Book Cult (New and Improved)

Jason XXXVIII

"Jason XXXVIII," Poseidon read.

Jason's jaw dropped. The central section of Aeolus's fortress was as big as a cathedral, with a soaring domed roof covered in silver... And there was no floor. Leo almost fell into the chasm before Jason pulled him back.

"That's like the hundredth time you almost fell to your death." Connor noticed.

"Tell me about it, you might as well start off every chapter with 'And Leo nearly falls to his death'." Leo said, waving his hand around. "I swear this has to be some kind a recurring theme. Maybe it's a metaphor on how much my life sucks!"

"I don't think it's that deep." Katie said.

"It could be, I mean, my life's crazy enough to be written into three books, right?" he paused, seeming to be considering something. "Do you think Nemesis has more books like these?"

"I don't think so. Who else would she have books about?" Percy asked.

Leo shrugged. "Could be you." Feeling a bit sadistic, he added. "Who knows? There might be a whole series of books floating around somewhere with good ol' Percy Jackson as the narrator." He dramatically wiggled his fingers. "Watch how you think, PJ! You never know who's listening in!"

Percy had a full body shudder.

"Don't even joke about that." he said. "Besides, my thoughts are way too dumb to be written in a paragraph, let alone a whole book."

"And you think mine are all philosophical and genius-like." Leo argued, looking unimpressed. "Don't get me wrong, they have their moments, but for the most part, they're pretty stupid." And depressing. And embarrassing. And self-depreciating. And-

"Yeah but..."The son of Poseidon looked like he wanted to argue, but couldn't think of anything else to say besides the silent: Better you than me.

Not that Leo could blame him. If the roles had been reversed he'd be thinking the same too.

"Holy—!" Leo gulped. "Hey, Mellie. A little warning next time!"

An enormous circular pit plunged into the heart of the mountain. It was probably half a mile deep, honeycombed with caves...The whole cavern bustled with harpies, aurai, and paper airplanes, but for someone who couldn't fly, it would be a very long, very fatal fall.

"That's amazing." Annabeth breathed.

"Yeah, if you ignore the whole 'no floors' and 'fatal fall' parts." Thalia shivered.

"Why don't they have any floors?" Percy asked, eager that they were moving on from the last conversation.

"No point in having any if everyone can float." Poseidon said.

"They also must not have a lot of visitors if they hadn't constructed any." the daughter of Athena noted.

Leo fiddled with a cooper wire.

"Oh, my," Mellie gasped. "I'm so sorry." She unclipped a walkie-talkie from somewhere inside her robes and spoke into it: "Hello, sets? Is that Nuggets? Hi, Nuggets.

"What kind of name is that?" Connor snickered with his brother.

Could we get a floor in the main studio, please? Yes, a solid one. Thanks."

A few seconds later, an army of harpies rose from the pit—three dozen or so demon chicken ladies... They went to work hammering and gluing—and using large quantities of duct tape, which didn't reassure Jason.

In no time there was a makeshift floor snaking out over the chasm. It was made of plywood, marble blocks, carpet squares, wedges of grass sod—just about anything.