Hello Everyone! I now give you chapter 10. I hope you like it.

I do not own POJ... or HoO and never will

LEO'S POV

We walked along in silence. Our footsteps echoed throughout the tunnel… we had been walking for a long time. Everything was dark beyond our small pool of light, it would have been impossible I thought, if I hadn't come. No one would have been able to see a thing. Despite the sombre mood I smiled. Repair boy, ahem supreme ruler of the Argo II strikes again!

Hazel walked quietly beside me. Her face flickered in and out of the shadows because of the flame dancing in my palm. I didn't know what she was thinking…. But I was thinking that this was hopeless. Sure from the surface the idea was still crazy; crazy but believable. I mean Percy had survived so much… why couldn't he have survived this I thought?

But now, actually walking straight down, under all this rock, all this rock that he was under somewhere; it was not looking to good.

Have I already mentioned that we have been walking almost straight down forever? The tunnel was narrow and we kept having to go one by one, with Hazel in front, keeping the passage open. I gulped. Getting stuck down here forever with nothing more than a bunch of rocks for company would suck.

It would get pretty lonely…

Our footsteps echoed loudly.

I wondered if Annabeth will stay true to her word and not kill me for failing to bring Percy back…

Beside me Hazel stopped walking.

"Leo can you amp the fire power up a bit?" Hazel said.

"Sure." I made the flame a bit bigger.

The increased light revealed that the tunnel had unnoticingly gotten bigger. Beyond us lay what looked like a lump of gold on the floor. I really wanted to touch it… but I knew better.

"This is where I closed the crevasse." Hazel said quietly. "If I am right, Percy should be around here. I don't think he would have fought far from the hole."

"So we just need to walk around and look for him?" I asked, looking at the space that we were still standing practically on top of each other in, "because there isn't much to explore."

"No. I made the tunnel before we got here. It was all solid rock or boulders stacked on top of each other. The tunnel leads to the origin of the crevasse as a start, as a starting point. He should be somewhere beyond." She gestured to the walls.

"So he is in the walls?" I asked incredulously.

She nodded. I looked at the walls of the tunnel. To be stuck somewhere out of sight under all that. In a wall. I shook my head. I can't help but feel sorry for Percy. He has the power to get himself down here and wreak absolute havoc, but he can't even get himself out. That is if he is still alive. Which I am seriously doubting.

Hazel placed her hand on the wall and started walking around, letting her hand drag against the rock. She stopped a few paces ahead where the wall was made of boulders stacked on top of each other. "Of course" She whispered. I walked up to her and looked at the wall in confusion. "What? Did the boulder just tell you something, rock whisperer?" I smiled….. I was trying to make a joke. But she didn't appreciate it.

Frowning she said "No," paused for a second, and then continued. "I can sense that something is beyond the boulders…. I think, I think it's Percy…"

"Is he alive?" I asked hopefully.

"I can't tell! All I said is that it might be Percy. I can only sense that something is behind here, it could be Gae coming for a tea party for all I know." She paused for a minute again. "But it makes sense for him to be here, because the solid sections did not change in the earthquake… so he couldn't have been trapped in there…"

She pushed the nearest boulder away as if it was no more than some Styrofoam; revealing an even narrower and smaller tunnel. This time we would have to crawl. Great.

Hazel crouched down and started to crawl… but I hesitated. The Flame Meister really did not want to go into a smaller tunnel.

"Leo, come one."

"That tunnel," I said, "is even more unstable then the one we are leaving… I am not going in there."

Hazel looked ticked. "Leo, I need to be able to see Percy when we find him, because we will." Her voice caught. Clearly she was starting to doubt it too…

"And you volunteered to come. You should have known this was what we're going to do. As long as my concentration does not break we should be fine."

I sighed and reluctantly followed her. I regretted it almost instantly.

As soon as we started crawling dust from the earthquake got caught in my throat and I started to cough… and being a fire starter….coughing equals sparks.

In front of me Hazel screamed "Leo stop coughing NOW! Or you are going to set me on fire!"

"Gee" I said between coughs. "It's not like I just choose to cough or anything." But I tried to stop and, let's face it… how effective are you when you try and stop yourself from coughing. That's right you're not effective at all.

Needless to say, I kept coughing and Hazel's concentration broke after her shirt caught on fire.

Like it? Tell me what you think and hit review :)

Chapter eleven will be soon... so stay tuned