Chapter 27 - Draco

The journey to Topeka to meet with Bacchus – as per with Piper's vision from her knife, Katoptris – was going well up until Percy mentioned the suspicious lack of monsters.

The Seven were discussing what to do. There were lots of things happening that Percy hadn't been aware of. While the Romans were trying to follow the Seven, they had greater problems now in the form of twin giants. And, even worse, according to Nemesis, they only had six days until Rome was destroyed.

And then Annabeth and Piper finally caught Percy up to date on what Kronos hadn't mentioned to him, in the form of the mysterious Titan in the Labyrinth, the sea monster, the fact that Luke may have ran off with some venomous sea monster fangs, and – for some odd reason – sea-goats were mentioned too.

Then, Percy made the stupid mistake of mentioning that he was surprised that they hadn't been attacked yet by monsters.

A few seconds later, a furious roar rattled the ship around them.

They were somewhere along the border of Wyoming and Denver, heading to Topeka. Unfortunately, Festus started creaking in alarm.

"What was that?" Frank demanded.

Percy shook his head. "I don't know," he said, ignoring Annabeth's furious look in his direction. "But it sounded big."

"Come on," Jason sighed, reaching for his gladius. "Let's go see what that was."

Percy was content to let the Roman Praetor take the lead. While Jason had been pretty tough on him at Camp Jupiter, he had still given Percy a chance to prove himself by going on the quest to free Thanatos. The two had soon struck up a heavy rivalry, but they'd come to each other's defence when Gaea had attacked New Rome.

Jason was a stickler for the rules, but he wasn't a bad guy.

Riptide was in Percy's hand as he emerged out onto the deck behind Jason. Coach Hedge was already yelling and waving his bat at something in the air, peering down over the railing of the ship as he threatened to brain the monster.

Percy was tempted to join him, up until the point that the monster shot up past them. It moved too quickly to be entirely visible, but Percy could have sworn… the point of Riptide dipped down. "Was that a dragon?" Percy asked in bewilderment.

It was massive. The Argo rocked in the air in the monster's wake.

Leo uttered a curse in Spanish as he stared up into the dark sky overhead.

Jason shook himself out of his shock. "Yes," he said.

The dragon was so large that it blotted out the night sky overhead. Percy exhaled sharply, eyes trailing over the dark wings – modified forelimbs so the dragon didn't have forelegs – to the spines running down its back and the muscular, serpentine tail that lashed through the air.

"Since when did dragons exist?" Piper demanded.

Annabeth gaped up at the dragon overhead.

It roared down at them, mouth starting to glow.

"Leo!" Jason yelled.

"On it," Leo said. Fire rolled from the dragon's maw, a white-hot torrent blasted straight down at the ship, but Leo twisted the fire back around up at the dragon. The flames bit harmlessly at the dragon's fire-resistant hide. Just that little bit of fire-bending seemed to have exhausted the fire-user. "That's not normal fire," he gasped out. "I can't do that many more times."

"Annabeth," Percy said as the dragon tucked in its wings and dove down at them, "any ideas?"

Annabeth was frowning heavily, eyeing the dragon with interest. "I think… Piper, you know your stars, right?"

"Not the time for star-watching, Annabeth," Percy warned, summoning water from the ship's plumbing even as Jason controlled the winds to knock the dragon off course. Percy's water blast caught the dragon's hide as it barrelled past them, struggling to regain control over its wings.

"Yes," Piper said, "why?"

"Frank," Percy hollered, racing for the stern of the ship, "can you do your dragon thing?"

"I doubt it," Frank said. "Not against that."

The that in question rose from the sky before Percy, wings steadily beating at the air to keep it airborne. Festus roared at the dragon and blasted fire, but the dragon seemed entirely unfazed.

"Jason?"

The son of Jupiter was gazing up at the sky, his eyebrows furrowed. "I'm trying," he said, his voice strained. Lightning flickered weakly overhead. "But something's interfering with me."

Percy swore under his breath. The dragon's vermillion eyes gleamed in the darkness, reflecting like starlight. Near the end of the deck, Annabeth was turning in circles and frowning up at the sky, with Piper at her side.

Both demigoddesses seemed confused.

The dragon opened his maw and blasted flames at Percy, straight over Festus' head. The son of Poseidon grabbed all of the water around him, blowing a hole into the deck beneath his feet as he forced up yet even more of the ship's plumbing to form a shield. The water puffed into steam, hiding the dragon from view.

"Draco!" Annabeth screamed from her place next to Piper. "It's the constellation Draco!"

Apparently, Draco didn't like being called a constellation. He roared with blackened fury and charged through the steam with a single beat of his wings. His jaws – easily large enough to swallow a double-decker bus whole – snapped on nothing but air as Annabeth dove, dragging Piper down with her.

"How was he killed?" Hazel asked. She had her spatha out, but couldn't really help all too much unless she intended to throw precious gems and metals at the dragon.

Annabeth shook her head. "I don't-"

"Duck!" Jason hollered. Immediately, all of the demigods dove to the ground, barely missing the dragon on yet another pass.

"Why isn't he attacking the ship?" Percy demanded.

"Don't encourage him," Leo snapped.

"Gaea needs a female and a male alive," Hazel said. "If he destroys the ship… we'll all die too."

The dragon roared, seemingly irritated that he couldn't simply incinerate all of them. Percy stepped forwards, raising Riptide. "Come on," he growled at him. "Try it."

Jason raised his hand, sending a blast of wind at the dragon, but it barely did anything to him. Then, suddenly, Draco sniffed the air.

Percy's eyebrows furrowed as the dragon's ruby gaze panned slowly over the demigods to settle on the son of Poseidon. Draco opened his mouth, but it was a wordless roar that greeted Percy. Draco spoke. "You smell of Titan," the dragon rumbled. "The Horned One warned me of the demigod whom thought himself worthy of a Titan." Putrid smoke steamed right from his stomach and his maw began to glow. "I will show you just how wrong you are!" The fire that blasted from between his jaws was even hotter than the previous blasts. Draco followed it up with a snake-like strike at the demigod, but Percy was ready. Leo blocked the fire, and Percy rolled to the side, lashing out with Riptide as he did so.

He had lost the Curse of Achilles when he had waded through the Little Tiber, but Percy was no less capable.

Riptide scraped along the edge of the dragon's jaw, burying into the dark scales. Percy's arm was nearly wrenched from it's socket and he had to let go of Riptide as the sword became lodged in Draco's scales. But he still saw the blood of immortals drip along its length.

"He's an immortal," Percy realised as he watched the dragon disappear into the darkness around the ship.

"Are you alright?" Annabeth demanded.

Percy rolled his shoulder. "Yeah. Just about. Think I've pulled it, but no lasting damage," he promised.

Draco's furious roar echoed around them.

"Annabeth – he's immortal," Percy repeated.

Annabeth's eyes furrowed. "One reference to him names him as a Titan. Supposedly, Athena killed him in the Titanomachy, but that's not chronologically possible. Athena wasn't even alive during the Titanomachy. She couldn't have killed him."

"Another?"

"Supposedly, he's Ladon, but we know that's not true," Annabeth said.

Percy recalled the hundred-headed dragon that guarded Hera's apple tree. "Yeah, right." While Draco was a giant, he didn't have one-hundred heads.

"I don't know," Annabeth said.

Jason was muttering a prayer to Jupiter – Zeus – as he stared up at the night sky overhead. Percy followed his gaze, and he raised an eyebrow when he saw the missing stars in the sky. Draco's constellation simply wasn't there any longer.

The dragon himself dove down at them from above, hind legs ready to rip into them and his maw already starting to light up with flames. And the sky around him exploded in a single giant flash. The dragon's roar turned into a screech of pain as the lightning sheared into his wing and ricocheted through his insides.

Percy blinked, watching as the flames puffed out and the dragon disintegrated into golden dust. The dust condensed into glowing balls, before shooting back into the sky like reverse comets. When the glow faded, Draco's constellation was back where it belonged.

Leo stared up at the dragon's constellation. "What the hell was that?"

"He's not the first," Annabeth said.

"What do you mean?" Hazel asked in confusion.

"I think Pricus – Capricorn – is also down here," Annabeth explained.

"The sea-goats," Piper realised. "Of course!"

"Kronos' goats?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Exactly."

"Of all the things he could create," Percy muttered in bewilderment. "He had to go for the goats."

"Everyone alright?" Jason questioned.

Percy rolled his shoulder. "Yeah. It'll heal up before we get to Topeka. No worries, bro."

"Good," Jason said tiredly.

"We should set a watch," Leo said. "Just to stop my ship from being barbecued again."

"And to keep us all alive," Percy pointed out.

"That too," Leo agreed, scowling at the hole Percy blew into the deck. "Am I going to have to fix the plumbing?"

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Hey, at least you don't have to fix the ship completely again." He blinked over at Annabeth, who was studying the sky next to Piper with a frown. "What?"

"Draco and Capricorn aren't the only constellations who've been brought down," Annabeth slowly said. "Scorpio's missing. And so's Gemini."

The son of Poseidon had never been particularly interested in the stars, so he couldn't really see anything different. "Scorpio?"

"A giant scorpion."

"And Gemini?" Leo asked. "Leo isn't missing, is it?"

"The Gemini twins," Piper said. "Castor and Pollux."

"Someone's ripping the stars from the heavens," Annabeth said in bewilderment. "Who can do that?"

"I don't know," Jason murmured.

"Draco mentioned a 'Horned One', whatever that means," Frank said helpfully.

Annabeth slowly shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "I really don't…"

"Maybe Bacchus will have answers for us in Topeka," Piper offered.

Leo sighed. "Right. Onwards to Topeka! In the meantime," he said, peering over at Percy. "Would you mind fixing the plumbing?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah – sure."

At the rate they were going, Percy mused to himself, the Argo would be nothing but splinters by the time they arrived in Topeka.


And the plot thickens! Yeah, so I was hoping that one of you would pick up on the sea-goats actually being the constellation Capricorn, but no one did.

Ghostfall: Yeah. Quick chapters, since I'm getting more excited with this story. I figured Coach would try something like that, since he has no self-preservation, and yeah Kronos doesn't think very highly of satyrs lol. Thanks!

That Weirdo Writer: yup :). Since I've actually planned out the plot now, I should be able to do these chapters pretty quickly. As long as I have the time between Uni studies.