Signs of a Storm

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter 18: Leo’s Driving Scares Pigeons Away

To tell the truth, I was scared out of my mind.

I had woken up early and tried to fix myself up as nicely as I could, but I almost gave up and called in Piper. Eventually, I got myself looking decent, so I walked down to the camp borders where I was supposed to meet Leo and Amicus.

I prayed to my dad, Poseidon, that I wouldn’t end up being Zeus’ moving target. I hoped he heard me, because I really needed him to be with me.

When I arrived, Leo had just finished fixing on last wire, and was ready for me to board Amicus. I freaked out big time and was about to yell, “Screw that! I’m out! Call the taxi driver!” But I didn’t. Instead, I hopped on, and Leo got on in front of me.

My calm looking face was hiding a giant wimp that was so scared to fly she may have well been child of the underworld. There was a pretty good chance I could’ve beaten the Stolls at poker, based off my face. It was like a mask. But when we began to fly, that mask would come flying off immediately. No doubt about it.

“Ready?” Leo turned and smiled at me. I shook my head wildly. My mind was screaming, “Nonononononono!”

 “Great!” He turned back to the dragon and said a command.

Piper, Jason, and Chiron were there to wave us off. They’d probably witness me getting scared out of my mind and toppling off Amicus.

But, thank the gods, I didn’t.

The dragon started walking forwards, I stared freaking out. Then the dragon began running. I began crying. Our speed picked up and I felt Amicus flap his wings upwards. Faster and faster, just like my heart at this moment. We lifted into the air with a swoosh! I looked ahead and saw Leo smiling and cheering madly like a wild man.

After a few minutes I became curious. I made the mistake of looking down and saw that Camp Half-Blood was farther down than I’d realized. It was just a bunch of trees and few tall structures like the rock wall. Panicked, I grabbed ahold of Leo’s waist so tightly; I was surprised he didn’t complain. We rose higher and higher; and I held onto Leo tighter and tighter.

“Nervous much?” He laughed and I tried loosening up my grip, but instead I just ended up scooting closer until I was right by him. I could smell the faint scent of charcoal on him. It was actually a pretty comforting scent. His curly dark hair was in my face, but I honestly didn’t care one bit as long I didn’t fall to my (almost) death for the second time.

“I’m fine.” I murmured. “Just a little worried that we’re so high up. Zeus probably isn’t the happiest god right now.” I made that up on the spot, but it actually seemed to make a lot of sense. No wonder I hated heights. It wasn’t my realm.

“Oh, you should’ve said something. We can go lower, that’s a pretty good idea, really.” He said something that I couldn’t hear over the wind ripping through my ears. But the next thing I knew, we swooped downwards.