A Quest of Eight; A Heroes of Olympus Fanfiction

An Unfriendly King

Y/n's POV

Demigods never seemed to have the greatest luck, but it felt like the four of us were cursed. Falling for the second time over the course of just over a day was not fun. This time though, we were still on Festus' back, which was just a little bit better than freefalling.

"Jason, take Piper and Y/n and get out of here," Leo commanded. 

"What about you?" Piper asked. 

"I'll be fine," Leo assured her. "Just go."

"Leo no!" I oppose as Jason took ahold of Piper and used the wind to hold them up. "I'm not gonna let you die."

"I won't. Look, Festus is holding too much weight right now. Once you guys get off, I can reboot him and get him working again," Leo explained. "Just follow me down."

"Leo," I start.

"Sorry about this," Leo interjected and unhooked my harness before pushing me off of Festus. For a second, I was weightless, and I could feel gravity dragging my body down towards the ground. It only took a moment before Jason grabbed me, and I was in the safety of his arms. We followed behind Leo as he tried to get Festus to wake back up, and when he did, I silently cheered. But that whole mentality went away in a second when something from below came soaring towards Festus. I heard metal being cut to shreds, and I immediately feared the worse, turning my head to bury it in Jason's shoulder. When we finally reached the ground, I ran towards where Leo was laying unconscious on the grass, and collapsed down next to him.

"Leo!" I mutter and shake him gently. "Wake up! Come on!" Thankfully, Leo woke up rather quickly, but as he tried to sit up, I pushed him back down. "Lie still. You hit the ground pretty hard when Festus crashed."

"Where is he?" Leo quizzed and sat up again, ignoring my wishes. "Where's Festus?" 

"Leo, I'm so sorry," I apologize and look around the front lawn we had landed in. Festus' body had disintegrated, his limbs scattered across the grass. 

"No!" Leo sobbed and ran to Festus' head, whose eyes flickered weakly. "You can't go. You're best thing I ever fixed." It wasn't long before Festus' eyes went dark, and a somber mood fell over us. After everything we had been through with Festus, it was like he was part of the family. Leo then picked up Festus' head, which had to be at least 100 pounds, and sighed. "Take him back to the Bunker, dad. Just until I can reuse him. I've never asked you for anything." 

To my surprise, the dragon head floated into the wind and disappeared from sight. I guess Hephaestus was listening. For a few seconds, the four of us were dead silent. I wanted to talk, but I didn't know what to say. So instead, I pulled Leo in for a hug and held onto him tightly as he cried. In a way, I was in the same situation as Leo, but my Festus was Percy. Because he was missing, it was like a part of me was too. When I finally pulled away from Leo, he sniffled and wiped the tears away from his eyes.

"Don't worry. Festus will be waiting back at camp for us when we return," I assure Leo. "He'll be okay. You on the other hand won't be if you push me out of the sky again. That wasn't funny! You know how scared I am of heights."

"You wouldn't have listened to me otherwise," Leo defended. "And it won't happen again. Hopefully. Now how do we get out of here?" We had landed in the front yard of a mansion whose tall fence had lasers attached atop of it in various places. If they could disintegrate Festus, I didn't want to find out what they could do to humans.

"Well I definitely can't fly us out without getting shot down," Jason spoke. 

"Since we can't get out of here, we'll have to go in," Leo urged.