The rest of the evening was a blur, I remembered Rachel getting possessed by the oracle which practically traumatised me.
Something about Piper and Leo going on the quest and Piper getting claimed.
I was embarrassed. I had cried in-front of random people I didn't know all because a skinny redhead girl gave me a prophecy.
Travis had dragged me away while I sobbed. Another boy who exactly like Travis but a little shorter was trying and failing to calm me down. I think he said his name was Connie? Kevin? Cosmo?
It didn't matter at the moment. I was currently laying in the top bunk above one of my new sisters. She said her name was Julia or Julie or something like that.
Go to sleep! I screamed at myself. If they even try to bring up the crying incident we'll kick their asses.
It took a long while for me to fall asleep but when I did I found myself in a clearing. In front of me stood a huge charcoal house that it looked like had burned down hundreds of years ago.
"You're late." Perched on a rock was a huge she-wolf.
"Oh, I'm sorry next time you wanna invade my head I'll try to be on time. Who are you anyway?"
The wolf laughed (sort of).
"As defensive as ever Lila but do not forget to whom you speak young pup.
I come with a message, don't let your demons control you young one. They will try to drive you of the edge, stand tall my girl."
Great philosophical wolves.
What next aggressive ducks?
I am lupa child. You started your journey here now must come back. Do not fail me Delilah.
Suddenly the dream shifted. I was looking at a young boy sat in strange living room. The boy seemed familiar, he had dark brown eyes full of innocence and curly brown hair. He was playing with hem of his Ben ten T-shirt.
Then a tall man entered the room holding a small bundle. The man had a handsome young face with reddish brown curly hair which looked disturbingly like my own. It changed colour in the light like it couldn't decide if it wanted to be brown or red. The man looked a lot like the boy in every way except his eyes his eyes were green just like mine.
"This is your sister. She is your responsibility now. Do you understand?" The little boy nodded.
I got closer and saw that me and the man looked very similar. Was this my father? It would make sense. He looked like a redheaded older version of Travis.
"What are you going to call her?" The man asked.
Why the hell are you letting this kid name your baby? Why are letting him name... me?
"I'm gonna call her Delilah!" The boy exclaimed happily.
Nooo! Lila winced. How could he? Why would he? No!
"Why?"
Yes, why?
"I like the song." The boy said grinning at his little sister.
He liked the song.
I sighed.
Suddenly I was ruffly shaken awake. "Get up! Lila come on!" The Travis look alike yelled.
"What time is it?" The boy just grabbed my ankle and me her out of bed. Now let's not forget I was in the top bunk. "Ow!" I barked as I landed on to the wooden floor.
"Sorry but if you want a warm shower you better do it now before Travis uses all the hot water." He grinned and helped me up. "Alice has left you some toiletries and Sophie lent you some clothes. Oh and it's five thirty."
I glared but couldn't help the grateful smile that found it's way onto my face. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
"You're my baby sister." He said simply as he pushed me into the bathroom.
I took my time cleaning myself feeling much better using Alice's rose scented soap to wash away how dirty and grimy I felt.
I looked down at her bare arm, gripping the tattooed one tightly closing my eyes trying to remember something but nothing happened. I looked at my stomach and chest counting the little scars.
Some were longer than others but none looked as bad as the thick pale line on my face that started just above my left eyebrow and diagonally across to the right side of my jaw. It was jagged and looked as if someone had sliced me hard and deeply in the face with a sword or dagger or maybe even a axe.
I knew I had been in the shower for half an hour by the time I had finished washing my hair.
Sophie had left me a black pair of jeans, a green long sleeve top and some tan mountain boots. As well as my Phillies sweatshirt which I tied around my waist and a black over sized denim jacket.
After quickly brushing my teeth I walked out to what could only be described as pure chaos.
Travis was throwing one of the younger boys in the air. " Trav! Please, put me down." The boy squealed.
"Not until you say the magic word Tommy!" Travis laughed.
Two girls were laughing at the boys. Julia and Alice I remembered them from last night after I had calmed down a little they stole me some hot chocolate from The Big House kitchen.
"Connor give it back!" Sophie cried chasing Connor around the cabin.
"Soph's got a boyfriend!" Connor sang happily. Theses were my people.
"Hey, Lila's is finally ready!" Travis cheered putting Tommy down and handing me a backpack.
"It's got fresh clothes, a first aid kit, food and water, a neck pillow-" Travis was cut off by Tommy grabbing my hand excitedly.
"I put Mr. Dolphin in there. He gets rid of all the bad dreams so you can sleep. You need sleep on a quest so you can borrow him but you better bring him back." Tommy was about six with black curls, chocolate coloured eyes and dark skin. He was small for his age but made up for it with all his energy.
"But won't you needed him." I said bending down to his level. Something about him reminded me of the boy in my dream. Sweet and innocent untainted but the cruelty of the world.
"I will but I want you to come back. Not die like Lu-"
"Whoa, no need talk about that. Let's just get Lila ready for the quest." Connor said quickly like whatever Tommy was about to say was a taboo subject in the Hermes cabin.
Suddenly the door of the cabin burst open. Half a dozen campers spilled in, led by the a big tough girl from the Ares cabin. "Hurry!" She said, and I couldn't tell if her expression was excitement or fear. "The dragon is back."
"LEO?" I yelled.
Sure enough, there he was, sitting atop a giant bronze death machine and grinning like a lunatic. Even before he landed, the camp alarm went up. A conch horn blew. All the satyrs started screaming, "Don't kill me!" Half the camp ran outside in a mixture of pajamas and armor.
The dragon set down right in the middle of the green, and Leo yelled, "It's cool! Don't shoot!"
Hesitantly, the archers lowered their bows. The warriors backed away, keeping their spears and swords ready. They made a loose wide ring around the metal monster. Other demigods hid behind their cabin doors or peeped out the windows. Nobody seemed anxious to get close.
Please don't tell me I'm saving the world and get my memory back on that.
The dragon was huge. It glistened in the morning sun like a living penny sculpture —different shades of copper and bronze—a sixty-foot-long serpent with steel talons and drill-bit teeth and glowing ruby eyes. It had bat-shaped wings twice its length that unfurled like metallic sails, making a sound like coins cascading out of a slot machine every time they flapped.
"It's beautiful," Piper muttered from beside me making me jump. When did she get there? The other demigods stared at Piper like she was insane.
"What're you looking? Turn around!" I called.
The dragon reared its head and shot a column of fire into the sky. Campers scrambled away and hefted their weapons, but Leo slid calmly off the dragon's back. He held up his hands like he was surrendering, except he still had that crazy grin on his face.
"People of Earth, I come in peace!" he shouted. He looked like he'd been rolling around in the campfire. His army coat and his face were smeared with soot. His hands were grease-stained, and he wore a new tool belt around his waist. But he looked absolutely delighted. "Festus is just saying hello!"
"That thing is dangerous!" an Ares girl shouted, brandishing her spear. "Kill it now!"
"Stand down!" someone ordered.
To my surprise, it was Jason. He pushed through the crowd, flanked by Annabeth and that girl from the Hephaestus cabin, Nyssa.
Jason gazed up at the dragon and shook his head in amazement. "Leo, what have you done?"
"Found a ride!" Leo beamed. "You said I could go on the quest if I got you a ride. Well, I got you a class-A metallic flying bad boy! Festus can take us anywhere!"
I vaguely remembered something about that. It was me, Piper, Jason and Leo. The fantastic four.
"It—has wings," Nyssa stammered. Her jaw looked like it might drop off her face.
"Yeah!" Leo said. "I found them and reattached them."
"But it never had wings. Where did you find them?"
Leo hesitated.
"In ... the woods," he said. "Repaired his circuits, too, mostly, so no more problems with him going haywire."
Lies. I couldn't practically smell it on him... metaphorically of course all I could really smell was metal and oil.
Wait did he say mostly? Like not fully?
"Mostly?" Nyssa asked.
The dragon's head twitched. It tilted to one side and a stream of black liquid—maybe oil, hopefully just oil—poured out of its ear, all over Leo. Ew.
"Just a few kinks to work out," Leo said.
"But how did you survive ... ?" Nyssa was still staring at the creature in awe. "I mean, the fire breath ..."
"I'm quick," Leo said. "And lucky. Now, am I on this quest, or what?"
Jason scratched his head. "You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, 'festus' means 'happy'? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?"
"Oh god! I going to save the world on happy the metal dragon. Kill me." I groaned and a few of my siblings snickered.
"Now, um, I'd really suggest we get going, guys. I already picked up some supplies in the—um, in the woods. And all these people with weapons are making Festus nervous."
Jason frowned. "But we haven't planned anything yet. We can't just—"
"Go," Annabeth said. She was the only one who didn't look nervous at all. Her expression was sad and wistful, like this reminded her of better times. "Jason, you've only got three days until the solstice now, and you should never keep a nervous dragon waiting. This is certainly a good omen. Go!"
"Bye." I said giving each one of my new siblings a hug.
"You know Con, they grow up so fast." Travis said wiping a fake tear for his eye.
"I know, it feels like only yesterday our little baby Lila came into our lives and now she's leaving again."
I rolled my eyes at my younger brother. "Connor that was yesterday, Plus I'm older than you."
I looked at Festus then at Piper. "Let's go save the world." Piper smiled and grabbed my hand pulling her me towards the dragon.
I had to admit Festus Airways was good way to fly much better then Jason. I could see my siblings waving frantically from below.
Up high, the air was freezing cold; but the dragon's metal hide generated so much heat, it was like we were flying in a protective bubble. Talk about seat warmers! And the grooves in the dragon's back were designed like high-tech saddles, so we weren't uncomfortable at all.
We sat single file: Leo in front, then Piper, then me and then Jason.
Leo used the reins to steer the dragon into the sky like he'd been doing it all his life. The metal wings worked perfectly, and soon the coast of Long Island was just a hazy line behind them. We shot over Connecticut which made me slightly nervous like there was something lurking in Connecticut but I didn't know what.
Leo grinned back at us. "Cool, right?"
"What if we get spotted?" Piper asked.
"The Mist," Jason said. "It keeps mortals from seeing magic things. If they spot us, they'll probably mistake us for a small plane or something."
Piper glanced over her shoulder. "You sure about that?"
"No," he admitted. I saw Jason clutching a photo of a girl with dark hair and she gave him a questioning look. He just smiled and told me later with his eyes.
"We're making good time. Probably get there by tonight."
I asked. "Where are we heading?"
"To find the god of the North Wind," Jason said. "And chase some storm spirits."
I sighed. Yay! We're going to save the world. It's not as fun as you think.
A/N
Another person mentioning Lila's demons, what could it mean?
Let me know what you think.