Studying for these mocks is killing me, but I really enjoyed writing this chapter.

Chris' pov:

Now, running into a metal maze filled with dastardly creatures, and booby traps probably doesn't figure all that high on your 'to do list', to be honest it's not that high up on mine either, so I obviously didn't want to wake up.

"Chris, get up. We're not going to do this this morning."

"Go away Nick, I have some serious sleeping to do." I mumbled softly to my older brother.

"You have ten seconds." He laughed as he started counting down "1, 2, skip a few, 10. NOW GET UP." With a final laugh, my steroid pumped brother grabbed my ankles at the same time as my hands gripped the bed posts. Being stubborn Ares spawn neither of us let go. I clung on desperately, until Nick, who apparently just discovered that he does in fact have a lump of grey matter in his thick skull, let go and I fell to the floor with a thump.

"I hate you, Austin-Nicholas." I sneered.

"Get dressed, idiot."

I sighed as I got up off my sore butt and dressed quickly, before sprinting to the breakfast table. I had just enough time to gulp down a waffle before Chiron announced that the participants should follow him.

The maze was gigantic, made of huge celestial bronze bushes, which met at the top to form a roof. It had ten entrances, one for each of the remaining pairs. Leo and I were led to one of the entrances at the same time as everyone else was led to theirs.

"Okay, whatta we do now?" I asked Leo uncertainly, peering into the gloom of the maze.

"Um, I heard that if you keep your left hand on the left hand, you will eventually reach the center." He said hopefully as we entered the maze. Instantly the metal plants grew to close the entrance, at the
same time as an eerie dim light filled the corridors. Just Brilliant.

I carefully placed my left hand on the wall, as my right hand entwined with Leo's. Just so we couldn't get separated, not for any other reasons.

Very cautiously we stepped forward, and surprisingly, nothing happened, so we took another. Gaining confidence, we began to shuffle slowly down the gloomy corridor, my left hand pressed tightly against the wall.

We had perhaps gone a grand total of fifteen glorious feet when I stepped on something, and golden fibres began to grow around my feet, busily transforming my huge boots into gold statues.

With a high pitched squeak, I scrabbled at Leo's back in a desperate attempt to stop myself from falling over. With a degree of intelligence which I did not think he possessed, Leo quickly yanked my feet from the loose shoes, leaving me in socked feet. The tendrils then tried to attack him, but shied away at the last moment. Parental favoritism much?

We soon learned that anything metal which I touched, including the walls and floor, could and would attack me without hesitation, but wouldn't dare touch my partner. It was really starting to piss me off.
We had gone perhaps 100 feet, and I had already been attacked a grand total of eleven times. I mean, I'm not that repulsive am I?

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous." cried Leo exasperatedly as he did his best to pull me from the wall whose branches had wrapped themselves firmly around my waist, and were currently trying to crush my hip bones.

"You don't say?" I gasped out as Leo's hands left mine, and moved towards the branches. The second his hands touched the metal plant the branches melted away. "Damn racist plants." I spat. "Now what the hell are we gonna do, I basically can't touch anything." I whined.'

"I could carry you." he said uncertainly, making it sound more like a question than a statement.

I raised my eye skeptically at his lanky frame. "I guess we could try." I said shrugging.

Slowly, Leo got down on his knees, and I carefully got onto his back, piggy-back style. Surprisingly, he got to his feet fairly easily, and could even walk without stumbling; I guess forgery does help build muscles.

We progressed fairly quickly down the corridors from that point on. Nothing attacked us, and I was pretty sure that the tunnels were leading Leo to the center. Hephaestus is such a cheat!

After a few stumbles we arrived in the center of the maze. Right in the middle stood a simple table, equipped with eight white scrolls. Leo set me down on the ground and I, in an attempt to save face, strode purposefully towards the table, my partner trailing behind me.

"We're first." I observed as he picked one of them up.

"Yup." He shrugged.

"I guess we should go, before another inanimate object decides that it would like nothing better than to rip my guts out." I quipped, laughing nervously.

"Do you hear that?" Leo asked, curiously.

"What?"

"That hissing noise."

"You're imagining things." I said, thumping his back before turning around "on second thoughts…"

"What?" queried Leo, twisting the scroll between his hands as he too turned around.

Right there in front of us hissed a huge snake, with a head at both ends.

"Run!" I screamed, grabbing his hand. For once, Leo didn't need to be told twice.

We sprinted down corridors, him clutching onto the scroll, I trying desperately to avoid the random objects that had apparently made it their life goal to drag me to Tartarus.

We made it out surprisingly quickly, I suppose the godly endorphins gave us excellent maze skills as well as extra energy. As we burst through the door and into the glorious, glorious sun, we managed to run into each other, and both flew to the ground in a heap.

With our bodies covered in scratches, and our hands and faces now covered in dirt, we looked every bit the conquering heroes. Yeah, gotta love the sarcasm.

Sorry, that chapter wasn't that good. Hopefully I'll update tomorrow.