Umbra

Chapter 5

They were all exhausted.

Emilia had heard of how terrible road trips were. She couldn't really remember the one she and her aunt took to get from San Diego to San Francisco. Her most recent memories involved school field trips. In a way that was still less enjoyable than being on a flying dragon with people she barely knew, on her way to attempt a quest she might not survive.

They'd been flying for a while when, out of nowhere, Leo muttered, "Shut up, me."

Emilia made a face, snapped out of her own thoughts about sitting in the back of a school bus wanting everyone to be quiet. Now that it was quiet, it wasn't actually all that fun. "Huh?"

"Nothing," he said. "Long night. I think I'm hallucinating. It's cool." He took their silence as a bad sign. "Just joking. So, what's the plan, bro? You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something?"

As they began to fly over New England, Jason laid out the game plan. First up, they had to find Boreas, the North Wind.

"His name is Boreas?" Leo asked. "What is he, the God of Boring?"

Jason and Piper found this funny but Emilia struggled to muster up a genuine laugh. After they grilled Boreas for information, Jason thought it would be a good idea to find the specific 'venti' that attacked them at the Grand Canyon, right before they were brought to camp.

"Can we just call them storm spirits?" Leo had interjected. "Venti makes them sound like evil espresso drinks."

Emilia wasn't sure what he was talking about but once more, Piper and Jason were enjoying his comments. Third, Jason said they'd find who the storm spirits worked for, locate Hera, and free her. Maybe, they'd find a lead on their protector, Gleeson Hedge, too.

"So you want to look for Dylan," said Leo, "the nasty storm dude, on purpose. The guy who threw me off the skywalk and sucked Coach Hedge into the clouds."

"That's about it," said Jason. "Well... there may be a wolf involved, too. But I think she's friendly. She probably won't eat us, unless we show weakness." He told them about a strange dream he had, something about the Redlands in northern California, involving a big nasty mother wolf and a burned-out house with stone spires growing out of the swimming pool.

"Lupa," recalled Emilia. "The founding of Rome." When no one replied, she said awkwardly, "She kept Romulus and Remus alive, they quarreled, Romulus founded Rome... I learned about it in my Italian class. Anyway, it makes sense that that'd be in NorCal. There's Jack London Square in Oakland and his Wolf House in Glen Ellen. That's all I can think about involving wolves there. Must be one of those two, probably the second one."

(She felt she should know more about the Bay Area, given she grew up there, but her knowledge of it would be pretty useless unless they needed to drive around. Then, at least, she might recognize the freeway signs. But to know about more significant places they'd need a miracle, and miracles steered clear of Emilia.)

"There's also giants," added Piper. "The prophecy said the giants' revenge."

"Hold on," said Leo. "Giants– like more than one? Why can't it be just one giant who wants revenge?"

"I don't think so. I remember in some of the old Greek stories, there was something about an army of giants."

Emilia murmured under her breath, "Oh, there is."

Of course you remember that, my brilliant little lieutenant. I once told you that I wanted you to try and bring me a giant, a real giant, and you almost brought me Typhon all on your own... but thankfully, Percy Jackson helped us there, didn't he? Even you had your limits... but you'd stretch them thin if I willed you to.