~•♡•~

lightning crackled overhead not even five minutes after jason left to talk to coach hedge. worksheets flew into the grand canyon, and everyone started screaming.

i gripped the rails with leo beside me

"everyone inside!" hedge bellowed inti his megaphone. "the cow says moo! off the skywalk!"

"i thought this thing was stable!" i grunted as the glass under me began to crack.

the storm turned into a miniature tornado. clouds funneled onto the skywalk as kids made a go for the door.

"WOAH!"

i yanked leo back by his shirt before he toppled over the railing. he crashed into me, knocking both of us onto the cracking glass.

"thanks, babe!"

"don't call me that."

we tried to run for the glass doors. piper and dylan were holding them open, ushering kids inside. piper's snowboarding jacket and hair were flapping wildly, but she confidently told everyone it was okay and to keep moving.

we struggled. the very wind itself seemed to be pushing us back. my feet felt like led as i tried to step forward, my eyes watering fr9m the harsh wind.

dylan and piper ushered one more kid inside before they lost control. the doors slammed shut.

kids inside pounded on the glass and piper tried to open the door again.

"dylan, help!" she yelled.

but dylan only offered an idiotic smile. his cowboys jersey rippled in the wind, like he was living vicariously through the storm.

"sorry, piper. i'm done helping."

he flicked his hand, and piper flew backwards.

"piper!" i wailed. jason and i surged forward, but coach hedge pushed us back.

"coach, let me go!" jason pleaded.

"oi, ya cock! piper needs help!"

"jason, leo, aruna, stay behind me." hedge ordered. "this is my fight. i should've known that was our monster."

"what?!" leo demanded. a rogue worksheet smacked his face, but he slapped it away. "what monster?"

"we have monsters?!" i shrieked.

coach's cap blew off, and i wanted to puke.

why did he have horns?

his bat changed too. somehow, in the blink of an eye, it was now a treebranch in the shape of a club. leaves and twigs were still attached to it, flapping wildly in the wind.

dylan gave a psycho smile. "oh, come on, coach. let these two attack me! after all, you're getting too old for this. isn't that why they retired you to this stupid school? i've been on your team the entire season, and you didn't even know. you're losing your nose, grandpa."

i definitely did not puke and nearly splatter jason's shoes when the coach bleated. that did not happen.

"that's it, cupcake. you're going down."

"you think you can protect four half-bloods at once?" dylan laughed. "goodluck."

i definitely did not slip in the puddle of my not-puke, and roll to the edge of the terrace.

i watched in horror as dylan flicked a hand, and a funnel cloud materialized around leo. he flew off the skywalk like he'd been tossed, flipping in midair. he slammed into the face of the grand canyon, and skidded. he clawed furiously and finally grabbed a ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk, and hung by his fingertips.

"help!" he yelled, his voice barely carrying over the wind and thunder. "rope, please?! bungee cord?! something?!"

i forgot to pay attention. with a yelp, a funnel cloud lifted me, and threw my down.

i caught a ledge adjacent to leo's, maybe eighty feet away. however, i was about seventy feet below the skywalk, and my rocky ledge was starting to crack.

a few seconds later, i saw hedge bouncing down the cliffs and rocks with impossible agility. i nearly didn't puke again as i noticed hooves instead of feet on footholds no bigger than postage stamps.

a satyr, if i was correct. i had studied greek mythology a bit, but only cause i was bored.

oh, simpler times.

hedge dodged whirlwinds and attacks from mini tornadoes as he made his way to leo. i felt my hand slipping, and beats of sweat pooling on my forehead despite the icy wind.

i couldn't hear anything anyone was saying. my ears were pounding. the wind was whipping so hard, i could barely hear my own thoughts.

i heard fighting sounds and seriously felt like not puking again. i looked over, and saw hedge lifting leo up with one hand. leo clung to hedge's back, looking a little embarrassed, but when he met my eyes, he only looked scared.

i was too. i was so close to dying.

i hope hell isn't terrible.

hedge made it to the top in no time and dumped leo like a sack of flour. rather than complain, i saw the curly-headed boy yell wildly and start pointing at me, and the coach stomped his hoof angrily before making his way towards me.

my hands were bleeding. i was loosing my grip. the fighting continued, but i focused on moving to a different hand hold before mine cracked.

i heard leo screaming. hedge suddenly jumped back up, probably to join the fight. i looked directly overhead, watching as leo crashed onto the glass.

i screamed again as another funnel cloud suddenly picked me up. i was dangling right over the grand canyon now, my eyes settling on the blue river five hundred feet below.

"OH, NO YOU DON'T!"

i looked over. hedge was being carried too, hitting his own funnel cloud wildly. we were rising to the sky, but before anything more could happen, a large rock passed through my cloud.

piper, i thought, thanks for saving me.

then, my next thought was spoken out loud.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

i free-fell through the grand canyon upside down, my black hair whipped around me. my heart was beating so fast, i suddenly went numb. is this shock? it doesn't feel good. my red nike's fell off, leaving me in mismatched green and pink socks. i stopped screaming at some point.

i couldn't feel anything. not even my own fear. no embarassment. i didn't embrace death. it was just...

empty.

and then it wasn't.

someone grabbed my ankle so harshly, i felt it crack. i didn't scream, and my eyes couldn't even move. i wasn't moving anymore- just dangling midair a hundred feet above the river.

"it's okay! i got you!"

"jason?" i croaked as i looked up. jason was simply suspended mid-air, one of his hands around my newly broken ankle.

i groaned and went slack again. "i'm gonna puke again. why are you flying? can you get us up?"

"let's see."

we floated. jason eventually got my wrist, and held me a little better without breaking any more of my bones.

as soon as we landed on the skywalk, i didn't puke again, and jason ran to leo.

leo groaned as i didn't wipe my mouth. i looked over, very confused from whatever happened. golden dust was everywhere, even in leo's hair. his army jacket was soaked from rain (it had rained? i dunno. i barely remembered what happened because I ALMOST DIED).

"stupid... ugly... goat." he muttered as i sat on my butt.

"where did he go?" piper asked. then, she ran to me.

"runa! are you okay?"

"do i look okay?"

"not really."

"BECAUSE I'M NOT OKAY, PIPER!"

she offered me a small smile. despite her hair sticking out randomly from the wind and golden dust all over her, she was still really pretty.

"well, you're already yelling and being sarcastic, so i guess you're doing alright." she chuckled.

i offered a small huff of amusement, about average after finding out my coach is actually have donkey- or goat, or whatever- falling down the grand canyon, then having my ankle cracked because blondie can somehow fly.

i looked around and my hair fell in front of my face. at the edges of my vision, i could see my thick, straight hair splaying out unevenly, as falling at 100mph upside down and then being dragged back up is no bueno for your hair.

but, i didn't care about that.

i cared about the little tuft that fell between my silver eyes, and touched the tip of my eyes. now, instead of being raven, it had turned pure white.

i tried to ignore that as piper ran back over to leo. i continued looking around, my eyebrows knit together.

"where'd hedge go?" i asked, repeating piper's unanswered question.

leo pointed straight up. his cheeks were red- probably from the fact that he had clawed at rocks so as he didn't plummet to his death.

"never came down." he answered. "please tell me he didn't actually save my life."

"twice." jason replied.

leo groaned even louder, like when a father finds out his taxes are a lot higher than they were the last year. i almost expected him to start rambling about 'damn commies' or something along those lines.

"what happened? the tornado guy, the gold sword... i hit my head. that's it, right? i'm hallucinating?" leo almost begged.

"gold sword?" i tilted my head.

jason's eyes lit up. he looked over, and i followed his gaze. sure enough, a golden sword was laying on the ground. jason picked it up, and flipped it. midspin, it magically shrank into the golden coin leo and i had seen, and it landed in jason's palm.

"yep." leo trembled. "definitely hallucinating."

piper shivered. "jason, those things-"

"venti. storm spirits?"

"ain't a venti a starbucks thing?" i asked. my question, as serious as i was, went unanswered.

"okay." piper nodded. "you acted like... like you'd seen them before. who are you?"

he shook his head, his face contorted in a benign way. "that's what i've been trying to tell you. i don't know."

i felt eyes on us through the glass doors. horror seemed to pass through the clear barrier, though i didn't look at anyone. it was a thick aura around us, enveloping me. my heart began to race in a panicky way, like the events of today had finally caught up with me.

my ankle began to throb. i looked down at the lumpy, swollen mess. jason caught me and grimaced before quickly turning away.

"sorry... about that."

"well, it was either a broken ankle, or every other bone in my body breaking." i replied. jason shrugged and cleared his throat.

"coach hedge said he had to protect four people." jason said. "i think he meant us."

"and dylan turned into..." piper shuddered. "god, i can't believe it was hitting on me."

"i guess your hot enough for anyone." i shrugged.

again, i was ignored, but piper's cheeks turned a bit red.

"he called us..." she hesitated. "what, demigods?"

i shot up while leo lay on his back, staring at the sky. i suppose he wanted to study the rich blue now that the storm had dissipated.

"wait, demigod?"

jason and piper looked at me.

"do you... know what that means?" piper asked.

"little bit." i admitted. "but, the prefix demi means half, like a demigram or something. and everyone knows what god means. but, i've also heard the word in some poetry i read... can't remember which one-"

there was a crackling noise. the cracks in the skywalk began to widen, stretching across the entire thing.

"we need to get off." i moaned, suddenly feeling nauseous again, though i doubted i had much left to give. "a little help?"

"ohhh-kay." leo interrupted. "look up there and tell me if those are flying horses."

i looked up. a dark shape was descending from the east, and from hundreds of feet away, i could make out wings and the heads of to steeds. they pulled a box with two wheels, and two teenagers- at least, i think the dude was a teenager. he looked like he could be in a biker gang.

"reinforcement." jason said.

"reinforcements? dude, i think the skywalk is pretty fucked-"

"not that." jason groaned. "hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us."

"an extraction?" leo struggled to his feet, which i found funny considering i was the one with a broken ankle. i also found it funny how the skywalk was maybe five minutes from collapsing entirely, and they just kind of left me on the floor next to the puke.

"that sounds painful." leo finished.

"and where are they extracting us to?" piper asked.

"hopefully a grave. or a pizzeria." i hummed.

jason raised an eyebrow. "that... those are vastly different."

"well i kinda wanna die, and i kinda want some pizza, so i mean-"

the funny box landed on the far end of the skywalk, cutting me off. the flying horses tucked in their wings and cantered nervously across the glass. i was probably about as nervous as them.

the two teenagers in the chariot were both wearing jeans, and obnoxiously orange shirts. the girl had stoic grey eyes, and gorgeous, curly blonde hair pulled into a ponytail. she was maybe a little older than me, lesser than a year for sure. the boy was bulky, with a shaved head and tattoo of a rainbow. his face was like a pile of bricks.

i could tell he was probably the nicer one, and the girl was very much not someone i wanted as an enemy. she probably judo flipped people as a greeting.

evidently, i wasn't far off. piper hauled me up and held me as the girl pulled a knife, and ran towards us while the bulky dude handled the horses.

"where is he?" she demanded.

"where's who?" jason asked.

"where's waldo?" i said to him.

the girl frowned like this was unnacceptable and jason glared at me. the girl then turned to leo and piper. "what about gleeson? where is your protector, gleeson hedge?"

i had to work overtime to not snort, lest i be stabbed.

leo cleared his throat. in front of the girl, he looked kind of like a pitiful middle schooler. he was short, scrawny, and messy as hell, while the girl was tall, clearly worked out, and looked extremely well groomed. i almost felt bad, because if she stabbed me, blood would get all over her pretty hair.

"he got taken by some... tornado things."

"venti." jason said. "storm spirits."

the girl raised an eyebrow. "you mean anemoi thuellai? that's the greek term. who are you, and what happened?"

jason explained, but he seemed a little nervous in front of the girl. about halfway through the story- he was going on about duking it out with dylan the wind man- the other boy from the chariot came over. he glared, his arms crossed over his chest.

when jason finished his story, the blonde girl looked displeased. "no, no, no! she told me he would be here. she told me if i came here, i'd find the answer."

"annabeth." the male grunted. "check it out."

he pointed his pinky at me, and his index finger at jason. jason looked down, and seemed to realize he was missing a shoe. now, i was able to grieve over the two i had lost.

that's a shame. i tried really hard to steal them.

"three missings shoes, and a cracked ankle." he said. "there's your answer."

"no, butch." the girl insisted. "he can't be. i was tricked."

annabeth glared at the sky, which i fully supported as it had basically caused all of my problems today- well, not the roach-egg-sac incident. i had piper to blame for that.

"what do you want from me?!" annabeth howled. "what have you done with him?"

the skywalk shuddered, and the winged steeds whinnied furiously.

"annabeth," butch said. "we gotta leave. let's get these four to camp and figure it out from there. those storm spirits might come back."

annabeth looked like she might stab butch, but she seemed to realize he was right and she loosened a bit before turning to me.

"fine. we'll settle this later."

she turned on her heel, and marched to the funny horse-box.

piper shook her head. "what's her problem? what's going on?"

"seriously." leo agreed as he walked over to me. he extended a hand, silently asking if he was allowed to assist me. reluctantly, i took it.

"we have to get you out of here." butch said. "i'll explain on the way."

"i'm not going anywhere with her." jason gestured toward annabeth. "she looks like she wants to kill me."

"i think... i think she's looking for someone."

everyone looked at me.

"her anger... it wasn't to you." i explained. "i mean, it was, but not really. it was to someone else, and she also seemed... sad."

butch stared at me. "how do you know that?"

"some call me an empath, others call me a stalker. take your pick."

butch sighed. "well, you're right about the sad part. annabeth's okay. you gotta cut her some slack. she had a vision telling her to come here, to find the pair with three missing shoes and a broken ankle. that was supposed to be the answer to her problem."

"what problem?" piper asked.

"she's been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing for three days." butch said. "she's going out of her mind with worry. she hoped he'd be here."

"who?" jason inquired.

"her boyfriend. a guy named percy jackson."

~•♡•~