DEJA VU || Leo Valdez

fourteen

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A dragon was not what Brooke expected to see when she woke up the next morning but it was. As soon as she stepped out of her cabin she saw a dragon flying across the camp sky. But more surprisingly she found her best friend atop the dragon. Yup, sure enough, there he was, sitting atop a giant bronze death machine and grinning like a lunatic. He really takes his job as an idiot very seriously, Brooke thinks.

"Leo!" The girl yells up to the boy.

He notices the girl on the ground and starts to descend. 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 yelled, "It's cool! Don't shoot!"

Hesitantly, the archers lowered their bows. The warriors backed away, keeping their spears and swords ready. They made a loose wide ring around the metal monster. Other demigods hid behind their cabin doors or peeped out the windows. Nobody seemed anxious to get close.

Especially Brooke but still she walks a little closer to the boy but makes sure to keep her distance from the dragon's mouth.

"Leo. Buddy. Can you explain to me WHY  you are on a dragon?"

"I found him." The boy answers.

"Oh you found him?" Brooke gives him an incredulous look. "That makes it so much better. This wouldn't happen to be the broken, crazy dragon that was running around the woods, would it?"

Festus huffs in annoyance causing steam to erupt from his nose and smack the girl in the face.

"He doesn't like that word." Leo ignores her question.

"You're telling me the giant, metal dragon doesn't like me using the word crazy." The dragon once again blows steam from his nose but Brooke stops it from hitting her in the face. Leo nods.

That is definitely not the weirdest thing to come out of Leo's mouth so she complies. "Okay fine. I won't say the word."

"Great. You wanna ride?"

"Excuse me?" She looks at him like he's crazy. "On that? Absolutely not! There's no way I'm getting on that deathtrap."

"Hmm that's a shame. He's our quest ride."

Brooke stares at him, blinks, then looks at the dragon.

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.

"It's beautiful," Piper muttered as she stared. The other demigods including Brooke stared at her like she was insane.

"Piper. It's a dragon." Brooke says giving her a look. The girl didn't trust dragons after she encountered one on the quest to save Annabeth and Artemis. Metal or not.

The dragon reared its head and shot a column of fire into the sky. 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.

"People of Earth, I come in peace!" he shouted. He looked like he'd been rolling around in the campfire. 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. "Festus is just saying hello!"

Festus? Just like her dream. If Brooke knew that Festus was a metallic dragon she'd be forced to ride, she would've woken up immediately and tried to withdraw from the quest. Regardless of if she's part of the prophecy or not.

"That thing is dangerous!" an Ares girl shouted, brandishing her spear. "Kill it now!" Brooke didn't entirely agree with the killing but she did also think it was dangerous.

"Stand down!" someone ordered.

To Brooke's surprise, it was Jason. He pushed through the crowd, flanked by Annabeth and Nyssa.

Jason gazed up at the dragon and shook his head in amazement. "Leo, what have you done?"

"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!"

"It—has wings," Nyssa stammered. Her jaw looked like it might drop off her face.

"Yeah!" Leo said. "I found them and reattached them."

"But it never had wings. Where did you find them?"

Leo hesitated, and Brooke could tell he was hiding something.

"In ... the woods," he said. "Repaired his circuits, too, mostly, so no more problems with him going haywire."

"Mostly?" Nyssa asked.

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.

"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?"

Jason 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?"

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."

"We're making him nervous. Leo! Dragon!" Brooke inputs gesturing towards Festus.

Jason frowned. "But we haven't planned anything yet. We can't just—"

"Go," Annabeth said. She was the only one who didn't look nervous at all. Her expression was sad and wistful, like this reminded her 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. "You ready, partner?"

Piper looked at the bronze dragon wings shining against the sky, and those talons that could've shredded her to pieces.

"You bet," she said.

Jason then looks over to Brooke.

"Mmm mmm. No way." She shakes her head stubbornly.

"Oh come on. He won't hurt you. Promise." Leo assures. He looks the girl in her eyes and gives her a look she can't resist. "Don't you trust me?"

It's not like Brooke was gonna say no. Especially not when he was looking at her like that. So what do you think she did?

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