Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HOO.
3rd Person POV
Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase dashed after Hephaestus' gleaming bronze spider.
The 4-inch long creation was made out of the highest quality celestial bronze; gleaming even in the dull light that emanated from the direction of its creator's workshop, and from a distant opening at the end of the tunnel.
Each of its eight legs was carefully constructed, with each section fitting perfectly into the chain of bronze that made up its spindly legs.
The body itself was a work of art in itself. Not only was it made of glowing bronze, but it was covered in intricate carvings that seemed to illustrate a scene from long ago; the hustle and bustle of Ancient Rome, with the Coliseum in the background.
Both demigods gasped at the images they saw. It should be impossible for the hulking and hideous blacksmith god to create such complex and beautiful carvings.
Despite them having to sprint to keep up with the scurrying automaton, they continued to observe more details on its polished body.
There was a tall hill which was blanketed in what seems like temples to the Olympians, with the grandest looking structure sitting proudly on the summit. It was at would have been at least 50ft tall and it had a tiny inscription just below the roof, and although the demigods couldn't read it due to their fatigue, it read: Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
Their attention was shifted to a military encampment a mile outside of the densely packed and ancient looking city. It was a two-hundred-metre wide square fortress. Around it on all sides lay a deep but dry moat, which itself was bordered by sharp logs and sticks poking outwards from the main structure.
The walls were made of a mixture of stone, concrete and mighty oak logs, with 25ft towers looming over it menacingly at each of the corners.
But before they could examine the endless images on the spider's abdomen, it stopped, before scampering back the way it came; the tiny taps produced by its bronze legs on the hard stone echoed endlessly through the mismatched walls of the Labyrinth.
Ignoring the retreating automaton, Percy shifted his gaze to the distant exit to the vicious maze; all he could see was a bright and searing light filtering in through.
"Annabeth," he whispered to his blonde haired companion.
"Look! I think that's where we'll find Lord Hephaestus's haunted forge." he continued, earning a glare from Annabeth.
"Of course it's his forge. The spid… automaton," she quickly correcting herself before continuing, "would lead us to the forge. Lord Hephaestus said that himself. Seriously, sometimes I wonder whether you have anything in your brain at all." she reprimanded.
"And also, it's not haunted." she snapped. "He just thinks that it's being used without his permission."
"But if a god can't even find what's supposedly using their property, how could it not be haunted and full of ghosts?" Percy innocently rebutted.
Although his valiant efforts only rewarded him with a sharp and incriminating glare from the annoyed daughter of Athena.
Percy POV
'Gods, Annabeth looks cute when she's mad' I thought. Her honey coloured princess curls shrouded half of her face giving her a menacing quality, which was only amplified by her piercing gaze.
Holy Hera. I could stare at those eyes for days on end, I could never get enough of them. They were a deep and vibrant grey colour and looked like angry storm clouds over a drought-stricken and barren landscape.
I was that arid expanse of dirt.
Her sharp look was so unnerving, and yet so majestic.
"Seaweed Brain? Hello?" she shouted waving her hand in front of my face.
"Wha-" I spluttered. Of course. Curse my luck and the Fates. I had zoned out while thinking of her.
"You had a weird expression on your face for like a minute. I think that was your brain trying to think." she laughed sincerely.
Her melodic voice reverberated inside my skull and throughout the narrow passageway that we had come down.
"Oh, um yeah. I'll leave the thinking to you in the future," I hastily added.
Why was I getting so nervous near her? We've been together almost all and every day for three whole summers and I never got like this.
"You're such a Seaweed Brain," she muttered affectionately.
Before I could process what she had said we were both shuffling slowly to Hephaestus's favourite forge.
"Is it me or is it getting hot in here?" I asked Annabeth in an attempt to break the suffocating silence, but instead receiving a shove and a scolding.
"Ugh get over yourself, Seaweed Brain. I think it's just the fact that his forge is a bubbling crater full of magma. Which for your information, can be over 1,600 degrees Celsius."
I groaned, of course, she had to turn everything into a lesson.
"Wait. Bubbling crater? What are you talking ab-" But before I could finish my question I saw it.
It was a massive lake of explosive molten rock.
"Whoa…" was all I could say because let's be honest. It is seriously cool.
As I continued to stare at the divine forge I noticed strange creatures shuffling around. They had the body of seals but the head of dogs. Their skin was a deep grey and was covered in deep, angry red burn marks, obviously from the lava they were working with.
"pssst, Annabeth," I whispered.
"Wha-" she started before I quickly clamped my sweaty hand over her mouth to stop her drawing any unwanted attention to us.
"There are weird seal-dog hybrids in the crater." I stammered in fear. She nodded her head in realisation, with her curls bouncing up and down hypnotically. When I was sure she wouldn't scream or shout I released my hand from her mouth.
To my surprise, she didn't reprimand or slap me for that, but what she said scared me far more.
"Those are… those are Telekhines." she paused for a moment before enlightening me with an explanation of what the heck a Tele-kite was.
"I thought Zeus cast them into Tartarus," she added wearily.
"Wait what exactly are they? And why would Zeus throw them in Tartarus"
She rolled her eyes before continuing, "They made Kronos's scythe and I think they made your father's weapon of power. But as far as I know, they were cast into Tartarus because they used black magic."
"Oh," I replied in the only way I knew how.
"But why would they be working in Hephaestus's forge?" I said before realisation dawned on me.
"Annabeth…" I murmured in a deep and serious tone.
"They're reforging Kronos's scythe."
Silence ensued after my statement, but was broken when we heard ungodly screeches and howls in the distance which were accompanied by the clang of metal being dropped to the ground.
"Shit!" I yelled not caring about volume because they had clearly already discovered us.
"Percy, language!" Annabeth berated.
"Not now 'Beth!" I yelled. "You need to get out of here now."
"You're coming with me Percy," she replied desperately but her expression faltered when she saw my face.
"No, I've got to get rid of them for Lord Hephaestus." I proclaimed stoically. Despite my confident tone, inside I was shaking. What could a troubled fourteen-year-old do to a bunch of ancient and magic using monsters, while in a freaking volcano full of boiling lava?
After pausing, she conceded. "Fine." she snapped. "But be safe, come back soon. Please," she begged in a soft velvety voice.
I nodded my head, not trusting myself to speak.
She quickly leaned in towards me and planted a soft and quick kiss on my lips before running back into the dark doorway and not once looking back.
Oh, my gods. Annabeth Chase had just kissed me! I was on cloud nine despite my almost fatal situation. But alas, good things never happen to me, and this was confirmed when I was hit with a lump of heavy and bubbling magma.
It burned through my orange Camp Half-Blood shirt in an instant before making contact with my skin.
The pain was unbreakable. I was unable to move because of the searing pain that had erupted on my shoulder. It felt like getting doused in boiling water, but times a thousand.
I let loose a guttural scream as more lumps of molten rock smashed into me; my chest, legs, arms… everywhere was burning.
"Curse his father's nature. It makes him hard to burn. But not impossible…" a Telekhine muttered to its companions before they all scooped up more lava with their bare flippers.
The only thing I could do was stare; the pain had incapacitated me.
I could see their skin start to blister and burn but they ignored it. Either that or they just didn't feel pain.
They continued their barrage of super-heated projectiles until my breaking point was reached.
My anguished roar of pain was deafening. The telekhines dropped the magma and covered their ears while replying with their owned pained wails.
As my roar continued, the walls of the volcano started to shake and the magma lake started to bubble and swirl dangerously.
The next thing I knew was that the sides had collapsed and produced massive waves of magma that doused me and the telekhines.
The added pain fuelled my shriek and my world went black as I felt and heard a massive explosion below me.
I woke up soaring through the sky. 'Damn.' I mused. 'I'm so high Zeus will never forgive me.'
I soon realised what I had just thought. I had somehow managed to propel myself so high that I was definitely well into the stratosphere. But I was knocked out of my thoughts when some feathered-creature knocked into my head, causing me to fall back to Earth.
My mind was so absorbed with saying 'I'm going to die.' that I didn't even notice the peacock feather that was calmly drifting in the wind.
