I 017. I

𝑮𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑮𝒐𝒓𝒆

❝ howling ❞

SHE WAS THANKFUL FOR HER COAT. It was extremely cold, especially with the harsh winds blowing outside. Her hair was ready to freeze in their tight curls.

Piper woke up cold and shivering.

Ariadne leaned against one of the cave walls while the girl looked alarmed to be there. The brunette understood her confusion, but it was for the best that they found some spot to lay low in the night.

"Oh, god." Piper's teeth chattered. "He turned me to gold!"

"You're okay now." Jason leaned over and tucked a warm blanket around her.

She blinked. Next to them, a campfire blazed, turning the air sharp with smoke. Firelight flickered against rock walls. They were in a shallow cave, but it didn't offer much protection. Outside, the wind howled. Snow blew sideways.

"L-L-Leo?" Piper managed.

"Present and un-gold-ified." Leo was also wrapped in blankets. He didn't look great. "I got the precious metal treatment too," he said. "But I came out of it faster. Dunno why. We had to dunk you in the river to get you back completely. Tried to dry you off, but...it's really, really cold."

"You've got Hypothermia," Ariadne said, sitting next to her. "We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic—"

"Sports medicine." The coach's ugly face looked over Piper. "Kind of a hobby of mine. Your breath might smell like wild mushrooms and Gatorade for a few days, but it'll pass. You probably won't die. Probably."

"Thanks," Piper said weakly. "How did you beat Midas?"

Jason held his hands up in surrender. "Wasn't me."

Piper looked at Ariadne in question. The older girl told her the story, enforcing the fact that Midas had what was coming to him and Lit was extremely sexist and misogynistic.

The coach snorted. "She's ignoring the fact that she took them all on with no sweat. You should've seen her. Hi-yah! Stab! Flash of un-golding!"

"Coach, you didn't even see it," Jason said. "You were outside eating the lawn."

But the satyr was just warming up. "Then I came in with my club, and we dominated that room. Afterward, I told her, 'Phoenix, I'm proud of you! If you could just work on being more bloodthirsty—'"

"Coach," said Ariadne.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up, please."

"Sure." The coach sat down at the fire and started chewing his cudgel.

Leo was confused. "So, wait, you turned everything in Midas's house back to normal?" he asked. "No gold? I thought only water worked?"

"I don't know how it worked," she said. "I guess because my father gave him his powers, it only seemed fit that his own child would be able to reverse its affects."

Jason put his hand on Piper's forehead and checked her temperature. "Leo, can you stoke the fire?"

"On it." Leo summoned a baseball sized clump of flames and lobbed it into the campfire.

"Do I look that bad?" Piper shivered.

"Nah," Jason said.

"You're a terrible liar," she said. "Where are we?"

"Pikes Peak," Jason said. "Colorado."

"But that's, what—five hundred miles from Omaha?"

"Something like that," Jason agreed. "I was back to normal before you two. Ariadne came up with the idea of me harnessing the storm spirits to bring us this far. It was the only choice. They didn't like it—went a little faster than we wanted, almost crushed up into the mountainside before I could get them back in the bag. I'm not going to be trying that again."

"Why are we here?"

Leo sniffed. "That's what I asked them."

Jason gazed into the storm as if watching for something. "The glittery wind trail we saw yesterday? It was still in the sky, though it had faded a lot. I followed it until I couldn't see it anymore. Then—honestly I'm not sure. I just felt like this was the right place to stop."

"Course it is." Coach Hedge spit out some cudgel splinters. "Aeolus's floating palace should be anchored above us, right at the peak. This is one of his favorite spots to dock."

"Maybe that was it." Jason knit his eyebrows. "I don't know. Something else, too..."

"The Hunters are out west searching for any sign of Percy," Ariadne reminded them. "They might be around here."

Jason rubbed his forearm as if the tattoos were bothering him. "I don't see how anyone could survive on the mountain right now. The storm's pretty bad. It's already the evening before the solstice, but we didn't have much choice except to wait out the storm here. We had to give you some time to rest before we tried moving."

Ariadne chuckled. "Trust me, the Hunters can handle their own. First hand experience."

"We have to get you warm." Jason sat next to Piper and held his arms a little awkwardly. "Uh, you mind if I..."

"I suppose." She tried to sound nonchalant.

Ariadne felt a smirk cross her face. He put his arms around Piper. They scooted closer to the fire. Coach Hedge chewed on his club and spit splinters into the fire.

Leo broke out some cooking supplies and started frying burger patties on an iron skillet. "So, guys, long as you're cuddled up for story time...something I've been meaning to tell you. On the way to Omaha, I had this dream. Kinda hard to understand with the static and the Wheel of Fortune breaking in—"

"Wheel of Fortune?"

"The this is," he said, "my dad Hephaestus talked to me."

Leo told them about his dream. In the firelight, with the wind howling. A god warning about giants who were sons of Tartarus, and about Leo losing some friends along the way.

Piper seemed terrified. "I don't understand. If demigods and gods have to work together to kill the giants, why would the gods stay silent? If they need us—"

"Ha," said Coach Hedge, Ariadne snorting at her words. "The gods hate needing humans. They like being needed by humans, but not the other way around. Things will have to get a whole lot worse before Zeus admits he made a mistake closing Olympus."

"He's right," Ariadne said. "After the end of the war last summer, they offered Percy the chance to become a minor god himself, but he refused and ordered the gods to swear on the River Styx of claiming all their children by thirteen and sending them to camp." There was a wistful look in her eyes at that. "Told me later there was something him keeping him tied down to his human part rather than his godly. After that, Zeus determined that to be a major insult on their own pride and power, reclaiming their power and keeping the gods locked up tight on Olympus."

Hedge huffed. "I'm not surprised you cupcakes haven't heard of the Giant War. The gods don't like to talk about it. Bad PR to admit you needed mortals to help beat an enemy. That's just more embarrassing."

"There's more, though," Jason said. "When I was dreaming about Hera in her cage, she said Zeus was acting unusually paranoid. And Hera—she said she went to those ruins because a voice had been speaking in her head. What if someone's influencing the gods, Luke Medea influenced?"

Ariadne kept her head turned to prevent them from seeing her overly pale face. She knew who they were facing, but the other three would only panic.

Leo set hamburger buns on the skillet to toast. "Yeah, Hephaestus said something similar, like Zeus was acting weirder than usual. But what bothered me was the stuff my dad didn't say. Like a couple times when he was talking about the gods, and how he had so many kids and all. I don't know. He acted like getting the greatest demigods together was going to be almost impossible—like Hera was trying, but it was a really stupid thing to do, and there was some secret Hephaestus wasn't supposed to tell me."

"Chiron was the same way back at camp," Jason said. "He mentioned a sacred oath not to discuss—something. Coach, you know anything about that?"

"Nah. I'm just a satyr. They don't tell us the juicy stuff. Especially an old—" He stopped himself.

"An old guy like you?" Piper asked. "But you're not that old, are you?"

"Hundred and six," the coach muttered.

Leo coughed. "Say what?"

"Don't catch your panties on fire, Valdez. That's just fifty-three in human years. Still, yeah, I made some enemies on the Council of Cloven Elders. I've been a protector a long time. But they started saying I was getting unpredictable. Too violent. Can you imagine?"

"Wow." Piper tried to not look at her friends. "That's hard to believe."

Coach scowled. "Yeah, then finally we get a good war going with the Titans, and do they put me on the front lines? No! They send me as far away as possible—the Canadian frontier, can you believe it? Then after the war, they put me out to pasture. The Wilderness School. Bah! Like I'm too old to be helpful just because I like playing offense. All those flower-pickers on the Council—talking about nature."

"Hey, watch it," Ariadne said, "one of my best friends is on the Council and he's saved my butt more times throughout my life then you've tried to kill someone on this quest."

Frankly, that was quite a lot.

"I thought satyrs liked nature," Piper ventured, attempting to ease the older girl's annoyance/

"Shoot, I love nature," Hedge said. "Nature means big things killing and eating little things! And when you're a—you know—vertically challenged satyr like me, you get in good shape, you carry a big stick, and you don't take nothing from no one! That's nature." Hedge snorted indignantly. "Flower—pickers. Anyway, I hope you got something vegetarian cooking; Valdez. I don't do flesh."

"Yeah, Coach. Don't eat your cudgel. I got some tofu patties here. Piper's a vegetarian too. I'll throw them on in a second."

The smell of frying burgers filled the air. Ariadne was starving. Having to carry two gold statues and lug three backpacks exerted some energy, but it was nothing she couldn't handle.

Wind whipped outside in a harsh display of a frozen wasteland. No one could survive out there if they weren't built for it. She was lucky they found this cave, or else it would've ended terribly.

Leo handed out the food. Ariadne thanked him quietly before taking a bite, savoring in the taste before swallowing. But her stomach was kind of queasy once Piper spoke.

"We need to talk." She sat up so she could face Jason. "I don't want to hide anything from you guys anymore."

The boys looked at her with their mouths full of burger. Ariadne raised a brow.

"Three nights before the Grand Canyon trip," Piper said, "I had a dream vision—a giant, telling me my father had been taken hostage. He told me I had to cooperate, or my dad would be killed."

The flames crackled.

Finally Jason said, "Enceladus? You mentioned  that name before."

Coach Hedge whistled. "But giant. Breathed fire. Not somebody I'd want barbecuing my daddy goat."

Jason gave him a shut up look. "Piper, go on. What happened next?"

"I—I trie ego reach my dad, but all I got was his personal assistant, and she told me not to worry."

"Jane?" Leo remembered. "Didn't Medea say something about controlling her?"

Piper nodded. To get my dad back, I had to sabotage this quest. I didn't realize it would be the four of us. Then after we started the quest, Enceladus sent me another warning: He told me he wanted you two dead and Ariadne delivered to him. He wants me to lead you to a mountain. I don't know exactly which one, but it's in the Bay Area—I could see the Golden Gate Bridge from the summit. I have to be there by noon on the solstice, tomorrow. An exchange."

Jason scooted next to her and out his arm around her again. "God, Piper. I'm so sorry."

Leo nodded. "No kidding. You've been carrying this around for a week? Piper, we could help you."

She glared at them. "Why don't you yell at me or something? I was ordered to kill you!"

"Piper, come on," Ariadne said. "You've saved us on this quest. Trust me, from someone who's been requested for be killed by hundreds of monsters and even a few Titans, I'd put my life in your hands any day."

"Same," Leo said. "Can I have a hug too?"

"You don't get it!" Piper said. "I've probably just killed my dad, telling you this."

"I doubt it." Coach Hedge beached. He was eating his tofu burger inside the paper plate, chewing it all like a taco. "Giant hasn't gotten what he wants yet, so he still needs your dad for leverage. He'll wait until the deadline passed, see if you show up. He wants you to divert the quest to his mountain, right?"

Piper nodded uncertainly.

"So that means Hera is being kept somewhere else," Hedge reasoned. "And she has to be saved by the same day. So you have to choose—rescue your dad, or rescue Hera. If you go after Hera, then Enceladus takes care of your dad. Besides, Enceladus would never let you go even if you cooperated. You're obviously one of the eight in the Great Prophecy."

"So we have no choice," she said miserable. "We have to save Hera, or the giant king gets unleashed. That's our quest. The world depends on it. And Enceladus seems to have ways of watching me. He isn't stupid. He'll know if we change course and go the wrong way. He'll kill my dad."

"He's not going to kill your dad," Leo said. "We'll save him."

"We don't have time!" Piper cried. "Besides, it's a trap."

"We're your friends, beauty queen," Leo said. "We're not going to let your dad die. We just gotta figure out a plan."

Coach Hedge grumbled. "Would help if we knew where this mountain was. Maybe Aeolus can tell you that. The Bay Area has a bad reputation for demigods. Old home of the Titans, Mount Othrys, sits over on Mount Tam, were Atlas holds up the sky. I hope that's not the mountain you saw."

Ariadne gulped. She wasn't hungry any longer. Memories of Bianca jumping into Talos plagued her, as well as the image of Zoe's blood on her hand while she said her last dying words, being drawn into the stars a few seconds later. The constant reminder of Atlas' burden on her shoulders with the streak to remind her.

"I hope not," she muttered. "That'll mean even more people want me dead."

Piper tried to remember. "I don't think so. This was inland."

Jason frowned at the fire, like he was trying to remember something.

"Bad reputation...that doesn't seem right. The Bay Area..."

"You think you've been there?" Piper asked.

"I..." He looked like he was almost on the edge of a breakthrough. Then the anguish came back into his eyes. "I don't know. Hedge, what happened to Mount Othrys?"

Hedge took another boy of paper and burger. "Well, Kronos built a new palace there last summer. The winter of two years prior, he was constructing it, and Atlas managed to escape using Artemis on his place, but a quest went on to find her, keeping him in his place once again. Big nasty place, the palace was going to be the headquarters for his new kingdom and all. Weren't any battles there, though. Kronos marched on Manhattan, tried to take Olympus. If I remember right, he left some other Titans in charge of his palace, but after Kronos got defeated in Manhattan, the whole palace just crumbled on its own."

"No," Jason said.

Everyone looked at him.

"What do you mean, 'No'?" Leo asked.

"That's not what happened. I—" He tensed, look toward the cave entrance. "Did you hear that?"

Ariadne nodded. She stood from her spot.

Howls piercing the night grew ever closer.

"Wolves," Piper said. "They sound close."

Jason rose and summoned his sword. Leo and Coach Hedge got to their feet too. Piper tried, but black spots danced before her eyes.

"Stay there," Jason told her. "We'll protect you."

Ariadne kept her seated. She stood slowly while holding Lunacy, her feet carrying her toward the entrance of the cave. Then, just outside the firelight, she saw a pair of red eyes glowing in the dark.

More wolves edged into the firelight—black beasts bigger than Great Danes, with ice and snow caked on their fur. Their fangs gleamed, and their glowing red eyes looked disturbingly intelligent. The wolf in front was almost as tall as as a horse, his mouth stained as if he'd just made a fresh kill.

The eldest girl backed away toward her friends. They needed to stay together, as wolves were great at separating groups to take them down.

Piper pulled her dagger out of its sheath.

The Jason stepped forward and said something in Latin.

Ariadne cautioned at the dead language, but the alpha wolf curled his lip. The fur stood up along his spine. One of his lieutenants tried to advance, but the alpha wolf snapped at his ear. Then all of the wolves backed into the dark.

"Dude, I gotta study Latin." Leo's hammer shook in his hand. "What'd you say, Jason?"

Hedge cursed. "Whatever it was, it wasn't enough. Look."

The wolves were coming back, but the alpha wolf wasn't with them. They didn't attack. They waited—at least a dozen now, in a rough semicircle just outside the firelight, blocking the cave exit.

The coach hefted his club. "Here's the plan. I'll kill them all, and you guys escape."

"Coach, they'll rip you apart," Piper said.

"Nah, I'm good."

The Ariadne saw the silhouette of a man coming through the storm, wading through the wolf pack.

"Okay, let's—"

"Stick—"

Ariadne and Jason gave each other looks. She was a bit disgruntled at his need to lead. She had the lost experience, and it made sense that they needed to stick together. She didn't wait for him to continue.

"Stick together," she said. "They respect a pack. Hedge, nothing crazy. I'm not losing anyone else."

The wolves parted, and the man stepped into the firelight. His hair was greasy and ragged, the color of fireplace spot, topped with a crown of what looked like finger bones. His robes were tattered fur—wolf, rabbit, raccoon, deer, and several others. The furs didn't look cured, and from the smell, they weren't very fresh. His frame was lithe and muscular, like a distance runner's. But the most horrible thing was his face. His thin pale skin was pulled tight over his skull. His teeth were sharpened like fangs. His eyes glowed bright red like his wolves'—and they fixed on Jason with absolute hatred.

"Ecce," he said, "filli Romani."

"Speak English, wolf man!" Hedge bellowed.

The wolf man snarled. "Tell your faun ti mind his tongue, some of Rome. Or he'll be my first snack."

He studied their little group. His nostrils twitched. "So it's true," he mused. "A child of Aphrodite. A son of Hephaestus. A faun. And a child of Rome, of Lord Jupiter no less." The wolf man's eyes switched over to Ariadne, who stood with a menacingly glare that made him falter slightly. "Daughter of the Vines. All together, without killing each other. How interesting."

"You were told about us?" Jason asked. "By whom?"

The man snarled—perhaps a laugh, perhaps a challenge. "Oh, we've been patrolling for you all across the west, demigod, hoping we'd be the first to find you. The giant king with reward me well when he rises. I am Lycaon, king of the wolves. And my pack is hungry."

The wolves snarled in the darkness.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ariadne saw Leo put up his hammer and slip something else from his tool belt—a glass bottle full of clear liquid.

Lycaon glared at Jason's sword. He moved to each side as if looking for an opening, but Ariadne was quicker, Lunacy moving with him.

"Leave," Jason ordered. "There's no food for you here."

"Unless you want tofu burgers," Leo offered.

Lycaon bared his fangs.

"If I had my way," Lycaon said with regret, "I'd kill you first, son of Jupiter. Your father made me what I am. I was the powerful mortal king of Arcadia, with fifty fine sons, and Zeus slew them all with his lightning bolts."

"Ha," Coach Hedge said. "For good reason!"

Jason glanced over his shoulder. "Coach, you know this clown?"

"I do," Ariadne answered.

Her amethyst eyes bore into Lycaon's. His may have been a deep ruby, but hers were darker, deeper. She twirled her sword in hand as a threat—and that she was.

"Lycaon invited Zeus to dinner," she said. "But the king wasn't sure it was really Zeus. So to test his powers, Lycaon tried to feed him human flesh. Zeus got outraged—"

"And killed my sons!" Lycaon howled. The wolves behind him howled too.

"So Zeus turned you into a wolf, big deal. You were being a dick, anyway," Ariadne said. "They call werewolves lycanthropes, named after him, the first werewolf."

"The king of wolves," Coach Hedge finished. "An immortal, smelly, vicious mutt."

Lycaon growled. "I will tear you apart, faun!"

"Oh, you want some goat, buddy? Cause I'll give you goat."

"Stop it," Jason said. "Lycaon, you said you wanted to kill me first, but..."

"Sadly, Child or Rome, you are spoken for. Since this one"—he waggled his claws at Piper—"has failed to kill you, you are to be delivered alive to the Wolf House. One of my compatriots has asked for the honor of killing you herself."

"Who?" Jason said.

The wolf king snickered. "Oh, a great admirer of yours. Apparently, you made quite an impression on her. She will take care of you soon enough, and really I cannot complain. Spilling your blood at the Wolf House should mark my new territory quite well. Lupa will think twice about challenging my pack."

Piper struggled to her feet.

"You're going to leave now," Piper said, "before we destroy you.

She tried to put power into the words, but she was too weak. Shivering in her blankets, pale and sweaty and barely able to hold a knife. She couldn't have looked very threatening.

Lycaon's red eyes crinkled with humor. "A brave try, girl. I admire that. Perhaps I'll make your end quick. Only the son of Jupiter and Daughter of the Vines is needed alive. She will be given a worse sentence. The rest of you, I'm afraid, are dinner."

Whatever that meant for Ariadne, she sure as hell wouldn't let that happen. She'd fought for far too long to die that way.

Jason took a step forward. "You're not killing anyone, wolf man. Not without going through me."

Lycaon howled and extended his claws. Jason slashed at him, but his golden sword passed straight through as if the wolf king wasn't there.

Lycaon laughed. "Gold, bronze, steel—none of these are any good against my wolves, son of Jupiter."

"Silver!" Piper cried. "Aren't werewolves hurt by silver?"

"We don't have any silver!" Jason said.

Wolves leaped into the firelight. Hedge charged forward with an elated "Woot!"

But Leo struck first. He three his glass bottle and it shattered on the ground, splattering liquid all over the wolves—the unmistakable smell of gasoline. He shot a burst of fire at the puddle, and a wall of flames erupted.

Wolves yelped and retreated. Several caught fire and had to run back into the snow. Even Lycaon looked uneasily at the barrier of flames now separating his wolves from the demigods.

"Aw, c'mon Coach Hedge complained. "I can't hit them if they're way over there."

Every time a wolf came closer, Leo shot a new wave of fire from his hands, but each effort seemed to make him a little more tired, and the gasoline was already dying down. "I can't summon any mor gas!" Leo warned. Then his face turned red. "Wow, that came out wrong. I mean the burning kind. Gonna take the tool belt a while to recharge. What you got, man?"

"Nothing," Jason said. "Not even a weapon that works."

"Lightning?" Piper asked.

Jason concentrated, but nothing happened. "I think the snowstorm is interfering, or something."

"Unleash the venti!" Piper said.

"Then we'll have nothing to give Aeolus," Jason said. "We'll have to come all this way for nothing."

Lycaon laughed. "I can smell your fear. A few more minutes, heroes. Pray to whatever gods you wish. Zeus did not grant me mercy, and you will have none from me."

The flames began to sputter out. Jason cursed and dropped his sword. He crouched like he was ready to go hand to hand. Leo pulled his hammer out of his pack. Piper raised her dagger. Coach Hedge hefted his club, and he was the only one who looked excited about dying.

Ariadne focused on a few wolves while they began whining and yelping in pain. It wouldn't do much, wouldn't even kill them, but it would by them time.

The a ripping sound cut through the wind—like a piece of tearing cardboard. A long stick sprouted from the neck of the nearest wolf—the shaft of a silver arrow. The wolf writhed and fell, melting into a puddle of shadow.

More arrows. More wolves fell. The pack broke in confusion. An arrow flashed toward Lycaon, but the wolf king caught it in midair. Then he yelled in pain. When he dropped the arrow, it left a charred, smoking gash across his palm. Another arrow caught him in the shoulder, and the wolf king staggered.

"Curse them!" Lycaon yelled. "He growled at his pack, and the wolves turned and ran. Lycaon fixed Jason with those glowing red eyes. "This isn't over, boy."

The wolf king disappeared into the night.

Seconds later, Ariadne heard more wolves baying, but they sounded different—less threatening, more like hunting dogs on the scent. It was a familiar sound, and one she liked to hear. A smaller white wolf burst into the cave, followed by two more.

Hedge said," Kill it?"

"No!" Ariadne said. "Wait:"

The wolves tilted their heads and studied the campers with huge golden eyes. They twinkled while remembering her.

A heartbeat later, their masters appeared: a troop of hunters in white and gray camouflage, at least half a dozen. All of them carried bows, with quivers or glowing silver arrows on their backs.

Their faces were covered with parka hoods, but clearly they were all girls. One, a little taller than the rest, crouched in the firelight and snatched up the arrow that had wounded Lycaon's hand.

"So close." She turned to her companions. "Hailee, stay with me. Watch the entrance. The rest of you, follow Lycaon. We can't lose him now. I'll catch up with you."

The other hunters mumbled agreement and disappeared, heading after Lycaon's pack.

"Hey, Pinecone Face," Ariadne teased, greeting her friend with a tight hug. She was much taller than her.

Thalia didn't question what her friend was doing there. It was clearly a quest, and their last winter one hadn't been a memory to remember. "Looking good, Phoenix."

Ariadne drew back with a slightly hopeful expression. "Anything?"

"No." Thalia shook her head in dismay. "I'm sorry."

The girl in white turned toward them, her face still hidden in her parka hood. "We've been following thy Demond's trial for over a week. Is everyone all right. No one got bit?"

Jason stood frozen, staring at the girl. Ariadne understood right away. Why he had Thalia's picture with him. Why they looked similar, their voices.

"You're her," Piper guessed. "You're Thalia."

The girl tensed. She pulled down her park hood. Her hair was spiky black, with a silver tiara across her brow. Her face had a super healthy glow to it, as if she were a little more than human, her eyes were a brilliant blue. She was the girl from Jason's photograph.

"Do I know you?" Thalia asked.

Ariadne sighed. "Thalia, this might be a shock, but—"

"Thalia." Jason stepped forward, his voice trembling. "I'm Jason, your brother."

At that moment, even Ariadne didn't know what to think.

authors note:

I suck ass at updating and I'm so sorry

School is kicking me in the neck, we're having all students in class after spring break and my AP exam is in a month so that's shit

I have a job interview with Kroger tomorrow so that's fun! If I do get the job then be prepared for even less updates than right now. I should get better about that

I also feel like my writings been shit lately and I'm so sorry you guys

Anyways, I've decided to get more productive and work on a few other books, but my mojo is back so hopefully you'll get more this weekend!

Q: I'm thinking about shifting, so just out of curiosity, if you have shifted or want to, where?
A: either camp half-blood as Ariadne or marvel as one of my other oc's

I hope you all enjoyed this mess!

We're getting close to the end so I hope it gets done before March but if not sorry!

Love you guys!!!