A/N Wow, I didn't think this would get so much attention!

Review replies;

AngelWingsRocks: Thank you! Yes, they are. :)

Zoha Ven: Thank you! I will.

Chapter two

I blinked, completely disoriented. Just a second ago I was on the bus with Percy and Annabeth, and now...I strained my eyes, but couldn't see anything. It was too dark. I could feel Percy and Annabeth on either side of me, though, and hear their breathing, which was speeding up.

"Where are we?" Percy demanded.

"What did you do?" Annabeth followed up with, almost in the same breath.

"I'm not sure where we are," I said, "and I didn't do anything. I'm just as disoriented as you are."

Percy uncapped Riptide, and in the resulting glow I saw that we were in a sort of tunnel, made of...bookshelves?

"Shut it off!" I hissed. "Now!"

Startled, Percy obeyed. "What?" He asked.

"Hush!" I whispered frantically. "I think I might know where we are. Annabeth, you're closest to the wall. What's it made of?"

I heard her moving, brushing her hand against the wall. "Stone," she said.

Not good. I thought.

"Perseus, what are the bookshelves made of?" I asked. He was closest to them. Again, I heard movement.

"Wood." He reported. "Heavy, badly cut."

My breathing accelerated. Oh, Thor.

"We need to find a window," I whispered, as quietly as possible while still being heard.

"Do you know where we are?" Annabeth had picked up the hint and whispered as well.

I swallowed hard. "I think so. I need a window to make sure."

"There." Percy pointed. A bit further down the corridor there was a window. I ran to it as quietly as I could and looked out.

Far below, there were people. Vikings, I could tell by their helmets. And then the clincher: they had large animals on chain-leashes. I couldn't make out the animals, because they were black and it was dark out, but I knew for a fact that they were large, winged, reptilian, and had horns like huge drills on their heads.

I turned around, unable to control the shaking in my legs.

"I know where we are now," I said, in what I hoped was a good impression of Hiccup, from Riders of Berk, episode whatever, Defiant One.

"We're in the library."

I wish I could say that they cowered in terror, or whimpered, or something like that, but they didn't. In fact, I could hear the incredulity in their voices.

"Are you serious?"

"A library?"

"How is that dangerous?"

"Keep it down," I hissed. They quieted, but I could tell they weren't happy about it.

I tiptoed over to them (well, as well as anyone can tiptoe in sneakers on a stone floor) and whispered, "You both need to do exactly as I tell you, or we're all going to die."

That floored them. I could tell by the sound of their breathing.

"Can you do that?"

"Yes." Annabeth said. "Yeah," said Percy.

"Okay," I whispered. "We're on the fourth floor. On the third floor, somewhere along the perimeter of the building, by a window, there's a book. It's called A Hero's Guide To Deadly Dragons, by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Second."

"What kind of a name is that?" Percy interrupted in a whisper.

"Sshh!"

"Okay, okay. Continue."

I glared for a minute in the dark, then did so.

"If we pull out the book, it will open a secret tunnel. That's our only way out. The main entrance is guarded by...well, let's just say you don't want to meet them. The tunnel is guarded too, but those guardians are way easy to deal with." I paused. "Noise and light will mean our deaths. The library is patrolled by a single librarian, called the Hairy Scary Librarian."

Percy snorted.

"Shut up, Percy." Annabeth said.

I went on.

"He carries two weapons he calls his Heart-Slicers. Your sword won't hurt him, Jackson, he's mortal. Plus, he's a really skilled swords-man. Not as good as that Chrysais or Chrysaos guy, but almost."

Percy started to speak, but I hushed him and continued.

"The library is in permanent lockdown because these people have a deep mistrust of knowledge." I took a deep breath.

"They're Vikings."

Silence, except our breathing.

"Okay." said Annabeth. "Why not?"

"Let's go." Percy agreed.

I sighed in relief. Honestly, I hadn't known what to expect their reactions to be.

"The light from Riptide should be safe." I said.

Percy uncapped it. In its glow, I saw that Percy and Annabeth had linked hands. I turned away.

"This place is built like a maze," I whispered. "it's almost a labrinth."

Annabeth nodded. "Okay."

So we set off into the library, having no idea where we were going.

"Hey, Songbird." Annabeth beckoned me over. "Is this it?" She pointed out a book to me and I walked over to check it.

We had been searching for hours, we were all tired, but knew better than to shorten the search by splitting up, because then we'd never find each other again.

I peered down at the spine and could almost make it out...

"Hey, Jackson. Shine that light over here, would you?"

He came over, and in the blade's steady glow I could make out the title clearly.

A Hero's Guide To Deadly Dragons.

Author? H. H. H. II.

"We've found it."

Percy let out a whoop of jubilation.

Annabeth and I turned horrified eyes on him and made frantic shushing gestures, but it was too late. He clapped a hand over his mouth and looked properly sheepish, but I froze in terror.

We were silent, and in the silence we heard...nothing. Nothing at all.

Then...

scriitch scraatch scriitch scraatch

"He's coming." I whispered. The Librarian scrapes his swords on the floors when he's hunting intruders.

Annabeth was the only one who kept her head. She snatched at the book, but I caught her wrist.

"No!" I hissed. "There are little piranha-like dragons on the other side. We need to put them to sleep. Don't ask me why, but they hate whistling. It makes them drowsy."

Annabeth nodded, apparently beyond thinking anything of the sort was crazy...I mean, this girl had tangled with the earth Goddess, who was the grandmother of her mother's father...you know what? Forget it.

Percy looked incredulous. "Whistling?" He said.

"Yes." I said. "We're going to have the whistle the most annoying songs we know."

Percy looked very...well, actually, he looked like he couldn't decide whether to be amused or to not believe me.

I nodded to Annabeth, who pulled the book from the shelf.

The wall opened, and we found ourselves staring into a tunnel filled with tiny little dragons...who were all asleep.

"So much for that," Percy said.

"They're poisonous, Jackson," I said. "They're only gonna be asleep as long as we don't touch them."

The floor was littered with the little things, so our only option was to go in whistling and sort of dance through the mess. I told Percy and Annabeth so, and they nodded.

"Okay," I said. "On the count of three. One, two, three."

Ironically, we all began whistling the exact same song: It's a Small World.

I almost burst out laughing, but didn't. We had almost made it off the third floor when we heard a voice behind us, and old man's voice, cracked with age and insanity and isolation:

"Oooohh, little children in my library?"

Run, I mouthed. They did so without question (stopping their whistling), and the old man did not follow, but we could still hear his voice, wailing after us:

"Naughty children, naughty naughty children! Naughty children must be punished!"

We had bigger problems, though. The dragons were waking up. We kept running, dodging the annoying little things. I hadn't told Percy and Annabeth exactly how poisonous these dragons were, because I didn't want to freak them out too bad, but really, they were so poisonous, they made Kampe's swords look like a child's chemistry experiment.

My breath started coming in gasps and wheezing. "Almost...there," I choked out.

You know, honestly, it's really frustrating to be around demigods, who are so in shape that it makes the rest of us look bad...not that I was in shape at all...Moving on!

We finally hit the door at ground level. I pulled and pushed at it, but it was locked.

"Move." Percy said. He attacked the lock with Riptide. Don't ask me how that worked, but the lock fell away in less than ten seconds, steaming.

We pushed open the door and ran out into the night. I knew the Librarian would raise the alarm to the guards and their Driller Dragons, so we needed to get off this island now.

"Perseus," I wheezed, "we need a boat. Harbor's over there." I waved my hand off to the front of the library. "I'll distract the guards when they come."

"Guards?" Annabeth asked.

"No time...to talk. Move or we're dead."

They did so, and I scrambled to keep up. We found a boat and tumbled into it. It wasn't big, maybe the same size boat Astrid had played Heather in, somewhere in Riders of Berk.

I turned to see them both facing me, arms crossed.

"Okay," Annabeth said. "How come you know so much about this place?"

"Who are you?" Percy shot at me.

"We are not going anywhere until you explain." Annabeth insisted.

I could see the faint outlines of the Driller Dragons approaching over the rocks.

"I'll tell you later. We need to leave now."

"No."

The dragons were getting closer.

"Cast off, Jackson."

"Not until you tell us what's going on."

"I know just as much as you do, now cast off!"

"Not a chance!"

The dragons were so close I could see the horns...and smell them, an awful smell, like dead fish left in the sun for a week. How was it the Percy and Annabeth couldn't smell that?

"Damn you, Jackson, cast off NOW!"

I could see the hurt in his eyes, but was too scared to feel more than a small stab of guilt. I was shocked at myself, though. I never swore.

Behind him, the alpha of the Driller pack roared.

Percy and Annabeth turned to see the pack of Drillers behind them.

"Oh." Percy said. "Hello."

They stopped, clearly puzzled.

"CAST OFF!" I screamed.

The boat swiftly untied itself and shot away from the dock so fast that Annabeth and I both fell over, our backpacks (which were hanging loose) coming off and hitting each other in the head. I have a feeling hers was heavier than mine.

Percy was doing his "son of Poseidon" thing, making the boat go faster than it would have normally. The roars of the Driller Dragons were getting fainter.

I struggled to my feet, clutching my head, and stumbled to the prow, where I sat down heavily.

"Tone it down a little, Jackson." I mumbled. "They can't catch us. They won't be leaving that island anytime soon."

He didn't say anything, but the boat slowed. I looked up to see Annabeth and Percy sitting together at the stern, watching me, their hands entwined again.

I sighed heavily. "Okay. You want the truth? I'm completely clueless as to why we're here. The gods must be playing some kind of cruel trick on us. I mean, I've never had any adventures, except maybe falling out of a tree a while back, but you guys...I know you must feel cheated, like 'oh, you're really gonna do this to us? Thanks a lot, Zeus!' "

I saw them flinch a little, but plowed on.

"The thing is, I know what I know about this place because I've studied it intensely. Well, maybe study isn't the right word..I was obsessed for a while. The big joke? Your gods don't hold any power here. Your cousin's gods do, Annabeth."

Annabeth looked at me like I'd grown a third eye.

"Magnus?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. He's a son of Frey, the Norse god of summer."

They both looked like you could knock them over with a feather.

"First Greeks, then Romans, then Egyptians, and now this?" Percy muttered.

I smiled without humor.

"Yeah. The thing is, I know exactly how this place works, so you're going to have to do as I say or we're either going to die or be imprisoned in trees."

"Imprisoned in trees?"

"Don't ask. It's not good."

"Okay."

There was silence for a while. Finally I said, "I'm sorry I swore at you, Perseus, I don't usually explode like that. I guess terror does strange things to a person."

He looked a little startled, but waved it off with, "yeah, it's cool. I understand."

There a silence for another long while. Finally, Annabeth asked, "So where are we going?"

I stood up and looked about.

I could see the outline of an island we did not want to land on ahead.

"North. There's an island called Berk where some people will help us." I frowned. "Probably." Assuming this is far enough in the dragons timeline so that they have dragons, I thought to myself.

"There's someone who will probably trust us more than the others."

The boat had turned north, and as we cut through the water at a pretty fast pace, Percy asked, "so who is this person? Who are we meeting?"

There were many answers I could have given, but I chose the most humorous one.

"Why, Jackson, I'm surprised at you. After all you've seen in this place?" I grinned.

"We're going to meet a master of sass."