xi.

—SAVANNAH never had the experience of siblings. It was always just her and her dad until it was just her and her grandmother with her father across town. Her grandmother had a yappy dog that would bark at the crack of dawn to be let outside, but never — never did it pounce on her to wake her up.

"Savannah! Get. Your. Butt. Up. Right. Now!" With each word, Mia jumped on a different part of Savannah's body. Maybe this bruising would allow her to try that ambrosia again. "You have to come see this!"

Savannah held a hand up to her eyes to block out the sunlight from the windows. "See what?"

Mia giggled. "It's a surprise!"

The redhead sighed and moved to stand up, lightly shivering from the cold. She went to grab a hairbrush from her bag, but Mia had already latched onto her arm and was dragging her out of the cabin with a speed that should have been impossible for the girl's short stature.

"Hey!" Savannah shouted, well aware she had the worst case of bed-head in the mornings. It was not her goal to make a messy impression on her new camp mates.

"Come on!" Mia called and pulled on her arm harder.

"Okay, okay," Savannah started running alongside Mia this time and they ended up standing beside Julia. "Oh, my god."

"Gods," Julia corrected, not really paying attention to her as she gaped at the ... well, the dragon. She nudged Savannah. "Instead of the knight in shining armor slaying the dragon, he's riding it, eh?"

"My hero," Savannah laughed it off, but the sight of Leo grinning on the dragon was remarkable. He was lapping up all the stunned and impressed faces. He had dark circles under his eyes, but the pride that practically gleamed off of him was overpowering. To put it simply, Leo looked like he belonged up there.

The dragon was actually huge, she suspected more than fifty feet from head to tail. It looked monstrous, with its claws and beady red eyes. She didn't know that it was made of metal when she first heard about it. Savannah had pictured some green, scaly reptile. Somehow, this was scarier.

The wings were folded inward making them look ten times smaller than they probably were.

"Wow ..." Savannah found herself oggling over the complex machinery. She may know nothing about it, but she could marvel the intricacies.

The dragon lifted its head and breathed fire into the morning sky, increasing the orange sunrise until the blue disappeared. Savannah was quick to take a step back, the fire a little too fresh for her.

Leo slid down the body of the dragon. His hair was wild — well, more so than it usually was, and his face matched it. Grease was smudged on his chin like he'd accidentally scratched there with oil on his fingers. His eyes were wide with exhilaration and his lips were parted in a crooked smile, unknowingly causing an upward tilt of Savannah's mouth.

Leo held up his hands. "People of Earth, I come in peace!" His army jacket was also covered in soot and a new tool belt was strapped around his waist. He looked like a professional mechanic. "Festus was just saying hello!"

"That thing is dangerous!" A very buff girl shouted, hoisting her spear above her shoulder. "Kill it now!"

"Stand down," Jason's voice came from behind Savannah's back as he walked over. "Leo, what have you done?" But Savannah could hear and see amazement in his face clear as day.

"Found a ride!" Leo beamed like he won the lottery. "You said I could go on the quest if I got you a ride." He threw his arms out. "Well, I got you a class-A metallic flying bad boy! Festus can take us anywhere."

"It—it has wings," Nyssa stammered, shocked by the revelation. Savannah was confused; a dragon normally had wings. Then she realized, nothing was normal anymore.

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

"But it never had wings," Nyssa said, looking over Leo's shoulder as she talked to him. "Where did you find them?"

Leo's face said it all; he was hiding something. It wasn't something the other campers would pick up because they didn't know him, but Leo ruffled his hand through his hair three times in a row — something he always did when lying to the teachers about his homework. "In the woods. Repaired his circuits, too ... mostly," Savannah gulped, "so no more problems with him going haywire."

"Mostly?" Nyssa squeaked, which sounded odd coming from her.

The dragon's head jerked and tilted to one side, letting out a stream of oil from where its ear would supposedly be. Savannah watched as Leo was doused in it with a grimace, how it didn't burn him was beyond her.

"Hehe, just a few kinks to work out," Leo said.

"But how did you survive ...?" Nyssa asked in admiration or just utter shock. "I mean, the fire breath ..." She held a hand by her mouth and wiggled her fingers.

"I'm quick," Leo said, and Savannah chuckled to herself as he bounced on his toes. "And lucky. Now, am I on this quest, or what?"

Savannah wanted to nod, but she knew it wasn't her decision. She looked to Jason as he 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?"

Savannah smiled at the name. So very Leo. The dragon twitched and shifted its wings like it was proud of his name.

"That's a yes, bro!" Leo translated to the best of his ability. "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."

"Making him nervous. Funny," Savannah muttered to herself hysterically.

Jason frowned. "But we haven't planned anything yet. We can't just —"

"Go," Annabeth cut him off. "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!" Annabeth was smiling wistfully by the end, urging them on.

Jason nodded. "Yeah, yeah," he whispered quietly, almost like he was encouraging himself. He looked up at Piper. "You ready, partner?"

"You bet." Piper smirked and looked over at Savannah who stood not to far away. "You?"

"Uh ... I need my stuff," but as she turned to walk away, there was a tug on her shirt. "Mia?"

"I got your stuff for you." The little girl grinned and held out the bag. Savannah took it gratefully, sifting through it until she found the baton. Once she knew it was safely inside, Savannah closed the backpack back up and wrapped it over her shoulders. Her hands clenched around the straps tightly, and she didn't move to look at the dragon behind her.

Mia stepped forward with a comforting look. "It's okay to be scared. Being scared means you're about to do something really, really brave."

She'd only met the young Hermes child the day before, but the girl had grown on her in that short time. Mia was a little sister that just didn't share the same blood.

"Be careful," Julia said walking up behind her half sister.

"I'll try," Savannah chuckled and wiped under her eyes ... just in case.

"You better," Julia joked. "I can't take care of this rascal by myself anymore." And this time, Mia was too engrossed by saying goodbye to Savannah that she wasn't prepared for her hair to be messed up.

"Aw, no!" Mia cried as she patted down her crazy afro.

Savannah laughed loudly and turned around to face the other members of the quest.

"Ready."

They all collectively found their way up onto the dragon's back. Savannah was right after Leo.

"Your Highness."

Savannah looked up to see the boy offering a helping hand.

Savannah bit the inside of her cheeks that were no doubt burning red as he was doing this in front of a huge crowd of people, and took his hand for a boost up.

Savannah wiggled in her spot, humming to herself when she felt comfortable. She supposed that Leo had added the saddles because she didn't think that the campers would have built the dragon to ride. Savannah then held her hand down for Piper to grab, and she did the same for Jason.

The girl gave the Hermes cabin, especially Mia and Julia one last longing glance before the bronze dragon pawed at the ground and took off with a lurch. Savannah didn't risk leaning out too far, but she did look over her shoulder to continue staring at the camp ... just in time to see Chiron 'galloping' up to the circle of kids with a panicked face.

She couldn't help but laugh as she turned to face the correct way around.

The girl had never been on a plane before, and she supposed she wouldn't have with her father being scared of almost everything. He even had the mind to reject the proposition that she fly to Arizona's school as one of his last requests. So the feeling of ascending into the air was definitely an experience.

And not one that she wanted to repeat, actually. Savannah was sure that she had thrown up five times in her mouth already; she was too nauseous to keep track. And Piper wasn't making it any better by squeezing her stomach tightly every time there was turbulence. That was another thing, one of the dragon's wings would creak under the wind and all Savannah could think was that the wing was going to break off and they would be doomed to crash into the earth.

—THE circulation from Leo's torso to his legs had been cut off a while ago — not that he minded as it only meant Savannah was holding onto him tighter. But he made sure to reassure her of how safe they were every few minutes.

"Cool, right?" Leo asked as they ascended into the clouds. Savannah nodded, but he could tell it was reluctant by the way her head was stuffed in his back. "There's no need to be scared. Festus will get us to where we need to be, right buddy?"

He patted the side of the dragon's neck and Savannah coughed as they flew through a puff of smoke from the dragon's nostrils.

Leo cringed, but tried to lighten the mood. "That totally means yes." He grinned over his shoulder. Savannah lifted her head to give a brave — yet totally faked — smile back to him. A for effort, he supposed.

"If you say so," Savannah muttered.

A few minutes into the flight, Leo found himself twitching. He still hadn't gotten over the long bus ride the day before and now he was being forced to sit still once again. To pass the time, he started to rhythmically tap his fingers against Savannah's wrist.

'hey.'

The girl shifted behind him. 'hi.'

He had to work in shorthand because Savannah wasn't well-versed in morse code. She had only started to pick it up two months before. 'njoy rde?'

She took a moment to process the tapping. 'srt of.' Leo bobbed his head, that was probably as good an answer as any. She continued to tap. 'u?'

'hel ya.' He could hear Savannah giggle at his response. He decided not to strain her mind too much in the early morning and decided to speak aloud. "So, what's the plan, bro?" He called to Jason. "You said something about catching wind, or breaking wind, or something."

—SAVANNAH did her best ( she really did! ) to listen to Jason about finding a guy named Boreas to interrogate him. Leo cracked a joke about him being the God of 'Boring.' Savannah looked around suspiciously at that, not knowing if the god, or whatever he was, would take offense and blow them out of the sky. They also had to find the evil storm spirits that attacked them at the Grand Canyon — which seemed like a bad idea because you don't actively seek out those trying to kill you. And they had to find out who they worked for, so they could find Hera and free her. They had a full agenda.

Jason then explained his dream in vivid detail as if it would come true and honestly, Savannah probably would believe anything could be real at that point. Though, she became a little hesitant when Jason talked about a burnt house with spires coming out of the swimming pool. She hoped that didn't mean they'd be taking a little dip anytime soon.

"There's also giants," Piper quite literally piped in. "The prophecy said the giants' revenge."

Leo shook his head. "Hold on. Giants — like more than one? Why can't it just be one giant who wants revenge?"

"Because that would just be too easy, wouldn't it?" Savannah mumbled.

Piper sighed. "I remember in some of the old Greek stories, there was something about an army of giants."

"An army," Savannah whispered to only herself and the prying ears of Leo. "Of course, it's an army."

"Didn't you do a bunch of myth research for that movie with your dad?" Leo asked her.

Jason leaned forward to try and peer into Piper's eyes, squishing them all forward a bit. "Your dad's an actor?"

Leo chuckled. "I keep forgetting about your amnesia. Hah, forgetting about amnesia. That's funny. But yeah, her dad's Tristan McLean."

Jason leaned back to his original position. "Uh — sorry, what was he in?"

"It doesn't matter," Piper cut in. "The giants — well, there were a lot of giants in Greek mythology. But if I'm thinking of the right ones, they were bad news." Savannah hoped she was thinking of the wrong ones, in that case. She didn't want more bad news. "Huge, almost impossible to kill. They could throw mountains and stuff. I think they were related to the Titans. They rose from the earth after Kronos lost the war — I mean, the first Titan War, thousands of years ago — and they tried to destroy Olympus. If we're talking about the same giants —"

"Chiron said it was happening again," Jason remembered. "The last chapter. That's what he meant. No wonder he didn't want us to know all the details."

Savannah's grip had continued to tighten around Leo's waist with each word the other two were saying. Eventually, she must have gotten to wound up because the boy nudged her. "So...giants who can throw mountains. Friendly wolves that will eat us if we show weakness. Evil espresso drinks. Gotcha. Maybe this isn't the time to bring up my psycho babysitter," he said.

His addition to the conversation really didn't help her nerves, but she was alerted at the last part as she'd never heard anything of it before.

"What?" Savannah asked, going through as many conversations as she could to find where he might've mentioned this but she came up empty.

Leo breathed deeply and began his story. Savannah held tight to him as he talked about his babysitter who he'd seen at camp, saying it was really Hera. The girl started to tear up as he spoke of his mother and the night she died. His breathing began to shake but his speech remained unfaltering.

No one said anything for a bit and Savannah wasn't about to start as she knew her voice would have cracked even if Leo's hadn't.

Piper took the first step. "That's disturbing."

Not the choice Savannah would have gone with. The wind was helping to wipe the tears off her face but only served to make her eyes more watery.

"'Bout sums it up," Leo agreed. "Thing is, everybody says don't trust Hera. She hates the demigods. And the prophecy said we'd cause death if we unleash her rage. So I'm wondering ... why are we doing this?"

Honestly, Savannah was wondering why anyone would do this for any reason. If a literal god was captured then how are almost-mortal demigods supposed to be any help?

"She chose us," Jason said more confidently than her thoughts. "All four of us. We're the first of the seven who have to gather for the Great Prophecy. This quest is the beginning of something much bigger."

Savannah didn't know how she was going to handle this quest, let alone a bigger one afterwards. Maybe the three other demigods will be able to shadow over her and she won't have to do much. That was a very unconvincing thought but it was the only hope that Savannah had that she'd actually live to be an adult.

"Besides," Jason continued, "helping Hera is the only way I can get my memory. And that dark spire in my dream seemed to be feeding on Hera's energy. If that thing unleashes a king of the giants by destroying Hera —"

"Not a good trade-off," Piper agreed. "At least Hera is on our side — mostly. Losing her would throw the gods into chaos."

So Savannah couldn't understand why they didn't just come down there themselves. Wasn't Zeus Hera's husband? What kind of spouse didn't come to your rescue, especially if they had the power of lightning?

"She's the main one who keeps peace in the family. And a war with the giants could be even more destructive than the Titan War."

Jason nodded with her words. "Chiron also talked about worse forces stirring on the solstice." Savannah was getting tired of the 'bad news' add-ons. It was like watching a Breaking News highlight every minute. "It's a good time for dark magic, and all — something that could awaken if Hera were sacrificed on that day. And this mistress who's controlling the storm spirits, the one who wants to kill all the demigods —"

"Might be that weird sleeping lady," Leo finished, clicking his tongue. "Dirt Woman fully awake? Not something I want to see."

"Something tells me we're going to see her anyway," Savannah grumbled.

  —LEO felt the girl shiver. He knew 'two hands on the wheel at all times,' but he let go with one hand and lightly started to hold one of hers that was wrapped around him. He could multitask anything if it meant holding her hand.

NOTES ;
SHOULD HAVE ADDED MORE TO
LEO'S LAST PART BUT WHATEVER