As she fell, disoriented, spiraling faster and faster downward, Lara had the time to fully appreciate the utter stupidity of her plan. No magical gust of wind was going to come and bring her home. That was just a desperate thought. Now, she was going to end up as a grease spot. At least that was better than being wolf food. Or if she became wolf food, she wouldn't live long enough to know about it. Panic welled up in her chest. She wanted to scream but no noise came out when she opened her mouth. The trees around her blurred, she couldn't hear anything except the wind rushing in her ears. As she fell, she instinctively knew her altitude. 50 feet…40 feet...SHUT UP VOICE…20 feet….15….10. She was going to die. This time she was sure of it. And then she stopped so suddenly that black spots danced it her eyes. She looked around her. She was surrounded by wolves staring dumbly up at her.

"Hi guys." She said. Then, she fainted.

The first thing she noticed when she woke up was how uncomfortable she was. She was propped against the stone wall of the courtyard. Her entire body ached like she had run a marathon. She felt light headed and a little nauseous. She shifted a little, trying to uncramp her muscles. She sensed a movement on the far side of the courtyard and looked up. Lupa padded briskly over to her.

"That was downright foolish girl. What were you thinking pulling a prank like that? You could've died and then I would've had to fill out paperwork. Gods of Olympus I hate paperwork!" She huffed, padding back and forth, which was seriously not helping Lara's dizziness. "Well congratulations, at least now we all know who your godly parent is."

"Not following you." Lara said, confused. "How does falling 200 feet out of a tree say anything about my godly parent…unless, is there a god of stupidity?"

"That would explain a lot," Lupa muttered in an undertone before saying, "It's not so much the jumping out of the tree, as the fact that you survived. You fell 200 feet out of a tree yet you stopped falling about 10 feet before you hit the ground and would have been flattened like a pancake. It's almost as if you had willed the air to stop you." She looked pointedly at Lara.

"What are you trying to – oh, ohhh,"Lara said, understanding her meaning. "So my dad is –"

"Jupiter, god of the sky and lightning, king of the gods, "Lupa said. The wind blew all around them and there was a blinding flash of lighting. Then the wind died, just as suddenly as it had come.

"Seriously?" snapped Lupa. "All the other gods can settle with a hologram but he has to do that every time. Well, at least it's not like what Chiron said Aphrodite did to claim one of her daughters. The girl looked like a fashion model for an entire week and hated every minute of it."

"Who's Chiron?" asked Lara.

"Like I've already said, there is a Roman camp called Camp Jupiter. Chiron directs the Greek counterpart, Camp Half-Blood," Lupa replied.

"So I'm going to go to Camp Jupiter?" Lara said. "Cool! Right, so this whole flying thing, how does it work? Do I have to say some magic word or something?"

Lupa snorted. "Not that I've heard of. Remember how you used it last time, will yourself to fly."

Lara rolled her eyes. "Like that's going to work. I want to fly NOW!"

Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. Lara sighed and closed her eyes. She thought about the feeling of sitting in the top of the tree, of looking down on the valley around her, and feeling like there was nothing that could stop her. She felt a tug in her gut and a sudden feeling of weightlessness. She opened her eyes and looked down and yelped. She was about ten feet off the ground. She was so surprised, she almost fell out of the air, but then caught herself. She looked around her. This was cool, she thought. She looked up at the top of the tree and concentrated for a moment. She shot up like a rocket. Lara panicked. How do I stop? Oh yeah, I just have to think about it. She slowed, stopping about some 200 feet above the tree. In spite of herself, in spite of the craziness of the situation she was in, she found herself laughing as she zoomed through the air, becoming better and better at controlling the wind currents. She found herself automatically noting her altitude, her speed, and the temperature of the air around her. She marveled at the view of the valley below her and the cliffs all around her. And then as she was flying along, it hit her. She landed in front of the courtyard five minutes later and ran up to Lupa.

"So you think your brother might be at Camp Half-Blood?" Lupa said finally, summing up everything Lara had told her for the past 15 minutes in a single sentence. Lara nodded.

"I will contact Chiron and see if the boy is there. " Lupa said, and was about to continue when a wolf came bounding up to Lupa. The wolf told Lupa (Lara couldn't be sure, she didn't speak wolf) that she needed to come quickly.

Lupa looked at Lara. "I will see what I can do." She turned to leave, but then looked back and said, "Don't get into any trouble. On a second thought, come back to the courtyard and wait there."

Lupa bounded off, and Lara followed, more slowly. She got to the courtyard and plopped down, feeling annoyed that Lupa had run off without trying to contact this Chiron and find her lost brother. To her, there was nothing more important than her family, no matter how annoying they sometimes were. What could be so important anyways? Lara decided to find out.

As she was creeping around the edge of the courtyard towards the front of the burned out house where Lupa supposedly was, she reflected, yet again, on the stupidity of her plan. She was trying to sneak up on a wolf. She continued creeping towards the wolf.

Lupa was indeed at the front of the house. As Lara got closer, she could hear Lupa's voice, and the voice of a stranger. She understood what they were saying, but their voices sounded different, as if they were talking in another language.

"-the girl is not ready for this. She has barely begun using her power. She has no idea of the role she will have to play and the danger that she will face."

Lara felt a surge of annoyance. Lupa hadn't told her any of this, yet she seemed fine talking to some random stranger about it. Wasn't that nice?

"-she will learn as she goes. The others from Camp Jupiter will help her."

"-and what if she doesn't make it that far? You know what awaits her between here and there."

"If she is indeed the one, she will do fine. If not…" the voice broke off and then continued quickly, "Of course the others will meet her before she reaches the camp, so she may not need to worry about…" Again the voice trailed off.

"And what of the-" Lupa stopped abruptly and turned in the direction of where Lara stood. Lara swore under her breath and looked for a place to hide.

There was no place to hide, the nearest tree was 100 ft out. She would be revealing herself by making a dash for it. The only place to go was…up. Lara closed her eyes and thought about being about 20 feet above where she was now. She opened her eyes and found herself gliding slowly up. She grinned in spite of herself. This was so cool, this was- She froze. Lupa had rounded the corner. Lara froze in midair, pressing herself against the gray wall of the house. Maybe she wouldn't look up. Lupa turned. Lara used that opportunity to shoot up to the level of the broken roof. She swung over onto the inside of the wall, peering over. A tall man with graying brown hair was walking to where Lupa stood.

"What is it?" he asked.

"There was something here," Lupa replied, sniffing the ground. "It smells like her scent. Oh when I find her, she's going to wish she'd-"

"Maybe that was from earlier?" suggested the stranger, seeming eager to placate the angry wolf.

"What, you don't think I would be able to tell if it was?" snapped Lupa irritably. She shook her mane. "That's not the point. The girl will be there at the agreed time." She turned and trotted off, muttering something about finding someone and doing something to them. The stranger walked off into the woods. Lara waited until they were both out of sight and then dropped from the roof. She waited until she was five feet from the ground before slowing herself down. She began to walk cautiously, but with purpose in the direction Lupa had gone.

"Lara." Lara jumped and whirled around so quickly that she almost lost her balance.

The stranger had reappeared. He stood about 10 yards behind her, watching her. Lara looked at him nervously. She was sure that any second he was going to call Lupa, and when Lupa found her-

"I'm not going to call Lupa," the stranger said, as if reading her mind. He gave her a reassuring smile and gestured at a nearby tree log.

"Sit," he said, taking a seat on the log. Lara hesitated, then sat next to him.

"How much did you hear?"

"I heard you and Lupa talking about…me. How there will be a danger," she paused, and then added, more quietly, "and I won't be ready for it." Lara felt struck by worry and self-doubt. She was reminded that she was the most alone she had ever been in her entire life, surrounded by a world that was so complex that she couldn't even begun to understand it…and she was supposed to face it, the worse it had to offer.

The stranger smiled sympathetically. "It is a lot to deal with at one time, isn't it? But don't worry, Lupa always has been a bit of a pessimist, I'm sure you're going to be just fine."

"But what am I going to face?" asked Lara.

"It is a little unclear, even to the gods of Olympus, exactly what you will find. I believe that you will find the shell of a broken man."

"A broken man?" Lara echoed, puzzled.

"I'm sorry, I cannot tell you more. There are strict rules on interfering in the quests of demigods."

"What quest?"

"Tomorrow, you will travel north towards a place called Camp Jupiter, training camp of the demigods. Along the way, you will meet two demigods, a boy and a girl. They will tell you everything that you need to know."

He stood up and started heading back into the forest.

"Wait," called Lara. The stranger paused, and glanced back at her.

"Who are you?" she said.

"On Mount Olympus, they call me Mercury," he said simply, then added with a mischievous smile, "But you may call me the Grand Host of Travelers, Supreme Lord of Thieves, Superman..."

"I think I'll just stick with Mercury," Lara said.