Daughter of the Sea || HoO

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

"Ahhhggggggh!" 

Tori would have fallen off the couch, if it wasn't a pair of arms were wrapped around her waist. The yell made Jason leaped to his feet, bring Tori up with him. She wasn't sure what was morejarring—the full sunlight that now bathed the room, or the screaming satyr.

"Coach is awake," Leo said, which was kind of unnecessary. Gleeson Hedge was capering around on his furry hindquarters, swinging his club and yelling, "Die!" as he smashed the tea set, whacked the sofas, and charged at the throne. 

"Coach!" Jason yelled.

Hedge turned, breathing hard. His eyes were so wild,Tori was afraid he might attack. The satyr was still wearing his orange polo shirt and his coach's whistle, but his horns were clearly visible above his curly hair, and his beefy hindquarters were definitely all goat. Could you call a goat beefy? Tori put the thought aside.

"You're the new kid," Hedge said, lowering his club. "Jason." He looked at Leo, then Tori, then Piper, who'd apparently also just woken up. Her hair looked like it had become a nest for a friendly hamster.

"SJ!" the coach said to Tori, using her nickname. 'SJ' standing for Sampson-Jackson. "Why are you here? What's going on?"

He didn't give her time to respond. He turned his attention back to Piper and Leo.

"Valdez, McLean," the coach said. "We were at the Grand Canyon. The anemoi thuellai were attacking and—" He zeroed in on the storm spirit cage, and his eyes went back to DEFCON 1. "Die!" 

"Whoa, Coach!" Leo stepped in his path, which was pretty brave, even though Hedge was six inches shorter. "It's okay.They're locked up. We just sprang you from the other cage." 

"Cage? Cage? What's going on? Just because I'm a satyr doesn't mean I can't have you doing plank push-ups, Valdez!" 

Leo gave the satyr a disbelieving look, but Tori widened her eyes. She knew from experience that Coach wasn't bluffing. One summer, when she was eight, she and the Stolls angried some nymphs. They ended up being left wrapped up in vines, and couldn't get out. Luckily someone came by to untie them, unfortunately that person was Gleeson himself. The satyr made the three of them do pushups for hours, yelling at them for offending the nymphs. Long story short she knew not to mess with Hedge.

Jason cleared his throat making Tori breakout of her thoughts. "Coach—Gleeson—um,whatever you want us to call you. You saved us at the Grand Canyon. You were totally brave." 

"Of course I was!" 

"Me, Annabeth, and Butch got them to Camp, Hedge." Tori told him, "So the extraction was somewhat successful."

"We thought we'd lost you. Then we got word the storm spirits had taken you back to their—um, operator, Medea." Jason added.

"That witch! Wait—that's impossible. She's mortal. She's dead." 

"Yeah, well," Leo said, "somehow she got not dead anymore."

"And, turns out she's a total bitch." Tori added.

Hedge nodded, his eyes narrowing. "So! You were sent on a dangerous quest to rescue me. Excellent!"

"Um." Piper got to her feet, holding out her hands so Coach Hedge wouldn't attack her. "Actually, Glee—can I still call you Coach Hedge? Gleeson seems wrong. We're on a quest for something else. We kind of found you by accident."

"Oh." The coach's spirits seemed to deflate, but only for a second. Then his eyes lit up again. "But there are no accidents! Not on quests. This was meant to happen! So, this is the witch's lair, eh? Why is everything gold?"