ᴾʰᵒᵇᵒᵖʰᵒᵇⁱᵃ [ᴶᵃˢᵒⁿ ᴳʳᵃᶜᵉ]

τ.

τ. Achluophobia - fear of darkness

"-we can't give her any more ambrosia or nectar, she'll burn up," Aza woke to Jason's panicked voice and the feeling of warmth surrounding her torso. She groaned, eyelids fluttering gently, groggily regaining consciousness.

"Oh, thank the gods," Jason said again, and this time she could feel his warm breath hit the back of her head, making her stomach twist lightly. Aza groaned again, and forced her eyes to open. In front of her was Leo, driving Festus, and behind her was Jason. His arms were wrapped around her waist and she was leaning against his torso - so that explains the warm feeling, she thought.

Aza merely groaned in response, closing her eyes again and turning her torso slightly. Wait, Leo! Crash-landing! Aza thought, her eyes snapping back open. She leaned to look at Jason, opening her mouth to question what happened.

"Everything's okay," Jason soothed, giving her a small smile and pulling her back to lean down. "but you need to rest. You were really feverish when we got you down; I think you had too much ambrosia."

Aza groaned; the last thing she remembered was going to make sure Leo was okay, but now she was flying on the back of their ginormous bronze dragon, and she couldn't fill in the blanks to save her life.

Jason and Leo explained everything whilst Piper sat silently - how they had run into a Cyclops family, and how the monsters had reformed - ("But that's not possibly, Jason, monster's don't just reform") - and how Leo had fixed Festus and gotten them out before the Cyclops could fully reform, and how there had been another demigod in a purple shirt that spoke Latin just like Jason, and how the son of Zeus had been an exchange.

"An exchange," Aza breathed. "but that means..."

Someone had been sent to replace Jason, someone from Camp Half-Blood. And there was only one camper that was missing. As Aza tried fitting the pieces of the puzzle together, Festus landed in an open area between a lake and the skyline - Jason explained that they were chasing the anemoi thuellai, hoping they'd lead the demigods to their master.

Aza dismounted Festus with the help of Jason, who held her hand and kept a steadying hand on her waist; he was clearly scared that arm would give way and cause her to fall. Festus stomped his feet angrily, and one of his ruby eyes flickered dangerously.

Aza stepped back - everytime the dragon malfunctioned (which was a lot), she got flashbacks to when he made her life a living hell at Camp Half-Blood. She was still scared he would go rogue once more, and then they'd have a bronze dragon wrecking mortals to worry about on top of everything else.

"Is that normal?" Jason questioned, looking warily at Festus. Leo shrugged and pulled a rubber mallet from his tool bag, whacking Festus' eye harshly and looking satisfied when the eye stopped flickering. He nodded in satisfaction, turning back to his friends with a grin. "Yes, of course. Festus can't hang around here, though, in the middle of the park. They'll arrest him for loitering. Maybe if I had a dog whistle."

Aza wanted to point out that she highly doubted their dragon companion would get arrested for loitering, but she didn't quite know how to explain it to the elvish boy as he began rummaging around in his tool belt.

"Too specialized?" Leo questioned rhetorically, giving his tool belt a small glare as if it were personal. "Okay, fine, give me a safety whistle. They got lots in machine shops." This time, Leo managed to pull out a big whistle the exact same shade as Aza's Camp Half-Blood shirt. "Okay, Festus, listen," he blew harshly on the whistle, producing a high shrill sound that made Aza cover her ears desperately. "You hear that, come find me, okay? Until then, fly wherever you want. Just try now to barbecue any pedestrians."