"I... er... I guess I'm... sorry? Er, I mean... I'm sorry."
"What are you sorry for, kid?" the leader asks, moving forward to stand in front of Leo who is proud to say is the same height as the man. "You just saved us!"
Leo glances at the other men who seem to look uncomfortable at the fact that a teenager like him could save fifteen adults from a freaking dragon. Their leader, however, may look intimidating—especially with the scars on his arms and face—but the look in his eyes show a gentleness and fatherly vibe... like Chiron.
"It's... It's nothing," Leo replies awkwardly.
Yes, before, he would grab every opportunity to brag about it with the other six demigods but only because the six demigods had done more impressive things than he did. They're much more amazing. They're much more brilliant.
Talking to a dragon and handling that much fire were nothing compared to saving Olympus, defeating a Titan, or earning the blessing of Mars. It is nothing compared to putting Gaea to eternal sleep, being the architect of Olympus, and a favorite of Hecate.
He's just good ol' Leo, alone in a bunker, making jokes and having not one problem in his life like some prince of laid-back idiots.
"It's not nothing, kiddo!" one of the two nitwits, both of whom had also moved forward to stand behind the leader, exclaims.
"I'm Leo," he finally grumbles, not liking being called a kid.
"Ahhh, a name then," the leader says. "I'm Alex—" he gestures to the man on his left—"this is Crock—" he gestures to the man on his right—"this is Ford." [1] Alex looks at Leo intently. "The others behind me are some of the best dragonologists in the continent but what you did was amazing. How did you know what to do?" Alex asks.
At the question from their leader, this probably triggered everyone else to start asking him questions. Never mind that he could probably be exhausted after doing so many things at once. Okay, it's not really that tiring but he hadn't had that much training after coming back from the dead since he spent more time in Bunker Nine sitting on his desk and building smaller things... but he might have been exhausted.
"Er... You're American, too?" Leo asks Alex instead, flustered.
"Huh? Oh! Yes! You're from Ilvermorny, too, then?" Alex asks and Leo reaches back to his brain and remembers that Ilvermorny is the American Wizard School.
"Yeah! Definitely! Dropped out though," he adds. "Been too much of a pain in the backside to the school, apparently."
Another Rule to Being a Good Liar: Add hints of truth—bonus points if they're embarrassing—because people would more likely believe it since you shared something so "personal" but nothing that makes it too personal and fake. Choose your white lies with caution and precision.
Alex barks a laughter at his words.
"Fontaine didn't give you a chance, did he?" [2]
"Apparently, not. The principal probably hates my guts," Leo laughs nervously to avoid the topic of the school because he has no idea what a fontaine is.
"You mean headmaster?" one of the hostile keepers corrects suspiciously.
"Oh, yeah... I forgot that we call him that..."
"Really?" the hostile keeper asks.
"Yeah, sorry, I was in the system so I went to more mort—normal schools than the amount of years I spent in Ilvermorny."
"Your parents were nomajs?" Alex asks.
Schist, what in Hades are nomajs? Leo starts to panic at that but thankfully, Ford unintentionally saves him from making an idiot out of himself.
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Quests of Valdez: The School of Magic (Harry Potter x Percy Jackson fic)
FanfictionLeo goes to Athens, Greece without the burden of a prophecy to get his mind away from his loneliness and to make peace with the trauma from the last war. Along the way, a series of events and a fascination with dragons eventually lead him to an une...
