Chapter 4

"Hera, what is happening?" a man at the apex of a mountainous road muttered as he watched the scene in front of him unravel, lifting the visor of his bulky helmet to gain a clearer look. The storm over the ocean was isolated and he could see the dragon swarming above it. The gentleman set his foot back on his motorcycle and tore off towards New Olympia. The light from the late afternoon sun shimmered on the pearl white paint job of the bike, flicking an array of colours across its surface as it zoomed down the highway.

A crashing in the forest drew the gray haired man's attention just in time, skidding to a stop right in front of the trail of a rampaging giant boar. He knocked down the kickstand of his bike with his cowboy booted foot and he hopped off to confront the monster. The bull turned to him and pawed the pavement, nostrils flaring.

"Calydonian Boar," a smile pulled on his lips, deepening the laugh lines and creases around his eyes, "My it's been a while." In a flash there was a stiletto in his hand, the knife that had been concealed in the sleeve of his brown leather jacket.

Upon returning to the brownstone Jay burst through the front door and bounded down the stairs two at a time to Odie's room. In the hazy glow of computer light he found the boy hunched over a laptop clicking furiously on the mouse and fingers flying over the keyboard. Herry sat across from him, leaning back in his chair as he pounded on his own laptop.

"What?" Odie shot up to give his brawny friend a smug smile, "Who just overran your base?"

"Whatever man, lucky rush," Herry huffed and looked over to the sudden light streaming into the dully lit room, "Sup Jay?"

Jay offered Odie a sheepish smile and held out his fried phone to his friend.

"Jay," Odie huffed in irritation, taking the phone from him, "I seriously need to find a way to make these things waterproof."

"I had some important pictures on there, do you think you could recover them?" he asked urgently.

"Sure, I'll give it a shot," Odie pushed out of his chair and strolled over to his desktop. He fished out a cord from his desk drawer and plugged the device into the tower of his computer. He took a seat on the wheeled chair and pulled up the computer's file settings to find the input. Sorting through the various phone applications implanted in the PMR he found the image file and pulled it up. For the most part there was pictured of him and Theresa, the rest of the gang making regular cameos. Odie slowly scrolled down the library, leaning forward as he reached the bottom of the file.

"What is that," he whispered clicking on the picture to enlarge it. Flashing up on the screen was a sky of black clouds letting down a wave of water. Jay pointed to a blurred section of the picture in the top corner.

"Is it just me or does that look like a wing," he voiced.

"Huh, it's pretty unclear," Odie flicked along down the file to the next picture and the next. Each was the same, blurred by the downpour of rain, insufficient lighting with the blotted out sun. He clicked on the last file to start up the video. It was shaky, but the clarity was greatly improved.

"Shit," Herry muttered, leaning over Odie as the three boys watched the computer screen. A leathery wing cut through the billows of clouds and then moments later came the flick of a barbed tail.

"I was hoping you would be wrong," Odie let out a defeated sigh and slid down in his chair, swiveling around he looked up to Jay and said, "leave your PMR with me for a bit and I'll fix the water damage."

"Thanks," Jay said as he straightened, getting up from his elbows, "I'm going to get out of these clothes and then look up a little about whatever is going on with this dragon, or whatever it is."

"Alright," Odie turned back to his desk to pick up Jay's phone, reaching for the screwdriver kit that was tossed to the side of his keyboard.

"You should have a shower first, don't care how important looking through books are, personal hygiene should trump it," Herry leaned back against the desk, crossing his arms over his chest and his feet at the ankle, "Dude, you smell like a fish swam up your pants and died there."

"Yeah, I guess I can spare a few minutes for a shower," Jay sighed, reaching up a hand to peel off the stands of hair plastered to his forehead by the salty ocean water before he turned to let himself out of the room.

"Jay," Herry smirked and shook his head, "never changes"

"What are you doing now?" Odie asked his friend.

"Probably go get something to eat," he shrugged and pushed himself off of the desk.

"Herry," Odie muttered under his breath as the teen left, "never changes."

The progression of music notes flew down from Opal's pencil into her notebook. She was completely engrossed in her work when a set of folded clothing was dropped down on her desk. She jumped and let out a small sound of alarm, looking over she saw the blue and red plaid of her father's borrowed clothing.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," she glanced over to Herry with wide eyes. Quickly she closed her mouth and shook her head.

"It's fine, thanks," she offered a small smile and then looked down to her paper, shit, where was she going with this chord progression? She groaned and flipped her book closed; it had been a brilliant idea too. Leaning her cheek into her fist she reached out a hand to pick at the buttons of her father's shirt. She hummed in consideration and stole a peek from over her shoulder, using her hair to shield her face. Herry was leaning back in his chair, smirking down at his lap, obviously texting.

She turned around a little further and tapped the eraser of her pencil on the cover of his textbook that had been hastily dropped on the corner of his desk. He looked up in curiosity and sent her a warm smile, "What's up?"

"Did your friend, Jay, did he say anything about the storm?" she asked him.

His smile dropped and he shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "A little."

"Umm, like what?" she prompted quietly.

"Just that it came up out of nowhere," he replied shortly and then quickly changed the subject, "Did you start reading '1984' last night?"

"No," she shook her head, "read the sparknotes summery online."

A broad smile quickly returned to his face, poking little dimples into his cheeks, he huffed out a laugh and said, "Good old sparknotes, facilitating my laziness since ninth grade. I can't remember the last time I actually read the assigned books in class."

"Yeah," she nodded and turned back around. He was hiding something, she was sure he knew more about that storm than he was letting on. She ran her finger over the soft flannel shirt folded on her desk and chewed her lip nervously. Her father was always out on the water, what if something like that storm hit his boat? She prayed it had been a fluke and there would be no more reoccurrences of the strange weather in the future.