XII
Annabeth
Annabeth woke up in complete darkness. She crawled around, trying to get a feel. The only thing she noticed was that the floor was extremely wet and sticky. She fumbled around for her dagger, but it wasn't there. After a long time groping around in the dark, she felt something that felt a lot like mush. When she picked it up and smelled it, all she smelled was the smell of vomit.
When she tried to get a feel, she realized something horrible.
The mush was actually a caterpillar head- and spiders eat bugs.
Arachne's stomach was awfully dry, though. There were no digestive juices or anything, but the sticky floor was unnerving enough. All she could find in there were bits of half-digested bugs, arachnids (Arachne apparently ate her own soldiers) and the occasional helmet or sword. Unfortunately, any helmets or swords she could find were so digested, that the moment she stabbed them against the lining of the stomach, they disintegrated into a pile of mush.
She realized that her body didn't hurt anymore, even after being scratched by Arachne. Maybe Arachne had healed her before swallowing her whole, just so that she wouldn't taste her blood.
Or maybe…
Annabeth got out her mouth and bit on her hand as hard as possible, until blood started to drip out. The moment the blood touched the stomach, it ignited- and Annabeth saw how much danger she had been in.
Just inches away, a huge pool of digestive juices and- pretty much everything that a huge arachnid eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She had been planning to go in that direction.
Annabeth realized that the flame was still burning. The stomach shook, and Annabeth was bounced around, her blood spattering, sending lines of fire racing along the walls. Annabeth almost got her hair seared off. Arachne was running, Annabeth realized- for water.
Annabeth couldn't do anything except for wait- until she realized that she was in the path of some rapidly expanding flames.
She frantically located the exit- luckily enough; it was the only path that was available. She ran into the esophagus and started to crawl.
Obviously Arachne was starting to choke, because the walls, which were slightly red and dimly lit by the fire behind her, were expanding and contracting, like Arachne was trying to swallow her again.
The further up she went, the smaller the esophagus became. At one point Annabeth had to put her head on the sticky floor- not the best feeling in the world. The mucus lined on the esophagus bust into flame once in a while, and Annabeth had to roll over it to stop it burning her. Finally, with numerous burns on her clothes and blood everywhere, Annabeth popped her head out of Arachne's mouth- and fell into a giant pool of water.
Arachne hissed, "So that was what was crawling up my throat. Horribly uncomfortable. You're awfully persistent. Why didn't I chew you up when I had the chance?"
The water bubbled around Annabeth. She only had one thought-Get out. And the water exploded around her.
Water Nymphs- girls in green dresses- towered above her, standing on water spouts.
"Child of Athena," they said, not very politely, "You have insulted us! Putting your disgusting blood into our river. Polluting us! Now, leave!"
Annabeth didn't get the chance. The Nymphs summoned giant jets of water, and blasted Annabeth into the cave ceiling.
Surprisingly, Annabeth fell back into the river.
"What?" one of the Nymphs said, "How did you-"
Annabeth looked back, and saw a watery imprint on the cave ceiling 10 meters away. She had landed diagonally.
"The water does not sense you as an enemy now," The Nymphs said. They retreated back into the depths of the river.
Arachne, who had been staring at Annabeth for a while, hissed with annoyance. Her jaw was dangling a little- probably broken from Annabeth's squeeze through.
She sprang at Annabeth, pincers clashing. She kept striking, but Annabeth was too fast. She kept dodging. But this time, she was in a cave, with no exits at all. She needed to kill Arachne- once and for all.
As Arachne advanced, wincing with pain at the fire in her belly. She roared, and Annabeth notched her knife. Praying that her plan would work, she threw the dagger into Arachne's mouth before she could close it.
Immediately, Arachne roared in pain, and stumbled. The dagger had managed to catch fire inside Arachne's belly, and then flown into her intestines. Miniature nuclear explosions seemed to be happening. Red spots were showing up on Arachne's shell, and after a long, agonizing wait, Arachne slumped to the ground, let loose a huge roar, and exploded into dust.
Annabeth picked up her now singed, yet wet and slimy dagger, and washed it off in the river before sliding it into her sheath.
She then headed in the direction she thought Arachne had come from, and found a tiny cave opening. She crawled in and found her backpack. Why Arachne hadn't destroyed them, she didn't know, but she picked them up and started to feel along the walls. Almost immediately, she realized that her hands were wiping dust, and after clearing away all the soot, she pulled her dagger out for the light she needed to read them. The words were:
Το τηε Δοορς οφ Δεατη
To the doors of death. She knocked around and found a piece of huge wood. She pushed it and it fell down, revealing a passageway.
"All right, then," Annabeth said. "Here we go."
She started to walk down the corridor.
