the great wave | percy jackson

𝑥𝑖𝑖𝑖 - piper

When she woke up, she was no longer laid in Jason's lap, but on the floor atop her jacket. A bit confused, she rose to see him up and gathering their things together. Ash looked like she had just gotten up too, yawning and stretching, while Leo was still out cold on the floor.

"Morning," she rasped, before furrowing her brows. She actually wasn't sure what time it was. "Morning?" She questioned.

"Morning." Ash chuckled in affirmation, although for some reason she seemed to be avoiding eye contact like the plague. Jason threw that Hollywood star smile of his at her, making her stomach fill with butterflies.

"Y'all have been asleep for about four hours." Jason informed. "Who wants to get Leo up?"

Ash quickly put her finger up to her nose, Piper following. The son of Zeus rolled his eyes.

"Fine," he groaned, and reached over to shake the still-snoring boy.

"I didn't do it!" Leo yelped, sitting up so fast his head knocked into Jason's hollowly. The girls had to stifle their laughs as they rubbed their foreheads with matching pouts.

Fairly quickly, they broke camp and set off down the tunnel. It twisted and turned and seemed to go on forever; Piper had absolutely no clue where it could possibly be leading. Maybe the sewer reservoir where Queen Porta-Potty Face held court.

Thankfully, they found nothing of the sort, instead happening upon a pair of polished steel elevator doors engraved with cursive M's. Leo stepped up to squint at the directory next to them.

"M for Macy's?" Piper guessed. "I think there's one in downtown Chicago."

"Or Monocle Motors still?" Leo said. "Guys, take a look at this directory. It's weird."

She examined it, crease between her eyebrows getting deeper as she read on. "Kennels for what?" Piper asked. "And what kind of department store has its entrance in a sewer?"

"Or sells poisons," Leo said. "Man, what does 'sundries' even mean? Is that like underwear?"

"Sundried tomatoes?" Ash muttered under her breath, and Piper wondered how many concussions the average demigod got in the average year. Considering Ash had been doing this for 10+, Piper didn't really want to think about it.

Jason took a deep breath. "When in doubt, start at the top."

The doors slid open on the fourth floor and the heady scent of perfume wafted into the elevator. Jason stepped out first, sword ready, Ash right on his tail.

"Guys, you've got to see this," he said at the exact same time she did: "Guys, I do not like this."

Piper joined them and caught her breath. "This is not a Macy's."

Indeed, it looked like they'd entered the inside of a kaleidoscope. The entire ceiling was a stained glass mosaic, the daylight streaming through it washing everything in a thousand different colors. The upper floors made a ring of balconies around a huge central atrium, so they could see all the way down to the ground. Two sets of glass escalators ran between the levels, each filled with bizarre merchandise: shirt racks and shoe trees mixed in with armored manikins, beds of nails, and live fur coats.

Leo stepped to the railing and peered down. "Check it out."

In the middle of the atrium a fountain sprayed water twenty feet into the air. The pool glittered with gold coins, and on either side of the fountain stood a gilded cage–like for a really oversized bird or something. Inside one, a miniature hurricane swirled: imprisoned storm spirits. In the other, frozen like an action figure, was a short, buff satyr holding a tree-branch club.