As Percy fought Peril, and everyone stared on in interest and anticipation, particularly for a victor, Jason was pumping his wings to keep up with the queen, her other guards, and various other dragons. After an explosive release of emotion and tension, Jason flew mindlessly, focused only on keeping his tired body in the air. Occasionally, a thought would pierce through his daze, though it always ran in a circle.
Who, why, tired, sad, who, why, tired, sad...
As the mountain came into view through the clouds, he was snapped from his monotonous circle of thoughts. He still had to come up with a reasonable reason as to what happened. Thank goodness something else demanded the queen's attention.
Freak weather event? No. Everyone saw my connection to the lightning. Crud. What now?
Jason started to panic again. He glanced around, only to see a peculiarity. Everyone was wheeling towards the base of the mountain, not the main entrance to Jade Mountain, nor the various entrances and platforms that lay scattered about.
He saw a crowd of various multicolored dragons but snapped his head in another direction. It got dizzying real fast. He needed sleep desperately. He shook his head hard, trying to clear his vision, but it only made things worse.
As he descended upon the crowd, he could begin to make out what seemed to be a fight, between a smoking copper dragon and a turquoise dragon. The copper dragon was currently losing really hard.
He looked back over at Queen Ruby, who was glaring at the copper dragon. He heard her mutter something, and he knew she wasn't happy, characterized by teeth-gnashing and brow furrowing.
"Aw, done so soon? Entertain me some more, Smokey!"
"Shut up!"
He heard flapping, and a collision, followed by the sounds of rocks crumbling. Jason swiveled his head back to the fight, and just in time.
The steam cleared, showing a fist of water, but it quickly dissipated, replaced instead with a spear made of ice, which was then thrown at the copper dragon, but stopped short, piercing the ground in front instead. Jason gawked. Dragons can manipulate water and ice? This was new. He hadn't seen this before.
The ice spear melted and reformed into a sword, which then flew back to the blue dragon's talons, who then sauntered up to the copper dragon.
Jason narrowed his eyes.
Held it at the chin of the copper dragon, and asked her to surrender.
Wait...
A sword, just like the one I used during battle and training. A gladius? Dragons didn't use metal weapons beyond a spear. Everything was all-natural like fire and claws.
Could it be?
"Percy?"
Percy wasn't stupid. Someone in the crowd called his name, and it sure as Tartarus wasn't Annabeth. He quickly summoned a fist of water, and struck Peril in the face, knocking her into the mountain once more, and also knocking her out. Now, he won't have to worry about surprise attacks from her. He looked around, almost frantically, trying to remember which side the sound came from.
Jason blinked in surprise, then tried to hide behind a nearby dragon.
The dragon even responded to Percy. It can't be!
Even Annabeth looked around. She looked at Sunny and Clay, but they shrugged their shoulders. Aside from them, who else knew Percy's name? She scanned the crowd but didn't see anyone suspicious.
The silence was cut by Queen Ruby, who descended down to the impromptu arena to demand what was going on.
A quick explanation by Clay and Annabeth cemented Peril's fate as an exile, at least for the foreseeable future. Queen Ruby was having a hard time trusting Peril, to begin with, it turns out. Her role as a champion murderer in the arena of Ruby's mother came as a shock to Annabeth, but Clay verified it.
Queen Ruby had definitely taken interest in Percy, particularly in his water-manipulation abilities, which meant an asset to keep Peril in line.
Jason watched everything from afar and was surprised the queen hadn't yet drawn the connection between him and what he resolved to be Percy. He might be wrong, but he was pretty certain, and everything lined up. He breathed a sigh of relief. At least he could talk to the blue dragon on his own terms to see if it really was Percy. The queen was really just as frazzled as him. Everyone could use a good night's rest to recuperate.
Jason blinked, then yawned.
A short nap wouldn't hurt. We don't leave for a bit, I think.