Hey y'all! Thanks for your patience waiting for this chapter! I'm sorry it took a lot longer than I originally planned. I haven't had as solid of a writing schedule now that it's summer and school's out and I've been dealing with some mental health stuff lately (I guess those sound a bit like excuses, sorry!). But I'm not giving up on this fanfic!
Piper's charmspeak worked, well, like a charm. It was only sunset by the time Festus was up and running again, and Leo was just about ready to fall over and take a nap.
"Is that a dragon?" Percy asked groggily as he blinked open his eyes again. He had been in and out of consciousness for the past four hours, and Annabeth said he'd probably be rested and ready to go soon.
"No it's a pickup truck," Leo said flatly, "Of course it's a dragon. Festus is going to get us out of here. Whenever Annabeth tells us we can leave." He added the last part and nodded to the tall blonde.
"I think we're all dying to get out of this stupid forest," Frank said, and Leo wondered if anyone realized what a poor choice of words that was. He opened his mouth to continue but was quickly shushed by Annabeth before he could accidentally say anything else insensitive.
"It's up to Percy. If you feel up to traveling, we can go. But if you aren't feeling better, we can keep resting."
Percy shrugged, "I say we take the Festus Express. Let's go."
Within minutes, everybody had their stuff together and were sitting on Festus. Leo worked at the levers and soon enough, their dragon breached the trees and was flying up in the sky.
The Five cheered and cried out with relief.
"Leo, you should try and take a nap. Annabeth or I can navigate for a while."
Leo couldn't stop a yawn from escaping before he spoke. "Nah, it's fine, Pipes. I got this." He hoped now that it was dark out, she wouldn't be able to see the bags under his eyes. His eyelids were heavy at this point and he had to fight to open them again every time he blinked.
"Ugh, fine," the girl said, leaning back against Annabeth, who was in turn snoring into Percy's shoulder. Frank was sitting in front of Leo on the sturdiest part of Festus's body. They weren't trying to be rude, but he was definitely the heaviest in the group and he had to be careful where he was sitting so the flying dragon would stay balanced.
Leo yawned again as his eyes flickered closed. I'll just rest my eyes for a minute. He thought. No harm in that.
He felt himself slipping.
Slipping into one of those demigod dreams he absolutely hated.
And also, just before he plunged into the dream, he felt himself slipping off Festus.
