Hurricane ~ L. Valdez

1.10 - Breaking Bones Isn't Fun

      I watched in horror as Leo shot past me. I tried to levitate myself. It didn't work. I felt panic rising in me... for the first time in my life I couldn't figure out how to turn it on. Leo frantically grabbed at the clouds. "Not coooooool!"  

      I couldn't breath straight. In a panic, I dived forward to find Leo. It all happened so fast. One second we were all in the air, the next I heard an explosion. Before I knew it, I was mere feet away from the ground, so I did the logical thing as a daughter of Zeus. I tried to stop my fall.

      That, unfortunately, didn't work. I hit the ground hard, a sharp pain bursting through my leg. It felt like it was being cut open from the inside out.

I let out a yell of pain, and I heard my brother from somewhere surrounding us. "Lara! Where's Lara?"

"Ow, bro!" Leo groaned. "That's my back! I'm not a sofa!" He then seemed to have realized what happened. "Lara, where'd you go?"

      "Here," I managed, in almost a whimper. I looked over at my foot and nearly hurled. My toes were definitely not supposed to point that way. Oh, gods.

      "Lara!" The three exclaimed, reaching my side. Leo started to ask if I was okay... then he saw my foot. "Oh no, you're not."

      "Thanks a lot," I groaned.

      "You'll be fine," Jason reassured, although I could hear the worry in his voice. "Leo, you got any first aid supplies?"

       "Yeah—yeah, sure." Leo said anxiously, digging around in his tool belt and pulling out a wad of gauze and a roll of duct tape—

      "How in Hades did you—" I tried to sit up, and winced. "How did you pull that stuff from an empty belt?"

      "Magic," Leo said. "Haven't figured it out completely, but I can summon just about any regular tool out of the pockets, plus some other helpful stuff." He reached into another pocket and pulled out a little tin box. "Breath mint?"

      Jason snatched away the mints. "That's great, Leo. Now, can you fix her foot?" Jason snapped.

      "I wish... I'm a mechanic, man. Maybe if she was a car..." He snapped his fingers. "Wait, what was that godly healing stuff they fed you at camp—Rambo food?"

       "Ambrosia, you dumbass," I said, gritting my teeth. "There's some in Piper's bag, if it's not crushed." Piper rummaged through the supplies the Aphrodite kids had packed for her, and found the Ziploc full of ambrosia.

       Leo took it, breaking off a piece and feeding it to me. The taste was familiar... like my mom's chocolate chip cookies (that were blue, of course).

      "I need to set my foot." I said, groaning.

       "Not by yourself." Jason said, causing me to turn to him skeptically.

       "Have you ever done it before?"

       "Yeah...I think so." At this point there was so much that neither me or my brother knew about himself, that I didn't doubt he did know. Leo found an old piece of wood and broke it in half for a splint. Then he got the gauze and duct tape ready. "Hold her leg still," Jason told him. "Lara, this is going to hurt."

       When Jason set my foot, I flinched so hard that I punched Leo in the arm, and he yelled almost as much as I did. When my vision cleared and I could breathe normally again, my foot was pointing the right way, with my ankle splinted with plywood, gauze, and duct tape.

       "Well... that hurt," I said, gritting my teeth.

      "Jeez, tormentosa!" Leo rubbed his arm. "Glad my face wasn't there."

      "I was in pain," I said, rolling my eyes. "And don't call me 'tormentosa' or I'll punch you again."

      "Aww you love me." Leo said, wrapping his arm around me, and Jason cut in.

      "You all did great." He found a canteen in Piper's pack and gave me some water. After a few minutes, my stomach began to calm down, although I continued to grip Leo's hand tightly. I could hear the wind howling outside. Snowflakes were fluttering through the hole in the roof and after meeting Khione, snow was the last thing I wanted to see right now.

       "What happened to Festus?" I asked. "Where are we?"

       Leo's expression grimmed, and I squeezed his hand. "I don't know with Festus. He just jerked sideways like he hit an invisible wall and started to fall." Leo pointed to the logo on the wall. "As far as where we are..." It was hard to see through the graffiti, and my dyslexia was acting up, but I could make out a large red eye with the stenciled words: MONOCLE MOTORS, ASSEMBLY PLANT 1.

       "Closed car plant," I realized.

       "I'm guessing we crash-landed in Detroit." Leo shrugged.

       "How far is that from Chicago?" Piper asked, as Jason handed me the canteen again.

       "Maybe three-fourths of the way from Quebec? The thing is, without the dragon, we're stuck traveling overland."

       "No way," Leo and I both said at the same time. "It isn't safe."

       "He's right. Besides, we don't know if Lara can walk. And three people—Jason, you can't fly that many across country by yourself."

       "No way," Jason agreed. "Leo, are you sure the dragon didn't malfunction? I mean, Festus is old, and—"

       "And I might not have repaired him right?" Leo asked defensively.

       "I didn't say that," Jason protested. "It's just—maybe you could fix it."

       "I don't know." Leo sounded hopeless. He pulled a few screws out of his pockets and started fiddling with them, as I put my arm around him reassuringly. "I'd have to find where he landed, if he's even in one piece."

       "It was my fault," Piper said quickly.

        "Piper," Jason said, shaking his head, "you were asleep when Festus conked out. It couldn't be your fault."

      "Yeah, you're just shaken up from the fall and Superman catching you and stuff," Leo agreed.

      "Look, um, Jason, why don't you stay with Lara and Piper, bro? I'll scout around for Festus. I think he fell outside the warehouse somewhere. If I can find him, maybe I can figure out what happened and fix him."

      "I'm going with you," I said, standing up a little quicker than I should've. I winced in pain, and Jason shook his head.

      "It's too dangerous," Jason said. "You guys shouldn't go by yourself."

"Don't test me right now, Grace. I'm in pain and I'm practically murderous." I snapped. Leo grabbed my arm just in case, though I didn't know if it was to help me walk or keep me from murdering Jason.

      "Ah, I got duct tape and breath mints, and I'll take care of Lara. We'll be fine," Leo said... a little too quickly. I was starting to realize that he was a lot more shaken up than he was letting on. "You guys just don't run off without us." Leo reached into his magic tool belt, pulled out a flashlight, and headed down the stairs, helping me follow him as we left Piper and Jason alone.

      This should be fun.