January 24th

Mirra's point of view

I woke up on a cold hard surface, slightly damp with the sound of running water behind me. I figured it was stone, but I had never seen a stone like this before. It looked like a marble, colors swirling beneath the surface, green, blue, purple and silver. Looking up, I saw I was in an oval shaped room made of stone, with prison bars covering the only opening in the wall, making this place seem like a cage. The running water sound came from the corner, where there was a small waterfall shooting from the ceiling, landing in a pool below. Something told me that wasn't for prisoners to drink.

My head hurt, almost like a throbbing pain. I was confused at first as to where I was, but then my memories of last night returned.

Ignoring the pain in my head, I shot up of the ground, though I got dizzy from sitting up to fast and stumbled a bit. After regaining my composure, I ran quickly to the bars on the wall, wanting to get a better idea of where I was. Outside the cage, I could see two people, the woman I saw last night, and I think that was the man who was beside me. He had the same leathery black skin, and transparent eyes. His hair was also snowy white, falling to about his shoulders. Although his skin was black, he wore an elegant black suit that blended in with his skin.

The walls and floor outside were actually stone, grey and damp. I could tell they we were in a narrow passageway, lit up by torches of green fire. I couldn't help but wonder how the fire was green. By the look of this place, I guessed we were in a cave.

Apparently, I caught the attention of the woman standing outside, because she had stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the rest of the cave.

"Looks like the little mortal decided to wake up" she said, in a way you'd expect to be rude, but she actually said it in a sweet way.

I tried shaking the bars, something people often do when locked up, though I didn't know why. In my fear, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Who are you!"

She smiled, revealing sharp teeth resembling broken glass. "I am called Lagneía. You could say I'm a princess of the trollia's."

I blinked. "But I though trolls were short."

I could see the skin on Lagneía's face tighten, as if she was trying not to scowl. "Not trolls you insolence little..." her voice was raised but she stopped herself and sighed heavily. "Not trolls, child. Trollia's."

I tilted my head to the side and hummed in a confused manor. The one behind her grumbled loudly, stepping over to the cage and standing by Lagneía.

"Trollia's are a being that absorb the objects around us to gain power. Our appearance is based upon our first absorption's at birth, explaining why we all look so different." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "And Lagneía, you are not a princess. You are just to arrogant to understand Lord Skotádi does not fancy you as much as you may think."

I was trembling to much to understand what they were talking about. My hands gripped tighter around the bars. "Let me out!"

Lagneía smirked. "Oh, we can't do that, child. We wouldn't want you escaping, now would we?"

I grumbled, glaring up at her with the best glare I could muster, though I don't think it was very intimidating. "You won't get away with this. My brother will rescue me!"

They both chuckled as they walked away, leaving me alone in this cage. I wanted to yell, but that wouldn't do any good. Letting go of the bars, I sat down in the corner of the room, pulling my legs up to my chest and resting my head on my knees.

Percy would rescue me, right?

OoOoOoOo

I had fallen asleep again, but was awoken by a loud clatter.

The sound had came from outside. Peaking my head around the corner, I saw another one of those monsters. This one had dark blue wrinkly skin. His eyes were the size of baseballs, and were dark red all around with no pupil. Around his eyes were black rings like he hadn't been sleeping very well, though I don't think that was the case with this guy. He only wore a pare of brown pants that were obviously just rags sewn together. He had fingernail-like claws on his hands the size of caterpillars.

The clatter sound had come from the collection of spears he had just dropped. He sourly picked them up and shoved them in a large bag that resembled one that would carry golf clubs. I didn't thing that was a save way to store them, as they could get broken. He obviously didn't care as he walked away with the bag slung wildly over his shoulder.

That's when I noticed one of the spears blades had fallen off.

My eyes widened slightly when I saw the blade laying there. I smiled. The blade was in reach. I was careful to grab it, not wanting to draw any attention to myself as I didn't know what the Trollia's would do if they caught me, and I do not want to find out.

My fingers grasped the blade tightly, completely ignoring the pain shooting though my hand and the tiny bit of blood dripping off my wrist.

"Yes." I whispered.

I looked both directions of the cave to make sure no one was around before attempting what I was about to do. No one was there. Perfect. I took the blade and dug it underneath one of the bars, twisting and digging till the bar began to loosen.

Doing the same with the next three bars, I was able to create a gap big enough for me the squeeze though. I grinned wildly, lifting the bars over my head and slipped though the prison I was in. I was free.

Then came the matter of which way to go, or how to avoid any monsters that may come my way. I stood pondering this for a few minutes before I saw a little ray of light shooting though a hole in the cave.

Something about it drew me to peak though the hole, and it amazed me what I saw outside.

I had forgot there was supposed to be an eclipse that week, but I had forgotten what day. I hadn't imagined it to be this amazing. The sun wasn't completely over the moon yet, so half the moon was still a bright blazing silver and the other half was bright blood red, almost like a yin/yang symbol.

I didn't get to look at it for long because I heard footsteps coming my way, along with voices. It sounded like a lot of monsters. I paniced and, in sheer desperation, ran the opposite way of the footsteps.

The longer I ran from the monsters, the more I wondered how large this cave really was. It felt like I was running for hours, hearing the echo of what I hoped were my steps though the narrow ways on the cave. The shadows those green fire lanterns gave off were seriously starting to creep me out.

Finally, I thought I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but boy was I wrong.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the deadly black eyes of Lagneía, holding a lit torch. There was a cruel smirk spread across her red lips. Behind her, I was several other monsters, several different colors and forms. They all held weapons, and none of them were Celestial Bronze.

"And after we were so nice to you, you still try and escape." She chuckled darkly. "Such a foolish little brat."

I stepped back, only to hear the footsteps from before step up behind me. I was surrounded. I whimpered slightly, hands gripping to my side. I remembered the spear blade in my hand.

"G-get away from me!" I yelled, and with trembling hands threw the blade at Lagneía. She gasped as it grazed her stomach, bleeding a drop of black blood from the forming cut.

She growled, eyes growing wide as she quickly pulled out the dagger from her belt and held it.

"You insolent little-!" She never got to finish her sentence.

Percy's point of view

I had no lead as to where the monsters took Mirra, and I wasn't about to waste my time on a while goose chase all around New York. It's times like these that I'm glad I have access to a giant, ten ton Hellhounds who's sence of smell is better than a shark's.

I'd taught her to come when I whistled, and with her shadow traveling ability, she was there in seconds, already attacking me with a fit of slobbery dog kisses.

Despite my mood, I still couldn't help but smile a little. "Alright, alight, nice to see you too girl, but we don't have time to play right now."

"WOOF!" She replied, jumping off of me and sitting down in the snow, wagging her tail like a windmill.

I scratched behind her ear for a few seconds before pointing to the snow, where the little droplets of blood were. "Right, I need you to sniff that and then shadow travel me as close as you can to the source. Can you do that?"

"WOOF!" Mrs. O'Leary cried enthusiastically as she bounded up out of the snow, covering some of the nearby parked cars in the fluffy white blanket.

After taking a good long whiff of the area I pointed to, she turned back to me and bowed her head, a gesture that told be to get on her back and she'd shadow travel me where I needed to go. I did as she wanted.

We suddenly appeared in a clearing somewhere in the forest. The snow wasn't as deep here, and despite it being the middle of winter, the trees were still green.

"Where are we?" I wondered aloud, though Mrs. O'Leary only whimpered in reply. I sighed and patter her nose as she curled up in a large ball to get some rest. When I turned, I saw there was a large mountain, probably half a mile away.

"Huh?" I blinked. Though the trees it was hard to see the exact size, but my guess was it was pretty large. "Stay here girl." I told Mrs. O'Leary as I ran off towards the mountain.

The mountain was mainly just rock, with many different layers which would make it easy to climb. I also noticed footsteps in the thin snow, as if someone had been climbing just recently.

I started climbing.

OoOoOoOo

The mountain was larger than I expected. It was difficult to climb with the slippery snow, and the sleep slope didn't help at all. Finally, after probably two hours of climbing, I finally landed at an entrance to a cave.

It was a normal looking cave from the outside, but the inside screamed monsters, with torches lit with greek fire mounted on the wall, and the muffled sounds of weapons clattering.

With Riptide ready, I bolted inside.

Surprisingly, there were no monsters coming out to attack me immediately, which I found odd as my demigod scent should have attracted them. The corridor of the cave was very narrow, and the heat of the fire shined on my face and caused beads of sweat to roll down my neck.

I heard some sort of commotion up ahead in the deeper part of the cave, sounded like footsteps were gathering in one location. Around the corner was a little brighter, like someone was holding another light source. I got closer to where I was just at the edge of the corner, hidden well enough so they couldn't see me.

But I was able to hear muffled voices.

"Such a foolish little brat." One said, sounding like a woman, though her voice sounded like one you'd here off of a TV commercial.

"G-get away from me!" I knew that voice...

There was a screech, and I gasped, worried that something happened to Mirra. I turned the corner, and was met with the sight of my little sister, standing in fear as a woman held a dagger above her head.

With Riptide tightly gripped, I charged.

Chapter came out longer than I wanted it to be, but I don't think you guys mind that much.