~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

We're In A Cave

{Piper}

Piper woke up cold and shivering.

   She'd had the worst dream about an old guy with donkey ears chasing her around and shouting, You're it!

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

   "You're okay now." Jason leaned over and tucked a warm blanket around her, but she still felt as cold as a Boread.

   She blinked, trying to figure out where they were. Next to her, a campfire blazed, turning the air sharp with smoke. Firelight flickered against rock walls. They were in a shallow cave, but it didn't offer much protection. Outside, the wind howled. Snow blew sideways. It might've been day or night. The storm made it too dark to tell.

   "L-L-Leo?" Piper managed.

   "Present and un-gold-ified." Leo was also wrapped in blankets. Kiara was sitting next to him. He didn't look great, but better than Piper felt.

   "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," Kiara 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 her. "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 her the story, putting most of it down to luck and to Kiara, who half-hid her face behind a blanket from embarrassment from being the center of attention.

   The coach snorted. "Kid's being modest. You should've seen him. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning!"

   "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," Kiara finished.

   "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."

   "And I can avoid it," Kiara added, "I will not fly ever again."

   "Why are we here, though?"

   Leo sniffed. "That's what I asked him."