Percy stood silently; listening for any sounds of movement in the vast tunnel before him. He had his sward held in both of his hands, a sward that was both steel and celestial bronze. He was listening for one specific sound, the one that he had come here for. His ears were strained for any scuffle, a cough, a noise to tell him that his daughter was in here somewhere. Strangled hate was exploding in his head. Who had taken Allison, who would dare take the son of Poseidon's' daughter.
Then behind him come a tremendous roar! And Percy swung around to see a huge creature lumbering down the passage away from him. Percy yelled and as he rushed forward Annabeth's baseball cap flew of his head and onto the dusty floor. He wasn't with Annabeth anymore but he still respected her enough to plan to return the stolen cap to her. He stooped to retrieve the cap and in that moment of diverted attention the monster had turned on him! He stuffed the cap into his jeans pocket, now desperate to keep the monsters attention on himself rather than Clarisse who had been guarding the entrance.
"Percy!..Just… Leave it to me! I can handle this!" Clarisse spluttered from behind the monster. The thing blocking the space between them seemed momentarily confused at how it had allowed it's self to be cornered in between the two of us. But then it realized what it was up against and who was a bigger threat to its prisoner.
The dragon thing swung its head like a bowling ball at Percy's feet, planning to knock him into the tunnel wall. He leaped out of the way just in time, scrambling up and taking the opportunity to stab the creature in its eye as its head slammed into the wall. Its eye flying back into the depths of the underground cave and taking his sward with it.
Its screeches were like sharp nails on a chalk board multiplied by a thousand. Percy doubled over in an effort to cover his ears. He saw Clarisse stager into the wall and crouch down, a pained look on her face and her hands clasped over her head.
The creature was waving its head in the air, blood raining down on everything. It gave one final screech and then focused on Percy. It struck out at him just as he flung himself to the side. For a split second Percy saw the inside of the monsters mouth, Foot long fangs and a forked tung. Saliva spattered his face.
"Don't you dare eat my husband!" Clarisse yelled, in full Greek battle armor (unlike Percy) she raced from her spot on the floor to stand blocking Percy from harm. The monster shifted, instantly engaging Clarisse in combat.
"Percy!" Clarisse panted, "Go get our kid from the depths of this evil cave! I hate the dark, Okay!"
Percy had one last glimpse of Clarisse jabbing at the creature's chest. And then he was off down the tunnel. Every one of Clarisse's yells' were echoing off of the walls over and over again.
He was sprinting down the tunnel, the faster he found Allison, the faster that he could return to helping his wife. This motive pushed his legs even faster, and then at a sharp turn he met his first choice: Left or right?
"Allison!" His deep voice drowned out for a moment the now very distant sound of the two fighters at the entrance. But For the briefest split second he heard a scuffling off in left tunnel. That decided it.
The smell of extreme damp met his nostrils. And something else, something that smelled like a pet rat's cage. But this wasn't a rat's cage, this rat wasn't under control and it wasn't something that would be considered an apartment pet!
Then appearing out of nowhere on both his left and right were great stone archways! Percy peered around the corner of one and was dismayed to find that it was yet another hallway, this one winding steeply down like a great stone slide.
He groaned and jumped in the air when an even deeper growl shook the ground beneath his feet! Percy swung around, reaching for his sward instinctively but finding nothing. With a sinking 'I'm dead meat' feeling Percy lifted his head to his opponent.
For a moment his head couldn't comprehend what he was looking at. It was the most beautiful young child in the world. He managed to stutter "Was…was that you… that just growled?" The child just stared at him and in the silence that followed, even though his eyes were drawn to her face he noticed that she was holding something behind her back.
The Childs eyes sparkled, and she withdrew the object. It was his sword. "Aren't you a little young to be handling a sward like that?" His mind was flooding with concerns for the girl, and the need to protect her was growing inside him. Only in the back of his mind did he realize that this was his sward, and that he needed to keep moving.
Then all at once the girl transformed. Percy gawked as the child changed into a woman. Her Blond hair was falling in waves down her back. Her eyes a shade of ice blue. Her face- Just then Clarisse barreled around the bend, She shouted "Aphrodite give Percy back his sward so he can fight!" And without even weighting for an answer she took the sward and thrust it into Percy's hands. "We are about to have company" and just then he heard the growling again and realized that what he had heard moments before was just the monster that had previously been fighting Clarisse.
He should have realized that and took it as a warning that his wife had been herded into the cave and that the monster was now tracking them both! He was also dismayed that the scuffling sound had probably just been Aphrodite waiting for the right moment to jump out at him.
Just as the gigantic dragon stumbled around the corner, Aphrodite went poof and all of a sudden they were on their own. Too bad the all powerful god hadn't had anything on her to help get them all out of this situation.
Percy didn't even have time to call in some salt water to burn the dragon's remaining eye out. It was immediate battle! Percy ducked a swipe from the dragon's front, bearlike paw. He slashed one of its toenails off and it howled in frustration. Clarisse rolled under the creature and took a stab at its stomach; the creature leaped into the air to avoid it and collided with the sealing, its head swinging around. Percy readied his sward, and as the creatures head swung buy it cut its own head off.
The creature went limp, and crashed to the floor. Percy turned; looking to share the victory with Clarisse, but instead finding one last glimpse of her as she disappeared under the dead dragon.
"CLARISSE!" He yelled. He ran forward; trying in vain to lift the carcass. But the monster weighed at least a ton, Clarisse was gone.
He beat his fists against the monster. Even now if he summoned enough water to lift the dragon, what would he find? A broken, bloody mess. What would he tell Allison? There was no point in asking for the gods help. But where would she go, hopefully her dad Ares wouldn't force Clarisse into his eternal service because she had lost a battle. But she hadn't lost; she had been fighting with the winning side.
He sat with his face pressed against the monsters side. Tears sliding down his face and twisting his wedding ring around his finger.
Then all at once, someone was beside him. He jumped to his feet, but through the blur of his tears he recognized the slim form of Allison. He swept her into a hug, questions buzzing in his head. But it was Allison to ask first.
"Where is mom?" He didn't answer. Instead he blocked the painful memory out with a question of his own.
"How did you escape?"
"Well that… that thing, it held me in one hand and covered my eyes with a finger. And then it took me through a maze of passageways. It didn't even bind me or anything. It just…just expected that confusion and… and panic would be enough. And it was, but I decided to follow it at the last moment, so it didn't see me. And then at a split in the tunnel, I lost sight of it and I really started to panic then." Allison was crying into his shoulder. Percy was crying too until "Let's get out of here."
THE END.
