REMEMBER ME ---- BOOK I / Heroes of Olympus / Leo Valdez Fanfiction

people of earth! we come in peace with a flying blowtorch!

☀

"LEO?" SHE YELLED. SHE DID NOT LIKE HEIGHTS.

"SO COOOOOL!" Leo screamed, his hands flying on the either side of him as Penelope grabbed his torso.

"NOT COOOOOOL!" Penelope screamed, burying her head in his neck, as Leo screamed a bit more.

"How 'bout we fly to Paris on a date?!" Leo said, as he bought his hands back to the controls.

"DON'T BE STUPID, FLY TO C-A-M-P!" Penelope shouted at the boy as Leo laughed.

"PROBABLY GET A BAGUETTE, NO A CROISSANT? THEN I'LL PROPOSE TO YOU NEXT TO EIFFEL TOWER!" Leo joked, enacting holding a ring box.

"ARGHH!" Penelope grunted as wind slapped her face. She held onto his waist and screamed onto his back, as Leo cackled.

"What you doin' holding onto my lil waist?" Leo asked, with a girl-y accent looking back at her.

"GONNA FRICKIN KILL YOU VALDEZ" Penelope looked up at him, who was busy shooting at her with finger guns and sending winks.

"Jee fine, OFF TOO CAMP!" Leo screamed, as he made Festus soar in the sky higher, and Penelope could swear she saw Charon for a second.

Flying on Festus was no joke, and Penelope had no idea how long she was going to stay alive on this quest for while flying on a dragon, who still had tabasco sauce flowing out his left ear. Her hair violently flapped behind her as she shivered in morning air as her father faced the grounds of earth. While Leo was having the time of his life, Penelope prayed that her hood hadn't burnt off. It was dang cold.

__

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.

Penelope couldn't blame them. 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. The other demigods stared at her like she was insane.

"aNd sCaRy!" Penelope screamed, but her voice had died down from the previous screaming in air.

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 his hands out for Penelope, but she jumped of the dragon and flipped her hair at him.

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!"

"That thing is dangerous!" an Ares girl shouted, brandishing her spear. "Kill it now!"

"Stand down!" someone ordered.