Percy

I didn't call Carter on purpose. I mean, well, I needed his help, but it was an accident that I called him when I did.

First, let me explain what got me into this mess.

Annabeth and I were at the bakery buying some bread (duh) and a small cake to celebrate our winter break.

"Is that all?" I asked.

"Hmm…?" Annabeth said looking up. "Yeah, should be."

We paid for our stuff and left heading to my mom's apartment. The snow was lightly falling. Annabeth put the bag of bread in her backpack and naturally made me hold the cake.

Of course, my mom could just bake a blue cake, but we agreed that she needed a little break.

"Make sure the cake doesn't get ruined," she reminded me.

"I know," I muttered.

We were half way there when trouble started.

There was the Nemean lion again roaring, breaking down buildings, and generally causing major chaos.

"Not again!" I moaned.

I was pretty sure the lion wouldn't give me time to run over and buy some space food to chuck in its mouth.

"Let's lead it away," Annabeth suggested. "It's skin is like iron so maybe we can't kill it easily, but maybe we can lead it away."

I grinned. "Sounds like a plan."

I uncapped Riptide and hurled it at the lion. It didn't do any damage, but it did get its attention. Unfortunately, it just bashed its head on a building and ran off causing more trouble.

"Guess that didn't work," Annabeth muttered.

I could tell from her expression that she was making a plan.

"Let's just try to delay it," I said and dragged Annabeth along.

So obviously, because of my luck, that was the wrong move.

When we got there, the lion was gone.

"Hey," Annabeth said. "Where's the monster?"

"I-It's not here," I said. "But how?"

"It must've been an illusion," Annabeth said indignantly. "When we were running here, I saw the damage fading away."

Good job, daughter of Athena, a voice said echoing off the walls of the buildings.

A wall appeared behind them preventing them from escape.

But of course, you are too late! It said in a sing-song voice.

"Let us go, we won't cooperate!" I yelled.

Oh, I'll let you go if… The voice paused (for a very long time, I might add) as if they wanted to give a more dramatic effect, which failed because of Annabeth who said "Just get on with it, old man."

I smirked. I had to give credit to her comment. I've never thought about it much before, but the gods were centuries old, including other deities and monsters even though some of them seemed young.

As you wish Annabeth Chase, the voice said its tone rising. I just want Pandora's pithos.

"So you can open the jar to release Hope?" I asked.

You do not need to know that.

"We don't have it," Annabeth said. She looked at me and I knew what she was thinking about. I had given the pithos to Hestia as an offering.

Well, if you don't have it, I don't need you interfering with my plans, it said. Have a good time in my cell demigods.

The floor below us emptied out into a pit and we started to fall. Annabeth grabbed my hand as we fell.

Then a few seconds later, we were in a small cell (that was sadly coated in snow).

"Cake," Annabeth told me.

"How could you think about that right now?" I said. I looked at the cake box. The cake was a bit ruined (or smashed up), but it wasn't that bad. I relayed this information to Annabeth.

"Let's just hope we can get out of here and eat the cake with Sally," she said.

She gripped the bars of the cells.

"Hey Percy, there's other cells here," she said. "And they're all empty. We might be the first ones in here after some time."

"How much do you exactly mean by "some time?"

Annabeth observed the other cells more. "A few years, maybe a decade at most."

"Is this indoors or outdoors?" I asked. "I'm freezing and I left my coat at school."

"Seaweed Brain," Annabeth laughed. "It's indoors, but the roof got torn off."

"Great," I muttered. "We're in a cell that's indoors with the temperatures of outside."

"At least we're together," Annabeth said.

I nodded. "Hey, but why did that person want Pandora's pithos? We didn't even talk much about that. And I thought only Elpis was inside."

Annabeth shrugged. "Maybe they want it for some other purpose. Well, maybe they would want to release Hope, but I don't think that's the main reason."

I stood up and inspected the cage. There wasn't a lock or anything.

"How did we get in?" I thought aloud.

I tried pushing and pulling it, but of course it didn't even budge. I uncapped Riptide and swung at the bars. It made a pleasant clanging sound, but our situation wasn't getting more pleasant.

"Wait," Annabeth said. "Do that again."

"What? Swing my sword again?"

She nodded and I did as she told.

"These bars aren't made out of regular mortal materials," Annabeth said. "That sound only comes when Celestial bronze bangs against one another."

"How exactly do you know this?" I asked.

"From the Hephaestus campers. Leo did a demo about it too," she said.

"It still doesn't seem like we're going to be getting out soon."

Annabeth nodded. "Let's just get this place cleaned up as much as we can."

So we had to clear the few inches of snow (and some weren't even snow) with our bare hands. Below the snow were stones which didn't provide as good seats or pillows.

I dug in my backpack (which I wish I could've dropped back at home) looking for something that could actually help.

So far I found a Ziploc bag of ambrosia for emergencies (which wouldn't help us break the bars), some drachmas (we couldn't make a rainbow for an Iris-message), and my school supplies and homework (which I definitely didn't want to work on).

Meanwhile, Annabeth had a blanket, some demigodly stuff like me, and the bag of bread (which she kept in her bag).

So now, after a few days, or so it seemed, we were still here in the cell with a piece of bread and water for our meal once a day (they still didn't know about our own stash of cake and bread which we hid under a loose stone).

Then one day, I had a dream about Carter, the chicken-man who made me into a unicorn. I had already told Annabeth about the crocodile, but we just had a good laugh over it. We knew it was serious, but Annabeth already did some research beforehand so we would know what troubles might come next and she didn't know what possibly could've done that.

Anyway, I saw Carter in a library, I guess, looking at scrolls and tossing them over his shoulder. I heard him mutter "Not that, not that either, already mentioned that…" He kept messing up the scrolls until someone scolded him and told him to put it back.

Then the dream faded and I had a dreamless sleep after that.

To be honest, wasn't planning on uploading a chapter so soon. I was going towork on my other story, but I had no inspiration so I just worked on this. I hope this is okay. ^^'

I never thought people would like this so much. Anyway, so thank you to all of those who have read and enjoyed this. :) Just saying, I'm going to assume that the Son of Sobek (it was pretty good :D) happened after the HoH. So yeah, Leo is mentioned.

Also, should I have Sadie's and Annabeth's PoV too?