Silver Tears - Ethan Nakamura

Fifty: We take a nice little dive and a nice little joy ride

BAD BAD BAD. OH MY MOTHER FUCKING GODS THIS IS BAD.

Jumping out a window five hundred feet aboveground is not usually my idea of fun. Especially when I'm the only one without wings, and I wasn't so sure that I could fly.

I plummeted toward the valley and the red rocks below. I was pretty sure I was going to become a grease spot in the Garden of the Gods, but the wind picked up and I was wrapped in a warm breeze. I smiled, "hi Mellie."

Hi! Mellie said excited, in my head. I started going upwards now rather than downwards.

I looked down and I saw Percy, Rachel, Annabeth and Nico flapping their arms like crazy. If it hadn't been for the position they were in I would've started laughing.

"Spread your arms! Keep them extended." I yelled, down at them.

As soon as they spread their arms out, the wings stiffened, caught the wind, and their descent slowed.

I smiled as I saw Percy soared downward, but at a controlled angle, like a kite in a dive. He flapped my arms once and he arced into the sky. I soared down to meet him and I grabbed his hands. I spun us around and he laughed, the wind whistling in my ears. "Yeah!" Percy yelled.

I knew exactly how he felt, when I first learned how to fly the feeling was unbelievable. I let go of his hands, gave him a salute and dropped down and spun on my own. I flew up to meet Nico, he looked absolutely terrified. "Calm down, he won't strike you down."

Nico's face relaxed and he nodded his head.

I looked down and I saw Percy was having fun, if I hadn't known he was a son of Poseidon. I would've thought he was a son of Zeus or a wind god seeing how much he loves flying. He turned and looked at us, Annabeth was to my left and Rachel was next to her.

"Land!" Annabeth yelled. "These wings won't last forever."

"How long?" Rachel asked.

"I don't want to find out!" Annabeth said. We swooped down toward the Garden of the Gods. Percy did a complete circle around one of the rock spires and freaked out a couple of climbers. Then the five of us soared across the valley, over a road, and landed on the terrace of the visitor center.

It was late afternoon and the place looked pretty empty, but they ripped off their wings as quickly as they could. Looking at them, I could see Annabeth was right. The self-adhesive seals that bound the wings to our backs were already melting, and we were shedding bronze feathers. It seemed a shame, but we couldn't fix them, and couldn't leave them around for the mortals, so we stuffed the wings in trash bins outside the cafeteria.

I made note of how happy Percy seemed in them. Maybe, I could pull a few strings.

"Thank's Mellie." I told the aurae. She smiled, "your welcome. If you need me again, you know just holler."