Jason would have liked to slept all that night, but it was not time to think of such a thing. Leo had sounded the alarm and everyone ran to the deck.
The wind was strong and wild. If they were surprised by the number of monsters in Mount Pindo, the son of Zeus had grounds for a new surprise: Jason had never seen so many nature spirits together as he saw now. They were heading toward the Argus II with a not very friendly expression, marching as a mass through the slope, armed, shouting, hissing, screeching and all other sounds that were capable of emitting. Hazel didn’t take long to outflank him, accompanied by Piper and Leo. Frank was left behind along with Nico, and Coach Hedge yelled something about not having time to not even use the bathroom in peace, as he ran with a piece of toilet paper stuck to the hull. Jason was thinking how much he didn’t needed that image of the satyr, when again he focused on the nature spirits.
- They are furious, the nature spirits. - Piper was apprehensive.
- Yes but... except an avalanche on the mountain there behind, what we could have done for this?
- Must be a thing of Gaia. - Jason wielded his sword of imperial gold, taking the front of the group
- Whatever! Let's show them who's with reason with our fists! - Coach punched the air, energetic
- I thought Satyrs could also be considered a type of nature spirit...
- Come closer so I can show you all my natural spirituality, Valdez!
- Where is Morgan? - Hazel looked sideways, apprehensive.
Jason and the others stared at Leo.
- She left. She said she would investigate the surroundings.
- Gone?!
- Yes... what's wrong with it?
- Leo, you didn’t heard anything I said about the children of Hecate in the war of Kronos?
- I heard, but I thought we had already left that stage with her.
- We decided we would trust her, Jason. - Frank shouted from the back deck.
- More importantly, what do we do about them?
The nature spirits were closer. Coach Hedge looked mentally entertained thinking about how he would face those spirits with his baseball bat.
- Man, - Leo began, staring Jason - I think maybe we need to think about how to escape like little girls, because face all these spirits won’t do..
- Do this if you want to Valdez, but a man knows that he must die fighting! - The coach emerged from his thoughts momentarily.
- Oh, come on! We have not come so far for this!
While Jason thought about how to proceed, was surprised by Piper, who had taken the lead of the group. In the distance was possible to see that the spirits were led by a very beautiful Naiad, followed by some other naiads bluish skin and colored hair. Nymphs and Dryads were close behind, followed by Ventus, Sylphs and some other spirits that Jason had never even heard about. The Naiad motioned and the other spirits stopped walking, her diaphanous dress in bright colors and cheerful undulated gently, like waves in a pond, as she walked to stand toe to toe with Piper. With her presence and of other spirits, some scent of the environment such as trees, plants, flowers, fresh water and earth seemed to intensify. If it was not the storm that came with them, hiding the sun and obscuring the sky, it could be said that nature seemed even more natural with the presence of spirits. And more wild too.
- Leave this place immediately.
- I'm afraid we can’t. - Piper tried to sound firm, but Jason could see the nervousness in the girl - Sorry, but we did something wrong?
- The children of the lord of the Underworld are not welcome here... your energy is not good .
Leo looked relieved with something, sighing loudly and taking his hand to the chest. Jason thought that, until that moment, the boy was piped to the avalanche that they had caused to outwit theirs pursuers.
- The troops of mother earth are everywhere, we decided to keep away from this battle of you. Your presence will only bring more pain for everyone here.
The storm broke at once from the heavens in the form of a steady rain. The demigods remained static in their positions. Piper gulped. They understand a bit more now about how their actions could affect several people, creatures and spirits in true domino effects. Jason was still bewildered by the episode spent with Piper and Percy in the well of dead and lifeless water, the kind that neither the son of Poseidon had power over. Despite knowing all this, knowing that his actions would impact them irreversibly, for good or for bad, the son of Jupiter decided to be firm at that time.
- We need to save our friends and prevent Gaia from returning! We cannot leave until we get it.
Naiad 's eyes sparkled, dangerous; the winds changed direction abruptly and various spirits stirred, clearly uncomfortable with the Jason attitude’s. Apparently, no one dared to interrupt the issues of that Naiad.
- Petulant as every child of Zeus. I was not addressing you, boy , but I'm willing to negotiate. Here is our terms: depart in peace until tomorrow or we will pluck you away by force.
With that, she turned and walked through the crowd of spirits of nature to be across the group, marching toward the downhill slope. Thunder rumbled violently in the sky, and a heavy rain began to fall. Jason felt he had blown it.
Shortly after the incident, Jason spotted Morgan returning to the camp, she had donned the mantle of black velvet and covered her head with the hood to keep the rain off, but now she walked heavy and slow, probably because of the weight of wet tissue. If she had noticed the footprints that the rain was beginning to wash, she said nothing. After the shock, Leo began to mobilize the group to fix the deck as fast as possible, since technically only have until the next day. Jason tried to ease the storm to help in repairs, but the spirits were very restless and discontented, it was impossible to lead them in that situation.
But the son of Jupiter had a bad impression about the return of Morgan, immediately after the withdrawal of the spirits. He didn’t trust the daughter of Hecate, even with that excess smiles and talks about the Argus II with Leo, always wanting to know more and more about the flying ship. Hazel and Frank seemed to accept the situation much easier than he, and Jason feared that this might be some magical effect caused by her. On the battlefield he saw children of Hecate do many things he believed were impossible to demigods until then, so he was insecure in the presence of of the shooter. He was pulled from his thoughts by a call from the deck:
- Grace!
- What?
- We need your hand down here. The rain will not subside anytime soon apparently, so it's best to focus on fixing the deck soon.
- Why do not you try to do something about the rain then? - Jason huffed, angry, wet and cold.
- Sorry?
- What is a spell to ward off the rain for who said it would lift magical protections around the camp?
The daughter of Hecate was on hit by a punch, but dislocated his jaw to the side as if she had. She stood up and walked over to stand in front of Jason, staring firmly.
- What is it Grace? You're jumpy because you can not even make a drizzle like this stop falling?
- Probably not as much as when you failed to protect "the magic ass" of your brothers in Queen Andromeda. And says you will protect the camp... what a joke .
Still, Jason was not expecting to get shot in the chest, as he received then. But maybe he should have.
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