Wildfire (Leo Valdez x OC) (1)

Someone is taking snowball fights way too seriously

At first, I thought the windscreen was being pelted by rocks. Then I realised it was sleet. Frost was creeping up the windows and the front of the helicopter's view was being blocked by slushy waves of ice.

"An ice storm?" Piper yelled over the engine and the wind. "Is it supposed to be this cold in Sonoma?"

"How the hell should I know?" I yelled back. The helicopter jerked to the side and I slid out of my seat, hitting the floor. I winced as my ribs ached and stars flashed before my eyes once again.

The storm seemed conscious, malevolent – like it was intentionally slamming into them.

Jason woke up quickly. He crawled forward and gripped onto the back of Leo's seat for balance. "We've got to be getting close."

Leo was too busy wrestling with the controls to reply. The whole machine was shuddering in the icy wind, its movements were sluggish and jerky. We started to lose altitude.

Below us, the ground was a dark quilt of trees and fog. The ridge of a hill loomed in front of them and Leo yanked at the controls, just clearing the treetops.

"There!" Jason shouted.

I staggered forwards, grabbing hold of Piper's seat to get a good look through the windscreen.

A small valley opened up before us, with the murky shape of a building in the centre. Leo aimed the helicopter straight for it. All around us was flashes of light. Trees cracked and exploded at the edges of the clearing. Shapes moved through the mist.

Leo set down the helicopter in an icy field slightly further away from the house and turned off the engine. I was about to relax when I heard a whistling sound and saw a dark shape hurtling towards them through the mist.

"Out!" Leo yelled.

We leaped from the helicopter and barely cleared the rotors before a massive BOOM shook the ground, knocking us off our feet and splattering ice all over us.

I lay on the ground as pain shot through my ribs. My head was swimming and there was a dull ache all over my body. I rolled onto my stomach and groaned as I pushed myself to my feet.

I felt a wave of dizziness roll over me and nearly fell back to the ground when someone grabbed my arm.

"We really have to stop putting you in dangerous situations when you're injured." Leo grinned but he looked worried.

I cracked a smile and steadied myself, holding onto his shoulder.

I looked over to the helicopter to see it completely crushed by a chunk of ice and dirt the size of a garage. I squinted at it. "Someone's clearly a little too enthusiastic about snowball fights." I muttered. Leo snorted.

Piper and Jason ran up to us. "You guys alright?" Jason asked hurriedly.

I gave him a thumbs up. "I am feeling amazing. Now where's the fighting?"

"You're picking up some bad habits from Coach." Leo muttered.

"Fighting's over there." Piper pointed towards the house. Then she frowned. "No... it's everywhere."

She was right. The sounds of combat rang across the valley. The snow and mist made it hard to tell for sure but there seemed to be a circle of fighting around the large building.

Behind them loomed the Wolf House – a massive ruin of red and grey stones and rough-hewn timber beams. I could imagine how it looked before its destruction – a combination of log cabin and castle, like a billionaire lumberjack might build. But, in the mist and sleet, the place had a lonely, haunted feel.