Daughter of Mother Earth

Chapter Twenty-five

Finally, she slumped against Leo, and fell asleep.
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Falling to your death isn't the way Crystal would prefer to be woken from her sleep.

She was spiraling through the air, getting closer to the ground. The cold wind whipped around her, stinging her skin. Festus was to her left, wings limp and tumbling out of control. The others were to her left. Jason was struggling to hold him, Piper, and Leo up. They were screaming her name.

She tried to get closer to them, but ended up tumbling upside down. She started panicking when the ground got closer. Crystal knew she could use her powers to control the air, but it drained a lot of her energy, quickly.

Just as she made up her mind, it was too late. She slammed into the roof of a warehouse and crashed through it. Before she could even get close to the ground, her foot caught onto a rope hanging from the ceiling and suddenly she was swinging into a wall. She tried shielding her face, but pain shot up her nose. Although she was upside down, blood dripped around her nose and onto the floor below her. She looked down to see Piper on a catwalk. Her foot was twisted the wrong way and Crystal tried not to gag.

"Piper!" She heard Jason call out.

"Ow, bro!" Crystal heard Leo groan. "My back! Get off me! Crystal, where'd you go?"

Piper replied, then whimpered in pain. A few minutes later, Leo and Jason appeared next to her.

"Where's Crystal?" Leo looked around worriedly.

"Here," she groaned.

They all looked up to see their friend hanging upside down.

"How'd you get up there?" Piper asked.

"I don't know!" Crystal flailed her arms.

"Can you get down?" Leo asked.

"Well, if I could, I wouldn't be up here!" She retorted.

Jason flew up to the rope. "Hand me you dagger."

Crystal reached for her dagger, which was miraculously still on her thigh. She handed it to Jason, who then used it to cut the rope. She fell towards the ground and braced herself for pain. She felt warm arms wrap around her. Crystal realized with a start that it was Leo. She pushed herself off and landed on her feet on the catwalk. The world spun a bit, due to the blood rushing from her head.

"You're welcome," Leo muttered.

He suddenly grabbed Crystal's face. He frowned when he saw her nose.

"You're bleeding."

Crystal shook her head. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not. It's broken." Jason spoke up.

Crystal groaned. She gently touched her nose and flinched when pain pulsed through it. She's dealt with broken noses before, so she knew how to fix it. She gripped her nose and a sickening crack sounded through the room as she snapped her nose back into place. She wiped the blood from her hand on her jeans.

"Whoa! That was awesome! Gross, but wickedly awesome!" Leo said with wide eyes.

Crystal knelt down to Piper. "Oh, that's bad. Leo, get me some first aid supplies."

Leo nodded and dug around in his belt. A few seconds later, he produced a roll of duct tape and gauze. Piper looked confused and tried to sit up, but Crystal gently pushed her back down.

"How'd you do that Leo?" She asked.

"Magic," He simply said. "I haven't figured it all out, but I can pull out any tool and other stuff."

Jason grabbed Piper's backpack and pulled out squished ambrosia squares. He broke off a piece and gave it to Piper.

Her eyes widened at the taste and said, "More."

Crystal shook her head. "No. Only the gods can eat this as much as they want. Too much could burn demigods from the inside out. I'm going to set your ankle, though."

She found a piece of wood and broke it in half over her knee.

Crystal gave her an apologetic look. "This will hurt."