Embers

The plane touched down in Hong Kong just as I woke up. I hadn't remembered how long I was asleep, but I hastily woke Kat up and unclipped my seat belt. I pulled our luggage out of the compartment above us (which wasn't much- all I brought was a picture of Delia and the kids, and my toolbelt, but Kat brought three suitcases full of junk). We exited the terminal and made our way through narrow alleyways until stopping, asking for directions. Kat was coughing the whole time.

Kat held a map out and pointed to a destination as a Chinese girl showed which way to go. She said thank you and we started to walk, but we're interrupted when a crying infant lay in the street with no attention. People passed by without giving the baby a second look. Kat and I headed over to the child and examined it- a female with short blonde hair and glittering Green eyes. She looked like a child of Annabeth and Percy if I didn't know any better.

"What should we do with her?" I asked, rubbing my chin.

"Check the blanket." Kat said, motioning to the infant. I dropped to my knees and searched through the pink blankets. On the blanket, "McKenna" was stitched into it. Kat coughed again.

"Does she have any family?" I asked as I looked through the crowd. The child was obviously not from around here- she definitely wasn't of Asian descent.

"We can't just take the kid, Leo." She coughed.

"We'll why not?" I asked. "We'll be here for a while." Kat sighed and coughed. "Fine. But don't let anyone see!" She stood in front of the crib and blocked the view of any pedestrians as I cradled the baby and slowly walked away.

"Kat, we need to get that cough checked out. I can't have you sick around this kid."

Kat smiled weekly before coughing once more. "I'll be fine."

Notes