Chapter Title: I Become Convinced That Leo Valdez Is Crazy
(A/N: Last chapter here before the climax of this part, which will encompass the end of the quest — where our questers confront Kronis to free Hera. Can't wait to write it honestly! Also, five chapters remain after this for Part One of the story. This chapter contains a shout-out to the following users whose OCs are featured in this chapter: -JASONSGRACE (Belle), Galatea-Green-31 (Rose), goddessofwisdom- (Alec and McKaley), Imaginebooks (Aruna and Aurora), and Az56796743 (Adriana). All of them are great fanfic writers, so I advise you all check out their PJO fanfics after you're done viewing the chapters of this book in whatever state it is in. Next couple of chapters are most likely going to be very, very long ones - since they are the climax of all of this - so enjoy the calm before the storm!)
My name is Cato Richards, son of Kratos. First time narrating in this, so believe me, I have a hunch that this will be less intimidating than.. the sight in the sky currently. Right now, I am in disbelief at what I am seeing. Not kidding here at all, I really am in disbelief. I'll be honest, I had thought I had seen everything at Camp Half Blood. Apparently however, I had not seen everything.
Because flying around in the air right now above camp is Leo Valdez on top of the Bronze Dragon. Yes, you heard me correctly. Leo Valdez on top of the fucking Bronze Dragon itself.
This shit cannot write itself.
So yeah, if I had to be quite frank here which I will, I'm probably as every bit as freaked out as the screaming duo of Piper and Alyssa nearby, and for good reason.
And that brings me to the present, as Leo descends towards the ground while still riding the dragon. How in the hell he managed to tame the thing is beyond me honestly.
"Leo?!" Piper yelled.
Like I said before, there he was, sitting atop a giant bronze death machine and grinning like a lunatic. Even before he landed, the camp alarm went up. A conch horn blew. All the satyrs started screaming, "Don't kill me!" Half the camp ran outside in a mixture of pajamas and armor. The dragon set down right in the middle of the green, and Leo put up his hands and yelled, "It's cool! Don't shoot!"
I wanted to believe him. Believe me, I did.. but given what the dragon had done to Jake and Nyssa in the past, I had my doubts about it honestly. Either way, I knew one thing was for certain. Leo Valdez is officially the craziest demigod that I have ever met.
I mean, some of the things Colton did were crazy — and the same could be said for Percy, but this.. especially given what it did to Jake, was beyond crazy. And still somehow, Leo had succeeded where the rest of his own cabin had failed time after time. It was as if the dragon had been waiting for someone like him.
Hesitantly, the archers lowered their bows. Clove looked ready to toss a knife into Leo's head or the dragon — I couldn't tell which it looked like she was going to aim for, but she too reluctantly lowered her arms, with a knife as usual in her right hand. Believe me when I say, it takes every ounce of fiber I have right now to not go into a rant about Clove.
There is something so cute about her that no matter how hard I try, I just can't place my finger on it. I must be going crazy or something.
Anyways, moving on.
I lowered my sword in my left hand. The warriors backed away, keeping their spears and swords ready. They made a loose wide ring around the metal monster. Other campers hid behind their cabin doors or peeped out the windows. Nobody, not even me, seemed anxious enough to get close and for good reason.
From what it looked like on Piper's face as well as that of Alyssa's faces, it seemed like both of them understood that they couldn't really blame any of us for thinking that way at all. The dragon was huge. It glistened in the morning sun like a living penny sculpture —different shades of copper and bronze—a sixty-foot-long serpent with steel talons and drill-bit teeth and glowing ruby eyes. It had bat-shaped wings twice its length that unfurled like metallic sails, making a sound like coins cascading out of a slot machine every time they flapped. Okay — it wasn't exactly like that, but pretty close. That's all I have to say here.
"It's beautiful," Piper muttered. The rest of us, with the exception of Alyssa, pretty much all looked at her like she was insane. I couldn't tell if she was insane right now or not honestly.
The dragon reared its head and shot a column of fire into the sky. I took a few steps back, holding my sword up again, as other campers scrambled away and hefted their weapons, but Leo slid calmly off the dragon's back. He held up his hands like he was surrendering, except he still had that crazy grin on his face. He had to be insane, I was sure of it at this point. I could see Alec out of the corner of my eye with his sword in hand, standing in front of an obviously McKaley. Rose was standing by Katie and Travis, while Aruna and Aurora were standing by their siblings.
"People of Earth, I come in peace!" he shouted. He looked like he'd been rolling around in the campfire. I doubt he had been, but that's really what it looked like. His army coat and his face were smeared with soot. His hands were grease-stained, and he wore a new tool belt around his waist. His eyes were bloodshot. His curly hair was so oily it stuck up in porcupine quills, and he smelled strangely of Tabasco sauce. But he looked absolutely delighted for some odd reason that eluded me. "Festus is just saying hello!"
Festus? I thought to myself. He's calling that thing Festus? Dear lord, this man is completely insane right now!
"That thing is dangerous!" Clarisse shouted, brandishing her electric spear. "Kill it now!"
"Stand down!" someone ordered.
I turned around and to my surprise, it had been Jason who said it. He pushed through the crowd, flanked by Annabeth, Nyssa, Bryce, and Clara. They all walked past Piper and Alyssa and straight on up to Leo and the dragon.
Jason gazed up at the dragon and shook his head in amazement. "Leo, what have you done?"
Bryce was scratching his head in disbelief and Clara looked like she was looking at the coolest thing she had seen in her entire life for some reason, at the verge of downright fan-girling. It was, for lack of a better phrase here, absolutely weird as hell. There is no other better phrase than that in my head that I can think of to describe what is taking place in front of us right now.
"Found a ride!" Leo beamed. "You said I could go on the quest if I got you a ride. Well, I got you a class-A metallic flying bad boy! Festus can take us anywhere!"
Jason did say that, not going to lie here or argue about that. Not much of a flaw there. But still, it had wings now — whereas it didn't have any before.
"It—has wings," Nyssa stammered, basically stating the obvious. Her jaw looked like it might drop off her face, if I had to be honest here. I took a glance at Clove. She looked like she was having a very hard time believing what she was seeing too.
"Yeah!" Leo said. "I found them and reattached them."
But it never had wings. Where did you find them?"
Leo hesitated, and honestly, I kinda felt like he was hiding something. From what it looked like on Piper's face, it seemed that she felt the same thing too.
"In ... the woods," he said. "Repaired his circuits, too, mostly, so no more problems with him going haywire."
"Mostly?" Nyssa asked.
"Yeah.. define 'mostly', Leo.." Bryce added.
The dragon's head twitched. It tilted to one side and a stream of black liquid—maybe oil, hopefully just oil—poured out of its ear, all over Leo.
"Yuck dude!" Bryce exclaimed.
"Just a few kinks to work out," Leo said.
"But how did you survive ... ?" Nyssa was still staring at the creature in awe. "I mean, the fire breath ..."
"I'm quick," Leo said. "And lucky. Now, am I on this quest, or what?"
Bryce simply snorted and looked like he was holding back some laughter. Jason simply scratched his head. "You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, 'festus' means 'happy'? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?"
Okay, that definitely caught me off guard. It was rather ironic really. Flying off to save the world from creatures that wanted the opposite of happy to happen to everyone else on a dragon named Happy. Like I said before, this shit could not write itself.
The dragon twitched and shuddered and flapped his wings.
"That's a yes, bro!" Leo said. "Now, um, I'd really suggest we get going, guys. I already picked up some supplies in the—um, in the woods. And all these people with weapons are making Festus nervous."
Yeah, I thought to myself. He definitely had that right for sure.
Jason frowned. "But we haven't planned anything yet. We can't just—"
"Go.." Belle said, interrupting Jason out of nowhere. I did a double take. I hadn't even noticed her walk up. She was the only one who didn't look nervous at all, aside from Annabeth. Their expression was sad and wistful, like all of this reminded both of them of better times.
"Jason, you've only got three days until the solstice now, and you should never keep a nervous dragon waiting. This is certainly a good omen. Go!"
Jason nodded. Then he smiled at Piper, Alyssa, Bryce, and Clara. "You all ready guys?"
Piper looked at the bronze dragon wings shining against the sky, and those talons that could've shredded her to pieces. I had no clue exactly what she was thinking, neither could I tell what the others were thinking.
"You bet," she said, plopping a seat on the dragon alongside Jason and Leo, who both climbed back on.
"You know what? Hell yeah I'm doing this.." Bryce simply said, taking a seat on there as well behind Jason, who was behind Piper who was behind Leo. "Always wanted to ride a dragon since I was a little kid."
Scratch that. Bryce and Leo are the craziest demigods I have ever met.
Alyssa looked reluctant, but eventually even she planted herself on the dragon behind Clara, who had hopped on behind Bryce and before she had.
"Stay safe, you all.." Adriana now called out.
"Hopefully, we will.." Clara remarked.
"Please do.." Annabeth remarked. "If the great prophecy is beginning now, we need all the help we can get. Especially with Colton, Percy, Luke, and Michael still missing."
"We will all try to keep that in mind.." Jason said back.
I noticed by now that Kayla had joined Annabeth and Nyssa, eyes full of hope, anxiety, and anticipation. It seemed like she knew that this quest would be very important in finding where our missing camp members, her boyfriend and one of her half-brothers among them, were.
"May the blessing of the Gods be with you.." she simply muttered to them, glaring at Leo all the while, who looked away in shame. I was honestly wondering how exactly she would tell Colton about this - or how he wound found about this at all if Kayla wasn't the one who let him know. Either way, the minute he found out, Leo was definitely going to be in the hot seat for sure.
The dragon soared up into the sky after a few more moments, and disappeared into the clouds, and as it left, I for a moment wondered what the future would bring. Little had I realized that day the long - and yet incredibly fast paced - road that awaited us about six months later.