Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rick Riordan...yadda yaddda...yadda...
I led them inside lighting up the way with the stupid flashlight my dad gave us. We opened our garage- door and let the faulty dragon people in. When they got off the dragon, the small Latino kid said, "Guys, fix the thermostat in here and I would totally move in."
I wondered why he would want to fix the thermostat. I liked it this way and this temperature kept my hair perfect.
"Not me," said the blond kid. His eyes roved around the entire room. "Something feels wrong. Something up there.." I could see what the problem was. My sister was up to her tricks again. The whole room was tingling with an unpleasantly cold air. I gulped and thought about what I might have to deal with later. I hoped my dad would be on my side.
The dragon chose that moment to snort flames. I began to panic. My hair!
"No, no, no, " Isaid, marching over there in my amazing designer shoes. "The dragon must be de-activated. The heat ruins my hair." They could see that, surely. My amazing mullet must be curling up by now...
The smell of heat and fire was amost unbearable right now. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and the dragon growled at me.
"S'okay boy," muttered the cheeky looking boy. He seemed like the one in control of the dragon. "The dragon's a little touchy about the whole deactivation concept. But I've got a better solution." He grinned like he just thought of something cool.
"Destroy?" asked Cal sadly. I honestly began to feel a little bad for him. Maybe, I could let him destroy the dragon boy..
"No, man." said the dragon kid. "You gotta stop with the destroy talk. Just wait."
"Leo," said the girl. She looked a little nervous probably because Iwas there, looking so cool and handsome. "what are you—"
"Watch and learn, beauty queen," said the kid called Leo. He called her Beauty Queen. If that was her name, then she would be perfect for me as everyone knows that I am the Beauty King.
"When I was repairing Festus last night, I found all kinds of buttons." the Leo kid continued. "Some, you do not want to know what they do. But others … Ah, here we go." He seemed to pull some kind of lever and suddenly, the dragon began folding itself until it became a tiny box. I hoped that with the dragon gone, the horrible heat smell would go too, but strangely, the smell of fire lingered in the air. The Leo tried to lift the box and failed, "Um … yeah. Hold on. I think—aha."
So he pressed another switch and a handle came up like a metal suitcase.
"Ta-da!" he announced. "The world's heaviest carry-on bag!" The others looked amazed, as did I because, a humungous dragon was now the size of a T.V.
"That's impossible,"the other boy said. "Something that big couldn't—"
Suddenly, I understood. The burning smell hadn't come from the dragon. It came from the boy himself. The dragon was neatly tucked in the suitcase. It didn't breathe fire anymore, but the scent of fire lingered heavily around the boy.
I looked at Cal and he nodded at me. He understood too.
"Stop!" I shouted, both of us taking out our swords.
The Leo kid raised his hands in surrender. "Okay … what'd I do? Stay calm, guys. If it bothers you that much, I don't have to take the dragon as carry-on—" Did he honestly think that he could fool us? Especially me! Me the amazing Boread!.
"Who are you?" I asked angrily, pushing the point of my sword against his shirt. ""A child of the South Wind, spying on us?" It wasn't the first time.
"What? No!" Leo said, trying to appease me. "Son of Hephaestus. Friendly blacksmith, no harm to anyone!"
Cal growled. He put his face up to the kid's in order to intidimate him "Smell fire," he said. "Fire is bad." yeah... I thought. It ruins my hair.
"Oh." Leo said. He was breathing heavily now, and almost beginning to sweat. Definitely a bad sign. "Yeah, well … my clothes are kind of singed, and I've been working with oil, and—"
"No!" I shouted pushing him back at sword point. I didn't care about accidentally freezing him with my sword. He could join my sister's collection
"We smell fire, demigod. We assumed it was from the creaky dragon, but now the dragon is a suitcase. And I still smell fire … on you."
He began stuttering "Hey … look … I don't know—" He glanced at his friends. "Guys, a little help?"
I hoped the girl would stay put. I didn't want to hurt her.
"Look, there's been a mistake. " said the other guy. He was holding a coin in his hand tightly. "Leo isn't a fire guy. Tell them, Leo. Tell them you're not a fire guy."
I looked at Leo. He was definitely beginning to sweat.
"Um …" he gulped.
"Zethes?" the girl interrupted. She smiled at me, probably dazzled by my awesome beauty. I picked at my shirt again, hoping it was wide enough. "We're all friends here. Put down your swords and let's talk." She sounded so perfect that wanted to do what she asked.
"The girl is pretty," I blurted out. "and of course she cannot help being attracted to my amazingness," It's true. No one can help it. " but sadly, I cannot romance her at this time." I poked the Leo kid in his chest with my sword to prove my point. I could see frost spreading on it. Much better because now he didn't smell so bad.
"Destroy him now?" Cal asked me. He was hopeful again.
I nodded. I would let the girl off alive, but the other two demigods... "Sadly, I think—"
"No," other kid said. His voice sounded firm but tight. As if he was holding himself back. "Leo's just a son of Hephaestus. He's no threat. Piper here is a daughter of Aphrodite." So, that is her name. And no wonder she was so beautiful, being the child of Aphrodite. I thought that with my looks, people often mistook me for a son of Aphrodite. We would be perfect together.
"I'm the son of Zeus." continued the other kid. " We're on a peaceful …"
Son of Zeus? The Son of Zeus which our father had been talking about?
"What did you say?"I demanded. "You are the son of Zeus?"
"Um … yeah," he said. "That's a good thing, right? My name is Jason."
I almost dropped my sword in surprise. Jason? I remembered our Jason years ago, but he didn't look like him.
"Can't be Jason,"Cal said. "Doesn't look the same." I could see slight resemblance to our Jason though, so I stepped in for a closer look.
"No, he is not our Jason. Our Jason was more stylish. Not as much as me," Obviously, I was the only one in the Argo who actually had some style. The others were just rowdy and ugly "—but stylish. Besides, our Jason died millennia ago." I remembered that.
"Wait,"the Jason kid said. "Your Jason … you mean the original Jason? The Golden Fleece guy?"
"Of course," I said. Who else would we be talking about. "We were his crewmates aboard his ship, the Argo, in the old times, when we were mortal demigods. Then we accepted immortality to serve our father, so I could look this good for all time, and my silly brother could enjoy pizza and hockey." I still look as amazing as I did before. Especially my hair.
"Hockey!" Cal agreed.
"But Jason—our Jason—he died a mortal death," I continued, curious. "You can't be him."
"I'm not," he agreed.
"So, destroy?" Cal asked. He looked disappointed.
"No," I said regretfully. "If he is a son of Zeus, he could be the one we've been watching for." I was thankful that I didn't destroy them before. Father would have been so mad.
"Watching for?" Leo asked. "You mean like in a good way: you'll shower him with fabulous prizes? Or watching for like in a bad way: he's in trouble?" Seriously, that kid was getting on my nerves, coupled with the fact that he smelled bad.
A girl's voice said, "That depends on my father's will."
Everyone looked up to see who spoke. I already knew. Khione. She ruins everything! Now I cannot romance Piper because Khione probably wants them to see father.
I looked up to see the Leo kid was literally drooling at her. Ughh! Why anyone would look at my sister when someone like me was in the room puzzled me.
"Father will want to see the one called Jason," Khione said. Ah, I knew it. This was the Jason we were waiting for. Well, father was waiting for.
"Then it is him?" I asked. At least Iwill get credit from my father for recognizing them and sparing their lives.
"We'll see," she said. "Zethes, bring our guests." What did she think I was? her slave? But I kept my mouth shut because I knew that she could hurt me pretty bad, if I talked back.
Leo grabbed the handle of his dragon thingy. Before he could take a step, Khione glared at him. I thought she was gonna freeze him "Not you, Leo Valdez," she said in her icy voice.
"Why not?" Leo whined. I wondered how anyone would fall for my sister? She was so mean! Not to say uglier than me.
"You cannot be in the presence of my father," Khione said "Fire and ice—it would not be wise." That's true. Father would probably assume he was a spy and freeze him on sight...which would get rid of his annoyingesss...I smiled to myself.
"We're going together," the Jason guy insisted, putting his hand on Leo's shoulder, "or not at all."
Khione tilted her head. I could see that she was getting really angry, like she would do one of her flash freezes on him. "He will not be harmed, Jason Grace, unless you make trouble. Calais, keep Leo Valdez here. Guard him, but do not kill him." I was glad she asked Cal and not me. I could go with the Piper girl.
Cal pouted. "Just a little?"
"No," Khione insisted. "And take care of his interesting suitcase, until Father passes judgment."
I wondered why she was interested in his dragon. It was a horrible metal thing that ruins my hair.
The three demigods just looked at each other when the Leo guy said, ""It's fine, guys. No sense causing trouble if we don't have to. You go ahead." I had to admit, he sounded pretty brave. Not many people I know would agree with staying with Cal alone.
"Listen to your friend," Khione said. She could be very persuading when she wanted to "Leo Valdez will be perfectly safe. I wish I could say the same for you, son of Zeus. Now come, King Boreas is waiting."
So, hows it? I hope I got Zethes character down...If you want to hear what it was like from any other point of view from anyone in the series, just tell me and I'll write it...I'm stopping here for Zethes...
Anyways...Review! I love em!