LOST AT SEA | jason grace

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧.

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧. ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐴𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠

𝙻𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙰 𝚆𝙾𝙺𝙴 up cold and shivering.

She'd had the worst dream about an old guy with donkey ears chasing her around and shouting, You're it!

"Oh, god." Her teeth chattered. "That old bastard turned me to gold!"

"You're okay now." Jason leaned over and tucked a warm blanket around her, but she still felt as cold as a Boread.

She blinked, trying to figure out where they were. Next to her, a campfire blazed, turning the air sharp with smoke. Firelight flickered against rock walls. They were in a shallow cave, but it didn't offer much protection. Outside, the wind howled. Snow blew sideways. It might've been day or night. The storm made it too dark to tell.

"L-L-Leo? P-Pi-" Lorna managed.

"Present and un-gold-ified." Leo and Piper were also wrapped in blankets. He didn't look great, but better than Lorna felt. "We got the precious metal treatment too," he said. "But we came out of it faster. Dunno why. We had to dunk you in the river to get you back completely. Tried to dry you off, but ... it's really, really cold."

Lorna shivered. "I don't usually get wet."

"You've got hypothermia," Jason said. "We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic- "

"Sports medicine." The coach's ugly face loomed over her. "Kind of a hobby of mine. Your breath might smell like wild mushrooms and Gatorade for a few days, but it'll pass. You probably won't die. Probably."

"Thanks," Lorna said weakly. "How did you beat Midas?"

Jason told her the story, putting most of it down to luck.

The coach snorted. "Kid's being modest. You should've seen him. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning!"

"Coach, you didn't even see it," Jason said. "You were outside eating the lawn."

But the satyr was just warming up. "Then I came in with my club, and we dominated that room. Afterward, I told him, 'Kid, I'm proud of you! If you could just work on your upper body strength- '"

"Coach," said Jason.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up, please."

"Sure." The coach sat down at the fire and started chewing his cudgel.

Jason put his hand on Lorna's forehead and checked her temperature. "Leo, can you stoke the fire?"

"On it." Leo summoned a baseball-sized clump of flames and lobbed it into the campfire.

"I still can't believe you have fire magic," Piper said.

"Oh," Jason added. "Leo is a fire user. He warmed up really quickly and set himself on fire when he woke up."

"I know," Lorna said. "Where are we?" She picked up a stone from the floor and placed it in her bag.

"Pikes Peak," Jason said. "Colorado."

"But that's, what- five hundred miles from Omaha?"

"Something like that," Jason agreed. "I harnessed the storm spirits to bring us this far. They didn't like it- went a little faster than I wanted, almost crashed us into the mountainside before I could get them back in the bag. I'm not going to be trying that again."

"Why are we here?"

Piper sniffed. "That's what I asked him."

Jason gazed into the storm as if watching for something. "That glittery wind trail we saw yesterday? It was still in the sky, though it had faded a lot. I followed it until I couldn't see it anymore. Then- honestly I'm not sure. I just felt like this was the right place to stop."