Book Cult (New and Improved)

Leo XII

"Leo XII," Will read.

This can't be as bad as the other chapter. Leo hoped, going back to fixing the stop watch. It just can't be.

The Woods Weren't Like Anyplace he'd been before... The wildest things he'd ever seen were that rattlesnake in the cow pasture and his Aunt Rosa in her nightgown,

"Oh dear gods! Who wrote that in there and why do they hate me?!" Leo gagged, his face turning green. Out of all the things he could think of, that was a mental image he never wanted to think of ever again. Ever.

until he was sent to the wilderness school.

Even there, the school had been in the desert. No trees with gnarled roots to trip over. No streams to fall into. No branches casting dark, creepy shadows and owls looking down at him with their big reflective eyes.

This was the Twilight Zone.

"Bet you wished you had that flashlight now, don't you?" Will said with a raised eyebrow.

Leo sheepishly smiled. "Okay, okay. You were right. Happy?"

"Only a little." Will said, trying not to smile in satisfaction. 

He stumbled along until he was sure no one back at the cabins could possibly see him.

Then he summoned fire. Flames danced along his fingertips, casting enough light to see.

He hadn't tried to keep a sustained burn going since he was five, at that picnic table...Even this tiny fire made him feel guilty.

"Don't feel bad about it." Demeter told the boy. "We all know it wasn't you're fault. Right, Hades?"

She glared at Hades until he rolled his eyes and nodded in agreement.

"Thank you." Leo said.

Demeter smiled.

He kept walking, looking for dragon-type clues- giant footsteps, trampled trees, swaths of burning forest. Something that big couldn't exactly sneak around, right?

"It shouldn't be." Nico agreed "But if it were loud, wouldn't it have been easier to find?"

But he saw nada. Once he glimpsed a large, furry shape like a wolf or bear, but it stayed away from his fire, which was fine by Leo.

"Pretty sure that was a monster," Percy frowned. "The forest is full of them."

"Hopefully the fire will scare the other monsters away too," Katie said.

"Yeah," Leo said before sighing dramatically. "Would've been nice if I had a sword or a shot gun on me to defend myself..."

"No." the god said, unmoved.

Then, at the bottom of a clearing, he saw the first trap- a hundred-foot-wide crater ringed with boulders.

...In the center of the depression, a metal vat the size of a hot tub had been filled with bubbly dark liquid- Tabasco sauce and motor oil.

Drew and some of her sisters made a look of disgust.

On pedestal suspended over the vat, an electric fan rotated in a circle, spreading the fume across the forest. Could metal dragons smell?

When everyone turned to the Hephaestus children for answers, Jake shrugged.

"He senses in a way that's similar to smell." Jake explained.