Percy found a box nearby, and a sign next to it that explained what it was. He peeked inside, and then continued on.
Suddenly, he ran into a battle. Snowdrake fluttered forth! It was Percy's turn first, and he decided to make a joke. "Hello! I'm Percy Jackson. It's nice to meet you!"
Snowdrake looked at him and said, "I've heard that one already." Disappointed, Percy dodged Snowdrake's attacks. He decided to check the Snowdrake. It looked like this teen comedian fights to keep a captive audience.
"My fave ice cereals: 'frosted.'" Percy avoided most of the bullets, but got hit by one, and then he laughed at Snowdrake's pun.
"See!?" Snowdrake seemed happy. "Laughs! Dad was wrong!" Percy got away from monster's attacks. Snowdrake seemed pleased with it's "cool" joke. Percy spared the monster, and then walked on the right path.
"SO SANS! WHEN'S THE HUMAN SHOWING UP? I WANT TO LOOK MY SUNDAY BEST... OR AT LEAST MY TUESDAY PRETTY-GOOD."
Papyrus and Sans were talking together nearby. "don't you only have one outfit?" Sans spotted Percy out of the corner of his eye.
"YEAH, BUT I COULD STYLE MY HAIR!" Sans the skeleton looked at his brother with a dead serious face. "oh. right. good idea. say, why don't you look over there?"
Papyrus glanced over at Percy, then back to Sans. His brother also looked at Percy, then back again. And then for some reason they kept looking back and forth and all around until they must have gotten dizzy! They stopped spinning facing away from Percy. "SANS! OH MY GOD! I'M DIZZY. WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?"
"behold." The two skeleton brothers looked back at Percy, then at something behind him. "OH MY GOD!" Papyrus turned to Sans. "WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME TO LOOK AT A ROCK." Percy's jaw dropped.
Sans looked back at Percy. "hey, what's that in front of the rock?" Papyrus looked excited. "OH MY GOD! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS." Percy's brain felt like it was melting.
"well," Sans said, "it's not a rock." Papyrus had on an expression of deep thought. "NOT A ROCK...? OH NO! BY PROCESS OF ELIMINATION! THAT MEANS IT'S A HUMAN!" Percy felt slightly relieved.
"AHEM! HUMAN!" Papyrus cleared his throat. "PREPARE YOURSELF! FOR HIGH JINKS! FOR LOW JINKS! DANGERS! PUZZLES! CAPERS! JAPERS! BEING CAPTURED! AND OTHER SORTS OF FUN ACTIVITIES. REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED... IF YOU DARE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus ran off.
Well, whatever that meant, Percy was getting hungry again. Anyway, he was just getting used to their weirdness. Sans gave him a funny look. "...and you don't even bat an eye, huh?" Before Percy could respond, Sans ran off again.
Uneasy, Percy slowly walked on, and found a fairly well crafted cardboard sentry station. There was a sign on it from Papyrus, and Percy could see he had made the sentry station.
A little farther on, there was a sign that read, "Absolutely NO MOVING!" Percy kept moving, and saw a nice and solid wooden sentry station with a dog face carved on top of the arch.
Percy saw a black and white humanoid dog stand up from in the sentry station, and froze. "Did something move? Was it my imagination? I can only see moving things." Percy took a tip from the rock a ways back and stayed stone still.
"If something WAS moving... For example, a human... I'll make sure it NEVER moves again!" The monster grabbed two swords, one in each hand, jumped over the front wall of his sentry station, and they entered a Fight. Doggo blocked his way.
Since this monster had swords, Percy decided he'd counter it's attacks with his own. Slowly, Percy drew Riptide out of his pocket.
"Don't move an inch!" Doggo wildly swung a blue sword, and Percy swiftly blocked it with a swing from Riptide. "AHA! So someone DID move!" Doggo focused on him now, and swung hard, right at him.
Percy ducked, and swung his weapon up at the sword in Doggo's left hand to disarm him. Just then, Doggo raised his arm for a downward strike. "AGH!" Doggo howled in pain. He clutched his left arm, now dripping blood. A nasty gash had marked Doggo's arm, from his elbow up to his paw.
Percy gasped, dropping his sword. He backed up, and Doggo looked up at him in fear. Percy realized he could spare the monster now, but when he did, he felt none of the usual satisfaction. Only dread. Percy ran.
He ran past some dog treats on the ground, and Icecap strutted into view. Percy fled the battle.
He kept running, and suddenly found himself sliding on ice. "Woah!" Percy exclaimed. When he got to the end of the ice, he barely managed to stay upright. Whew.
Percy went to take a better look around, and saw ahead of him a path of snow, and another over on his left. He decided to head left this time, and see what was there.
When he peeked in, Percy saw a snowman sitting near a cliff. He walked up to it, and the snowman spoke. "Hello. I am a snowman."
The creature was smiling, somewhat sadly. "I want to see the world... But I cannot move. If you would be so kind, traveler, please... Take a piece of me and bring it very far away."
Percy gave the snowman a little smile. "Alright... If you're sure." Smiling broadly, the snowman said, "thank you... good luck!"
Like the creature requested, Percy carefully took a piece of snow from the snowman. He smiled at the stationary monster, and walked back off again.
He walked in on Sans and Papyrus again, and saw that they were standing on the other side of a neat square of snow.
"YOU'RE SO LAZY! YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!" Papyrus accused Sans. "i think that's called..." Sans glanced over at Percy. "...sleeping." Papyrus glared at his brother. "EXCUSES, EXCUSES!"
Papyrus then seemed to notice Percy standing there, and he smiled. "OH-HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU... MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE...
"QUITE SHOCKING!" Papyrus had on the face of a jokester. "FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE... ELECTRICITY MAZE!" Ah, so that's what his joke meant. Nice.
"WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THE MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP!" Papyrus held up in his hand a clear blue orb.
"SOUND LIKE FUN? BECAUSE! THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE," Papyrus put on his thinking face. "IS ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL I THINK."
The skeleton smiled. "OK, YOU CAN GO AHEAD NOW." Percy thought for a moment. There was no visual indication of where the walls were, which was probably kind of the point, it being the invisible electricity maze after all.
If he just ran in, brute forcing it, well, in Papyrus's words, he probably wouldn't have much fun. Percy stood there for minute, thinking.
"Can I...?" Percy focused on the snow, attempting to move it, like he could water. Sure enough, as he willed it to, it sort of, flowed! It was a little tougher than controlling water, but not too bad.
"WOWIE!" Papyrus exclaimed. "THAT'S A NEAT TRICK!" Sans was looking at him warily. Percy considered his options. He might be able to use the snow to trigger the electricity mechanism, so that he could see where a safe path was without danger to himself.
Percy lifted up a pillar of snow somewhere in the middle, and nothing happened. He moved it about the maze, and, nothing. "Oh." Percy felt silly. There weren't any walls, it was probably just a pressure sensor in the ground.
He pushed down the pillar of snow roughly into the ground, condensing it as much as he could. Bzzt! Percy looked up, surprised, and saw that Papyrus had gotten shocked by the orb in his hand.
"SANS! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Papyrus was stomping his foot in frustration. "i think the human has to hold the orb." Sans looked sidelong at Percy. "OH, OKAY."
Papyrus went to walk through the maze, but when he took a step onto the square of snow, Sans stopped him. "wait." Papyrus looked back, confused. "WHAT IS IT, BROTHER?" Sans glanced at Percy. "let me give it to him."
Papyrus stared incredulously at Sans. "WHAT?! BUT YOU NEVER VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING!" Sans glanced over at his brother. "just humor me." Papyrus looked back, a worried look on his face. "...ALRIGHT BROTHER, IF YOU INSIST." Papyrus walked back to Sans, handing him the orb.
Sans narrowed his eyes, and stood there for a minute. Next time Percy blinked, Sans was gone, and whispered in his ear from behind. "hold this." Sans set the orb on his head, and Percy closed his eyes, shivering. He would never get used to that.
The orb fell off his head. Percy opened his eyes to look down at it, and Sans was back by Papyrus. "OKAY, TRY NOW!" Papyrus smiled encouragingly at Percy, urging him on.
Percy left the orb on the ground for a minute, and started pushing the snow down on parts the maze, ignoring the frantically shocking blue orb, until he got a better feel for how the maze went.
He pushed down on the safe path of the maze one more time, the orb finally calm. Confident, Percy picked up the orb and walked through the maze, safe and sound.
Sans's expression was unreadable, but Papyrus's radiated joy. "INCREDIBLE! YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL! YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY. I SUPPOSE YOUR MAGIC MAY HAVE BEEN MORE HELPFUL TO YOU THAN I HAD ANTICIPATED.
"HOWEVER! THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE EASY! IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus backed up out of the area.
A little hesitantly, Percy walked up to Sans. "hey uh, thanks..." Surprised, Percy stayed silent. "my brother seems like he's having fun. so... yeah. thanks for doing his puzzles."
Sans looked a bit awkward, so Percy gave him a small smile, and then walked off a little ways. He felt relieved that Sans wasn't angry at him now, but he still felt bad about hurting Doggo...
Percy checked his pocket, and felt his ballpoint pen there. It must have just returned to his pocket. Percy took a deep breath, feeling determined once again to never hurt another monster.