Hi guys! I'm sorry for the wait, but I had to go to sleep yesterday, so I couldn't post. Anyways, I've brought back some more POVs for variety and a few new ones. Review me if you like that or not. Also, I'm sorry this chapter is a little short. I think the next one will be longer. Please answer the poll on my profile as well. Thanks! - Steven
Chapter 10: Diving into the Starless Cave
Bianca's POV
Honestly, being a daughter of Hades would probably have made me fine with being underground, but I still didn't like it. As we headed down into the cave, a loud booming sound was suddenly heard, resonating deep in the cave, echoing. "Well, let's go back to the car! We've already had a look!" Nico said. Annabeth and Grover both seemed to agree, and so did I as well. Jack looked at us all.
"We have to go. You can stay here if you want, but I'm going. Who's joining me?" "I am." Percy announced. "And I think Claymore's going too." "Indeed." said person replied. "Are you two coming as well?" he asked Luke and Thalia. "Yes." they both said at the same time. I sighed. "I guess I'll be going, I don't want to be alone." Everyone else chimed in, and with that, we all walked down into the cave of darkest night.
Grover's POV
Well, of course a satyr like me ends up in a cave! At least I have some protection. If anything bad comes our way, they can take care of themselves while I stand back and play some music. Or run away as fast as possible. Probably the second option more likely. I hate caves.
Annabeth's POV
I don't like caves either. Spiders can be around. Hopefully there aren't any of those creepy crawlies, but if there are everyone else is still around. Maybe they'll go for them. For the love of the gods, please don't make me experience more spider trauma.
Nico's POV
I wouldn't say this out loud with Dad being the god of the underworld, but I don't like dark, cramped spaces that are underground. I get a bit claustrophobic at times. It's a slight problem. Anyways, at least no one will find out besides Bianca, since she's my sister and all. She has the same problem as well. At least since Dad is my dad, it might work out better. I think so.
Luke's POV
I'll admit, I wasn't a big fan of caves either, but to save the god's symbols of power, I would do some cave diving. That isn't too bad, when the alternative is to let the world be destroyed. I like the world as it is now thank you very much. I don't want anybody messing it up. So that's why I'm jumping headfirst into a cave to save the world. Let's do this!
Thalia's POV
I wouldn't really appreciate caves, and not the sky either, even though my dad is the god of the skies. I would prefer solid land over anything. I don't know how that would work in Dad's book, but I don't really care too much. At least I can not be scared of caves and flying. That helps out. Of course Dad had to be the god of the sky. Everyone would except that I'm in my element if I'm soaring through the clouds, but no stereotypes okay? I guess that caves are better then. It is still ground at least.
Percy's POV
Going through this cave to find some stuff the gods lost was not pleasant. It sucked. There were a bunch of monsters, traps and a crap ton of hurt built into the thing, and I didn't like it. I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual. We were just a group of demigods slicing through the hordes of monsters. Claymore stood back from the fights, just watching us all with a perplexed expression. He had explained that Mistforms can't really fight, and he didn't have any weapons of use. Apparently he had a regular gun when he had first met Alabaster, but of course mortal weapons didn't work on monsters. But I'm also sure that he wanted to see our fights.
He was a mortal after all, and he had never even knew this side of the world existed. Especially being a scientist, he would want to study and learn new things about our world. As we battled through the cave, cutting wide swathes in the monsters that challenged us, we reached a long stone hallway. The walls were covered in strange pictures carved into the rock. The pictures depicted different events, and for as far as I was concerned I didn't know what they showed, yet alone even bother to try and see what they showed. We kept waking until we had reached a large stone door at the end.
"So, shall we open it?" Jack asked from the front. "It could be a trap though." Annabeth replied, who seemed thoughtful. "I would say it's dangerous. Let's do it." I nodded at that. Do dangerous things, because that's the life of a demigod. Jack pushed open the door and we were off, heading deeper into the cavern. We fought our way through some more monsters, went through some kind of maze before we found an exit. "Well, that took so long." Luke said once we had left. "Whatever. We're out of that thing now." Thalia replied. As we walked towards the exit, I did notice that it had become awfully quiet, which was unsettling to me. I was pretty sure that Jack had also noticed, since he seemed a bit nervous. "Let's just get a move on guys. You can flirt later. I think that both of them had to take a bit to process what Jack had just said, because a few seconds later they both shouted, "We're not flirting!" simultaneously. Jack smiled, and I realized he truly was scared. He had just did that for comic relief. "Let's go."
He pushed forward towards the exit, and we all followed him into the darkness. It was hard to see, but Jack pulled out a torch to light the way. We continued to delve deeper through the hallway, the ominous silence surrounding us all. As we kept walking, two thoughts were going through my mind, and probably through everyone else's as well. "Why is there no sound and why haven't we reached anywhere new yet?" One of those questions was going to be answered soon however, at least partly. I think Jack had stepped or touched something, because there was a sudden click from the front. Jack stopped abruptly, stopping everyone else. Jack was silent for a few seconds before he said, "When I tell you to run, run." Everyone nodded in agreement. "In three, two…" I closed my eyes as I braced myself to run away as fast as I could. "One, go!" Jack yelled. I started to run away, but the floor gave way underneath and I was falling down a large hole.
We landed at the bottom, and I was surprised I wasn't dead. "Well, I didn't expect this." Jack said. "What do we do now?" I asked him. "Why, I thought that was obvious. Make our way back up of course!" he replied. With that, Jack started to look around the walls for a way to get back up, but apparently he pressed something else. "Shit." he said before he dropped again, and so did we as well. "And here we go again." I thought as I fell again. It felt like we were sliding on smooth stone, like a slide. I kept dropping down, occasionally hearing sounds that I thought to be either screams or more likely delightful shouting. Pretty soon we all had finished our fall, and once we did Jack lit his torch once more. He found a corridor before following it, with all of us in two. "Where is this going to lead us?" Nico asked him. "I don't know." he replied. "Wait, what if we get lost down here?" Grover put in nervously. Many of us got shivers thinking about being stuck here for eternity. "We are not lost." Jack said calmly. "Just follow me. I think I see something. Come on."
With that, we followed Jack until he came to another door. He pushed it open and stepped out, revealing where we were. But it wasn't anywhere new. In fact, it was where we had started, the room that had the door that led to the maze and our little trip falling down. As everyone filed into the room, they couldn't believe how they could have ended up back here. As I walked out last and the door behind me suddenly shutted with a loud bang, Jack completely lost it and shouted, "Are you fucking kidding me?!"
If you don't like the cussing, I'm sorry. By now I done it a few times, and I think it adds a little flavour to my books. Try to ignore it. Please answer the poll on my profile. Also, since this is my OG fanfic, I will tell all you OG viewers that there is a new fanfic coming out on a new series. You'll find out soon enough. Stay tuned! - Steven