orenda [leo valdez]

x. No One Ate Leo on Kira's Watch

Apparently, running to Fire Boy didn't magically solve the problem at hand.

The problem being, the two giant gold dragons that wanted to skin Kira alive.

She held her sword out, ready for a fight. Just as before, she knew exactly what to do, where to hit the dragons. She was ready for this fight.

Her blade felt perfectly balanced in her hands, and she almost wanted to smile. For once in her life, she felt ready for a fight. 

The dragons spread their wings and hissed.

"Don't look them in the eye!" Jason warned. "They'll paralyze you."

"Indeed!" Medea was leisurely riding the escalator up, leaning against the handrail as she watched the fun. "These two dears have been with me a long time—sun dragons, you know, gifts from my grandfather Helios. They pulled my chariot when I left Corinth, and now they will be your destruction. Ta-ta!"

The dragons lunged. 

Leo, Kira, and Jason charged to intercept, while Piper took off after Medea.

Kira leaped into battle, heading Jason's warning to not look them in the eye. That proved to be a little difficult, but she watched the dragon through the gleam of her blade, and got some sort of sixth sense that she assumed was from being a daughter of Ares.

She knew where the dragon was going to attack, which happened to be at Leo. She furrowed her eyebrows, and got a running start. She leaped up, managing to cut the dragon on the neck as it tried to eat Leo.

No one ate Leo on Kira's watch. 

The dragon howled, but the other swatted her off of it, and she was flown into the hard ground.

The wind was knocked out of her, but the adrenaline was flowing through her veins. She got up, wobbling slightly. 

Leo blew the safety whistle, and Jason was distracting the first dragon. Jumping back into the action, Kira distracted the second dragon. 

The dragon was the one that she sliced, and it seemed to remember that. In the glow in her blade, she saw it snap it's fangs, ready to harvest her organs.

She was ready. 

Jason appeared, distracting the dragon so she could slide under it. She ran towards it, knowing it probably had bad reaction time. She skidded onto the as it snapped at her, trying to eat her, and flew underneath it's belly. She drew her sword, and it cut through its stomach. The dragon howled once more.  

The dragon fell to the ground, dead. However, Kira barely had time to celebrate her victory when Leo yelled out, "Kira, help!"

The other dragon had Leo pinned to the floor. It was baring its fangs, ready to snap.

Mindlessly, Kira ran to the boy, leaving Jason to deal with the dead one.

The stained glass ceiling splintered in a rain of multicolored shards, and Festus the bronze dragon dropped into the department store.

 Festus snatched up a sun dragon in each claw, just as Kira got to Leo's side. She helped him stand, but her adrenaline was wearing off, and she felt as if she might topple onto him.

"That's my boy!" Leo yelled into Kira's ear, making her flinch.

Festus flew halfway up the atrium, then hurled the sun dragons into the pits they'd come from. The dead one flopped in the cage, slowly turning to dust.

Leo raced to the fountain and pressed the marble tile, closing the sundials. They shuddered as the dragon banged against them, trying to get out, but for the moment it was contained.