Jason never thought he’d know the feeling of falling, of gravity relentlessly pulling him down through the clouds, through the air, of the way his body is in constant motion but he can’t control this, he can’t stop it, he can only fall down, down, down…
“Are you okay?”
The first thing that Jason saw through his pain hazed eyes that struggled to make sense of the new world around him was a dark figure. Messy black hair obscured what Jason assumed to be concerned eyes, and cool fingers felt for his pulse.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen someone crash so hard and not have a single scratch on him,” Jason distantly heard the figure say. The mystery person sounded slightly impressed. “Are you one of the deities? There’s no way you’re mortal.”
He struggled to form words, but found that his body wouldn’t listen to him.
“Don’t speak, just close your eyes and rest,” a hand gently closed his eyes, and then Jason felt himself being lifted in a princess carry (he hadn’t been carried like this since he lost a bet with Percy 50 years ago) up from the hard ground and onto a softer surface.
“Sleep,” the voice commanded. Jason slept.
A few moments ago-
“Dakota, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Hazel said, for the fifth time.
“Dude, everyone steals an apple from the Garden of Hesperides at one point. It’s how you prove yourself a hero!” Dakota nudged Jason, eager for him to climb over the wall and into the forbidden garden.
“Exactly! We’re not heroes, we’re deities. Jason here’s the son of the Sky King. We don’t need to prove anything,” Hazel argued. “Why would Queen Juno give us this task instead of assigning it to some mortal?”
“And we’re not here to steal an apple,” admonished Jason. “We’re just here to see what’s wrong with the garden.”
He grabbed one of the overgrown vines that spilled over from from the wall- one of the problems of the garden- and climbed up until he could see into the other side.
“Guys, it’s gone.”
“What’s gone?” Hazel asked.
“The garden. Nothing’s here but empty sky. You two better prepare to fly over, don’t bother climbing.” He jumped down and willed the winds to support him, except.
Except.
He couldn’t. The winds weren’t listening to him. He willed himself to simply float, but his body wouldn’t listen to him either.
“DON’T COME OVER!” was the last thing Jason shouted before he found himself plunging down from the heavens and onto the earth. He could only hoped that he warned his friends on time to stop their fall, too.