The Real World || Percy Jackson Olympians Fanfiction (2)

Chapter 16

I woke up panicking the next morning. Hot breath tickled my ear, and something heavy had me pinned down. My body started squirming and the weight lifted off of me. Just as I was about to jump up and attack, I heard something that calmed my nerves.

"Hey, calm down. Have a bad dream?" Nico asked, sitting up and facing me.

I shook my head. "No, I just... Wasn't sure where I was for a minute."

"Oh, okay. Well I'll go and wake Valdez up so we can eat and then keep walking."

"Hurray!" I said, rolling my eyes.

My gaze drifted into the distance, watching the clouds drift across the sky. Did my "dad" really control all of that? No wonder Zeus was the king of the gods. It still seemed strange to me that I was put in a story where I was someone of importance, or at least the daughter of someone of importance.

The small town we had left only a day ago was now just a small speck in the distance. What happened here? One thing was for sure, and that was Aphrodite. She had come here and isolated this beautiful town, and she would pay for that. I never thought myself capable of wanting to hurt someone as much as I wanted to hurt that supid love goddess... But my life is just full of surprises.

Th boys snapped me out of my thoughts with breakfast: a flask of cold soup. It wasn't on the list of my favourite meals, but some food was better than none.

We started walking straight after. No snow was falling today, and I could actually see how much progress we had made. The mountain was now huge in my eyes, and I could only just spot the peak through the clouds. Between us, we worked out that we would get to the bottom of the mountain by lunchtime. Then, we would climb as high as we could until sundown and make camp for the second night.

(A/N I am so sorry this is so boring, it's basically just them traveling all the time. Don't worry, it will pick up again soon!)

The wind had picked up as the sun had risen; which confused me, as I thought the sun would bring heat and not coldness. My body convulsed as I attempted to shake off the ice surrounding me.

"You cold?" Leo asked.

"Oh no, I'm absolutely fine!" I exclaimed sarcastically.

Leo gestured to himself. "Hello! Hot stuff over here!"

"Keep dreaming, Valdez."

We both laughed. "Honestly though, get over here. We don't need our quest leader getting frost bite or anything. Besides, it would really help me stay warm as well."

I sighed and inched closer to him shyly. However, he made a show of wrapping his arms around me, lifting me into the air as he held me. When he put me down, we proceeded to walk with his arm around my shoulders and my arm around his waist.

"That's better, although your face is providing enough heart for everyone," he joked, pointing out my blush.

"I'm not blushing, my cheeks are just red from the cold!"

"Yeah right," Nico muttered.

"You say something, death boy?" Leo questioned.

Nico shook his head. "Oh no, no. Nothing at all!"

"Aw is Neeks feeling left out?" I leaned my head to the side so I was looking straight into his eyes. I stretched my arm out to him. "There's room for a third source of heat, you know."

Nico glared at me and moved closer so that he looked tall and threatening. "My name is not Neeks. Call me that one. More. Time."

"Woah calm down, it was just a joke!"

Nico cussed and sped up, walking a few paces in front of us. I was about to go and catch up to him when Leo stopped me.

"Give him some time. Not the nicest person to be around, but he can be much worse." Leo leaned his warm face closer to mine. "Besides, can't it just be us two? We haven't had much privacy since we left camp."

After glancing up at Leo, I realized that he wasn't joking. He was looking at me hopefully, as if he was looking for permission to be with me alone. I shrugged, not knowing how else to respond. We walked for a few minutes, before I broke the silence.

"What's going through that mind of yours?"

Leo replied instantly. "You. Me. Us. What happens after the quest. What Aphrodite will be like. What you think of me..."

"What will happen after the quest?"

"Well, we'll go back to camp and get into the routine of training. You'll have to make a decision on whether you want to stay year round or whether you want to go out into the world and go to school. And as for us... Well, I can only hope about what happens after the quest."

"Care to share your wishes?" I asked.

"You'll find out soon enough, sweet cheeks. I'm just hoping nothing goes too badly with Aphrodite."

I didn't understand what Leo meant by that, but it made me think. What were we even going to do when we found Aphrodite? How do we deal with a rogue goddess who is the target for vengeance? Thinking about the future also made me think about the type of life that I lived, and what would happen in the future. One main thing that stuck in my head, was how I was going to say goodbye.

Leo had welcomed me to camp with open arms, and was my best friend there. I had a brother,nand an all-powerful god as a dad. I had a seemingly bipolar friend who I couldn't seem to understand. They had impacted on my life so much, and leaving them would break me. Physically and emotionally.

"You okay?"

I had been frowning at the snow whilst thoughts bounced around my head. My eyes met my best friend's, and I saw concern there as well as something else. I hadn't been looked at like that since...

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied. My feet continued to load through the snow, but one thought remained in my aching brain.

How can I abandon these people?