SANITY; heroes of olympus

04.11

[act four; chapter eleven     -     shadows of death]

Zara didn't know what to expect, being in Greece and all. She didn't know what would happen when they stepped onto Epirus or what would happen when they reached the House of Hades.

She also certainly didn't expect a flock of wild, hungry harpies to attack the ship. She didn't like the idea of having to hurt them as a reminder of Ella washed over her, and she could tell Frank and Donnie felt the same way as they shot them down with their bows and arrows.

The Greek landscape below was just as inhospitable. The hills were strewn with boulders and stunted cedars, all shimmering in the hazy air. The sun beat down as if trying to hammer the countryside into a Celestial bronze shield. Even from a hundred feet up, Zara could hear the drone of cicadas buzzing in the trees—a sleepy, otherworldly sound that made her eyes heavy. "Hot and steamy!" Leo grinned at the helm. "Makes me homesick for Houston! What do you say, Hazel? All we need now are some giant mosquitoes, and it'll feel just like the Gulf Coast!"

"Thanks a lot, Leo," Hazel grumbled. "We'll probably get attacked by Ancient Greek mosquito monsters now."

Eden, who was standing beside Leo at the controls, helping him fix something, grimaced. "I hope for your sake, Valdez, that there is no such thing as a...mosquito monster."

Zara looked between the two as they stood on the helm. Leo still seemed on edge and like he was hiding his true emotions from all of them, and she ached to know what he was feeling, if there was some way that she or anyone else could remedy them. Then there was Eden who was as stoic as ever. She was hard to read and hard to converse with, especially as they grew closer to the House of Hades. She had the Storm temper, the same one that Andromeda had, but she also had the same control. She had been a big help with repairs, using her control of light to meld things together, making it so bright and so incredibly hot that it could melt metal.