Warning: this chapter does have violence/blood- as always, nothing too gory.
Annabeth's Story:
"There's seven of us now," I counted. Seven- not including Oakley.
"Like the prophesy- Seven demigods will answer the call," Jason recited. "It was supposed to happen this way."
I glanced around at the group of us: it was me, Percy, Jason, Piper, Reyna, Leo, Oakley, and Bobby. Funny how things worked out.
"I doubt we've got much time. We should get our armor on and go to the battlegrounds," I said for encouragement.
Percy had my back and cheered, "Olympus may be open, but the gods can't fight the war themselves!" That got everyone riled up and ready.
Ariadne's Tale:
I blinked becoming conscious. I shifted my eyes suspiciously but I didn't see anything. Oh, gods! I'm blind! No! No! I wailed or I tried to- it's kind of tough with tape over your mouth.
Then, like some magic act, let there be light, and someone ripped a blindfold off of me. Whoa. Good gods, I'm not blind.
My captor bent down on one knee to look me in the eyes. He wasn't old, fourteen at most- kinda cute now that I can actually admit it, but he didn't seem to be helping me. He ripped the tape covering my mouth. "Ouch! That hurt!" I growled, with my hands bound behind my back the best defense I had was trying to bite him- I tried but missed.
"You animal!" he said, a little appalled. I just gritted my teeth and gave him a nasty glare that meant, yeah, you had better keep your eyes peeled!
My captors left me- perhaps a little disgusted, but it's not like I was really all that concerned about that. I was alone in some little, dark room. Looking around, it definitely was a room, indoors- or with walls and a ceiling. There was dirt floor though- I could feel the texture of the dirt rubbing into my jeans. Despite the room being pitch black, I could see better than most. That was just one of the oh-so-wonderful perks that comes along with being a daughter of Eos: you can't be a hunter- or so says Artemis- you address all grasshoppers as 'step-dad', and with those big, bug-eyes your mom gave you, you just might be able to see in the dark. Great gifts, mom, just super…
Anyway, in the dark, I could make out the faint outline of Hazel scrunched up in a ball, with her hands tied and mouth covered. She just may have still been unconscious or something. Maybe we were drugged- I felt drugged, but then again, I didn't know. I could just be tired. The time change getting here was a killer. On second thought, I was tired- I probably had that zombie-eyes look going. Before all of this happened, Nico said I didn't- but I say that's only 'cause he's seen real zombies and none of that fake TV junk I get to watch.
Back to my point- I knew pretty well I needed to get out of here. They said they would kill me and I didn't want to stick around long enough to find out if they'd keep their word. I felt around as best I could without my hands trying to figure out if I still had my dagger in my pocket – I did. Stupid, unimportant demigods forgot to disarm me. I wiggled around trying to maneuver the knife until it slipped out of my pocket. Then I set to work on my bindings. I freed my hands and my feet.
Then I ran to help Hazel- she wasn't budging. She wasn't dead- she had a pulse… I think. But if I untied her, it might be a problem if she's still unconscious – I wasn't going to be able to drag her out of here, so I left her.
I looked around the dark, little room with my dagger drawn and decided, this probably isn't a room at all but a cave- probably. The ceiling was high but curved slightly rounding. A cave. It didn't take long to find the mouth of the cave- there was only one way out.
I stepped out cautiously- of course the enemy was just waiting right outside, with their backs turned. There were a few of them all sitting around a small fire. The flame cast an orange glow on their faces.
They hadn't seen me- not yet anyway.
Outside there were four of them- and more in the distance. I could assume there must have been more 'soldiers' in other places, but they weren't here. Here, there were only four- I could handle this, right? I bet I could. The first face I noticed I recognized as the boy who pulled the tape off my mouth- the one who checked to see if I was alive. If this came to a fight- he would be the one I'd have to worry about, simply because he was the biggest of the kids. The one next to him was a girl- the one that was in the river. She had copper-colored hair, that sitting so near the fire, seemed to be giving off a light of its own.
Across from her were two kids much younger than me- only nine or ten at the oldest. The two boys looked alike- might have been twins, definitely were brothers. They wore leather padding and war paint, but they didn't look like soldiers- just little kids playing dress-up who have gotten tired of their games and are just about ready to go to bed. Of course, none of this lasted for long.
I tried to creep out of the mouth of the cave stealthily, hoping I'd go unnoticed- I had no such luck.
"Whoa! How'd she get out?" the girl was the first to notice. The four demigods jumped to their feet. I didn't wait for them- I ran. Running was probably not the best idea, especially since they had no reason to catch me alive.
Something hit my left shoulder- it took me a while to figure out what it was. I collapsed to the ground. It wasn't until then that I actually realized that I was hurt- really hurt- the ground was all wet. Lying in a pool of my own blood- I think so.
Annabeth's Story:
We were preparing for battle in the orchard- or we were supposed to be doing that- up until something else caught my eye. Percy and I were going to see if Jason and Piper were ready to go- on an ideal day, things would have gone smoother, but were things ever ideal?
We caught Jason and Piper with their lips locked, kissing madly, and clinging to each other. We watched for just a moment with a mild disgust, not at all surprised, just wondering why they hadn't kissed sooner.
"We were never like that, right?" I asked Percy.
He shook his head quickly, "definitely not- that's a little gross."
"You read my mind," I turned away- trying to give them some privacy. Behind me was Reyna. Reyna had seen everything- she looked at us blankly. I half expected her to attack Piper that very instant, but she didn't. "Reyna…" I was at a loss for words.
Reyna stepped forward, rested her head against the trunk of a tree and kept her eyes averted. I stepped forward and offered to help. "Don't bother, nata Minervae, I knew this would happen," she droned. "Jason and I…Our relationship always was rocky at best. If it hadn't been Piper- I hate to admit it but it probably would have been Calliope or Gwendolyn or Hazel." I could hear Reyna taking slow and deep breaths carefully exhaling trying her best to fight back tears. "I…I just hate having to admit it."
Ariadne's Tale:
When all the light faded back in, I screamed. The pain was back.
"Shut it, Houdini!" the copper-haired girl snapped at me.
I screamed some more- half out of pain, the other half just to spite her
"Get her to stop squirming," the boy's voice called.
Tears streamed across my face, my shoulder seared with pain. "What. The Hades. Are. You. Doing?" I huffed out painfully.
"You got shot, genius; we've got to get the arrow out," the boy told me.
"If you want me dead- just kill me- don't torture me, I'm not tellin' you nothin'!" I cried out.
"If we wanted you dead, you'd be dead," One of the little nine-year olds said, kicking the ground sending a cloud of dust and dirt up into the air. The cloud of dust descended on my open wound- I cried out in agony.
"Desiste, Secunde," the older boy barked, "Because of you I have to sterilize the injury again!"
"Noliteappellaremeillum, Maxime!" the little boy shouted.
"Now this is going to hurt… a lot…" the older boy told me. He gripped the arrow's shaft and tore it out of me. I shrieked. The arrow was out- the red-haired girl dangled it in front of my face. About half of it was soaked in my blood. I winced.
Annabeth's Story:
I found a map of Corinth in Hazel's atlas and decided to get to work on figuring out just exactly how we would get to the ancient ruins of Corinth. The moment I flipped it open, I knew I should probably have brought my own map or a magnifying glass or something- there was no possible way I could read this. The map was labeled with tiny little letters- probably incredibly accurate and helpful for regular people but miserable gibberish for all of us dyslexic demigods. How on Gaea could Hazel have ever read this? My atlases were always in Greek- they would have been incredibly helpful about now. In the past reading Hazel's atlas, I've been able to get by with reading the penciled in destination at the bottom of the page- that, plus Hazel or Bobby always had the courtesy of circling where ever they were going. On my own, this was not going to be easy.
Reyna saw me squinting at it and came to help. "Do you need glasses or something?" She wondered.
"No, glasses would make this worse- how did Hazel read this?" I asked her.
Reyna looked at the page- "'cause it's in English, smart one!"
"Yeah, but we're dyslexic and this font is impossible to read-"
"What are you talking about? Who's dyslexic?"
"Demigods…?" I asked her. "You're not dyslexic?" Bobby overheard Reyna making fun of me and came quickly. "Bobby! Quick question, are you dyslexic?"
Bobby thought for a moment before shaking his head, "No? Should I be?"
I wondered about this- Chiron had said that all demigods were dyslexic because our brains were hardwired to read Greek- the Romans don't speak Greek, why should they be able to read it. The Romans read Latin- which has just about the same alphabet as English- Oh… The light bulb went off in my head. The lucky Romans can read!
"No, Bobby- dyslexia has been the bane of my existence, I can't read this map- so you read it. We need to get to the ancient ruins of Corinth- I think that's where we're supposed to go," I replied. "You can lead the way."
Ariadne's Tale:
My captors wrapped up my shoulder and let me sit outside the cave by the fire. Obviously, I wasn't going anywhere. The older boy that the little kids called, "Maxime," had taken my dagger when he put my arm in a sling. The three boys were talking in Latin around the fire- or at least I thought it was Latin, I didn't know the language. I noticed that the red-haired girl kept her mouth shut and seemed bored.
"What are they saying?" I ventured to ask her. I didn't think it hurt to ask.
"Like I'd ever tell you," she grumbled.
"You don't know what they're saying, either, do you?" I let out a cynical laugh. The girl bit her lip, trying to hide the fact that I'd guessed it. "He he, I knew it. Let me guess- you're a Greek too?"
"Watch yourself- Houdini, the only reason you're not dead is 'cause we've got to use you as leverage- once we catch your little friends all coming to your rescue, you're a goner," the red-haired girl smirked.
"Ha! Good luck with that 'since I don't have friends."
I know it was probably very confusing, hope you liked it. Please, write a review! Thanks!