𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 || leo valdez

𝐕𝐈: festus attempts murder

✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩

        THE FOREST WAS the Twilight Zone for Leo.

After Pipers little makeover, he focused on his main issue; finding an air transport for the quest. Sure Piper was pretty, but he'd always seen her as the sister he never had. The real problem was the ride.

He stumbled along until he was sure no one back at the cabins could possibly see him. Then he summoned fire. Flames danced along his fingertips, casting enough light to see. He hadn't tried to keep a sustained burn going since he was five, at that picnic table. Since his mom's death, he'd been too afraid to try anything. Even this tiny fire made him feel guilty.

He jumped when he heard a voice behind him.

"You really should be more careful with that fire, if you don't want anyone finding out." Veronica said, stepping out of the shadows. Jeez, this girl just keeps getting creepier, doesnt she?

"Oh hey mamas! What fire?" He smiled stupidly.

"Quit that."

Leo gulped, then shrugged and said smiling "Alright, but then you have to help me."

"Yeah, okay." Veronica said rolling her eyes.
"What exactly are we looking for?"

"For any dragon-type clues—giant footprints, trampled trees, swaths of burning forest." Leos eyes igniting as he talked, happy she was willing to help.

"Okay.. totally normal stuff. And why are we looking for a dragon?"

"To hopefully get a ride for the quest. Then we talk, bond along the way, fall in love-"

"You have three seconds to shut up or I'm leaving."

She walked up to him and they walked side by side in the darkness, the only thing igniting their path being Leos fire.

It was so awkward. They both kept glancing at eachother and making eye contact, then quickly breaking it and turning the other way.

"So, how is.. life?" Leo asked, feeling the awkward tension between them.

"Valdez, don't make this more difficult than it already is." Veronica groaned.

After a few moments, Veronica got way ahead, and stopped on her heels, as all of a sudden she spotted the first trap. A hundred-foot-wide crater ringed with boulders. Leo spotted her and caught up to her in a jog.

In the center of the depression, a metal vat the size of a hot tub had been filled with bubbly dark liquid— Tabasco sauce and motor oil. On a pedestal suspended over the vat, an electric fan rotated in a circle, spreading the fumes across the forest.

"Is this what we were looking for..?" Veronica whispered, not being able to take her eyes off the terrifying trap.

Without answering, Leo looked closer, and in the dim light of the stars and his handheld fire, he could see the glint of metal beneath the dirt and leaves—a bronze net lining the entire crater. Six large strips of bronze stretched out from the vat like the spokes of a wheel.

Leo edged closer.

He was about to put his foot on the nearest strip but Veronica grabbed his hand and pulled him back.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?" She whisper yelled, looking around as if the dragon was listening.

"No! Don't worry, it's safe for humans- ah demigods- whatever we are, to walk on this. They had to have set the net for something really heavy. Otherwise they could catch an animal, human, smaller monster, whatever. I doubt there's anything else as heavy as a metal dragon in these woods."