Percy's POV
Don't. Go. Off. With. Strangers. I just need to get that out of the way right now because I almost instantly regretted my decision when I grabbed that pale weirdo with the wings hand. The second his freezing skin touched mine, I felt something pull me away from my old apartment with incredible speed. All I could see was darkness as the sensation of traveling at ridiculously high speeds threatened to rip my face off. Out of the corner of my watery good eye I was shocked to see the "Winged Weirdo" as I had taken to calling him with an apathetic look on his gaunt pale face as we soared through the shadows faster than any regular person could handle. Then as fast as it began, it stopped. And that's when I proceeded to hurl the contents of my stomach onto the charcoal colored floor we both now stood on.
"Welcome to one of the most dangerous places in all of existence, Tartarus," Winged Weirdo said softly, flexing his raven-like wings as he looked around.
The instant the word Tartarus left his mouth I froze where I stood and paled dramatically, "My m-mom told me stories about Greek mythology, s-she told me about Tartarus," I whispered looking at my surroundings. Darkness and fire as far as the eye could see, all with one long river of flowing magma a few feet away catching my focus especially.
"Hmmm, your mother seems like she was a wise woman, and at least she taught you something," he sighed before trudging forward, beckoning me to follow. I was about to do just that but the instant I began to take my first step my throat constricted and my lungs felt like they were on fire making me collapse onto the less than comfortable ground.
I let out a ragged cough in an attempt to get some air into my shriveling lungs as I laid sprawled out on the ground. "Damn!" Thanatos cursed, actually face palming, "Hurry boy we need to get you to the river!" he shouted grabbing me by the back of the shirt pulling me across the ground with ease, making small black pebbles dig into my back. I let out ragged coughs as my lungs seemed to scream out at me to breathe while they shriveled in pain.
"A place where I'll be safe, he said!" I thought to myself, annoyance accompanying the pain brought on by my dying lungs.
After a few more moments of scorching pain we arrived on the black sandy bank of the lava river. Thanatos released me once we were there, leaving me to roll onto my side and let out a few more dry ragged coughs. I watched as Winged Weirdo leaned down towards the molten rock, almost as if to touch it. And then to my surprise, he did. My eyes widened as he scooped up some of the fire in his hands, as if it didn't burn at all, and made his way back to my shaking, gasping form.
"Here boy, drink," he ordered in his soft silky voice, his black eyes showing no emotion. He leaned down as if to pour the fiery liquid into my mouth. Needless to say I kept it closed while shaking my head furiously.
"Do not be a fool, you will die if you don't drink it," he whispered again with no emotion. And as I looked into his shadow like eyes I did possibly the stupidest thing up to date in my short life, I opened my mouth and swallowed the burning liquid. Now if you've ever wondered what it would be like to drink fire, let me give you the rundown. It was hot and it hurt… a lot. That's basically all that needs to be said. Anyhow it felt about how I'd expected, as the lava moved its way down my throat my entire body felt as if it was being consumed by flames and at that point I'd almost rather be dead, the pain was excruciating to say the least. It burned and burned for a good five minutes before it began to settle to a dull heat, and then it was gone, as if it had never been there at all.
My vision, which was red and hazy with pain just moments ago, began to clear revealing the face of the Winged Weirdo looking down on me apathetically.
"Better?" he asked me.
I sat up shakily, recovering from my sprawled out position before turning on the pale skinned man with a glare, "What is wrong with you!" I screamed at him, "Did you just make me drink lava!"
"That really hur- what do you think you're smiling about?!" I ranted at his now smirking face.
"So from all the yelling that you're doing, I guess you can breathe now," he chuckled with a small sarcastic smile.
I was about to offer an angry retort but was interrupted by the realization that breathing was now a thing.
"B-but how?" I asked with wide eyes.
He smirked at me before saying, "You just drank from the Phlegethon, one of the five rivers of the underworld," he told me looking into the flames of the fiery river, deeply thinking.
My eyes widened in realization at this new information, "The Underworld, I thought you said we were in Tartarus?" I asked him with my jaw gaping in shock.
He nodded, "We are, the rivers may run through the Underworld, however they begin here, in Tartarus," he explained gesturing to the darkness around us that made up Tartarus. "Now then, come along, we have someone we need to visit, I really hope she's in a good mood," he sighed.
"Who, who are we going to see?" I asked him doing my best to keep up with him as he began to trudge in the opposite direction of the Phlegethon.
He grimaced, his eyes almost taking on a depressed look before he responded, "My mother," he sighed, kicking black dust into the air.
