orenda [leo valdez]

xi. Shark Boy and Lava Girl

Jason, Kira, and Coach Hedge found a small cave. 

Quickly, they had dumped all their stuff and started a fire to warm Piper and Leo when they woke up. 

Jason tended Piper, and Kira stayed with Leo, despite the constant nagging from Jason about how she liked him. 

Leo woke up first. 

His teeth chattered, but Kira helped him get closer to the fire and wrapped him in blankets. 

She offered him a small smile, but she felt horrible that she couldn't protect him. 

He wrapped himself around her, maybe to get warmer, or maybe for emotional support. 

Piper woke up next to them, but Kira continued to rub his back, trying to warm up Fire Boy. 

"Oh, god." Her teeth chattered. "He turned me to gold!"

"You're okay now." Jason said.

"L-L-Leo?" Piper managed.

"Present and un-gold-ified." He said from beside Kira. Kira gave a thumbs up to Piper. She was unharmed except for a single sword cut on her arm from Lit that was covered and healed. 

"I got the precious metal treatment too," he said. "But I 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."

"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 Piper. "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," Piper said weakly. "How did you beat Midas?"

Jason told the story, praising Kira probably more then he needed to. 

The coach snorted. "Kid's being modest. You should've seen him. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning! So was Willows! She just sliced that dude like he was paper!"

"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 Piper'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.

"Do I look that bad?" Piper shivered.

"Nah," Jason said.

"You're a terrible liar," she said. "Where are we?"

"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."