The Mark of Athena,Heroes of Olympus, Book 3

Leo XI


What sucks is that they didn't even win.

"Leo! Focus!" Piper shouted, bringing Leo back to the present-a burning building, blazing against the darkening sky.

Leo had been pelting the fortress with fireballs, scaring the heck out of the people inside, when suddenly-like a burst of light-a vision was thrown into Leo's mind.

He was riding a horse, following a girl with dark skin and black curls. She was so far ahead of him, there was no point in even trying to ride after her. His vision-self shouted, "What are you running from? I'm not that ugly, am I?"

Then Piper's voice rang out, snapping Leo out of it. Out of the corner of his eye, Leo saw and eagle. A spear flew toward the eagle and it crumpled towards the ground. As it fell, Leo watched as it morphed into Frank's bulky body. Judging from Annabeth's stories, whoever threw the spear would have Percy to deal with pretty soon.

Leo heard a girl's cry of pain, then a shout, "Take that, Romaios ilithios!"

Romaios ilithios, Leo thought. Roman idiot. Nice.

Leo could only hope that it was Annabeth or Clarisse. Any other Greek girl could have been trampled by any Roman.

Leo heard another girl's scream.

It was Hazel. She was atop the burning fortress. Leo stared at her, suddenly realized just how pretty she was.

"Don't just stand there, Sammy, get help!" Hazel screamed.

Sammy. She called me Sammy again.

"Percy!" Leo called, which was the first thing that came to mind. He ran up, with Frank at his side.

"Yeah?"

"Hazel's on top of the fortress, and... yeah. The rest is self explanatory."

"Too easy," muttered Percy, making something inside of the fortress explode, gushing out water, which lifted Hazel in the air and set her lightly on the ground.

"Thanks," she murmured, blushing noticeably. She must have realized her slip-of-the-tongue earlier.

Then, Octavian ran out of the fortress, carrying the third cohort's flag. Although it was charred and bloody where Octavian held it, Leo was angry. He wanted that flag-to show the Romans they weren't all that.

Wait, Leo thought to himself. This isn't me. QUIT HATING THE ROMANS, LEO! YOU'RE HERE TO MAKE PEACE!

Leo wondered why he had suddenly believed that the Romans were horrible people. It must have been hardwired into his brain, like Ancient Greek or ADHD.

Percy threw his head back and groaned, then walked towards the sidelines. Frank, Piper, Leo, and Hazel followed.

Leo caught a glimpse of blonde, curly hair. The girl sitting on the sidelines had a bandage around her ankle.

Annabeth. Wounded. This is the funniest joke I've ever seen. Ha, Leo thought.

"What happened to you?" asked Leo when he reached Annabeth.

Annabeth didn't even attempt to glare at Leo.

"Octavian almost cut off my freaking foot. I put a knife through his hand, though."

"Oh, that's why the flag was bloody!" exclaimed Hazel.

"Stupid Octavian," muttered Frank.

"He won, didn't he?" sighed Annabeth. It didn't even sound like a question. "He's dying tomorrow. I'm too tired to kill him tonight."

Frank smirked and notched an arrow in his bow. He let the arrow fly, and it tore straight through the fabric.

Octavian yelled in frustration and the whole group laughed.

"Let's go back to the boat. No sense waiting around."

"I can't believe we lost!" growled Clarisse once all the Greeks had been accounted for.

"In our defense-" Leo began. Clarisse cut him off.

"We just lost to the Romaios. They think we're weaker than ever!" she shouted.

"Why are we suddenly using the Romans as an insult-which is what they do?" asked Miranda Gardiner.

"I have a right to-one almost killed me!" Annabeth yelled.

"Not just any Roman, a power-hungry almost-praetorian Roman." Percy seemed angry, and the random part of Leo's brain noticed that Percy only got angry when something happened to Annabeth.

"Who, Jason?" asked Travis.

"No, Octavian!" moaned the rest of the room.

"We need to leave for Rome tomorrow."

"Agreed," muttered Percy.

He's scary when he's angry, noticed Random-Leo.

Leo sighed and went to bed. He fell asleep thinking about Hazel...