Ok, a new chapter. I got some amazing reviews for the last ones. And I love your ideas. I think I will try to apply some of them in future chapters. Let's see.

Chapter 17: I Drop a Little Man on His Head Part 1.

Apollo's pov.

Honestly, these guys aren't as bad as Father is thinking. How do I know what my father is thinking? Well, he is making funny faces behind their back which is as amusing as the story. I am looking forward to seeing where Bast comes in the story. Huuh, sweet little kitty Bast.

So, when Osiris asked who would read next, I raised my hand, "I will." Greek gods and demigods turned towards me and looked as if I gained another head. Artemis touching my head, asked concerned" Are you alright? You didn't catch any flu or something?"

I rolled my eyes and replied," No, I am all fine. I just want to know what happens is all. Now will you give me the book!" Osiris nodded and sent the book towards me. I held it and turned to the next chapter. I read.

Chapter 7: I Drop a Little Man on His Head

Many eyebrows were raised.

HONESTLY, CARTER IS SO THICK sometimes I can't believe we're related.

"Me too, sis me too," Carter muttered.

I mean when someone says I forbid it, that's a good sign it's worth doing. I made for the library straightaway.

"I like you already!" Hermes chanted.

"Hold on!" Carter cried. "You can't just—"

"Brother dear," I said, "did your soul leave your body again while Amos was talking, or did you actually hear him? Egyptian gods real. Red Lord bad. Red Lord's birthday: very soon, very bad. House of Life: fussy old magicians who hate our family because Dad was a bit of a rebel, whom by the way you could take a lesson from.

" Now I like you too!" Percy said laughingly.

Which leaves us—just us—with Dad missing, an evil god about to destroy the world, and an uncle who just jumped off the building—and I can't actually blame him." I took a breath.

"Wow, you seriously know how to summarise every serious topic to look ridiculous," Piper commented as everyone laughed.

[Yes, Carter, I do have to breathe occasionally.] "Am I missing anything? Oh, yes, I also have a brother who is supposedly quite powerful from an ancient bloodline, blah, blah, et cetera, but is too afraid to visit a library. Now, coming or not?"

Carter blinked as if I'd just hit him, which I suppose I had in a way.

Ruby and Julius quietened down interested to listen to how their kids interacted.

"I just..." He faltered. "I just think we should be careful."

I realized the poor boy was quite scared, which I couldn't hold against him, but it did startle me. Carter was my big brother, after all—older, more sophisticated, the one who traveled the world with Dad. Big brothers are the ones who are supposed to pull their punches. Little sisters—well, we should be able to hit as hard as we like, shouldn't we? But I realized that possibly, just possibly, I'd been a bit harsh with him.

Their parents smiled while Carter blushed at the older brother comment.

"Look," I said. "We need to help Dad, yes? There's got to be some powerful stuff in that library, otherwise Amos wouldn't keep it locked up. You do want to help Dad?"

Carter shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah...of course."

Well, that was one problem sorted, so we headed for the library. But as soon as Khufu saw what we were up to, he scrambled off the sofa with his basketball and jumped in front of the library doors. Who knew baboons were so speedy?

"I know, baboons can be quite speedy if they want to." Everyone looked at Grover weirdly. "What I am a satyr!"

He barked at us, and I have to say baboons have enormous fangs. And they're not any prettier when they've been chewing up exotic pink birds.

This moment can be marked, along with some others, when a Greek goddess fainted. Right now it was Aphrodite.

Carter tried to reason with him. "Khufu, we're not going to steal anything. We just want—"

" You tried to reason a baboon? " Hermes shouted trying hard to control his chuckle.

"Agh!" Khufu dribbled his basketball angrily.

"Carter," I said, "you're not helping. Look here, Khufu. I have...ta-da!" I held up a little yellow box of cereal I'd taken from the buffet table. "Cheerios! Ends with an -o. Yumsies!"

"Aghhh!" Khufu grunted, more excited now than angry.

"Want it?" I coaxed. "Just take it to the couch and pretend you didn't see us, yes?"

I threw the cereal towards the couch, and the baboon lunged after it. He grabbed the box in midair and was so excited, he ran straight up the wall and sat on the fireplace mantel, where he began gingerly picking out Cheerios and eating them one at a time.

Carter looked at me with grudging admiration. "How did you—"

"Some of us think ahead. Now, let's open these doors."

Carter snorted and rolled his eyes.

That was not so easily done. They were made of thick wood laced with giant steel chains and padlocked. Complete overkill.

"Why is the Library locked? It never was in our time!" Ruby furrowed her brows. " The reason will be revealed in further chapters," Walt said in a mechanical voice. I rolled my eyes. Can't they just tell us everything?

Carter stepped forward. He tried to raise the doors by lifting his hand, which had been quite impressive the night before, only now accomplished nothing.

He shook the chains the old-fashioned way, then yanked on the padlocks.

"No good," he said.

Ice needles tingled on the back of my neck. It was almost as if someone—or something—was whispering an idea in my head.

"You should have listened to the voice carefully!" Isis pointed out to Sadie. She shrugged. "I am a very bad listener!" "Truer words have not been spoken!" All the Egyptians exclaimed at once. She turned red.

"What was that word Amos used at breakfast with the saucer?"

"For 'join'?" Carter said. "Hi-nehm or something."

"No, the other one, for 'destroy'."

"Uh, ha-di. But you'd need to know magic and the hieroglyphics, wouldn't you? And even then—"

I raised my hand toward the door. I pointed with two fingers and my thumb—an odd gesture I'd never made before, like a make-believe gun except with the thumb parallel to the ground.

"Ha-di!"

" And that was the beginning of Sadie's most famous catchphrase!" Carter announced. Ruby and Julius shook their head in disapproval but smiled at them nonetheless.

Bright gold hieroglyphs burned against the largest padlock.

And the doors exploded. Carter hit the floor as chains shattered and splinters flew all over the Great Room. When the dust cleared, Carter got up, covered in wood shavings. I seemed to be fine. Muffin circled my feet, mewing contentedly, as if this were all very normal.

" I have never said this before, but your cat is crazy!" Grover exclaimed.

Carter stared at me. "How exactly—"

"Don't know," I admitted. "But the library's open."

"Think you overdid it a little? We're going to be in so much trouble—"

"We'll just figure out a way to zap the door back, won't we?"

"Use the other spell, to join one." Zia shrugged.

"No more zapping, please," Carter said. "That explosion could've killed us."

"Oh, do you think if you tried that spell on a person—"

"No!" He stepped back nervously.

I felt gratified that I could make him squirm,

"Uhu, and I was wishing I could have thrown you to Philip!" Carter replied.

but I tried not to smile. "Let's just explore the library, shall we?"

The truth was, I couldn't have ha-di-ed anyone. As soon as I stepped forward, I felt so faint that I almost collapsed.

"First-time magic is always like that!" Zia winced.

Carter caught me as I stumbled. "You okay?"

"Fine," I managed, though I didn't feel fine. "I'm tired"—my stomach rumbled—"and famished."

"You just ate a huge breakfast."

It was true, but I felt as if I hadn't had food in weeks.

"Never mind," I told him. "I'll manage."

Carter studied me skeptically. "Those hieroglyphs you created were golden. Dad and Amos both used blue. Why?"

"Because everyone has different colors! Usually, men of the same family have similar colors and likewise women. So Carter inherited Blue from his father and Uncle before he became the host of Set and Sadie inherited it from her mother." Walt explained.

"Maybe everyone has his own color," I suggested. "Maybe you'll get hot pink."

"Very funny."

"Come on, pink wizard," I said. "Inside we go."

The library was so amazing, I almost forgot my dizziness. It was bigger than I'd imagined, a round chamber sunk deep into solid rock, like a giant well. This didn't make sense, as the mansion was sitting on top of a warehouse, but then again nothing else about the place was exactly normal.

From the platform where we stood, a staircase descended three stories to the bottom floor. The walls, floor, and domed ceiling were all decorated with multicolored pictures of people, gods, and monsters. I'd seen such illustrations in Dad's books

"Wait! you read my books?" Julius asked hopefully.

(yes, all right, sometimes when I was in the Piccadilly bookshop I'd wander into the Egypt section and sneak a look at Dad's books, just to feel some connection to him, not because I wanted to read them)

And his hope died a bitter death.

but the pictures in the books had always been faded and smudged. These in the library looked newly painted, making the entire room a work of art.

" It's so beautiful!" Athena and Annabeth muttered." Man, why did we never think of putting up a library in the camps." Jason asked. Everyone else shrugged.

"It's beautiful," I said.

A blue starry sky glittered on the ceiling, but it wasn't a solid field of blue. Rather, the sky was painted in a strange swirling pattern. I realized it was shaped like a woman. She lay curled on her side—her body, arms, and legs dark blue and dotted with stars. Below, the library floor was done in a similar way, the green-and-brown earth shaped into a man's body, dotted with forests and hills and cities. A river snaked across his chest.

The library had no books. Not even bookshelves. Instead, the walls were honeycombed with round cubbyholes, each one holding a sort of plastic cylinder.

At each of the four compass points, a ceramic statue stood on a pedestal. The statues were half-size humans wearing kilts and sandals, with glossy black wedge-shaped haircuts and black eyeliner around their eyes.

[Carter says the eyeliner stuff is called kohl, as if it matters.]

"Of course, it matters," Athena said in a trance-like voice.

At any rate, one statue held a stylus and scroll. Another held a box. Another held a short, hooked staff. The last was empty-handed.

"Sadie." Carter pointed to the center of the room. Sitting on a long stone table was Dad's workbag.

Carter started down the stairs, but I grabbed his arm. "Hang on. What about traps?"

He frowned. "Traps?"

" Why would there be traps in a library?" questioned Osiris.

"Didn't Egyptian tombs have traps?"

" No-" "It is given Dad, no need to repeat. Please!" Sadie added the please with the cutest baby seal eyes and Julius obliged. Heck if it was against me even I would have obliged happily.

"Well...sometimes. But this isn't a tomb. Besides, more often they had curses, like the burning curse, the donkey curse—"

"Oh, lovely. That sounds so much better."

He trotted down the steps, which made me feel quite ridiculous, as I'm usually the one to forge ahead. But I supposed if someone had to get cursed with a burning skin rash or attacked by a magical donkey, it was better Carter than me.

" In donkey curse, no one gets attacked by a donkey, they get turned into a donkey Sadie!" Carter explained. Sadie made a face behind his back.

We made it to the middle of the room with no excitement. Carter opened the bag. Still no traps or curses. He brought out the strange box Dad had used in the British Museum.

It was made of wood, and about the right size to hold a loaf of French bread. The lid was decorated much like the library, with gods and monsters and sideways-walking people.

"How did the Egyptians move like that?" I wondered. "All sideways with their arms and legs out. It seems quite silly."

Athena gave Sadie your're-an-idiot-and-you-know-it look. She ignored.

Carter gave me one of his God, you're stupid looks. "They didn't walk like that in real life, Sadie."

"Well, why are they painted like that, then?"

"They thought paintings were like magic. If you painted yourself, you had to show all your arms and legs. Otherwise, in the afterlife, you might be reborn without all your pieces."

" Seriously, then why were they painted with sideway faces ?" Leo asked. " The next question."

"Then why the sideways faces? They never look straight at you. Doesn't that mean they'll lose the other side of their face?"

"good one!" Leo clapped.

Carter hesitated. "I think they were afraid the picture would be too human if it was looking right at you. It might try to become you."

"So is there anything they weren't afraid of?"

"Little sisters," Carter said. "If they talked too much, the Egyptians threw them to the crocodiles."

The whole room was silent for an entire minute then everyone erupted into fits of laughter. " Bravo way to silence sisters!" Jason, Nico and I clapped only to get hit by the said sisters.

He had me for a second. I wasn't used to him displaying a sense of humor. Then I punched him. "Just open the bloody box."

The first thing he pulled out was a lump of white gunk."Wax," Carter pronounced."Fascinating." I picked up a wooden stylus and a palette with small indentations on its surface for ink, then a few glass jars of the ink itself—black, red, and gold. "And a prehistoric painting set."Carter pulled out several lengths of brown twine, a small ebony cat statue, and a thick roll of paper. No, not paper. Papyrus. I remembered Dad explaining how the Egyptians made it from a river plant because they never invented paper. The stuff was so thick and rough, it made me wonder if the poor Egyptians had had to use toilet papyrus. If so, no wonder they walked sideways.

The bouts of laughter which had died down began again. Many of us fell off the throne chuckling. "Sadie you have an exquisite sense of humor. " I said in between my fits.

Finally, I pulled out a wax figurine."Ew," I said. He was a tiny man, crudely fashioned as if the maker had been in a hurry. His arms were crossed over his chest, his mouth was open, and his legs were cut off at the knees. A lock of human hair was wrapped round his waist.

"Now even I have to agree. Eww." Aphrodite wrinkled her nose. Osiris smiled secretly.

Muffin jumped on the table and sniffed the little man. She seemed to think him quite interesting."There's nothing here," Carter said."What do you want?" I asked. "We've got wax, some toilet papyrus, an ugly statue—"

Some laughed at the toilet papyrus comment.

"Something to explain what happened to Dad. How do we get him back? Who was that fiery man he summoned?"I held up the wax man. "You heard him, warty little troll. Tell us what you know."

" Why didn't you name him that Warty little troll? W-roll. " Hermes said. " Where will little come in W-roll?" " Oh, I have a better name Wall-roll. WA from Warty, LL the two Ls of Little and ROLL from Troll. " " Awesome, we will call him Wall-Roll." The Stoll siblings decided. The entire time Sadie and Carter were laughing so hard, their stomach would be aching.

I was just messing about. But the wax man became soft and warm like flesh. He said, "I answer the call."I screamed and dropped him on his tiny head. Well, can you blame me?

" You dropped a tiny man on his head. How cruel. " Hestia admonished her jokingly.

"Ow!" he said. Muffin came over to have a sniff, and the little man started cursing in another language, possibly Ancient Egyptian. When that didn't work, he screeched in English: "Go away! I'm not a mouse!"I scooped up Muffin and put her on the floor. Carter's face had gone as soft and waxy as the little man's. "What are you?" he asked."I'm a shabti, of course!" The figurine rubbed his dented head. He still looked quite lumpish, only now he was a living lump. "Master calls me Doughboy, though I find the name insulting. You may call me Supreme-Force-Who-Crushes-His-Enemies!"

"SHWCHE, Na Doughboy is a better name," Chris replied.

"All right, Doughboy," I said. He scowled at me, I think, though it was hard to tell with his mashed-up face."You weren't supposed to trigger me! Only the master does that." "The master, meaning Dad," I guessed. "Er, Julius Kane?" "That's him," Doughboy grumbled. "Are we done yet? Have I fulfilled my service?"Carter stared at me blankly, but I thought I was beginning to understand."So, Doughboy," I told the lump. "You were triggered when I picked you up and gave you a direct order: Tell us what you know. Is that correct?"Doughboy crossed his stubby arms. "You're just toying with me now. Of course, that's correct. Only the master is supposed to be able to trigger me, by the way. I don't know how you did it, but he'll blast you to pieces when he finds out."

" Na I won't. They are my kids, after all."

Carter cleared his throat. "Doughboy, the master is our dad, and he's missing. He's been magically sent away somehow and we need your help—" "Master is gone?" Doughboy smiled so widely, I thought his wax face would split open. "Free at last! See you, suckers!"He lunged for the end of the table but forgot he had no feet. He landed on his face, then began crawling toward the edge, dragging himself with his hands. "Free! Free!"He fell off the table and onto the floor with a thud, but that didn't seem to discourage him. "Free! Free!"

" That lump of wax has quite an enthusiasm." Hera was amused. Sadist.

He made it another centimeter or two before I picked him up and threw him in Dad's magic box. Doughboy tried to get out, but the box was just tall enough that he couldn't reach the rim. I wondered if it had been designed that way."Trapped!" he wailed. "Trapped!"

" Ohhh, the poor lump of wax... I mean poor Doughboy !" Demeter wailed laughingly.

"Oh, shut up," I told him. "I'm the mistress now. And you'll answer my questions."Carter raised his eyebrow. "How come you get to be in charge?" "Because I was smart enough to activate him." "You were just joking around!"I ignored my brother, which is one of my many talents. "Now, Doughboy, first off, what's a shabti?" "Will you let me out of the box if I tell you?" "You have to tell me," I pointed out. "And no, I won't."He sighed. "Shabti means answerer, as even the stupidest slave could tell you."

"We were not slaves. So we didn't know what Sabti was!" Sadie pointed out.

Carter snapped his fingers. "I remember now! The Egyptians made models out of wax or clay—servants to do every kind of job they could imagine in the afterlife. They were supposed to come to life when their master called, so the deceased person could, like, kick back and relax and let the shabti do all his work for eternity." "First," Doughboy snipped, "that is typical of humans! Lazing around while we do all the work. Second, afterlife work is only one function of shabti.

"In that case, I would like to order some shabti for my palace too." Hades asked. " Sure, I could ask some of my helpers to help in your palace too. " Osiris nodded. They both shook hands as if they were signing a deal.

We are also used by magicians for a great number of things in this life, because magicians would be total incompetents without us.

"Uhu. Don't listen to him. He became a magical coat in the end. " Carter waved him off.

Third, if you know so much, why are you asking me?"

" Good question? That Shabti is a smart one."

"Why did Dad cut off your legs," I wondered, "and leave you with a mouth?"

" Sadie is on the move!" Hermes replied. " Sadie is always on the move. And that move is to annoy the heck out of the person next to her. " Walt replied.

"I—" Doughboy clapped his little hands over his mouth. "Oh, very funny. Threaten the wax statue. Big bully! He cut my legs off so I wouldn't run away or come to life in perfect form and try to kill him, naturally. Magicians are very mean. They maim statues to control them. They are afraid of us!"

" Julius that was a very bad thing to do." Hestia chided, "Especially in front of your kids."

A/N Ok, I wanted to finish this chapter but it is sooo long. So it broke in parts.

Lastly sorry, For the late update. But I had some chores yesterday. So bear this time. Next Update on next Sunday!