Daughter of Wine

Callida

A strong wind pushes my car, waking me up. I manage to look out the window just in time to see a gray shape zoom around the corner of a building. A storm spirit. 

Alright, Calli. Up and at 'em. 

I get out of the car and stretch the kinks out of my back. Sleeping in a car does not feel good on my spine. I walk in the direction that I saw the storm spirit go. It was so fast, but I have to see one again, right? 

Chicago is enormous. People rush around from one place to another. Eventually, I see the storm spirit again, blowing past mortals, who just take it as another gust of wind. Chicago is the windy city, afterall. 

The deeper I get into the city, the more storm spirits I see. I manage to snag a bagel from a vending cart when no one is looking, which settles my stomach a bit. They all seem to be heading in the same direction. I feel anxious. I feel like I'm not moving fast enough, despite nearly jogging to keep from causing a blockage on the sidewalk. Everyone here walks so fast, and I'm pretty short. 5'4, to be exact. My legs aren't as long as other people's here. 

Eventually, I watch a group of storm spirits spiral downwards into a fountain in the middle of a park. When I reach the edge, it looks strangely familiar. Two enormous pillars covered in screens like Times Square, with a reflecting pool in the middle. That's where the fountain is. As I examine the park, I suddenly see the image of a woman's face. A sleeping woman. The ground rumbles like she's laughing. 

Okay, that's creepy. I totally wanna head down into that fountain now. Thankfully, the fountain is empty for the winter, so I just jump down into the dry base. The crowds of people are thinning out quickly, and I soon find out why. There's a snowstorm coming. Snowflakes drop down around me, and in the distance, I see dark gray clouds. 

In the center of the fountain, I find a storm drain. That has to be where the storm spirits descended. I really don't want to go underground, but I also really don't want to chill up here in the incoming storm. Underground it is. I pry open the drain cover, and see a nice little ladder leading down. How nice of them to think of the demigods who will have to climb down into the muck after the storm spirits. 

I expect a disgusting sewer, but it's honestly not so bad. I hear whistling and wind to my right, so I start walking that way. It's incredibly dark. I summon a small fire in the palm of my hand to make sure I don't step in anything too gross. 

As far as sewers go, this one isn't bad at all. The tunnels wind and fork and twist and turn, but I keep following the sounds of the wind, until I get too hungry to move on. Instead, I sit down to rest. In the quiet, I get the sudden feeling that I'm not alone. I can't tell you why, it's just a feeling. It's not a scary feeling. I don't feel like worm-poop woman is watching me. But I definitely feel something. 

I decide I need to eat. What I'm really craving is the Taco Bell I smell from above me, but some fruits and veggies will have to do. Grapes come easiest to me, but I can grow a variety of plants. 

Without thinking about it, a strawberry bush comes popping up out of the cracks in the cement. My heart hurts for a moment, remembering camp. I'm in a sewer tunnel eating strawberries. How low can I go? 

As I settle in for bed, I start to think about what Hera said to me. How tomorrow, my fate arrives. And Gaea told me that the friends I am going to make will be ripped away. Wow, I can't wait for all of that. 

I didn't even notice I fell asleep until I wake up to voices coming down the sewer tunnel, right around the corner from me.