"After all those years on the streets, I finally feel like I'm home"
"You're lying" Leo didn't even have to look up, he knew her better than anyone.
"You're right, I was always at home with you"
In which there's an unlikely friendship (... and ma...
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Finally they arrived at the top of the island. Bronze walls marched all the way around the fortress grounds, though Alex couldn't imagine who would possibly attack this place. Twenty-foot-high gates opened for them, and a road of polished purple stone led up to the main citadel-a white-columned rotunda, Greek style, like one of the monuments in Washington, D.C.-except for the cluster of satellite dishes and radio towers on the roof.
"That's bizarre," Piper said.
"Guess you can't get cable on a floating island," Leo said. "Dang, check this guy's front yard."
The rotunda sat in the center of a quarter-mile circle. The grounds were amazing in a scary way. They were divided into four sections like big pizza slices, each one representing a season. The section on their right was an icy waste, with bare trees and a frozen lake. Snowmen rolled across the landscape as the wind blew, so Jason wasn't sure if they were decorations or alive. To their left was an autumn park with gold and red trees. Mounds of leaves blew into patterns-gods, people, animals that ran after each other before scattering back into leaves. In the distance, Jason could see two more areas behind the rotunda. One looked like a green pasture with sheep made out of clouds. The last section was a desert where tumbleweeds scratched strange patterns in the sand like Greek letters, smiley faces, and a huge advertisement that read: watch aeolus nightly!
"One section for each of the four wind gods," Jason guessed. "Four cardinal directions."
"I'm loving that pasture." Coach Hedge licked his lips. "You guys mind-"
"Go ahead," Alex said. She was actually relieved to send the satyr off. It would be hard enough getting on Aeolus's good side without Coach Hedge waving his club and screaming, "Die!" While the satyr ran off to attack springtime, Jason, Alex, Leo, and Piper walked down the road to the steps of the palace. They passed through the front doors into a white marble foyer decorated with purple banners that read olympian weather channel, and some that just read ow!
"Hello!" A woman floated up to them. Literally floated. She was pretty in that elfish way Alex associated with nature spirits at Camp Half-Blood-petite, slightly pointy ears, and an ageless face that could've been sixteen or thirty. Her brown eyes twinkled cheerfully. Even though there was no wind, her dark hair blew in slow motion, shampoo-commercial style. Her white gown billowed around her like parachute material. Alex couldn't tell if she had feet, but if so, they didn't touch the floor. She had a white tablet computer in her hand. "Are you from Lord Zeus and Poseidon?" she asked. "We've been expecting you."
She introduced herself as Mellie and led them inside the palace. Alex walked entranced as she looked at the bizarre-ness of everything.
Alex's jaw dropped, the central section of Aeolus's fortress was as big as a cathedral, with a soaring domed roof covered in silver. Television equipment floated randomly through the air-cameras, spotlights, set pieces, potted plants. And there was no floor. Leo almost fell into the chasm before Piper pulled him back.
