“Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.”

“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?”

“We started this together, Leo. Seems only right you come along. You find us a ride, you're in.""Yes!" Leo pumped his fist.* * * * *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!”

“Words are the source of all power. And names are more than just a collection of letters.”

“They had a silent staring contest, but Percy didn’t back down. When he and Annabeth started dating, his mother had drummed it into his head: It’s good manners to walk your date to the door. If that was true, it had to be good manners to walk her to the start of her epic solo death quest.”

“I remembered what she'd told me in New York, about building something permanent, and I thought - just maybe - we were off to a good start.”

“You know that in Latin, 'Festus' means 'happy'?You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the dragon?”