9-20-13

Hello, everybody! So, this is technically the first fanfic I've ever attempted to write. I've been working on it since January. Now, I've finally decided to publish it, even though the end still needs to be slapped together. I figured that publishing the first chapter would give me incentive to get this done ;)

Enjoy!

~OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO~

PERCY

Percy should have been dead. You'd think that just falling into Tartarus would have done the trick, but no. The Fates had decided to make his life miserable for awhile longer.

Over the last hour, he and Annabeth had been attacked by a pack of hellhounds, a half dozen Scythian dracanae, a Cyclopes wearing a T-shirt proclaiming "Eye've Got My Eye on You" (which was a pretty bad pun), and to top it all off, a fire breathing hydra. As it were, he didn't even know how they had survived that. And that was just the past hour. He had no idea how long they had been down here, but it felt like months.

The problem was, these monsters couldn't be killed. It was bad enough that they reformed immediately up above, but here, it was a hundred times worse. This was where the monsters went when they were killed in the first place. Result? They didn't explode into powdered drink mix. It was a very one-sided situation.

And if things couldn't be worse, Annabeth had a broken ankle. It was difficult for her to walk, let alone fight.

He looked at her now. She was asleep with her head on his lap. They had found a temporary sanctuary on a rock ledge about six feet off the ground.

Annabeth couldn't climb much farther than that. He didn't blame her for being so tired. Wandering through the streets of Rome, hitching a ride with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, outsmarting a whole fraternity of ghosts, being chased through an undergound tunnel by a bunch of little spiders, defeating Arachne, and falling into Tartarus all with a broken ankle made for a pretty busy day, even by demigod standards.

They had found Annabeth's dagger and Daedalus's laptop when they had landed. Somehow, the laptop was still intact. He had no idea how that was possible, but hey, he didn't even know how he had survived the drop. Maybe it had something to do with landing on Arachne.

The corners of his mouth twitched as he remembered that strange incident.
After falling for what seemed like hours, they had landed on the giant spider woman. They had stuck to the webbing of the woven trap that still covered her body. It had been quite a job trying to get themselves free without cutting the trap to pieces and releasing Arachne. The whole time, Arachne had been screaming bloody murder, which had attracted the unwanted attention of all the monsters in Tartarus.

He was brought back to the present as he heard a low growl somewhere in the darkness below. His head snapped up, and he peered intently into the surrounding darkness for any sign of the monster. At first, he saw nothing. Then, he saw a pair of red eyes slowly creeping towards them. The thing growled again. Percy uncapped Riptide and it grew into the three-foot long monster death machine that he had fought with for years. He felt comfort with the familiar feeling of the sword's hilt in his hand. He swung Riptide in the direction of the glowing eyes.

"Stay back," he warned. As expected, the monster just kept coming. As he watched, more and more eyes came shining through the darkness, all headed towards them.

Keeping his eyes trained on the things in the darkness, Percy gently shook Annabeth's shoulder. "We've got company."

Annabeth woke with a start. "Wha—?" she started, then saw the group of floating eyes. "Oh." She drew her dagger. "How long have they been here?"

"About a minute," Percy answered. "It started with one, but more followed. What are they?"

Annabeth studied them for a moment. "Not sure," she admitted. "It's hard to tell with only their eyes."

One of the monsters crept closer, and Percy raised Riptide so it cast its glow over on the monster. He groaned. "It's that pack of hellhounds again." Sure enough, snarling in Riptide's bronze light was a black dog the size of a rhino with blood red eyes.

"Hellhounds. Right," Annabeth agreed. "You take the one's on the left, I'll take the ones on the right."

Percy shrugged. "Sure. Short and simple."

Just then, one of the creatures howled and leapt right at Percy. He yelped and stabbed upwards with Riptide, slicing the monster across the chest. It whimpered in pain, but didn't disentegrate. Instead, it limped behind its companions and began licking its wounds.

The other creatures backed off warily, eyeing Percy's sword. It didn't take them long to realize that they outnumbered Percy and Annabeth ten-to-one. They charged.

Percy and Annabeth hacked at anything that tried to get on their little ledge.
He didn't know how long they had been fighting, but just as suddenly as they had attacked, the hellhounds faded into the darkness.

Percy wearily wiped the sweat off his brow. Luckily, neither of them had been injured. Together, they scanned the darkness, waiting for the hellhounds to attack again. A few minutes had gone by before Percy decided to speak up.
"What's the play, Wise Girl?" he asked.

Annabeth considered this for a moment. "Well, they've stopped attacking. The question is, for how long? We can easily keep them off us when we're on this ledge, but the problem is, we won't be get any closer to the Doors of Death by just sitting here."

Percy scanned the wall behind him, but couldn't see more than two feet to either side because of the darkness. "Maybe they'll stay away long enough for us to find another ledge?" he suggested.

"Maybe," Annabeth answered. "But what if there is no other ledge? This is the first one we've found since we've been down here."

"There is another ledge," Percy said firmly. "We just have to find it."

Annabeth glanced at him skeptically. "You do realize that I still have a broken ankle, don't you?"

Percy cursed himself silently. Well, duh. He knew that. "Don't worry," he assured her. "I'll keep the monsters off if they try to get us. You can just walk."
Annabeth looked doubtful, but she nodded her head. "Okay, Seaweed Brain. If we die, I blame you."

Percy smiled grimly. "Let's do this."

"On my mark," Annabeth ordered. "One, two, three!"

Together, they scrambled off the ledge to the ground below.

~OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO~

Percy regretted his idea almost immediately after they had started. They had made it to the ground okay, and had started making their way along the bottom of Tartarus. They were doing pretty well; that is until the red eyes once again appeared in the darkness, following them. For awhile, they kept their distance, staying out of reach of Percy's sword. But then they got bold. They realized that one, there was only two of them, and two, one of them had a broken ankle. They started nipping at them, darting a little closer each time, jumping back before Percy could hit them.

"Uh, Percy?" Annabeth started, glancing nervously at the hellhounds surrounding them. "Are you sure this was a good idea?"

"Just keep moving," Percy instructed, eyeing the monsters warily. He knew they had a couple minutes at most before the monsters would get smart and swarm them. He scanned the wall next to him. There had to be a ledge around here somewhere…

One of the hellhounds lunged, missing Percy's hand by inches, before hopping backwards as Percy swung Riptide reflexively. The blade whistled harmlessly through the air in front of the hellhound's snout.

"When did hellhounds get smart?" Annabeth panted. "I've never seen one do a lightning attack like that one before."

"I have no idea," Percy responded. A few more snapped at them, but so far, they hadn't been bitten.

"Maybe since this is their home turf," Annabeth mused, "they're a lot stronger and smarter. Plus, they're technically already dead."

"Well that's nice to know," Percy commented, slicing off a snout that had snuffled too close. He knew it wouldn't be this easy for much longer. The hellhounds were getting bolder, and when they did decide to pounce, they were outnumbered a hundred to one. Plus, they couldn't die. Pretty fair odds.

"Percy, watch out!" Annabeth called.

Percy whirled around and sliced the head off a charging hellhound. He slammed Annabeth into the wall and placed himself in front of her.

The hellhounds crept closer and closer. They stopped just out of the reach of Percy's sword. They seemed to be considering their options. One of them growled, and the others growled back. Were they…communicating? Before he could ponder this more, they all leapt as one.

It was all Percy could do to keep them off of them.

Annabeth helped as best she could by stabbing at anything within her reach, but most hellhounds were too far away.

Percy hacked at everything, unable to distinguish shapes through the thick wall of black fur and glowing red eyes. They had to get out of there, and fast. There was no way Percy could keep this up much longer.

As if in answer to his question, a sharp claw scratched his left calf before he could stop it. He grunted as hot blood poured out the wound, down his leg, and soaked into his sock. It wasn't that deep, but it wasn't a scratch either.

"Percy," Annabeth gasped.

"I'm fine," Percy muttered. "But we need to get out of here."

"Well, duh," Annabeth agreed.

They were silent for a few moments.

"Okay," Annabeth called, "here's the plan. Let's keep moving with our backs to the wall. They'll probably get tired of us eventually and go away. Probably."

"Fine with me," Percy agreed.

"Ready, set, go," Annabeth announced.

Together, they started moving slowly to the side, keeping their backs to the rough rock wall behind them.

The hellhounds moved with them, trying to cut them off, but Percy kept their way clear. Everything was going well…until Annabeth tripped over a loose rock. She fell backwards and smashed her head into the wall, falling unconscious with a bleeding forehead at Percy's feet.

"Annabeth!" Percy screamed.

He stepped in front of her limp form, and hacked wildly at the hellhounds. He was tiring fast, he could feel it. The monsters must have realized it too, because they started attacking harder than ever. He knew he didn't have much time before he was overwhelmed. His only chance was to catch them by surprise.

He waited for an opening, then scooped up Annabeth and dashed through the mass of fur. His trick must have worked, since nothing attacked. He had just made it past them, relief coursing through his body, when he heard a loud growl. He felt something heavy and sharp slash down his back, tearing deep into his flesh. He screamed in agony. His back felt like it was on fire. One of the hellhounds must have crept up behind him while he was distracted. His vision swam, and his knees buckled beneath him.

~OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO~

BWAHAHAHAHA! Cliffie ;P

So what did you think? This was one of the first scenes I'd ever written, so it's not my best, but drop a review anyway? Sorry if it's slightly OOC, but I'm just so anxious to get this up before the book comes out (and I'm cutting it EXTREMELY close), so I really don't have time to revise my old scenes if I want to finish writing my new scenes. Constructive criticism is accepted and appreciated!

I will try to get the next chapter up tomorrow, but I'm going to be in a car almost all day, so no guarantees. This fanfic is almost completely written out, so updates will be daily until I reach the unfinished part.

I hope you enjoyed!