Chapter Twenty One - Homecoming

Time at the Waystation seemed to fly by while standing still. My days with Josephine were mostly spent learning how to properly control my growing powers. The key to strong powers, according to the former hunter, was a strong body. Every morning, Jo or Emmie would wake me up depending on whose turn it was to mind Georgina, and we would go for a jog through the city. When we got back, I would clean off and have breakfast before Jo put me through my paces having me control various aspects of my innate fire power.

While Jo seemed satisfied with my progress, Brit felt that I was improving too slowly for her liking. She did something that caused my powers to misbehave wildly out of control. I ended up covered in hair one moment, then completely immolated the next. The smell of burnt hair lingered for days. Jo had given her best withering look of disapproval at the goddess, but Brit had been unrepentant. The best part of it was, after getting my powers back under control, I was able to wear normal clothes again without worry of immediately burning holes in them. I still kept the chiton Zoë had given me, but I was ecstatic to wear jeans and a t-shirt again.

While mornings were dedicated to my innate powers, afternoons were devoted to magical study. Things there had started going much more smoothly once we'd come to the idea of using my Aura sight to observe how Jo's magic worked. Unfortunately, it was determined that such a useful crutch would only impede my development later on, so Jo had taken to asking Brit to sit in on our lessons as a means of deterring me from sneaking a peak. Nothing like having your eyes burn out of their sockets to give you away, huh?

While the practical portion of the training still had it's share of bumps, the theoretical portion more than made up for it. Science and Math were always my favorite subjects in uncle Joe's homeschooling, and Josephine was very S.T.E.M. oriented in her approach to magic. After making sure of my reading comprehension levels - shockingly high for a demigod, according to the older woman - she lent me one of her entry level physics textbooks to study. Also, while not my personal special interest, it was cool to hear about historical events from people who were alive when they were considered current events.

Luckily, in addition to magic and history lessons, Emmie and Jo were more than agreeable in allowing me to make full use of the kitchen to prepare dinners every other night. I didn't want to lose my Kitchen Witch status, after all. My evenings after dinner were decidedly less fun, however. Brit hadn't been lying about the griffons poor reaction to little Georgina's infantile tantrums. While they might have bird heads, their business end is all mammal. After the first time spent cleaning up after them, I really did briefly entertain the idea of diapers.

Abelard and Heloise were a mated pair of griffons, and wary of new people. Apparently their names were a reference to something I didn't get, and Emmie and Jo insisted I didn't need to. Luckily, once agitated from their roost, the pair of griffons would fly off to hunt or stretch their wings leaving the nests empty for me to clean up.

And so the days passed into weeks, and I adjusted to my new schedule of fitness, lessons and pet sitting with the occasional bit of helping out with Georgina when Emmie and Jo were too worn out. Who knew taking care of a baby was so much effort? (Spoiler alert; I did. I knew it all along.)

It was a particularly dreary day halfway through December, and while the weather had thankfully held up this last week, the sky this morning threatened to finally bottom out. I was not looking forward to pushing through the pinpricks of icy pain that was jogging in the rain. Jo had taught me a basic water repulsion spell that amounted to the same coverage as a small umbrella. Of course the first lapse in concentration caused the umbrella spell to stop, resulting in my getting wet - and there was just no coming back from that mentally.

Once dressed, I stepped out of my room and heard excited voices coming from the common area. Curious, I edged around the corner and peeked between the rails. The visitor was dressed in a 'Hunter Silver' Winter parka and urban camouflage pants and had long, dark hair held in a single braided ponytail. She looked slightly older than the last time I saw her, maybe thirteen or so, but there was no mistaking those intense silver eyes as she turned her attention to me. I swallowed reflexively as I came out fully into the open.

"Lady Artemis," I said, proud of myself for not stammering like a fool. "I wasn't expecting you for at least another week?"

"As luck would have it, your Giuseppe has returned early from his trip and expressed, through Ari, the desire to spend the holiday with his nipote." My face must have shown my worry, because Artemis simply shook her head, "I am unaware of why he has returned, only that he has."

He was back already? Underneath the worry, my first thought was excitement. As fun as Indianapolis was, a large part of me missed being around the chaos and crowd of home. And home, to me, was Manhattan. The next thought was guilt for feeling excited. Emmie, Jo and Brit had opened their home to me, making me feel welcome and helping me to learn and grow. While I didn't feel as close as family with them, yet, I knew that in time I could come to think of them as Aunties.

Well, maybe not Brit. She was already closer to a bratty older sister in some regards - a role she reveled in. She had insisted that, as a friend of the Hunt, I was to treat her the same as any of the other girls. It took a little while before I could, but her carefree attitude quickly eroded any resistance to the idea I might have had. She even took to calling me 'Skipper', which definitely helped in that regard. She also really liked to tease me, especially when she caught me sending lingering glances at pretty girls on the street, saying with a mock solemn tone how she fully understood why Artemis would never accept my oath - then laughing uproariously when I blushed.

"I'll just go get my things," I said, backtracking to my room. I didn't have a lot to pack, thankfully, and so didn't keep Artemis waiting too long. Despite that, we still lingered for another hour as the goddess of the hunt caught up with her former handmaidens. In the meantime, Brit had me muck out the griffon roosts one final time. Not an enjoyable task, but personally preferred over jogging in the rain.

"So, how are we getting to Manhattan?" I asked, once Lady Artemis had judged it time to leave.

"We shall be taking my chariot," she replied.

When I saw her chariot, I gawked. I couldn't help myself. It resembled a silver sleigh more than a typical Greek chariot and seemed to glow softly from within, even without my Sight active. The reins had honest to gods sleigh bells and, to top it off, it was being drawn by actual reindeer. I was so excited by the prospect of riding in a flying reindeer drawn sleigh - in December - that I forgot about being nervous.

We touched down on uncle Joe's roof barely an hour after leaving Indianapolis. On the one hand, the speed was amazing! I might have to look into getting a pilot license and flying jets when I got older. On the other hand, it was really cold flying close to mach speed through the winter sky in an open sleigh. Luckily not even the goddess had wanted to deal with icy needles of rain and snow in her face, so the flight was blessedly dry at least.

Once off the sleigh, I took a moment to warm myself up using a trick Jo and Brit had helped me come up with. By regulating my inner-flame, I was able to control my body temperature like a furnace. The snow around me melted and steamed as I increased my external body temperature to a hair's breadth under one hundred Fahrenheit.

"Thank you so much, milady," I said, turning to Artemis, only to notice both the goddess and the sleigh were already gone. "Ah... Guess she had business elsewhere."

I glanced over the side of the roof to the sidewalk nearly thirty feet below. With no roof access door or ladder, getting down was going to be tricky.

"Are ya 'bout t' jump?" Ari asked, appearing directly behind me.

I almost jumped out of my skin - and off the building - in shock as the Wind Nymph laughed at her prank. Once I was calm enough to speak, I fixed her with a mild glare that quickly turned into a grin.

"Hey, Air-head," I said. "Did you miss me?"

"Yup," she nodded, then pulled me into a tight hug. "But, now you're back an' we can catch up on everything. Oh, and Joe'll be wantin' to hear everything about everything too."

As it turned out, getting down was not as tricky as I had thought. With the Wind Nymph's assurance she'd catch me, and a small amount of coaxing, I stepped off the rear side of the building. There was a brief moment of panic as I saw the alley-way pavement rushing up to meet me, but then I found myself surrounded by an unseasonably warm gust of air that slowed my descent until my feet gently touched down on the ground.

"Well done," Ari cheered. "Though, you should be careful not t' do that unless I'm around t' catch ya. Otherwise you'd be real hurt."

"No worries there," I said, and I meant it.

"Come on!"

Taking my hand, Ari dragged me around to the front of the restaurant. Due to the early hour of the morning, or the fact that he had only just returned from his trip, the sign on the door was still flipped to Closed. Despite that, the door was unlocked allowing Ari and I to walk right on inside. The bell over the door rang, causing uncle Joe to stick his head out from where he was busying himself in the kitchen.

"Ah, are you the...?" He trailed off, eyes misting over slightly as he saw me standing in the doorway. "Nipote."

"Zio," I said, my voice cracking slightly as I smiled back.

I couldn't tell you who moved first, but the next thing I knew, I was hugging him as he was fussing over me. The sound of the bell over the door ringing again caused us to look up.

"Well, that's real touching," said a man with a thick upper west side accent.

My first thought was that Vernon Dursley had somehow crawled out of the pages of Harry Potter, but then dismissed that as being unnecessarily rude to Vernon Dursley. While he did indeed have a rather large and bushy mustache, the top of his otherwise bald head glistened with sweat that clung to three strands of dark hair in the worst attempt of a comb-over I had ever seen. This man, though of similar stature, lacked the British charm of his fictional counterpart. He was dressed in a heavily stained grey mechanic's jumpsuit that smelled as if he had somehow gone his entire life without ever hearing the concept of a washing machine.

"Ah, you must be Mr. Ugliano," uncle Joe said, and I noticed he didn't extend his hand to shake as he might have done for anyone else. Guess I wasn't the only one put off.

"Call me Gabe," the smelly man said. He might have tried to grin, but it came across as more of a leer. "You called about an appliance that needs fixing?

"Si, yes, unfortunately my stove seems to have stopped working."

"Well, let me take a look," smelly-Gabe said. "But keep the kid out of the way. I don't work good with 'em underfoot."

My eyes flashed, and I was about to say something when I felt uncle Joe's hand on my shoulder. "Why don't you and Ari go upstairs? You just got back, you should take some time to settle in."

"Y-yeah," I agreed, reluctantly. "Okay, sure. Sounds good. Come on, air-head."

"If you're gonna be that way, then let's race!" Ari stuck her tongue out as she dissipated into a quick breeze.

For a moment, Gabe Ugliano's eyes seemed to glaze over before he muttered something about 'running in the house'. Guess the Mist affected him as well as any other mortal. With one last look at uncle Joe for reassurance, I turned and headed outside to the stairs leading up to the apartment.