The Hidden Follower(rewrite)

9.

    "Hold still!" Leo scolded.

    The dragon made another creaking sound that might've been a whimper.

    Leo examined the wires inside the dragon's head. Delta looked around the forest, there was a dryad putting out a small fire on a branch. Her dress was smoking and she gave Leo a look before making a rude gesture and disappearing in a green mist.

 
    "Ha," Leo said. "Well, no wonder."

    "You found something?" Delta shouted over.

    Creak? the dragon asked with its jaw.

    "You've got a corroded control disk. Probably regulates your higher reasoning circuits, right? Rusty brain, man. No wonder you're a little ... confused. I wish I had a replacement disk, but ...this is a complicated piece of circuitry. I'm gonna have to take it out and clean it. Only be a minute." Leo pulled out the disk, and the dragon went absolutely still. The glow died in its eyes.

    "Dude, you basically just killed the dragon! I thought we wanted it to be alive."

    "He is alive, just turned off for now."

    Leo slid off its back and began polishing the disk. Delta finally moved toward him and the dragon. Leo mopped up some oil and Tabasco sauce with his sleeve, which helped cut through the grime, but the more he cleaned, the more concerned he looked.

    Leo rushed to clean the disc, Delta didn't really know a whole lot about robots but she was sure that he had a very good reason for this. Once Leo had gotten most of the grime, he climbed back up to the dragon's head and started cleaning the wiring and gearboxes, getting himself filthy in the process.

    "You're a mess right now,"

    "Oh, that's nice, you wanna try to clean the wires of a giant dragon who likes Tabasco and motor oil for a snack?"

    "Jeez, wasn't making fun of you, in fact, it's a good thing."

    "Why's that?"

    "Come on, you're a son of Hephaestus, you should know that clean hands mean dirty equipment. You are also mature enough that you don't need to make a joke about how that sounds."

    "Clean hands, dirty equipment," he muttered.
Leo kept with his cleaning, 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.

    The dragon made a sound like a high-speed drill. It opened its mouth and all its teeth rotated.

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

    "Do you want help or can I hide from the fire again?"

    "It would be great if you helped, thanks."

    It took almost an hour for them to find all the release clamps, it would've been quicker if Leo trusted Delta when she said that she had found some, but that wasn't how it went.

    When the dragon got himself fully untangled, he roared and blew fire into the sky."

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

    "How about figuring out how to get this thing wings?"

    Creak? the dragon asked.

    "Yeah Leo, creak?" Delta asked, just assuming the dragon was on her side.

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

    The dragon whirred its teeth and grinned

    "He looks like a Curtis."

    "I'm not naming him Curtis."

    "Fine,"

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

    "Yeah, because I totally didn't just bring this up."

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

"Where are we going?" Leo asked.

    The dragon obviously didn't answer.

    "Hey, I think I'll catch up with you guys and see you maybe tomorrow."

    "What? But how am I supposed to have human contact while I'm slaving over the dragon?"

    "I barely even talked."

    "But when you did most of it was weird comments and made me feel good about myself."

    "If I go with you am I going to be burnt alive?"

    "No."

    "I'll go, but only so people where to find your dead body in the morning when you somehow get killed.

    Delta sighed and grabbed Leo's now outstretched hand and as soon as she was on the dragon he took off. "Oh fuck!"

    "I don't think I ever want to go on that dragon again,"

    "Don't be such a baby. It was fine."

    "No, it wasn't. I'm getting off the dragon now."

    Festus had stopped at the base of a limestone cliff and lifted one leg 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. Delta slid off after him and started to look around.

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

    "I don't see anything like a door, I'm pretty sure your dragon found a dead end."

    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.

    "Are you fucking serious?"

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

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

    "Yeah dude, I draw the line at creepy cave things. If you don't come back tomorrow I'll tell everyone why."

    "Thanks," Leo walked through the doors and they started to close.

    "I knew it, he's not coming back. I want custody of Piper, she seems chill."

~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~

Written: March 15, 2023
Published: March 15, 2023
Edited: _____ __ ____

I've got to stop making promises about updating that I won't keep. Anyway, this is pretty much where the rewrite starts to be a little different than the original. Now that this part is over I may want to write more, but like I said, no more making promises I can't keep.