The Child of Hecate

Chapter Seven - Festus, The Happy Dragon

"Wake up!"

"Lou Ellen, what on earth – "

"Your boyfriend's riding a metallic dragon, wake up!"

That ought to bring me back to life. I rose up from my bed and saw Lou Ellen jumping up and down, "It's so cool! C'mon!" She didn't even give me a minute to change out of my pyjamas (they were blue and had monkeys on them) she just literally dragged me out of the cabin and ran across the grounds towards the forest. When I got there, a majority of the camp was watching.

Sure enough, there he was, sitting atop a giant bronze death machine and grinning like a lunatic. 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 pyjamas and armour. 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.

I 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," I muttered to myself. I felt the other demigods stare at me like I was insane.

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. He still looks cute how is that possible? "Festus is just saying hello!"

"That thing is dangerous!" An Ares girl shouted, brandishing her spear, "Kill it!" I felt my arms grow warm at her words, my entire body now emitting a silver glow. I stood in front of the dragon and faced the crowd, "Put your weapons away!" a lot of them backed away and dropped their spears and swords. I saw Jason push through the crowd, he looked at the dragon behind me in admiration, "What – "

"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!" 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. Festus lowered his snout and nudged me a bit, I faced it and laid my hand on what I think is a bronze nose. "He likes you!" Leo piped giving me a quick peck on the cheek, "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."

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!"