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{ ☀️ } · jupiter, not zeus. . ݁ ٬٬ ࣪
MUCH LIKE MOST OF HER SIBLINGS,Madeline didn't like winter. It may be the fact that their father is the god of the Sun, so cold was even worse for them. Unlike, when in the sun, the children of Apollo could look at it directly, never bothering to cover their eyes, the white of the snow started to hurt the girl's eyes as they landed.
"This cannot be good," Jason muttered, but Leo spurred the dragon downward, and they swooped in after the Boreads.
They landed in what must have been the penthouse suite; but the place had been hit by a flash freeze. The entry hall had vaulted ceilings forty feet high, huge draped windows, and lush oriental carpets. A staircase at the back of the room led up to another equally massive hall, and more corridors branched off to the left and right. But the ice made the room's beauty a little frightening.
When Madeline slid off the dragon, the carpet crunched under her feet. A fine layer of frost covered the furniture. The curtains didn't budge because they were frozen solid, and the ice-coated windows let in weird watery light from the sunset. Even the ceiling was furry with icicles. Madeline rubbed her hands together, trying to get some warmth to them. She could feel her nose turning red from the cold and her feet freezing under her boots.
"Guys," Leo said, "fix the thermostat in here, and I would totally move in."
"I prefer warm places." Madeline muttered under her breath.
"Not me." Jason looked uneasily at the staircase. "Something feels wrong. Something up there. . ."
Festus shuddered and snorted flames. Frost started to form on his scales.
"No, no, no." Zethes marched over, though how he could walk in those pointy leather shoes, the girl had no idea. "The dragon must be deactivated. We can't have fire in here. The heat ruins my hair."
Festus growled and spun his drill-bit teeth."'S'okay, boy." Leo turned to Zethes. "The dragon's a little touchy about the whole deactivation concept. But I've got a better solution."
"Destroy?" Cal suggested.
"No, man. You gotta stop with the destroy talk. Just wait."
"Leo," Piper said nervously, "what are you ─ "
"Watch and learn, beauty queen. When I was repairing Festus last night, I found all kinds of buttons. Some, you do not want to know what they do. But others. . . Ah, here we go."
Leo hooked his fingers behind the dragon's left foreleg. He pulled a switch, and the dragon shuddered from head to toe. Everyone backed away as Festus folded like origami. His bronze plating stacked together. His neck and tail contracted into his body. His wings collapsed and his trunk compacted until he was a rectangular metal wedge the size of a suitcase. Leo tried to lift it, but the thing weighed about six billion pounds. "Um. . . yeah. Hold on. I think ─ aha."
