𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 - jason grace ¹

xi. hopes too high

XI. VIOLET !
⋆ ★
hopes too high

Of all places the dragon would have landed, it had to be the toilets. A dozen of the blue plastic boxes had been set up in the factory yard, and Festus had flattened them all. Fortunately, they hadn't been used in a long time, and the fireball from the crash incinerated most of the contents: but still, there were some pretty gross chemicals leaking out of the wreckage. Violet and Leo had to pick their way through and try not to breathe through their noses. Heavy snow was coming down, but the dragon's hide was still steaming hot. That bothered Violet. She stepped back away from the heat before she passed out,

After a few minutes climbing over Festus's inanimate body, Violet noticed Leo had started to get irritated. He didn't say much, but the dragon looked perfectly fine. Yes, it had fallen out of the sky and landed with a big ka-boom, but its body wasn't even dented. The fireball had apparently come from built up gasses inside the toilet units, not from the dragon itself. Festus's wings were intact. Nothing seemed broken. There was no reason it should have stopped.

"It's all okay?" asked Violet from her spot. "I can try to get closer."

"Fire and ice don't mix, V," chuckled Leo. Then he opened the control panel on the dragon's head. "Oh, Festus, what the heck? V, come here. I need your help."

It took a while for Violet to get up on top of the dragon. She struggled to adjust to the heat radiating Festus, but the snow made her feel better than she thought it would. That was when she saw what Leo was looking at.

The wiring had frozen over. Something had caused a flash freeze inside the dragon's skull, where it should've been too hot for ice to form. The ice had caused the wiring to overload and char the control disk.

"Oh gods," Violet mumbled. "That's not normal ice. That's— that's magic."

"Your magic?"

"Mine?" Violet tried to hide how offended she felt at his accusation. She didn't like what Leo was suggesting about her potentially ruining their quest. "No! When would I have the time to sneak into Festus' head and do this?"

"You can't lie, it's shady!" Leo defended.

"I didn't do anything! Leo, why would you think that?" she hated how her voice came out like a whine. Violet had always been given strange glances, but she had never been accused of sabotage. Her mind went to her own mother, Khione, who could've had the ability to freeze the disc. But Violet? Her own powers didn't even work that way. She could only freeze something if she touched it.

"Okay, okay! Sorry, V. But . . this is weird."

"Let's start with this: can you replace the wires?" asked Violet.

"I can but that's not the problem. The charred control disk isn't good. See? These letters and pictures carved around the edges?"

Violet leaned forward to see what he was talking about. The letters which probably held all kinds of magic, were blurred and blackened.

"There has to be something you can do," suggested Violet.

"Right," Leo muttered, brushing the snow off his shoulders. "Gimme a nylon bristle detail brush, some nitrile gloves, and maybe a can of that aerosol cleaning solvent."

The tool belt around Leo's waist obliged. Leo smiled as he pulled out the supplies. He began cleaning off the control disk. While he worked, snow collected on the cooling dragon.

"Violet," Leo stopped working. Violet had gotten off of the dragon to keep herself from overheating. She peeped her head out from above the metal, seeing Leo's unsure face. "You sense it too, right? That weirdness between us?"