CHAPTER TWO IS UP! Thanks for reading the first chapter… please review!

Annabeth

At the conference, I immediately recognized Lord Zeus, for he looked exactly like the way Athena had described him to me at my asking. He was tall, muscular, and had a neatly trimmed brown beard. He had long brown hair that reached his shoulders, but it fit him. Because gods were... well... gods, they could change their age and appearance. Most of them liked the age of about thirty years, though. Anyways, Zeus' eyes were electric blue, and I swear I could see lightning strikes in them. Speaking of lightning, in his right hand he held the legendary master lightning bolt. I had read somewhere that in that one bolt it held the volt power of about five hundred normal lightning bolts... yeah, it was kinda dangerous.

I also recognized Hades, sitting at Zeus' left. Although Athena has never described him to me, he had the Helm of Darkness on his head, and only the Lord of the Underworld wore that. Hades wore it at the moment, so that it covered most of his head, but you could see long black hair coming out the sides of the helmet. A sharp pointy nose, and two black eyes could be seen. The helm radiated darkness. Seriously. Everything within a foot of the helm seemed shadowy. Just looking at it triggered my deepest fears.

Spiders. I shuddered and looked away from the sinister helm.

Hades wore long black robes, while Zeus wore blue robes, each robe made of clearly expensive cloth. Then my gaze traveled to the throne on Zeus' right.

On that throne sat a tall, tan, and muscular man. He had messy black hair reaching his shoulders, but no facial hair. His sea green eyes bounced around happily, and you could see crinkles around his eyes, meaning that he clearly smiled a lot. He looked really relaxed, and was casually leaning back in his coral throne, while Zeus and Hades sat stiff and upright. But what really got me were the eyes. Sure, they were bright green and looked like miniature seas, but they were cheerful and happy, which was the complete opposite of Zeus and Hades. Both their pairs of eyes were cold and forbearing. I wonder who this joyful person was.

Wait... sea green eyes? Miniature oceans? Sitting on the right of Zeus? Coral throne? Just then I noticed a trident leaning against the throne. Oh great. This must be Poseidon.

Annabeth! You were just thinking that this god was handsome! You're supposed to hate him! I screamed at myself. My hatred returned immediately.

But I found it was hard to hate him. He was just so nice to me.

I know, it was weird, since he was the one that murdered my father, and also was my mother's archenemy... but he smiled at me and it was a genuine smile, but it had a touch of sadness in it.

I then heard a deep voice in my head, Annabeth, my dear. I am very sorry about your father. We did it for everybody, for without Athena in her right mind, things would not go well. I'm so sorry that you had to go with a father figure in your life. Please forgive me, but I will understand if you don't. I left you a gift at the temple, and you will find it when you get back, but don't tell your mother, cause she will probably smash it on sight. Again, I'm so sorry.

I looked dumbfounded at Poseidon, cause it was him that spoke in my head, for that I am sure. But everything I thought of this god was wrong. He definitely wasn't a ugly old hag. Quite the opposite actually. Annabeth, guard your thoughts. Right, never mind that last part. But I also thought he would be mean. Just saying. He did kill my father, but now he was apologizing and begging for forgiveness. I didn't know what to think. I wasn't ready to just forgive the murderer of my father, but he seemed genuine and sad...

But what if he was pretending to be nice to get me on his good side to get an advantage over my mother when they had their arguments? Or if he was just faking it so I wouldn't think of him so badly? I don't, there was just too many consequences that could happen if I forgive him. I decided to hold off. I swear I saw Poseidon nod his head as if in acknowledgment. It's creepy how much gods know.

I was still confused about the god of seas' actions. I sat through the whole conference just wondering. It was kinda boring, though, and soon I had fallen asleep.

When I woke up, I found my self back in my room at Athena's temple in Athens. I groggily sat up and walked over to my mirror and desk. I sat and looked at myself. I almost laughed at the sight of my bed head. I grabbed my brush and started combing my hair, and then put it in a braid. I got up and walked over to the deck. I looked outside at the sea. Then I remembered that Poseidon had said he had left me a gift. I have no idea where he would put it, so I just started wandering the halls of the temple.

I looked everywhere. I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, or any box or something like that. Where would he put it?

Suddenly I froze. How could I be so stupid? Athena had a fountain that was saltwater and she had fishes and even a shark in it. She had added an octopus that I had named Eight the Great. Hey, I had been ten years old. Anyways, what I meant was that this was ocean water, and there were sea creatures in it. It had to be here.

Sure enough, I walked into the room with the vast water fountain/tank and sitting on top of the fountain was what looked like a stone box from down here where I stood. The room was huge with a glass top. The ceiling was at least sixty feet tall. The whole floor was made of mosaic tiles forming a giant picture of Athena. I was relieved that I had found it before Athena had, cause I'm sure Poseidon was telling the truth about that. But the bad news was that the god of seas had put the stone box on the top of the fountain. The very top. And this fountain reached about thirty feet. Great, thanks Poseidon, for the convenient place, I thought sarcastically. Suddenly, I heard a resonant chuckle inside my head, and a burst of water lifted the box into the air and the box started falling. But before it had reached ten feet, a hand made of water reached out and snatched it, then the hand rode the water down the fountain, and it came up to me and offered me the box. In my head I heard a familiar voice said, Here you are. If you would like to keep it, I would start running to your room now, cause Athena is walking towards this fountain room right now, and I know she would not be too fond of this gift.

I knew it was Poseidon, but I wondered how he knew where Athena was. I wondered if I should trust him, then I heard some footsteps walking towards the fountain room. I panicked. I grabbed the box, then realized that that there was only one entrance, and one exit... and they were the same. And Athena was coming through the entrance right now. I couldn't get out.

Oh no. Poseidon, if you're still here, a little help would be appreciated! I thought frantically, but I was convinced that he wasn't there and/or wouldn't help me. But once again I thought wrong of the god. A string of water broke free of the fountain, and traveled through the air towards a spot in the corner, then it fell onto the tiles that formed a strand of Athena's hair. I ran over there, and saw that one of her strands of hair, the one the water had landed on, created a perfect "P." The P was huge, and if I laid down on the floor, then I would be the length of it.

Poseidon. I thought. Now what?

I absentmindedly pushed the tile of the very tip of the P, but froze when I felt it give a little. I kept pushing it farther down but it stopped after an inch. I pushed the next one.

It went down too.

I pushed every single tile of the P, starting at the bottom, then going up and around and ending up in the middle of the line.

They all pushed down. I did them one by one, and when I pushed the very last one, I heard a click. Then some gears.

I waited impatiently, cause Athena could get here any moment. Then the footsteps stopped. For a second, I was scared that she had found me, then I heard two voices. Someone was talking to her. I thanked whoever that was in my head, but I was pretty sure I knew who it was or who sent the person. And sure enough, after I said thank you in my head, Poseidon replied You're welcome.

I waited for a few more seconds, then I heard quiet scraping sounds. I looked at the opening in middle of the P, and saw that the tiles were going down into the floor. When they reached about a foot down, they slid over and underneath the tiles that were next to them. And where the tiles were was a big hole.

I looked down in the whole, and saw that it was a bout a ten foot drop to the stone floor, and then stairs led you farther down, as far as I could see.

I was hesitant, for I had no idea where this led. But then I heard Athena say goodbye to the person she was talking to, and resume her walking over to the fountain room.

Here goes nothing. I muttered in my head, then jumped down the ten foot drop.

The drop didn't bother me, cause I was a demigod. I was trained for these things. Plus, I have Athena as a personal teacher. I use a foot and a half long bronze knife, and I had been training with that ever since I could hold the dagger. It was my dad's dagger, therefore it was about the one thing I have that ties to him. I clean it every night and keep it in a case when I'm not using it. Only a handful of knife-fighting demigods could best me, and I could beat most of the best demigod swordsmen as well. Adding to the training with my knife, I also can keep myself safe without any weapons. I'm relatively strong and flexible, which helps a lot with punches and kicks. I can beat every single Ares kid in martial arts.

Therefore, the drop wasn't bad at all. I simple broke the fall with a roll, cause there was enough room that I wouldn't go tumbling down the stairs. When I spun up from my roll without using my hands, just my momentum, I realized that I had no idea how to close the gaping whole in the mosaic tiles. Athena couldn't miss the hole, it was big enough for two people to fit into it, and as it dropped, it got wider.

All this was for nothing if I couldn't close the gap. As if answering me, the the tiles that covered the gap came out from underneath the neighboring tiles and slid back into place.

I waited. It wasn't dark, quite the opposite, actually, for the whole path was lit with torches made of greek fire. The stairs continued down for about twenty feet, then it led to a passage that continued on for as long as I could see. I heard Athena's footsteps in the room above me. They stepped all around the room from what I could hear, then I heard them receding down the hallway, disappearing from my line of hearing.

I took a deep breath, and started walking down the corridor.

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