~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

Taking A Chopper To Battle

***
{Leo}

Fly a helicopter? Sure, why not. Leo had done plenty of crazier things that week.

   The sun was going down as they flew north over the Richmond Bridge, and Leo couldn't believe the day had gone so quickly. Once again, nothing like ADHD and a good fight to the death to make time fly.

   Piloting the chopper, he went back and forth between confidence and panic. If he didn't think about it, he found himself automatically flipping the right switches, checking the altimeter, easing back on the stick, and flying straight. If he allowed himself to consider what he was doing, he started freaking out. He imagined his Aunt Rosa yelling at him in Spanish, telling him he was a delinquent lunatic who was going to crash and burn. Part of him suspected she was right.

   "Going okay?" Piper asked from the copilot's seat. She sounded more nervous than he was, so Leo put on a brave face.

   "Aces," he said. "So what's the Wolf House?"

   Jason knelt between their seats. "An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley. A demigod built it—Jack London."

   Leo couldn't place the name. "He an actor?"

   "Writer," Piper said. "Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?"

   "Yeah," Kiara replied from the back of the copter. "He was my favorite author when I was little..." She trailed off.

   "You good?" Piper asked, turning so she could see Kiara.

   Kiara took a deep breath. "Okay, guys, I'm gonna be honest with you, because this is driving me crazy. When we were back at Pikes Peak, a ghost appeared to me."

   "A ghost?" It was Jason's turn to look at Kiara.

   "That's not the weirdest thing," Kiara said. "She claimed that she was my sister. I'm not sure if I should trust her or not, but I think she was telling the truth. And, one more thing: back at Camp Half-Blood, I had a dream." She paused, taking a second deep breath. "And I think I'm from the 1930s."

   Leo lost his grip on the stick and the copter shuddered. He quickly pressed on some switches and eased the stick. "Sorry, but WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?"

   "That's not possible," Jason said. "How—"

   "But, you're 15," Piper said. "Right?"

   "Biologically," Kiara muttered, "chronologically, I'm around 70."

   There was an uncomfortable silence.

   "Is that some kind of joke?" Leo asked. "Because I seriously am not in the mood for jokes."

   "Why would I be joking? I'm too tired for that."

   "Yeah, about that," Piper chimed in. "Why did you pass out back on Mount Diablo? I mean, what happened?"

   "I'm not sure," Kiara replied. "It was like—like I teleported by using shadows or something."

   "This is too weird," Jason decided. "Can we talk about this later? Like, when we aren't flying into a battle?"

   "I'm down for that," Kiara said.

   "Same," Piper and Leo said in harmony.

   "Great, because my brain is about to explode," Jason said. "Now, about Jack London. He was a son of Mercury—I mean, Hermes. He was an adventurer, traveled the world. He was even a hobo for a while. Then he made a fortune writing. He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion—the Wolf House."