madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-the snow glows white on the mountain tonight-

⋆˖⁺‧₊🎧🧨🍷🎬🍓₊‧⁺˖⋆

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As they got closer, Teqi was worried they'd crash into the tower. The sons of boring made right for the gingerbread house peak and didn't slow down.

Then a section of the slanted roof slid open, revealing a concealed entrance easily wide enough for Festus. The top and bottom were lined with sharp icicles like jagged teeth. It didn't sit right with Teqi.

"This can't be good," she muttered, but Leo spurred the dragon downward, and they swooped in after the Boreads. They landed in what must have been the penthouse suite, claws clicking on the floor, only it looked like an ice powered princess had had a breakdown in it.

The entry hall had ceilings forty feet high, huge draped windows, and lush carpets. A staircase at the back of the room led up to another equally massive hall, and more corridors branched off to the left and right.

The ice made the room's beauty a chilling, literally.

When Leo slid off the dragon, Teqi heard the carpet crunched underneath his feet.

She wasn't desperate to hop off the dragon herself. A fine layer of frost covered the sleek furniture. The curtains didn't budge because they were frozen solid, wind whistling behind them. A vase of flowers was frozen solid. They could've been there for years. They probably had.

"Guys," Leo said, breaking them out of their awed trance, "fix the thermostat in here, and I would totally move in."

"Not me," Jason said uneasily, peering up the staircase.

She looked up at the roof, eyebrows pinched. She wondered how often those massive pointy icicles dropped and impaled visitors. Only a few hours into their quest. That would be embarrassing.

Festus shuddered, his metal plates reverberating underneath Teqi's thighs, and snorted little flames. Frost started to form on his scales. She crept up to the middle of his back nervously.

"No, no, no!" Zethes marched over, surprisingly quickly for someone in pointed leather shoes. "The dragon must be deactivated. We can't have fire in here. The heat ruins my hair."

"The heat ruins your hair?" Teqi muttered to herself. Festus snorted again, tilting his head to look at her with. She wondered if Leo had installed a sense of humour in his dragon. She wouldn't expect anything less.

Festus clunkily stepped back and spun his drill-bit teeth with an automated growl at Zethes when the angel guy stalked closer, metallic eyes flashing red and green like Christmas lights.

Teqi bared her teeth with him.

"S'okay, boy." Leo said, turning to Zethes. "The dragon's a little touchy about the whole deactivation concept. But I've got a better solution."

"Destroy?" Cal suggested hopefully.

"No, man. You gotta stop with the destroy talk. Just wait."

Leo smiled at her expectantly. She shuffled higher onto Festus. "I'm not getting down. Its cold. I will get hyperthermia and then I will be impaled by ice sticks," Teqi snapped.

"I won't let you freeze to death," He used puppy eyes with that statement. He held out a hand to help her down. "And I'll give you your miffy slippers back?"