Soul of Olympus

Chapter Twenty-One

Becoming gold was odd. At first it was numbing, then it felt like rocks were pushing you down. Your bones turned stiff then your skin rough. Your mind is the last thing to turn solid. Your last thoughts are either this is the best way to die or how could i die because I couldn't move fast enough. Then everything becomes nothing.

...........

PIPER WOKE UP COLD AND SHIVERING. She'd had the worst dream about an old guy with donkey ears chasing her around and shouting, You're it!

"Oh, god." Her teeth chattered. "He turned me to gold!"

"You're okay now."

 Jason leaned over and tucked a warm blanket around her, but she still felt as cold as a Board. She blinked, trying to figure out where they were. Next to her, a campfire blazed, turning the air sharp with smoke. Firelight flickered against rock walls. They were in a shallow cave, but it didn't offer much protection. Outside, the wind howled. Snow blew sideways. It might've been day or night. The storm made it too dark to tell.

"L-L-Leo? A-A-Ariadne?" Piper managed.

"Present and un-gold-ified." Leo and Ariadne said, nowhere near in sync. 

They were also wrapped in blankets. Neither of them looked great, but better than Piper felt. "We got the precious metal treatment too," Leo added. "But we 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."

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

"Sports medicine." The coach's ugly face loomed over her. "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. "Kids being modest. You should've seen him. Hi-yah! Slice! Boom with the lightning!"

"Coach, you didn't even see it," Jason said. "You were outside eating the lawn." 

This made Ariadne crack a small smile, Hedge was always one for the dramatics in a story. 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 Ariadne.

"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 (making AJ a little jealous). 

"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.

 But Ariadne gave her a slight nod, proving Jason's words false.

"You're a terrible liar Jason," she said. "Where are we?"

"Pikes Peak," Jason said. "Colorado."

"But that's, what—five hundred miles from Omaha?"