²Olden Crown, heroes of olympus

007.

OLDEN CROWN
━━ chapter seven

━━ ELISA WILL ADMIT, the last thing she wanted to be doing was going on a quest.

It had nothing to do with the other questers ( except for Delaney—something was seriously off with her ), but for the sole fact that Percy was missing. It felt so ... wrong to be going on a quest while her boyfriend was missing. And she knew she had no other choice, but Elisa still felt like utter shit.

And sure, Elisa didn't hold ill will against the other questers ( again—except for Delaney; something was off about her! ), but she still felt like it was the oddest combination of demigods to go on a quest. The quest members felt like anything but cohesive; five random demigods lumped together, with no to very little knowledge about the other. How were they supposed to work together? Elisa wasn't sure if she could trust them at all.

Even worse, she was the most experienced. She would be the one they turned to for advice, and she was anything but a leader—that was Percy and Annabeth. She wasn't a good leader, not a role model. The only thing Elisa modeled was what kind of person not to be.

The morning after the quest for Hera, Elisa shuffled through the cold and over to Cabin One. She knocked on the door, hearing distant rumbles of thunder. When no one answered, she pushed the door open.

She peeked inside, finding the blond son of Zeus crouched beside one of the braziers. It looked to have been pushed aside, allowing access to a small alcove. Jason shuffled through the items inside; a bedroom, a backpack, and some yellowing pictures.

Elisa walked over, her footsteps masked by the sound of the constant thunder of Cabin One. A she got closer, she was able to see the pictures more clearly. Jason had picked one off the floor, a strip of pictures you would take at a do-it-yourself photo booth. The pictures were of Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia.

Elisa frowned, thinking back to the Hunter. Jason stared at the photo, his eyebrows pinched together.

"That's Thalia," she spoke up, breaking the silence.

Jason jumped, dropping the photo. If his eyes weren't so sad-looking, Elisa would've found his reaction funny.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I knocked, but you never answered. I came by to say I got us a lead on saving Hera."

"Oh." Jason's shoulders slumped and he turned back to the alcove. He picked up the strip of photos and looked at it. "Thalia?" he asked, pointing to the black-haired girl.

Elisa nodded. "She's a daughter of Zeus. She never stayed in here long, but even when she did, it was before I was here."

Jason frowned at the pristine-looking cabin. He didn't look like he was going to miss it ( and she didn't blame him, Cabin One was far from homey ). But his expression was more than just that; it was filled with anxiety, fear, and gods knows what else.

"You shouldn't worry yourself too much," she advised. "You'll make yourself sick even before we leave camp. And I gotta say, that would not be a good look. Besides, I'm not so sure you haven't been on quests before. You ..." She trailed off and shrugged. "But maybe that's just me overthinking."

"Do you know who I am?" he asked, sounding desperate.

Elisa sighed and leaned against the cool wall. "Honestly, Jason, I'm not sure about anything right now. But if you want me to take a guess at who you are? I can guess that you were a loner, surviving on your own. It can happen, I was for a time. For whatever reason, a satyr never found you and you slipped under the radar. But even as a son of Zeus, you survived. You had to have constantly moved around; taught yourself how to fight; beat the monsters all on your own."