THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES [J. GRACE]

FOURTEEN

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES ༉‧₊˚.[THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS]

L E O
chapter fourteen: my secret power has gotten me discriminated against at the palace of boring. so, i'm not allowed to see the king

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TO LEO, it only seemed as if he slept for mere seconds.

he guessed the hours in which he went without sleep had made his mild nap quick, and dreamless. finally opening his eyes, he realized just how long he'd been asleep. daylight was fading quickly, and dusk was settling into the canadian air.

piper gently shook his shoulder to fully awaken him from his nap, and he began to wipe grogginess away from him.
the last thing leo wanted was to appear sleepless, and unprepared to their possible enemies awaiting for them. he blinked a few times to get back in the rhythm of being awake, and unintentionally met piper's kaleidoscope eyes.

"we're here," she informed him, a soured expression on her still glamourized face surprising him. leo didn't know what had piper so bothered, but he could only guess it had something to do with jason and his sister, after all, he'd seen the jealous face before.

speaking of the two of them, jason was waking chandler from a nap as well. though, unlike leo and piper, the hephaestus girl was leaning forward, resting her body on jason. the smallest of smiles on the blonde's face as he coaxed her from sleep was definitely what had piper in a little mood. leo guessed she wasn't completely over them so called dating one day, then him not having the slightest of clues who she was, and being completely interested in another girl the next day. leo felt for her, but also knew there wasn't exactly anything either of them could do besides get over the whole situation as best as they could.

as if she didn't know of piper's sourness, or perhaps was simply ignoring it, chandler continued on as if nothing were wrong. sure, she was a bit grumpy from being awoken from her sleep, but she managed a tiny smile in leo's direction, as if welcoming him back from his hibernation. surprisingly, she looked wide awake, as if she hadn't spent the entire night running through the woods with a dragon as well. she hadn't even looked like she needed the nap she took, sleepiness not present in her persona.

chandler swept windblown, burgundy curls away from her, looking not too unpleasant in mood for once. after all, number one grumpy person was annabeth, but the hephaestus girl was a close second these days. the little smile she shot him almost sent a shiver of pure fear down his spine before he recognized the slight warmth behind it. she'd been cold, and angry when they first met, but leo was coming to recognize that warm persona will solace described to him, bit by bit as they opened up to one another.

leo rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with the heel of his hand, and tried to stretch his back. he let out the smallest of yawns before he attempted to scan what was below them, and perhaps identify their location. a city sat on a cliff overlooking a river, the plains around it heavily blanketed in powdery white snow with a gorgeous orangey winter sunset. the scene almost looked like one that belonged in a snow globe, or a hyper-realistic painting. in the center of the city itself was a medieval looking castle, one chandler spitefully described looked like a school she once had to visit in maine for a mission a few years back. it had massive brick walls, and tall square towers adorned with green gabled roofs.

leo had a slight tilt to his head as he murmured, unaware his sentence was coming out of his mouth aloud for the rest of his questmates to hear, "tell me that's the boring god's castle, and not santa's workshop," the muse in his tone almost comical, as if he were in actual disbelief of the castle in front of them. his eyes raked over the ancient city in awe, his mouth dropped open in a small o.