THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES [J. GRACE]

THIRTY-EIGHT

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

l e o

chapter thirty-eight: & so the first fight of the day begins

THE PLAN went wrong almost immediately.

piper scrambled along the ridge, trying to keep her head down. meanwhile, leo, chandler, jason, and coach hedge walked straight into the clearing, trying to get the attention of the giant. the zeus demigod summoned his golden lance, the curly haired demigoddess her ax, and paired it with a brilliant show of flames to draw more attention. jason brandished his lance, yelling deeply, "giant!"

which, in hindsight, sounded pretty good, and much more confident than leo might've managed. the hephaestus boy could admit he was mildly disappointed, he expected something more along the lines of we are pathetic ants! don't kill us! and he knew for a fact that his sister, and her unserious antics, would've added on something comical like worms! worthless worms!

instead, jason's calling had its desired affect, and enceladus stopped chanting into his spooky flames. he turned toward them, and grinned slowly like a psychotic killer, which leo reasoned wasn't too far off, and revealed ominous fangs on par with a saber-toothed tiger's. "well," the giant grumbled, not at all shocked, nor startled by their appearance. in fact, rather delighted. "what a nice surprise."

leo didn't like the sound of that at all. his hand wrapped around the wind-up gadget tightly, stepping sideways as he edged toward the bulldozer. coach hedge provided good distraction material as he shouted at the giant maniac as if he were a student in the satyr's p.e. class, "let the movie star go, you big, ugly cupcake!" which sounded pretty lame, and even lamer coming from a five-foot-zero goat. "let him go, or i'm gonna plant my hoof right up your–"

"coach," chandler interrupted coolly, but she cut her eyes at the satyr menacingly, "shut it."

the giant, enceladus, seemed to find the entire ordeal rather amusing as he roared with obnoxious laughter, "i've forgotten how funny satyrs are. when we rule the world, i think i'll keep your kind around. you can entertain me while i eat all the other mortals."

"is that some kind of compliment?" hedge asked the giant first, then looked to leo with a frown, as if he were genuinely trying to figure out if enceladus was being mean to him or not. "i don't think that was a compliment."

enceladus opened his mouth wide, and his teeth began to glow.

"scatter!" chandler shouted. she, jason, and coach hedge dover to the left as the giant blew fire, a furnace blast so hot, even festus would've been somewhat jealous. leo dodged behind the bulldozer, wound up his homemade device, and dropped it into the driver's seat. then, he ran to the right, heading for the tree harvester.

out of the corner of his eye, he saw his sister, and jason rise. the pair of them charged the giant together. meanwhile, hedge ripped off his canary yellow jacket, which was on fire, and bleated angrily in enceladus' direction, "i liked that outfit!" then, raised his club, and joined the charge.

though, before they could get very far, enceladus slammed his spear against the ground. the entire mountain shook. the shockwave sent leo sprawling into the compact dirt pretty hard. he allowed himself a moment to blink, momentarily stunned. through the haze of grassfire, and bitter smoke, he saw jason staggering to his feet on the other side of the clearing. meanwhile chandler was dizzily walking in a small circle, trying to gather her bearings.