Book Cult (New and Improved)

Jason XIII

"Jason XIII," Nyssa read.

Everyone ignored the dime Leo flicked across the room.

Jason Dreamed Of Wolves.

"Wolves?" Katie repeated.

"It could be a symbolic demigod dream." Percy said, remembering his first dream. "They can get pretty weird."

He stood in clearing in middle of a redwood forest... A pack of large grey beasts milled around him, brushing against his legs, snarling and baring their teeth. They gently nudged him toward the ruins.

Jason had no desire to become the world's largest dog biscuit, so he decided to do what they wanted.

"Good choice." Chris nodded.

The ground squelched under his boots as he walked. Stone spires of chimneys, no longer attached to anything, rose up like totem poles. The house must've been enormous once, multi-storied with massive log walls and a soaring gabled roof, but now nothing remained but its stone skeletons.

The Wolf House. Athena thought with a scowl.

"Wait..." Thalia trailed off. Is this the place where Mom left Jason? How did he remember this? He was practically a baby. 

...Before him was a drained reflecting pool, long and rectangular. Jason couldn't tell how deep it was, because the bottom was filled with mist...Wolves paced under the archways of rough red volcanic stone.

At the far end of the pool sat a giant she wolf, several feet taller than Jason.

Her eyes glowed sliver in the fog,

Artemis? Thalia instantly thought, looking at the goddess.

Catching her hunter's look, Artemis shook her head.

Then who?

and her coat was the same color as the rocks- warm chocolaty red.

"I know this place," Jason said.

Annabeth frowned.

"Maybe this is a memory," she said. "Or maybe god is trying to talk to him."

Leo flipped a coin.

The wolf regarded him. She didn't exactly speak, but Jason could understand her.

The movements of her ears and whiskers, the flash of her eyes, the way she curled her lips- all these were part of language.

The demigods looked surprised.

"He speaks wolf?" Annabeth said skeptically. Is this a Roman thing? Wolves aren't Zeus' chosen animal. Only person who I can think of is Lycaon, but that can't be right.

Annabeth made a mental note to study more Roman mythology and customs when she gets back to Camp.

"Cool! Jason's Tarzan!" Travis laughed. Connor and Leo joined him.

"I think Mowgoli would be a better option." she said. Clearly they only watched the movies.

"You think he was raised by wolves too?" his brother said with a wide smile.

"Maybe, it could happen." Travis, playing along, shrugged.

Katie rolled her eyes. "That would never happen."

Of course, the she-wolf said. You began your journey here as a pup. Now you must find your way back. A new quest, a new start.