I am not Rick Riordan! The characters and world of PJO and TLH are his, not mine!

Out of the frying pan…

Percy hurtled down the severe slope on his makeshift sled. There were many thoughts swirling around in Percy's head but the only thing that escaped his mouth was a very unmanly scream. His eyes bulged as he saw the ground rapidly approach him.

Percy landed with an almighty crash; an almost inaudible groan escaped his lips. But that groan, surprisingly, was not induced by pain. His crash landing, contrary to what anyone would expect, had not hurt him. Percy silently resolved to thank whatever God oversaw stupid sledding stunts and decided to take stock of his surroundings.

He was lying by the side of a road with forest on either side of him. As he looked off in the distance, Percy could discern an intertwining system of busy roads. Beyond that, he could see a city, San Francisco, and even farther beyond that, the sea. Percy was suddenly filled with a sense of well-being and contentment. He smiled just the slightest bit; for the first time in what felt like months, he was at peace. But of course, the damned Gods couldn't give him more than about five seconds of happiness before he was thrust back into despondency.

Percy winced as his memories came flooding back to him. To say the least, they weren't pleasant. Images of him fighting and fleeing from the gorgons Stheno and Euryale permeated his mind. The she-wolf Lupa telling him about the Gods and how one of his parents was a millennia-old Roman God. And after that… nothing. Percy tried to focus, he screwed up his eyes in concentration but he still drew a blank. He simply didn't have any other memories. Well that wasn't entirely true; the only thing Percy could recall from his time before he woke up at the Wolf-House was a girl, Annabeth. She had curly blond hair and stormy gray eyes. Percy's memories of her were infuriatingly vague, but he could still remember those eyes. Her stare was extremely piercing. It seemed to Percy that she was looking into the deepest recesses of his soul with her glare…

Percy jumped as the bush directly next to him rustled slightly. Within moments Percy had Riptide uncapped and was in a fighting position, but when he edged over to the bush Percy discovered that the culprit that created the slight disturbance was merely a squirrel. Percy silently cursed his growing paranoia and erased his mental images of his least favorite gorgons.

When Percy turned around he was startled to find that he was looking at a tunnel that when straight through the hill that he had slide down. Suddenly, Percy recalled the reason he had so rashly sled down this particular hill. He smacked himself open-palmed on his forehead for his forgetfulness. Percy picked up the backpack that contained all his demi-god essentials and started to walk briskly towards the tunnel.

Percy's excitement grew as his internal radar went crazy. He started to run; he was so close. Then his internal radar started to calm down. Percy stopped; he must have passed whatever he was looking for. He turned back around and walked, slowly, back the way he had come. He stopped when he felt that his internal radar was strongest. But as Percy looked around the bleak tunnel, all he saw were smooth walls, with one exception. Directly to his right, there was a solitary door. It was by no means exceptional in any way, but it seemed to glow with a strange aura of power. No, glow wasn't the correct word, but Percy could sense it. He shuffled suspiciously over to the door and feeling infinitely foolish, opened the door.

What Percy saw was the very last thing that he expected. When he had gripped the doorknob he was certain that either the door would be locked, or he would find a thoroughly uninteresting, dark, damp closet. Instead, what Percy saw was shocking and suspiciously familiar.

What lay before Percy was a beautiful, lush valley. To Percy's right, trees stretched as far as the eye could see. To his left, after about a half-mile or so the forest yielded to a large lake. Trees populated almost the entire valley; essentially, it was a vast forest. The only exception was a massive clearing at the heart of the valley. The clearing was about a mile long by a mile wide. One side of the clearing connected with the lake, massive walls protected the other three sides. In front of each wall the residents of this ridiculous encampment had dug a trench, and each trench was filled with what seemed to be… lava. Within the clearing there were 20 to 30 buildings arranged in a painfully organized manner. From where he was, Percy could only discern the function of a few of them. One of them was clearly a dining pavilion, Percy's stomach growled, as he hadn't eaten any real food since he woke up at the Wolf-House. There was a cluster of what looked like barracks; these dull and similar buildings were arranged in a U, with all of them facing an inner courtyard. Off to one side of the U, a few more barracks were arranged in a grid, with a few more still being built. But the building that Percy could see most easily was the one smack dab in the middle of the odd encampment. It was clearly the largest building of all. It was several stories high and circular. Extravagant artwork adorned the entire perimeter. It was a coliseum.

Once Percy got over the shock of finding an entire ecosystem inside a grungy tunnel-side door, he got a suspicious feeling of familiarity. Although he was certain that he had never been to this place before, Percy got the sense that he had known a place similar to this one. In a flash, images of a hill, a tall pine tree and a shimmering lake flooded into Percy's brain. But as soon as these images came, they started to fade. Percy tried desperately to keep the flow of images and emotions going, but they left as quickly as they came. All that he had managed to hold on to was a mental picture of a valley very similar to this one and a warm feeling in his gut, a feeling of homeliness.

Percy sighed in frustration, something he seemed to be doing a lot lately and started his half-mile or so trek down the hillside. Percy had a feeling that this was the place he had to go to regain his memories. He hoped Lupa would be here, so she could explain a few things to him. For one, why the gorgons hadn't dissipated and gone back to Tartarus the first time he had killed them. Also how there could be a freaking entire valley inside a freaking tunnel-side door!

Percy marched solemnly towards the foreboding encampment. Even though he knew that this was the place he had to go, Percy didn't like the feel of the place. It was too austere and hostile. When he was one hundred yards or so from the entrance gate, a harsh voice called out.

"Stop!" It commanded.

Percy obeyed. He searched the battlements for the speaker. There were approximately 10 archers with their bows trained on him. The speaker stepped to the forefront of the ramparts.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" He snarled.

Percy already knew that he definitely didn't like this guy, but he responded civilly enough. "My name is Perseus Jackson. I am a demigod. I was sent here by Lupa the wolf."

The scowl on Percy's confronter's face did not leave. He continued to glare at Percy for a few more seconds before turning to one of the archers and whispering in her ear. The archers lowered their bows and disappeared. Moments later, the gate started to open. Percy let out an audible sigh of relief and strode towards the now open gate.