Percy Jackson-Leo's Return.

Team Leo

Breakfast went by too fast, and soon it was time to use the pearls.  I brought us to a space behind Zeus's Fist where we could use the pearls without distractions.  I had to drill it into Annabeth's thick skull to focus on only The Great Salt Lake, NOWHERE ELSE.
   It must've worked, because we were all easily transported to the bottom of the lake.  I swan up with no problem, and Leo and Annabeth had air bubbles around them.  Annabeth was loving it, but Leo didn't look too happy about it.  I broke the surface first and tread water waiting for the others to appear.  As soon as their bubbles touched the surface, they popped, so we all swam to shore.
   "So."  I started, "Anyone have any idea what we're looking for?"  No one moved.
   "Nope!"  Annabeth clarified, then started walking over to a hillside like she knew exactly where she was going.
   "Where are you going?"  I asked, chuckling at her confidence.
   "I have absolutely no idea whatsoever."  She called back, still walking.  I shrugged and Leo and I followed her for a little while.  After maybe half an hour of us telling Annabeth to slow down and shut up, Leo stopped abruptly and shook his head.
   "Not here.  Anywhere but here."  He groaned into his hood, but followed us anyway.  As soon as we came down the hill, I saw what he was worried about.  There was a swarm of nymphs screeching and squealing around a lake.  We had to push through the crowd to see what they were all looking at; a man looking at himself in a pool of water, who I immediately recognized at Narcissus, with a nymph (Echo, I assumed) leaning over him and feeding him.  She had been keeping him alive since he was brought back during that whole 'Opened Doors of Death' incident.  Why he hadn't been brought back to the dead, I didn't know.
   Leo was trying to hide his face even more than usual, and I remembered that he had been here before with Hazel.  He had apparently caused quite a scene, so he would probably be remembered.  That is, if anyone here could recognize him.
   Echo looked up and stood to get a better look at us.  I couldn't describe her of I tried; she seemed to fade in and out of the landscape, and I couldn't really make out any features.  She cocked her head at us like she was trying to ask who we were.
   "I'm Percy."  I explained, pointing at us in turn, "This is Annabeth, and that's Leo."
   "Leo?"  She echoed in question.
   "No."  Leo said.
   "No?"  Echo was confused now.
   "Yes."  I tried to un-confuse her, "He's been here before."
   "Been here before."  She echoed.
   "Yes.  Leo."  Leo said glumly.  Echo smiled (I think)
   "Leo!"  She said happily and flung his hood off.  He tried to back away before she did, but she was too fast.  It flew off and left his face uncovered.  A nymph from the crowd yelled, "Team Leo!"  And a dozen other nymphs came racing over to see him.  I was pushed out of the way where I stood on the sidelines for a few minutes while the nymphs (and hopefully not Annabeth) did Aphrodite knows what to Leo.  He managed to break through the mob and came out looking like he had been on Circe's island (And not the guinea pig part).  Forget about the jacket, his shirt had been ripped off him, and so had his shoes.  Luckily, he had somehow managed to keep his pants.  I would have laughed, but I was terrified of these nymphs.
   "Run?"  I suggested.  He nodded and made a break for it farther over the hill, running faster than I could even keep up with.  Even Narcissus looked up for a minute to study him.  Most of his crowd gave him up and went after Leo.  Narcissus looked really, really mad.  There were only two people still here looking at him, and that was me and Annabeth.  Awkward...
   "Hello, Mr. Narcissus!"  Annabeth said in a mock-news reporter voice, "We are here to investigate the disappearance of a special item.  We were wondering if you would care to give us any running information on that topic?"  She held her fist up to his mouth like a microphone while he sat on the river bank, completely baffled at what had just happened.  He made some sort of gurgling sound, and Annabeth nodded and brought her fist back to her own mouth, "Mhmm.  So, this sound you have introduced us to, where can we find it exactly?"  I facepalmed as she held her fist back to Narcissus's mouth.  He looked at her blankly, then said something that sounded like it was in another language.  Annabeth nodded again, "Thank you, kind sir.  We will be on our way now."  She linked her arm in mine and started walking me towards where Leo had run.
   "What was that?"  I asked her and she turned to me like I had missed something obvious.
   "Didn't you understand what he said?"  She teased me.  I shook my head.
   "And you did?"  I asked in disbelief.  She crossed her arms and looked up at me with totally fake puppy dog eyes.
   "I'm not completely stupid, you know."  Then she looked away towards the hill and raised an arm, pointing to our destination, "Onward, to the nymph magnet!"  Then she hopped on my back, for the second time, so I could give her a ride.
   "Not this again."  I groaned, but she hit me on the rear end, "Why-"  She interrupted me.
   "Come on.  Your dad made horses, and he also made you, so its basically the same thing.  Giddy up!"  She had a point.
I ran until we found Leo in the middle of a circle of burned grass with nymphs looking at him in horror.  The good news (For Leo, not the fangirls watching him) he had his shirt and jacket back, and they weren't too badly ripped up.  He looked at us in confusion, so I just whinnied and galloped towards him, Annabeth giggling atop my back.