Leo Valdez and the Queen of Ogygia

Chapter 3: Leo likes wolfing down the tacos

Leo traveled all night until Festus click-clacked loudly to wake him up. He didn't even remember falling asleep on his dragon, thank God Festus doesn't throw him away, a lot. But he'd have been splattered if he had slipped off at night. He should have been more careful.

He didn't know when or why, but the exhaustion of all the crying and grief made him sleepless for two nights. Now that he was on his friend's back, his steady rhythm and warm touch made him feel peaceful.

Leo finally woke up to see they had landed near a highway in an empty field. The sun was high up in the sky glaring at him as if to say 'get up Leo, this is no time to sleep.' He detached himself from Festus and stretched his body to free himself. He walked towards the highway to see where he was. In two miles, there was an exit for Salt Lake City.

'That's not too bad, we covered most of the distance at night and there was no one to hinder us. Good job Festus. We might make it to camp by this evening at the most," Leo patted Festus. But Festus kept clicking-clacking. Now that Leo is fully awake his brain mulled over what Festus was fussing about.

"You didn't stop just like that, did you?"

Click clack

"Darn it!"

Leo walked over to see Festus's neck sparking with electricity. The wires are coming out one by one. Festus looked at him quizzically as he click-clacked and his ruby eyes sputtered. His teeth whirred into motion and stopped suddenly, then they whirred in the opposite direction.

"Oh, for the love of the Olympians" Leo cursed.

It's totally his fault. The most critical thing when going on a long trip is to check your vehicle. One darn basic thing. He forgot just that. Now he really deserves a dunce cap. Being a son of Hephaestus, it's pretty embarrassing to think about really. If his brothers and sisters know about this, they'll give him hard time for it. 'What? You didn't check Festus before traveling you? Are you in your right mind Leo?' they'd laugh. Leo really didn't want that to happen. Leo cursed himself and went to work. His hands kicked into automatic mode as he repaired Festus and his mind wandered over last night when he said his goodbyes to people in the waystation.

He was really reluctant to travel to camp Jupiter even if he agreed to go. He didn't want his friends to see him as a loser. But Jo and Emmie practically packed his bag and dumped him outside. Georgina, his little sister, despite his best efforts to bribe her, just brought his tool bag to let him out.

"You people are so cruel, you're kicking out a little boy in the middle of the night" Leo whined.

"We'll plead before Minos about our sins, we don't mind, you can go now"

"Georgie" Leo pleaded

"Bye-bye Leo, have a happy journey! Say hi to everyone from my side, would you?"

"You people are ugh!" Leo got frustrated and tired.

"Don't worry Chico, we'll be waiting for you to get back in a better mood and full of happy memories" Emmie smiled and patted Leo's cheek.

Leo sighed and picked up his things from the ground. His duffle bag was patted and placed on Festus, his only trusted companion. He wrapped his tool belt around his waist. He turned back to see waystation once again, feeling he might not see for a very very long time to come. He then mounted Festus "well, let's ride Festus, off we go to camp Jupiter"

----X----

After a few hours that felt like minutes, the bronze dragon slowly whirred to life. Leo smiled and patted Festus on his head. The sun had already set on the horizon, leaving Leo to see the last passing light. Just then there was a rumbling noise on the highway. A man parked his vehicle, got out of the driver's seat, and walked to the roadside to do something.

Leo watched him with fascination as the man set up a mobile kitchen and a taco sign was put up on the side. Then he headed to the back of the truck and started cooking some delicious tacos. Leo felt his stomach rumble with hunger as he got a whiff of the meat and salsa. He wanted to get there but he knew better than to approach a random stranger, even though he was cooking something delicious.

Just then a car parked past the truck and ordered two tacos. A few minutes later, cars were lining up and ordering and grabbing their tacos. Leo just sighed and took his food out of the bag. Emmie has packed his favorite enchiladas, but it's beginning to feel tasteless in front of those amazingly delicious tacos. 'Ugh! Always the tacos, Leo grumbled as he felt an invisible hand beckoning him to the truck. Leo thought about what would go wrong when many cars were stopping by and taking tacos. Well, he didn't know how much of a big blunder was then.

"Welcome! Welcome to my mobile taco truck Lucky Tacos! "

"Lucky? "Leo laughed as he looked at the menu, his stomach rumbling more vigorously now.

Yes, those who come here and order tacos are very lucky according to me. Soon they'll be wolfing down my authentic Mexican tacos" the man grinned as wide as the tacos.

There are many types of tacos written on the menu, veg tacos, chicken tacos, ground beef tacos, and Piper's favorite tofu tacos. And every taco had one thing in common, a lucky special sauce with a secret ingredient. Piper would've been delighted to eat these amazingly delicious-smelling tacos. The last thing he heard from apollo was piper was dating a girl. Leo was amazed about it. He didn't know till now. Leo shook his head to clear his thoughts 'Leo, now is not the time for all these"

"Oh, so your name is not lucky then" Leo replied as he selected the grilled barbecue chicken taco to eat. He didn't want to spend more time in this abandoned place where there was no one nearby. Moreover, the camp Jupiter is hard to find as it is, him being Greek and all, if he's any late than midnight he might not find it all.

"Oh, my name sure is lucky, short for..." lucky the man paused for a second and laughed again "leave it, senor, debes estar hambriento," he said handing him tacos stuffed with generous meat, veggies, and sauce.

"How do you know that I speak Spanish?" Leo looked at him with suspicion, but the taco smell was really distracting.

"Oh no senor, I thought you knew Spanish because your last name was Valdez"

All red flags popped up in Leo's head. Not even those delicious authentic Mexican tacos are that distracting to him now.

"Valdez?" Leo sputtered and backed away from the truck. Now that the man was becoming clearer and clearer, the mist was clearing from Leo's eyes while he tucked away his tacos in his tool belt. The man was pale from top to toe, his skin tightly to his bones, his hair greasy and ragged. He smiled like a skeleton showing its teeth.

"You... you" Leo was thinking fast as he tried to come up with something to say, his mind racing with different possibilities and combinations.

"See Leo Valdez, when I spotted your bronze dragon parked right over there, I thought of parking my lucky wolf truck somewhere else. You see, we lycanthropes never forget a face when it is in the line of fire ignited by gasoline." Luck sneered at Leo as he climbed onto the counter.

Oh, fudge it! This idiot was a wolf in that wolf pack where he threw gasoline on them a while ago. That time he threw some solid-liquid gasoline vials and blasted them with his fire, making them back away with fear. He didn't realize that everyone could turn into men, why was this never mentioned in any of the monster classes? He needs to have a serious talk with Chiron about this. Aw shucks! Now, what to do? He pushed his hand into the tool bag and was desperate to find something.

"Ah! Don't try your silly fire tricks Mr. Valdez, because of your amusing prank last time, we all bought our own fire-resistant clothes" lucky the man chuckled and advanced.

Just then something red shined afar. The bronze dragon was seeing him with ruby-tinted eyes, ready for his signal to pounce on this wolfman, but bronze would do nothing to him, if only... 'Yes, that's it!'

"But my beloved lycanthrope, Leo never played the same prank twice," he grinned and reached for the tool bag.

"Sayonara, Lucky the Man!" Leo shouted and then hurled an arrowhead at his neck.

Festus then came zooming in. Without a second thought, Leo climbed onto his dragon, with those tacos in his belt, riding off into the sunset.