Chapter 3

Jay's lungs burned with the heavy pressure of water inside his chest. He heard someone talking in his ear, tapping his cheek lightly. With a sudden spurt the muscles in his lungs contracted and he leaned to the side to cough up mouthfuls of water. It took all his strength to suck in a raspy and shallow breath of air, muscles all over his body twitching with the effort. Again he coughed up sputters of salty water. Finally able to breathe with enough efficiency to transfer oxygen to his various organs he dropped back onto the board.

He felt someone take his wrist and two fingers dug into his skin to check the pulse from his radial artery. He relaxed a little, whoever was speaking over top of him obviously had some experience in first aid. In his endless first aid training sessions with Chiron, the centaur had always stressed talking to the recipient of the aid treatment. Even if they look unconscious they may still be able to hear you, it wasn't until he found himself in this helpless position that he appreciated the standard. Having a stranger guide him to his side to assume the shock position would have been much more alarming if he wasn't being talked through the whole procedure.

Jay forced his eyes open and weakly pushed himself up to sit. He needed to make sure no one called the ambulance for him. Kneeled in front of him was a stocky man, studying his face for any offsetting red flags, still keeping tabs on his pulse. Slowly the blonde asked, "Do you know what today is?"

Jay smirked and nodded, "September seventh. My birthday is May sixteenth, my blood type is A positive and we're in New Olympia BC, did I miss anything?"

"Your height," the boy laughed lightly and dropped his wrist, "I see you're no stranger to first aid."

"No," Jay glanced down to the sand and muttered, "Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"I'm Glen, over there is my dog Rye, we've both been trained in search and rescue," Jay smirked again, listing your credentials, it was another issue Chiron always stressed, another issue Jay didn't necessarily see the point in. Obviously whoever's helping you is more than likely trained in first aid.

"Well thanks for coming out," Jay held over his hand for Glen to shake, "I'm Jay."

"Nice to meet you," he clasped his hand and smiled, "You've aspirated, I'd recommend dropping by a doctor to make sure there's no damage. We're pretty far out of town, I could give you a ride back if you'd like."

"I appreciate the offer," slowly Jay staggered to his feet, his lungs heaving with the sudden exertion. He reached into his pocket for his cell and said, "but I can call for a ride." He began to fiddle with the blue device, shaking out the water, but it was no use. It was short circuited.

"Well at least come up to the house," Glen pointed to the cottage at the top of the hill, "We'll get you some dry clothes and you can use the phone."

"Sure, thanks," he nodded and turned to start climbing up the hill. As he swiveled on his heel he came face to face with a shock stricken girl. He narrowed his eyes at her as his memory pricked, "Do I know you?"

"Umm, we go to the same school," she offered quietly, "I've seen you around."

"Oh, okay," he replied.

"What happened out there?" she asked.

"I don't know," he reached up a hand up to run through his soaked hair and shifted his gaze away, "storm came up out of nowhere."

"Mmm," she hummed and fell into step at the rear when Glen started to lead Jay up the gnarled pathway in the rocks. Jay's feet felt like his bones had suddenly turned to lead, he could barely drag one in front of the other. The small hill he was climbing felt more like a mountain. Glen guided him through the back of the house, a sliding glass door that was open to let in the salty ocean breeze.

"Opal, can you grab some of your dad's clothes?" she nodded at the boy's request and disappeared up a set of stairs. In moments Jay had a dry set of clothing and was directed to the nearest washroom. It felt magnificent to peal out of the soaking clothes he was in, clinging to him uncomfortably, itching as the salty water dripped down his skin. He turned his shirt completely inside out before he was able to wrestle his limbs free so he could toss on the flannel button down. Tediously Jay shimmied out of his jeans, kicking water droplets everywhere as he struggled. The new clothing was a little baggy, but it was worlds better than being drenched.

He took a glance in the mirror to comb his fingers through his messed hair, laughing at the sight. I looked like plaid had waltzed up and puked all over him. The blue of the pajama pants clashing horribly with the red shirt. Neil was sure to faint when he came home looking like this. Jay shook his head vigorously to rid his hair of as much moisture as possible and then wrapped his clothing up in a dripping, heavy ball. Barefoot he let himself out of the bathroom and back into the living room.

The blonde girl was plucking at the keys of a piano absentmindedly, playing nothing in particular. Jay cleared his throat and she whipped her head around to the sound, with her attention gained he asked, "I don't want to drip all over the floor, do you have a plastic bag or something? And where is the phone?"

"Phone, right by the couch," she pointed at a small side table behind him and then got to her feet, "I'll grab you a bag."

"Thanks," he nodded as she brushed by him on the way to the kitchen and turned to pick up the phone. Quickly he punched in Herry's number and was not surprised to find his friend more than willing to come pick him up. Finished with his phone call, Jay stood awkwardly, rolling up and down on the balls of his feet.

"You can sit," Opal said as she returned with a bag.

"Thanks," Jay replied, stuffing his clothes in the grocery bag before he sat. She went back to the piano and continued simple scales.

"What were you doing out there?" she asked, but didn't look up from her fingers on the keys.

"Sailing," he replied shortly.

"Mmm," she hummed, "capsized?"

"Yeah," he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees and began fiddling with his PMR. He had capsized in the white caps of the waves as he was trying to get some footage of that storm. He could have sworn he saw some leathery flashes of dragon wings through the pounding rain, up in the churning gray of the clouds. The water might have damaged his phone too much to regain the images. He had heard putting electronics in rice reversed water damage, it seemed like a ludicrous idea, but he might as well give it a shot once he got home.

With a sigh he leaned back against the cushions of the couch, swiveling the top of his PMR open and closed as he glanced out the glass door from across the room, looking out over the ocean. That storm was gone now, no sign of turbulence in the waters, no ominous clouds lingering in the air. The ocean was like glass, reflecting the afternoon sun brilliantly. Jay sucked at his teeth, what was Cronus up to now? He leaned forward again to continue his attempts to get his phone to work. He needed to get those images up so he could show his team and Hera, get their opinions on the phenomenon.

A knock came at the door and Jay shot his head up, it was probably his ride, but he didn't want to be impolite and answer the door of a stranger's house. Opal slipped out from the bench at the piano and padded over to the door. Seeing the familiar head of flowing strawberry blond hair Jay bolted up from the couch to make his way to the door.

"Jay," Theresa's face lit up and she tossed her arms around his neck, face nuzzled into the recess of his shoulder she said, "We lost your signal and then it picked up again here. We didn't know what happened to you."

"I'm fine," he replied, happily relaxing into her warm hug, "My own fault for going to check out that storm alone."

"What storm?" she asked, pulling away to give him a curious look, leaving her hands on his shoulders.

"Oh," he took a glance behind him and said, "I'll tell you in the car."

Her face hardened with his comment and her eyes darkened.

"Opal," Jay said, turning to face the girl as he pulled at the shirt he was wearing, "I'll clean these tonight and bring them to school tomorrow."

"Sure, no rush," she nodded.

"Kay, thanks for everything," he gave a polite smile and turned to walk back to the road with Theresa, where her convertible was parked with Neil and Atlanta waiting in the back.

"Dude," Neil pointed and giggled as they walked over, "what are you wearing?"

Jay just rolled his eyes and jumped into the passenger seat, "One of you guys want to give Herry a call, he's on his way here to get me."

"On it," Atlanta said, pulling out her PMR.

"So what happened?" Theresa asked as she tossed the car into first and signaled back onto the road, "We could see your boat from the beach and then you were just gone. I was just about to call the other guys when your signal picked back up."

"Well I saw this whirlpool first, so I just kind of kept my distance, but then there was this dark figure that shot up from the water and into the sky, shortly after a storm came up, out of nothing. It wasn't natural, and we all know what that means."

"Cronus," was the unanimous answer.

"I got some good footage of it, but my PMR, ahh, wasn't watching what I was doing and I got overrun by the waves, such a stupid mistake," Jay shook his phone and tapped it on his knee in irritation, "At least it's still transmitting a signal, I guess the damage could be worse."

"Well, I'm glad you're all right," Theresa said, reaching out a hand to place on his thigh as she drove back to town. Jay scowled in though, but was happy to place his hand over hers as he lost himself in his mind.