eyebrow at Mare, "You don't want to be disrespectful? We've known each other for like a day, and yet I don't think that's accurate to your character."

Mare stared at him, keeping eye contact until he had to look away, "Monsters are temperamental beings, if we need something from them, disrespect won't particularly help us get it. I only disrespect people I don't like, or simply don't respect."

"Like Annabeth, right? What was that between you two, back at camp and on the skywalk?" Mare was right then, in thinking everyone else had picked up on the tension between her and Annabeth. It wasn't like either of them were trying very hard to hide it.

And third, Jason finished, cutting off Leo's questions before Mare had the chance to answer. They had to find out who the storm spirits worked for, so they could find Hera and free her.

"So you want to look for Dylan, the nasty storm dude, on purpose," Leo said. "The guy who threw me off the skywalk and sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds."

"That's about it," Jason said. "Well... there may be a wolf involved, too. But I think she's friendly. She probably won't eat us, unless we show weakness."

Jason told them about his dream— the big nasty mother wolf and a burned-out house with stone spires growing out of the swimming pool.

"Uh-huh," Leo said. "But you don't know where this place is."

"Nope," Jason admitted.

"I already know about that," Mare decided to give the information away, it wasn't important enough to keep close. Jason's head whipped towards her, fast enough he could have cracked his neck. "I was in the dream with you."

"I didn't see you." He said.

"Who do you think the 'legacy of...' was for? My powers— that happens sometimes, I don't mean for it to."

Leo leaned towards them, "I thought your mom was the Goddess of ghosts, not dreams."

"She is," Mare said. "She's the Goddess of ghosts, nightmares, funeral rights and necromancy. The nightmare title gives me a door into the dream realm, and it's all connected."

Leo nodded, like that satisfied him, so Mare became quiet again.

"There's also giants," Piper added. "The prophecy said the giants' revenge."

"Hold on," Leo said. "Giants— like more than one? Why can't it be just one giant who wants revenge?"

"I don't think so," Piper said. "I remember in some of the old Greek stories, there was something about an army of giants."

"Great," Leo muttered. "Of course, with our luck, it's an army. So you know anything else about these giants? Didn't you do a bunch of myth research for that movie with your dad?"

"Your dad's an actor?" Jason asked.

Leo laughed. "I keep forgetting about your amnesia. Heh. Forgetting about amnesia. That's funny. But yeah, her dad's Tristan McLean."

Mare couldn't cover up the noise that came out of her mouth. Tristan Mclean was the background of her laptop back at Camp, she'd fallen in love with his movies after forcing Nico to watch them with her, and she had no idea Piper was his daughter. When she got back to Camp, she'd have to delete anything to do with him.

"Uh— Sorry, what was he in?" Jason, however, seemed to take the news much more calmly. He had zero memories, which meant he didn't have to deal with the mortification of memories that Mare was going through right then.

"It doesn't matter," Piper said quickly, obviously not enjoying the conversations. "The giants— well, there were lots of giants in Greek mythology. But if I'm thinking of the right ones, they were bad news. Huge, almost impossible to kill. They could throw mountains and stuff. I think they were related to the Titans. They rose from the earth after Kronos lost the war— I mean the first Titan war, thousands of years ago—and they tried to destroy Olympus. If we're talking about the same giants—"

Mare shivered at the mention of Kronos' name, despite not being cold, it was hard to forget the man who was the reason you were dead.

"Chiron said it was happening again," Jason remembered. "The last chapter. That's what he meant. No wonder he didn't want us to know all the details."

"Fear and panic won't help us on the quest, Chiron has seen enough people off to know that." Mare interjected.

Leo whistled. "So... giants who can throw mountains. Friendly wolves that will eat us if we show weakness. A quest-mate who can see the things that make me want to pee my pants. Evil espresso drinks. Gotcha. Maybe this isn't the time to bring up my psycho babysitter."

Mare blinked slowly, not sure why she was included into the possible villain list.

"Is that another joke?" Piper asked.

Leo told them about his Tía Callida, who actually turned out to be Hera, and how she'd appeared to him at camp. He told them about the night his mom passed away, how the machine shop collapsed. Leo kept his eyes straight as he talked, but Mare got the idea that he was keeping something from them. She wouldn't press, not when the idea of someone pressing her about her father's death made her murderous.

He told them about the strange woman in earthen robes who seemed to be asleep, and seemed to know the future.

It was a while before anyone spoke, no one wanted to be first, in case they said the wrong thing. So Mare applied for the job.

"We'll likely find out more as we go along, it's not a surprise that Hera would show herself to you, she always has a plan." Mare said.

"That's... disturbing," Piper added on.

"'Bout sums it up," Leo agreed. "Thing is, everybody says don't trust Hera. She hates demigods. And the prophecy said we'd cause death if we unleash her rage. So I'm wondering... why are we doing this?"

"She chose us," Jason said. "All four of us. We're the first of the eight who have to gather for the Great Prophecy. This quest is the beginning of something much bigger."

Mare wasn't particularly excited for the new prophecy, but it did feel like this was the start of something huge. She just wished that if there were four more demigods destined to help them, they'd show up quick. Mare already had a pretty good idea of who two of them would be, and she seemed to have a knack for accurate presumptions of the future.

"Besides," Jason continued, "helping Hera is the only way I can get back my memory. And that dark spire in my dream seemed to be feeding on Hera's energy. If that thing unleashes a king of the giants by destroying Hera—"

"Not a good trade-off," Piper agreed. "At least Hera is on our side—mostly. Losing her would throw the gods into chaos. She's the main one who keeps peace in the family. And a war with the giants could be even more destructive than the Titan War."

"More destructive than the Titan War isn't good, so many people died. I don't know if Camp can survive another war like that. The Gods too, it almost destroyed them." Mare frowned.

Jason nodded. "Chiron also talked about worse forces stirring on the solstice, with it being a good time for dark magic, and all—something that could awaken if Hera were sacrificed on that day. And this mistress who's controlling the storm spirits, the one who wants to kill all the demigods—"

"Might be that weird sleeping lady," Leo finished. "Dirt Woman fully awake? Not something I want to see."

"But who is she?" Jason asked. "And what does she have to do with giants?"

Good questions, but none of them had answers. They flew in silence whilst Mare fiddled with her leather jacket, thinking on what had happened in her dream last night.

Legacy of... Mare wasn't sure what it meant. She knew that she was a daughter of Melinoë, but she was pretty sure she didn't have any Gods in her family line. Her father and her grandfather, she remembered them clearly, but the rest of her family, she didn't really know them. She'd grown up in a gated community, surrounded by veterans and other kids her age. Then her grandpa and dad died, and their spirits had guided her to a satyr who brought her back to Camp.

She missed him, but the constant ache from when she was a child had gone away. She hadn't gotten to see him, and she didn't come across him in the limbo that she was in before her resurrection. She wanted to call on him, but awaking the dead wasn't something she was completely comfortable with.

Jason looked back at her, his icy eyes locked with her's. He was pretty, in the sort of way she'd always admired. He raised an eyebrow, mouthing. "Are you alright?"

Mare nodded. "I'm alright, you?" She mouthed.

"A little bored, but good." He replied.

The corner of Mare's lips quirked, and she pulled an ipod and headphones out of her bag. She passed one to Jason and stuck the other in her own ear. It was a little awkward, but Jason didn't seem to mind much. Angeleyes by Abba began to play, and Mare wondered how long it would be until the Disney songs she downloaded came on.

Festus kept flying. The wind got colder, and below them snowy forests seemed to go on forever. Mare wondered how long it would be until they got to Quebec. She had the vague idea it wouldn't be the worst trip in the world.

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Mare heard Piper say to Leo. "You were up all night."

Leo replied. "You won't let me fall off?"

Piper spoke again. "Trust me, Valdez. Beautiful people never lie."

"Right," Leo muttered. By the silence after, Mare assumed he fell asleep.

She focused on the back of Jason's shirt, on the way his shirt pulled when his shoulders moved, and the music flooding through her ears. Then she shut her eyes.