The Second Jackson- Piper McLean book 1

Ogres, fun

Frank

I took the quickest possible shower, put on the clothes Hazel had set out- an olive-green shirt with beige cargo pants, really?- then grabbed my spare bow and quiver and bounded up the attic stairs.

The attic was full of weapons. My family had collected enough ancient armaments to supply an army. Shields, spears, and quivers of arrows hung along one wall- almost as many as in the Camp Jupiter armory. At the back window, a scorpion crossbow was mounted and loaded, ready for action. At the front window stood something that looked like a machine gun with a cluster of barrels.

"Rocket launcher?" I wondered aloud.

"Nope, nope" said a voice from the corner. "Potatoes. Ella doesn't like potatoes."

The harpy had made a nest for herself between two old streamer trunks. She was sitting in a pile of Chinese scrolls, reading seven or eight at once.

"Ella" I said, "where are the others?"

"Roof" She glanced upward, then returned to her reading, alternately picking at her feathers and turning pages. "Roof. Ogre-watching. Ella doesn't like ogres. Potatoes"

"Potatoes?" I didn't understand until I swiveled the machine gun around. Its eight barrels were loaded with spuds. At the base of the gun, a basket was filled with more edible ammunition.

I looked out the window- the same window my mom had watched me from when I had met the bear. Down in the yard, the ogres were milling around, shoving each other, occasionally yelling at the house, and throwing bronze cannonballs that exploded in midair.

"They have cannonballs" I said. "And we have a potato gun"

"Starch" Ella said thoughtfully. "Starch is bad for ogres"

The house shook from another explosion. I needed to reach the roof and see how Lani, Percy, and Hazel were doing, but I felt bad leaving Ella alone.

I knelt next to her, careful not to get too close. "Ella, it's not safe here with the ogress. We're going to be flying to Alaska soon. Will you come with us?"

Ella twitched uncomfortable. "Alaska. Six hundred twenty-six thousand, four hundred twenty-five square miles. State mammal: the moose"

Suddenly she switched to Latin, which I could just barely follow thanks to my classes at Camp Jupiter: "To the north, beyond the gods, lies the legion's crown. Falling from ice, the son of Neptune shall drown-" she stopped and scratched her disheveled red hair. "Hmm. Burned. The rest is burned."

I could hardly breath. "Ella was... was that a prophecy? Where did you read that?"

"Moose" Ella said, savoring the word. "Moose. Moose. Moose."

The house shook again. Dust rained down from the rafters. Outside an ogre bellowed, "Frank Zhang! Show yourself!"

"Nope," Ella said. "Frank shouldn't. Nope."

"Just... stay here, okay?" I said. "I've got to go help Hazel and the twins"

I pulled down the ladder to the roof.

"Morning," Percy said grimly. "Beautiful day, huh?"

He wore the same clothes as the day before- jeans, his purple T-shirt, and Polartecc jacket- but they'd obviously been freshly washed. He held his sword in one hand and a garden hose in the other. Why there was a garden hose on the roof, I wasn't sure, but every time the giants sent up a cannonball, Percy summoned a high-powered blast of water and detonated the sphere in midair. Then I remembered- my family was descended from Poseidon too. Grandmother had said our house had been attacked before. Maybe they had put a hose up here for just that reason.