The Hidden Follower

14.

Delta tried to be quiet while Leo was working and Leo seemed to be working quickly. "Why are you going so fast? you might mess up."

"Don't put that idea in my head Delta." Leo then sighed, "Look i just don't know how long the control disc can be off without it being damaged."

"You need to get dirtier then that or your control disc will be so full of dirt it a plant will grow out of it."

"Clean hands, dirty equipment," Leo muttered, something Delta recognized as something his mother used to say. By the time he was through, his hands were black with grease and his clothes looked like he'd just lost a mud-wrestling contest, but the mechanisms looked a lot better. He slipped in the disk, connected the last wire, and sparks flew. The dragon shuddered. Its eyes began to glow.

"Better?" Leo asked.

"Yes you look rightfully dirty."

"I was asking Festus."

Said dragon made a sound like a high-speed drill. he opened his mouth and all his teeth rotated.

"I guess that's a yes. Hold on, I'll free you. "

Another thirty minutes to find the release clamps for the net and untangle the dragon, but finally he stood and shook the last bit of netting off his back. Festus roared triumphantly and shot fire at the sky.

"Seriously," Leo said. "Could you not show off?"

Creak? the dragon asked.

"You need a name," Leo decided. "I'm calling you Festus. "

"Oh I wonder where you got that from."

"Shut up Delta" Leo said. "But we still have a problem, because you don't have wings. "

Festus tilted his head and snorted steam. Then he lowered his back in an unmistakable gesture. He wanted Leo to climb on.

"Where we going?" Leo asked.

But he was too excited to wait for an answer. He climbed onto the dragon's back, and Festus bounded off into the woods.

"Talk with him Piper said, He'll understand Piper said, well I say he left me to walk."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   Delta walked through her chalk portal to see Festus stopped at the base of a cliff with a leg lifted like a dog pointing.

  "What is it?" Leo slid to the ground. He walked up to the cliff—nothing but solid rock. The dragon kept pointing.

  "It's not going to move out of your way," Leo told him.

  "It should for you."

  Leo jumped, "How in the shit did get here so fast."

  "You already know about my chalk portals." Delta walked closer to Leo and gestured to his hands.

  The loose wire in the dragon's neck sparked, but otherwise he stayed still. Leo put his hand on the cliff. Suddenly his fingers smoldered. Lines of fire spread from his fingertips like ignited gunpowder, sizzling across the limestone. The burning lines raced across the cliff face until they had outlined a glowing red door five times as tall as Leo. He backed up and the door swung open, disturbingly silently for such a big slab of rock.

  "Perfectly balanced," he muttered. "That's some first-rate engineering."

"Of course it is, Leo this is bunker 9."

The dragon unfroze and marched inside, as if he were coming home.

  Leo and Delta stepped through, and the door began to close. Leo had a panicked face. Was he thinking about getting stuck in here? Then lights flickered on—a combination of electric fluorescents and wall-mounted torches.

  "Festus," he muttered. "What is this place?"

"I told you what this place was."

   The dragon stomped to the center of the room, leaving tracks in the thick dust, and curled up on a large circular platform.

  The cave was the size of an airplane hangar, with endless worktables and storage cages, rows of garage-sized doors along either wall, and staircases that led up to a network of catwalks high above. Equipment was everywhere—hydraulic lifts, welding torches, hazard suits, air-spades, forklifts, plus a work in progress nuclear reaction chamber. Bulletin boards were covered with tattered, faded blueprints. And weapons, armor, shields—war supplies all over the place, a lot of them only partially finished.

"God he really never cleaned did he?" Delta whispered.

  Hanging from chains far above the dragon's platform was an old tattered banner almost too faded to read. The letters were Greek reading 'Bunker 9'

  "Does that mean nine as in the Hephaestus cabin, or nine as in there were eight others?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you, I think it means the cabin though."

Leo looked at Festus, still curled up on the platform. "That's why he looks so content."

  "Do the other kids know ... ?" Leo's question died as he asked it. Clearly, this place had been abandoned for decades. Cobwebs and dust covered everything. The floor revealed no footprints except for his, and the huge paw prints of the dragon. He was the first one in this bunker since ... since a long time ago. Bunker 9 had been abandoned with a lot of projects half finished on the tables.

"One did but, now only I do and I guess so do you."

  Leo looked at a map on the wall—a battle map of camp, but the paper was as cracked and yellow as onionskin. A date at the bottom read, 1864.

  "No way," he muttered.

  Then he spotted a blueprint on a nearby bulletin board, and his heart almost leaped out of his throat. He ran to the worktable and stared up at a white-line drawing almost faded beyond recognition: a Greek ship from several different angles. Faintly scrawled words underneath it read: prophecy? unclear. flight?

"That's the Argo, the one the original Jason was on."

  It was the ship in Leo's memories—the flying ship. Someone had tried to build it here, or at least sketched out the idea. Then it was left, forgotten ... a prophecy yet to come. And weirdest of all, the ship's masthead was exactly like the one Leo had drawn when he was five—the head of a dragon. "Looks like you, Festus," he murmured. "That's creepy. "

  The masthead gave Delta an uneasy feeling. He touched the blueprint, like he considered he was taking it down to study, but the paper crackled at his touch, so he left it alone. He looked around.

"No boats huh?"

Leo looked at Delta, "No pieces that could even be apart of it."

  Festus snorted like he was trying to get Leo's attention, reminding him they didn't have all night. It was true. Delta guessed it would be morning in a few hours. Leo saved the dragon, but it wasn't going to help him on the quest. He needed something that would fly.

  Festus nudged something toward Leo—a leather tool belt that had been left next to his construction pad. Then the dragon switched on his glowing red eye beams and turned them toward the ceiling. Delta looked up to where the spotlights were pointing, and heard Leo yelp when when he looked at the shapes hanging above them in the darkness.

  "Festus," he said in a small voice. "We've got work to do. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Written: July 23,2021
Published: July 23,2021
Edited: ____ __,____