Coach Hedge was the only one that seemed to have been in a good mood. He kept bounding up the slippery staircase and trotting back down. "Come on, cupcakes! Only a few thousand more steps!"
As they climbed, Estella, Jason, Piper and Leo continued in silence, sensing Jason's bad mood. Estella kept glancing back at Jason, worried he might break down in tears. It couldn't have been easy for him to lose his sister so soon after reuniting. Jason and Leo had told the others about the plan to save Piper's dad, so Piper looked anxious, and Estella wished that she could help both of her friends, but she felt so powerless. How could she possibly be if any help when she scars her skin when things get too tough for her?
Finally they arrived at the top of the island. Bronze walls marched all the way around the fortress grounds, though Estella 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 Jason 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, Estella 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," Jason was quick to say.
While the satyr ran off to attack springtime, Estella, Jason, Leo, and Piper 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 on!
"Hello!" A woman floated up to them. Literally floated. She was pretty in that elfish way Estella 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. Estella 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. "Are you from Lord Zeus?" she asked. "We've been expecting you."
She looked kind of like a—
"Are you a ghost?" Jason asked.
Estella looked at Jason in disbelief that he had asked that. It was obvious that the question was an insult to her, even if Estella was also thinking that she looked like a ghost—at least she didn't say it.
She turned to Jason with a pout. "I'm an aura, sir. A wind nymph, as you might expect, working for the lord of the winds. My name is Mellie. We don't have ghosts."
YOU ARE READING
BABY DON'T CUT - jason grace
Fanfiction"nobody seems to get you, you feel you're on your own, but listen pretty lady you don't have to be alone. so baby don't cut. baby don't cut. you can do anything, just promise baby you won't cut.." Contains : Self harm, rape, depression, abuse, suici...
