Lucky for us, the Hermes cabin was enjoying a nice steak for dinner that night.
"This is amazing!" Charlie ranted as he stuffed his face with his small portion of food.
"It's from Camp, of course it's amazing," I bragged.
I held the letter Charlie was going to burn in my hand. I prayed to every god I knew that Camp would get the message. They'd get the message, then they'd have hope.
But what if that was a bad thing.
"Charlie, this may be a bad idea," I spoke softly. He glanced up from his last bite of steak.
"What, the letter?"
"Yeah, the letter. It's going to give our parents hope," I stopped talking and looked at the paper in my hand.
"Right. And that's a bad thing?"
"What if they shouldn't have hope."
Charlie abandoned his food completely. "Why would having hope be a bad thing? I thought hope was good," he commented.
I lifted my shoulders in a small shrug. "But what if we don't get out? What if we get their hopes up for nothing?"
"And I thought you were a positive person," he said sarcastically.
"You're right. I'm sorry. Here, burn the note." I held it out to him. He didn't take it.
"I didn't say you were wrong." He took the letter and set it at our feet. "It's better they don't have hope of us coming home if we don't end up getting out of here. I don't want to cause my dad any more pain than he already is in. My mom either," he was whispered by the time he finished. We both stared down at it, not speaking.
"Sorry."
It was easy to fall into a deep depressing silence in Tartarus. Charlie took a deep breath before he opened his eyes. "So," he sounded, trying to be cheerful, "Are we just going to stay here with the magical food thing?"
"It's a shrine." I corrected. "And we've got to keep moving."
"Now to see friend!" Bob announced. He shook the ground beneath us as he jumped to his feet. I offered a hand to Charlie, and we were off. Again.
"When he says friend," Charlie asked, "What does he mean?"
"I think, I hope, he means Damasen the giant," I explained. I felt a tug at my heart as I said the name. Mom got a faraway look in her eye every time she spoke of him and Bob. The guilt nearly overwhelmed her. Dad never looked anybody in the eye when Mom brought it up, and he was saddened any time he spoke of Bob and Damasen. When most kids had superheros, I had Damasen. To me, he was better than any superhero.
Bob's path was thankfully nearby the River Phaethon. When Charlie and I got tired, it regrettably happened a lot, we had to stop and take a drink. Every time I forced the fire down my throat, I wondered if I could survive without it, then I wondered if I even cared.
"What I would give for a coke." Charlie gagged on the fire. I scoffed in agreement.
"Bob, how much further?" I asked.
Bob lifted his shoulders in a small shrug. "Time is funny in Tartarus."
"Right."
Charlie looked feverish and stared straight ahead as we walked. He seemed to flinch every time he took a step, which reminded me that he was still barefoot. He didn't mention it, and I didn't ask. I had a lot of time to think while we walked, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Every time I started thinking about anything, my thoughts would come back to Charlie and I being stuck in here. I jumped in here, now my family has to pay the price. Nyx was still there when I jumped. My family had to fight her on their own, and I had no way of knowing that they'd succeeded. Casey had never fought in a large battle by herself, we'd always fought together. Now I'd gone and left her on her own. My parents were more terrified of this place than anything else in the known world and I'd just jumped into it in front of them. I promised Adora I'd be back to tuck her in that night, and now I probably was never going to again. But then I looked back at Charlie. He was grinning at me and walking along the rock as if it were a tight rope. I may have left my family up there, but I wouldn't change my choice. I would have jumped in here by myself than let him fall in alone.
"I SMELL SEA SCUM!" An unfamiliar voice yelled, distracting me from my thoughts.
"I think he means you," Charlie said.
I rolled my eyes at him. "You think?" I got into my fighting stance and reached for my sword but stopped when I realized it wasn't there. Charlie bent his knees in what looked like a soccer goalie position. He raised his fiery fists and tried to look intimidating. With a cloud of dust, a large monster appeared. I hadn't seen it before, but I knew who it was. I'd heard the story a few times. The minotaur's head was tilted because of its missing horn (Dad still had it on a shelf in the Poseidon cabin) but he looked angrier than my dad and grandmother had described him. Bob smashed his feet and raised his broom.
"YOU WILL REGRET KILLING ME!" The minotaur screamed at me.
"That wasn't me!" I protested. I doubted I looked very innocent. Despite the minotaur being his first real experience in the Greek world, Dad didn't tell it as much as he did his other stories. He hated picturing Grandma Sally being taken by him. Just thinking about it, I grew furious. Nobody touches my grandmother. I let out a short war cry and ran forward. Somewhere behind me, Charlie was not-so-gently reminding me that I had no weapons and no water. That wasn't going to stop me. The minotaur lowered its head to spear me with its horn, unknowingly providing me with an opportunity. I jumped before he reached me and grasped for his horn. He bellowed in anger as his head sagged to the left with my weight. I held onto his horn for dear life as he tried to shake me off. He swung around but didn't do any damage until his teeth embedded into my foot.
"Charlie! Attack him while he's vulnerable!" I yelled, ignoring the pain.
Charlie didn't answer but fireballs came raining down around me. I nearly lost my grip when one landed on my leg.
"Watch where you're shooting!" I shouted, patting the fire out of my pants.
"Sorry!"
The minotaur stumbled towards him and Bob. Bob wasn't paying attention. He was chasing what looked like a kitten. Small Bob, probably.
I groaned in effort and took handfuls of the monster's sticky fur (why the Hades is it sticky?) and climbed further up his head.
"Charlie aim for his mouth!" I ordered as a plan formed. With one hand I held on for dear life. With the other hand, I began poking the minotaur's eyes. It bellowed in pain and blindly swiped at the air. Charlie shot fire at his face, but Charlie was a terrible aim. The fire didn't do anything anyways. All it seemed to do was annoy the minotaur. So, I came up with a new plan.
I yanked on the minotaur's ear and he veered right. I tugged more, leading him towards the cliff. He still couldn't see, so my plan actually had a chance of working. With one last scream of anger, the minotaur fell of the side of the cliff. With me still on his head. I used the momentum I had left and kicked off the monster's head and jumped, lunging for the rocks.
I missed.
(AU: AleeAthenaDaughter37, this may be a bad fic if you don't like cliffhangers… Just wait until the end of part 2 :) mwahahaha
Hey, so I've started the part for the outside world, like what's happening with everybody that's not in Tartarus… So what do you guys want to see?)
