Where there's smoke // L.Valdez

Chapter thirty-one

"Course it is," Coach Hedge spat some splinters from his cudgel into the fire. "Aeolus's floating palace should be anchored above us, right at the peak. This is one of his favourite spots to dock."

"Maybe that was it." Jason knitted his eyebrows. "I don't know. Something else, too..."

"The Hunters were heading west," Piper remembered.

"The Hunters?" Persephone perked up. "They're here?"

Jason rubbed his inner forearm, as though his tattoo hurt. "I don't see how anyone could survive on the mountain right now. The storm's pretty bad. It's already the evening before the solstice, but we didn't have much choice except to wait out the storm here. We had to give you some time to rest before we tried moving." Jason told Piper.

"We have to get you warm," He sat next to her and held out his arms, awkwardly. "Uh, do you mind if I..."

"I suppose."

Persephone watched as the two cuddled near the fire, scooting closer to the heat. Leo broke out some cooking supplies and threw some burger patties onto an iron skillet. Persephone shivered.

"So, guys, long as you're cuddled up for story time... something I've been meaning to tell you. On the way to Omaha, I had this dream. Kinda hard to understand with the static and the 'Wheel of Fortune' breaking in-"

"The Wheel of Fortune?" Persephone snickered, but when Leo looked up from his burgers and met her eyes, she realised he was being completely serious. "Wait you're not joking?"

Leo delved into telling his dream with his dad, Hephaestus. Persephone furrowed her brows the more he explained his dream.

"I don't get it. Sure the gods have made bad decisions in the past, but gods and demigods have to work together to kill the giants, right? So why have they shut themselves off, why have they gone silent? The must know that they need us-"

"Ha," Coach Hedge cut Persephone off. "The gods hate needing humans. They like being needed by humans, but not the other way around. Things will have to get a whole lot worse before Zeus admits he made a mistake closing Olympus."

"Coach," Piper said. "That was almost an intelligent comment."

Hedge huffed. "what? I'm intelligent! I'm not surprised you cupcakes haven't heard of the Giant War. The gods don't like to talk about it. Bad PR to admit you need mortals to help beat an enemy. That's just embarrassing."

"There's more, though," Jason added. "When I dreamed about Hera in her cage, she said Zeus was acting unusually paranoid. And Hera- she said she went to those ruins because a voice had been speaking in her head. What if someone's influencing the gods, like Medea influenced us?"

Persephone nodded. "My dad said something like that; he said Zeus was acting less sane than he was these days..." She trailed off, almost embarrassed. "Being god of the underworld isn't always the most social job, y'know." She seemed to try and justify her father, Leo acknowledged.

Leo decided to not comment on her explanation, not wanting to embarrass her further, and not knowing what to tell her, anyway. He set the hamburger buns on the skillet to toast.

"Yeah, Hephaestus said something similar, like Zeus was acting weirder than usual. But what bothered me was the stuff my dad didn't say. Like a couple of times he was talking about the demigods, and how he had so many kids and all. I don't know. He acted like getting the greatest demigods together was going to be almost impossible- like Hera was trying, but it was a really stupid thing to do, and there was some secret Hephaestus wasn't supposed to tell me."

Jason shifted. "Chiron was the same way back at camp." He said. "He mentioned a sacred oath not to discuss- something. Coach, you know anything about that?"

"Nah. I'm just a satyr. They don't tell us the juicy stuff. Especially an old-" He stopped himself.

"An old guy like you?" Piper asked. Persephone winced. "But you're not that old, are you?"

"Hundred and six." The Coach muttered. Only Persephone seemed to be the only one who wasn't shocked at the satyr's age.

Leo coughed. "say what?"

"Don't catch your panties on fire, Valdez. That's just fifty-three in human years. Still, yeah, I made some enemies on the Council of the Cloven Elders."

"Ugh, those guys," Persephone grumbled. He shot her glare, but continued.

"I've been a protector a long time. But they started saying I was getting unpredictable. Too violent. Can you imagine?"

"Wow," Piper avoided eye contact with any of her friends, but she didn't miss the sound of Persephone's snort. "That's hard to believe."

Coach scowled. "Yeah, then finally we get a good war going with the Titans, and do they put me on the front lines? No! They send me as far away as possible- the Canadian frontier, can you believe it? Then after the war they put me out to pasture. The Wilderness School. Bah! Like I'm too old to be helpful just because I like playing offense. All those flower-pickers on the council- talking about nature."

"Trust me, the war wasn't something you'd wanna see, Coach." Persephone grumbled, knees curled up to her chest, shivering. He grunted.

"I thought satyrs liked nature," Piper ventured.

"Shoot, I love nature," Hedge said. "Nature means big things killing and eating little things! And when you're a- you know- vertically challenged satyr like me, you get in good shape, you carry a big stick and you don't take nothing from no one! That's nature." Hedge snorted indignantly. "Flower-pickers. Anyway, I hope you've got something vegetarian cooking, Valdez. I don't do flesh."

"Yeah, Coach. Don't eat your cudgel. I've got some tofu patties here. Piper's a vegetarian, too. I'll throw them on in a second."

Persephone looked longingly at the frying burgers. She didn't realise how hungry she was. Leo noticed and smiled at her.

"They're nearly done, promise." She pouted to herself.

She noticed Piper looking into space, clearly deep in thought. Jason watched her, seemingly content. Hedge had resumed to nibbling on his cudgel.

"So when did you get so good at cooking, Valdez?" She asked him. He smiled slightly, still poking the burgers, throwing the tofu ones on to cook.

"My mum taught me." He didn't meet her eyes, "She made the best food I've ever had. She let me help and I picked up how to cook... I miss her." He trailed off. Persephone knew that Leo didn't open up about much, but she was the only one paying attention to him, so she felt like he trusted her enough.

"My mum would love you." She told him. He looked up, confused. "I haven't seen her in a few years, but I'm needed more back at camp. She understands."

"My cabin mates said you found Percy, Annabeth and Percy's brother on a quest to rescue someone-"

"Grover. He's a satyr." She told him. "They were fighting a hydra, all I wanted was some donuts, but I nearly became its food, so I ran away, crashed into Percy. Decided to join them on their quest."

"And you haven't been home since." Leo guessed. She hesitated.

"It's getting late, Leo. When are the burgers going to be ready?"

"They're done." He told her. She stood up, shakily, to help him plate up the food, but he clasped her forearm gently. "You'll tell me one day, right? You don't have to keep everything to yourself."

She pulled her arm from him, slowly, nodding.

"One day," She told him, quietly.