Soul of Olympus

27

Ariadne dreamed of darkness. At least for a couple of seconds. She was standing in a pitch black room. Until this small sliver of light appeared, and it just got bigger and bigger. It felt like something from a movie where the main character was dead.

"Am I dead? No there's no way?" She spoke out loud, though she got no response. 

It stayed the same way for a couple more moments until what appeared to be ghosts began coming out of the light. Civilians, Presidents, demigods, Greek heroes, and more were all flooding around her. And it hurt. Something about them the more that came the more a searing pain came across her body. 

Images flashed through her head. Drowning, being burnt alive, being stabbed, a heart attack. She saw and felt them happening to every person that was around her. She closed her eyes. All she wanted was for it to stop. These souls, or whatever they are, have to move on and stop bothering her. So she reached out her hand, she didn't know why but she did. Suddenly images and pain stopped. Ariadne opened her eyes. They were gone. She wanted to ask a question, yell out into the now dark room once again but she couldn't. She was startled awake by someone yelling "Mother!"

                                                                                 **************

PIPER WOKE AT A TABLE AT A SIDEWALK CAFÉ. For a second, she thought she was still dreaming. It was a sunny morning. The air was brisk but not unpleasant for sitting outside.At the other tables, a mix of bicyclists, business people, and college kids sat chatting and drinking coffee. She could smell eucalyptus trees. Lots of foot traffic passed in front of quaint little shops. The street was lined with bottle-brush trees and blooming azaleas as if winter was a foreign concept.

In other words: she was in California.

Her friends sat in chairs around her—all of them with their hands calmly folded across their chests, dozing pleasantly. Except for Ariadne, she was squirming slightly in her chair, her eyes clenched tightly together. But they all had new clothes on. Piper looked down at her own outfit and gasped. 

"Mother!"

She yelled louder than she meant. Jason flinched, bumping the table with his knees, and then all of them were awake.

"What?" Hedge demanded. "Fight who? Where?"

"Falling!" Leo grabbed the table. "No—not falling. Where are we?"

Jason blinked, trying to get his bearings. He focused on Ariadne and made a little choking sound. 

"What are you wearing?"

Ariadne started to blush. Subtly of course but it was there. She was wearing loosely fitted black sweatpants, white long sleeve fitted crew neck, with black and white Nike sneakers. Her hair was in two dutch braids, her blue and purple streaks were re-dyed making them stand out in the braid against her black hair. She had a black baseball cap on that a poppy with a Greek theta symbol in white. Ariadne looked in the mirror, gawking, she noticed on her neck was now a silver winged pendant. She had no words.

"It's nothing," Piper said, trying to give an answer for Ariadne, who was still in shock.. "It's my—'' She remembered Aphrodite's warning not to mention that they'd talked. "It's nothing."

Leo grinned. "Aphrodite strikes again, huh? You're gonna be the best-dressed warrior in town, AJ."

"Hey, Leo." Jason nudged his arm. "Have you looked at yourself recently?"

"What ... oh."

All of them had been given a makeover. Leo was wearing pinstripe pants, black leather shoes, a white collarless shirt with suspenders, and his tool belt, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and a pork pie hat.