Hurricane ~ L. Valdez

1.6 - Beautiful People Never Lie

"Good morning sunshine." I greeted Jason, as he sat up groggily.

"You seem nice and awake." Jason noted, rubbing his eyes.

"I didn't really sleep last night, so I've been up for hours... I found you some clothes that should fit you... I was about to get ready to leave anyway." I said, gesturing to the clothes I had lay out.

"Do you need to change first?" He asked, and I shook my head.

"I already did, in Percy's cabin." I said, before walking outside the cabin. "I'll catch up with you in a bit." I told him, before starting to walk around camp.

I walked around calmly for a bit, and had just found Piper, when all of a sudden a dragon flew from the sky.

"Leo!?" I exclaimed. Sure enough, my Latino best friend was sitting on top of the giant bronze dragon, grinning like a maniac.

He hadn't even landed when a conch horn was blown. All the satyrs started screaming, "Don't kill me!" Then about half the camp ran outside wearing a mixture of pajamas and armor.

The dragon landed down right in the middle of the field, and Leo yelled, "It's cool! Don't shoot!" Hesitantly, the archers lowered their bows. The warriors backed away, keeping their weapons up.

"It's beautiful," Piper muttered, and I had to agree with her. Apparently, none of the other demigods did.

The dragon reared its head and shot a column of fire into the sky. Campers scrambled away and hefted their weapons, but Leo simply slid off the dragon's back casually. 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. To say Leo looked like a mess was an understatement. He looked like he had gone rolling around in the campfire. His clothes and face were smeared with soot. His hands were grease-stained, and he had a new tool belt around his waist. His eyes were bloodshot, although I couldn't judge there. His curly hair was a mess, and he kind of smelled like Tabasco sauce.

Despite it all, I don't think I'd seen him look this happy in a long time.

      "Festus is just saying hello!" Leo grinned.

"That thing is dangerous!" Clarisse shouted, brandishing her spear. (I dunno if it's actually Clarisse or not cuz the chapter was originally in Piper's POV) "Kill it now!"

"Stand down!" someone ordered. 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!" He walked towards me as Nyssa gaped at him, shocked.

"It—has wings," she stammered.

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

"But it never had wings. Where did you find them?" Leo hesitated, and I 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?" I spoke up. 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. I took a step away from the boy, as he nodded.

"Just a few kinks to work out."

"But how did you survive...?" Nyssa was still staring at the dragon in awe. "I mean, the fire breath..."