Chapter 10-

The real Mt Olympus in Greece is about 9570 ft tall; about 10,000 people climb it a year. I was just hoped who or what we were looking for lived at the bottom.

If anyone was suspicious of three teenagers obviously not from the Mediterranean they didn't say. The dirt track up from the entrance to the national park led through some parched looking trees. Looking down into the valley beneath us I could see the green of the leaves and felt slightly jealous for the creatures living in the dry area we were walking through.

After a mile or two of walking I started to notice something.
A lot of the trees were blown over. And it wasn't like this part of Greece was known for its wind. Annabeth looked as if she had noticed something too.

"What?" I asked her. "Noticing any subtle signs?" She didn't look happy.
"I'm not sure. There's something wrong." She replied, shaking her head.
"It's colder in that direction." Nico pointed westward. "Not like a heat colder, more like an eerie colder." I raised my eyebrows in reply to his comment.

Even Annabeth looked sceptical.

"Look, there's something in that direction. I can feel it okay." Nico spat.

I raised my hands in defence. "Alright, that way we go."

So we headed west Nico leading the way. After a while I could see what he was on about. It was like there was a trickle of icy water in my veins but there was more and more after every step. After another mile it felt as though my insides were made of ice, even as the heat of the sun made my skin feel no different.

Nico had led us past a stream, through an orchard of dead trees and almost of a cliff when he announced that we were close.

We joined him at the edge of the cliff top he had nearly stumbled blindly over moments before and looked down. The ground below looked even more barren than that above the cliff. On top of it being the perfect place to get ambushed by some beast there was a sheer drop that the three of us had to climb down to get there.

"Go on then Percy." Nico prompted.

"Why do I have to go first?" I whined. "Why can't you go down first?"

Nico shrugged. "Your quest mate."

I looked pleadingly at Annabeth, who replied. "You are the one with the invincibility. I'm really the only one of us that should be worried."

My mouth hung open. "How'd you figure that one out?" I couldn't believe she was up for climbing down that cliff.

She stood hand on hips and I knew I'd lost. "Nico can shadow travel down. If you fall you can't get hurt, but if I fall I'd splatter like a bug." I saw Nico grinning out the corner of my eye. "Can you even have a plus one when you shadow travel?" I turned to him, resigned to the fact that I would be shining it down the side of a cliff momentarily. He nodded. "Not very often mind so don't ask." He winked at me as he grasped Annabeth's wrist. "Have a nice climb. A small white cloud passed beneath the sun, but it was enough for Nico to pull Annabeth into the shadows.

With a thud I heard the pair of them tumble out from the shade of the cliff face. I looked down at them waving up at me and I realised with a shock that the cliff was higher than I thought, a lump rose in my throat. With a little difficulty I swallowed in and started to make my way down.

After some time, and quite a lot of instruction from Nico and Annabeth, I jumped down from a ledge a few feet from the ground. The knees of my jeans were threadbare and my shirt was not without a few tear. I was sure that my hands should've been bleeding, but when I looked down they were fine. I had been starting to doubt that I would ever get over how amazing that was.
"Nice of you to join us." Nico said sarcastically.

I scowled at him. "On the way back, we're going round." Annabeth wound her arm around my back and placed her hand on the small of my back. A small shiver crept up my spine as I saw her smile out the corner of my eye.

"So," I said, trying to distract myself. "Lead the way Nico."

A/N: Umm I've been meaning to finish this for months. But there it is.