8. eden is afraid of wolves

2.5K 128 206
                                    

 Despite being the last to turn, Eden was the first one to come out of the golden spa treatment

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

 Despite being the last to turn, Eden was the first one to come out of the golden spa treatment. She was shivering and her cut side hurt worse than ever, but she felt surprisingly okay. A little bit of nectar and she was good as new. 

Next was Leo, and with his help they dunked Piper in the river multiple times. They fed her nectar and even let Gleeson do some nature magic, but it was obvious that she had hypothermia. 

"Oh, god." Piper said when she finally woke up. "He turned me to gold!"

"You're okay now." Jason leaned over and tucked a warm blanket around her,

"L-L-Leo?" Piper managed.

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

"In case you were wondering, I'm here too." Eden said, slightly annoyed that Piper hadn't asked about her. "I came out the fastest."

"You've got hypothermia," Jason said, ignoring Eden's comments. "We risked as much nectar as we could. Coach Hedge did a little nature magic—" 

"Sports medicine. 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.

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

"Gleeson, none of us saw it. We were turned into gold and you were out eating the front lawn." Eden told the old goat. 

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."

"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," Eden said. "Colorado."

afraid ツ l. valdezWhere stories live. Discover now