𝓢𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓴𝓼 || Leo Valdez X OC

9) sight for sore eyes

Word Count: 3041 (shorter one, but enjoy nonetheless!)
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Destroy them?" The ox showed off his gap-toothed grin as the group stood in front of them, blocking the way.

The dragon began to hiss steam, ready to defend them. Jason summoned his golden sword, but Leo cried, "Hold on! Let's have some manners here, boys. Can I at least find out who has the honor of destroying me?"

"I am Cal!" the ox grunted. He looked very proud of himself, like he'd taken a long time to memorize that sentence.

"That's short for Calais," the love god said. "Sadly, my brother cannot say words with more than two syllables-"

"Pizza! Hockey! Destroy!" Cal offered.

"-which includes his own name," the love god finished.

"I am Cal," Cal repeated. "And this is Zethes! My brother!"

"Wow," Leo said. "That was almost three sentences, man!"

Ada snorted and clapped sarcastically. "Way to go!" Cal grunted, obviously pleased with himself.

"Stupid buffoon," his brother grumbled. "They make fun of you. But no matter. I am Zethes, which is short for Zethes. And the lady there-" He winked at Piper, but the wink was more like a facial seizure. "She can call me anything she likes. Perhaps she would like to have dinner with a famous demigod before we must destroy you?"

Piper made a sound like gagging on a cough drop. "That's ... a truly horrifying offer."

Wow. Piper was such a looker she had weirdos like this on her? Never mind, Ada thought. I'm not jealous.

It is no problem." Zethes wiggled his eyebrows. "We are a very romantic people, we Boreads."

"Boreads?" Jason cut in. "Do you mean, like, the sons of Boreas?" The golden eyed girl was impressed, as she would never make that correlation.

"Ah, so you've heard of us!" Zethes looked pleased. "We are our father's gatekeepers. So you understand, we cannot have unauthorized people flying in his airspace on creaky dragons, scaring the silly mortal peoples."

He pointed below, and Ada saw that the mortals were starting to take notice. Several were pointing up-not with alarm, yet-more with confusion and annoyance, like the dragon was a traffic helicopter flying too low. She was tempted to yell, "all good! Not a flying dragon, just some maintenance! Move along!" But she decided better.

"Which is sadly why, unless this is an emergency landing," Zethes said, brushing his hair out of his acne-covered face, "we will have to destroy you painfully."

"Destroy!" Cal agreed, with a little more enthusiasm than Ada thought necessary.

"Wait!" Piper said. "This is an emergency landing."

"Awww!" Cal looked so disappointed, Ada almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

Zethes studied Piper, which of course he'd already been doing. "How does the pretty girl decide this is an emergency, then?"

"We have to see Boreas. It's totally urgent! Please?" She forced a smile, which Ada must've been killing her; but she still had that blessing of Aphrodite thing going on, and she looked great. Something about her voice, too-it was so smooth. She turned and saw Leo, who looked absolutely convinced, which made her furrow her eyebrows. Jason was nodding, looking equally enamored.

Zethes picked at his silk shirt, probably making sure it was still open wide enough. "Well ... I hate to disappoint a lovely lady, but you see, my sister, she would have an avalanche if we allowed you-"