Down to Tartarus

by 7fanatic

Percy and Annabeth are now in Tartarus, where Gaea is growing more awake than ever. Trying to find their way across the Underworld, they find themselves in Gaea's hands. Meanwhile, the other 5 demigods are on their way to the Doors of Death. Finding their way to the House of Hades might be harder than they thought! Narrated by Percy and Annabeth, this epic Tartarus story is told!

1. Worse than we thought

Annabeth was terrified. Falling wasn't the hard part, though. In fact, the fall was much quicker than she thought, and between the force of the pit dragging them down and their weight pulling them faster, they had plenty of speed. Percy still had her hand, and she could feel him grip tighter so as to not let her out of his sight. She still couldn't believe he'd let go of the ledge. You're not getting away from me again, he'd said. Never again. Annabeth wasn't losing him again either. She would have never asked him to risk himself like that, but to think he'd let go just to be with her? Annabeth couldn't think of any words to describe how she'd felt.

The light was starting to fade from the top, and Annabeth could see the ground below her, getting closer by the second. She shifted herself, prepared for impact, and THUD!, she hit the ground like a rock in the sand. Probably because she'd landed in actual sand, but that didn't stop any pain she felt. As soon as she stopped falling, she felt like she'd fallen in a pile of sharp, pointy rocks, jabbing her skin and making it harder for her to get up. The sand was rough, littered with small black shells and chunks of-was that bone? Yes, it looked like small fish bone, as if the entire landscape had recently been covered by a cold, filthy sea. Annabeth sat straight up, despite how it hurt her ankle, and looked to her left side to see what looked like Percy a few yards away. How they'd been blown apart, she wasn't sure, but she could remeber some sort of solid hitting them in the wrist, causing her to let go. She crawled across the small dune seperating them and hurried towards Percy. "Oh, gosh, Percy, what happened?" she spoke to herself. He was out cold, with a huge bruise on his right cheek and above his right eye. He had small cuts under his jaw, and his right arm-oh, his arm was bent the wrong direction, and definately broken. But he landed on his left side, she figured in her head. How could the opposite side be hurt so badly? The side of him in the sand looked fine, with no damage. But his right... What hit him? she wondered. She couldn't think straight, which was not good for her. Here they were, in the black of Tartarus, somewhere in a desert, and Percy was injured badly. How was she supposed to do this? All of her training at Camp Half-Blood left her in a time of need, and she wasn't even sure what she was afraid of. Then she remembered the thing the knocked them apart. It had barely hit her wrist, so it couldn't have been focusing on her. It must have been going for "Percy," she said aloud, "What was that?"