Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, or any of the characters. All belongs to Mr. Rick Riordan.
+giraffesplaycello Thanks for the review! This chapter is for YOU.
As I left Mt. Olympus. I tried to figure out how to get into The Castle. It had lots of defense. I suppose I should tell you about The Castle. It was a place built specifically for when monsters needed to capture gods, or anything. Some Titans lately had captured Hephaestus to make him make them special weapons, armor, etc. Anyway, It had 10 lines of defense. The first was nothing too bad; telekhines and the like, nothing I hadn't faced before. The second is slightly more hard to pass. It goes on like this, and then the 9th level is whatever they think will be hardest for you. Me, probably a sphinx. The tenth is a dragon. The reason it has all these levels is that the more advanced the monsters get, the more they will be taken out so they can have little baby monsters! How cute (note the sarcasm). Anyway, they want as few people getting to the higher levels as possible. In the 11th floor, there was a little chamber for keeping the captured people. This is what I needed to get to.
I started making a plan on a piece of paper. I needed to do research to find exactly what monsters there were, and how to defeat them.
As I was sitting at my computer at home trying to figure out how to make a plan, I saw something that really startled and scared me. Was I really willing to go through this much, just to get Percy back? The answer was yes. Yes, I was.
I looked up every monster, and ways to defeat it. I was fully prepared. I found it sad that none of the gods saw fit to try to rescue Hephaestus. It seemed as if nobody really cared for him.
I had all the equipment I needed. It would probably take me a few hours to get past the monsters, if I could. Most likely, I would die. Percy was worth it, though. Percy was always worth it. (A/N Baby, I'm worth it. Uh-huh, I'm worth it. Gimme gimme I'm worth it)
I began the trek to The Castle. It wasn't too long, it was about an hour walk. There were lots of cities, which faded to houses, which faded to greenery. And there, in the middle of the field, was The Castle.
I started to go up to it, armor, weapons, and plan, in my hand. The Castle had a lot of secret hiding spots other heroes had made, and this was a list of them, and where exactly I needed to go, the monsters I needed to fight, and what I needed.
I was up to the doors when I heard a sound. A growl. The first floor was within 15 feet. And I was terrified.