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Tongue Twister - Black Bug's Blood : say it three times fast! :) Please review peeps!

Message to my friend Chelsea: Thanks for your encouraging review! That really touched my heart, cause I've seen so many reviews that shun people for not updating, and I am SUPER thankful that you realize that I have a life. ;) But… I should've updated a long time ago… sorry guys! Thanks again, Chelsea! :)

Annabeth

When I walked into the training arena, my thoughts about the figure seen (or imagined) earlier were dispelled for the moment.

I loved the arena. I loved the smells of the leathers from the training armor that were still in the air from the practicers last night. I loved the morning fog that drifted over the dirt floor. I loved the whinnies and neighing that could be heard from the horses and pegasi in the stables neighboring the arena. I loved being the only one in here, minus the many dummies that were used to train.

I walked into the middle of the arena. I grabbed the hilt of my bronze knife and pulled it free of it's scabbard. I looked at my reflection in it.

After the chain and the painting of my family a long time ago, my blade was probably the most well kept thing I own. It was a new one, not my father's. My father's blade was now in a box under my bed. I was keeping it safe and well polished, but not using it, because I had found another blade.

Remember the secret passageways in Athena's temple that Poseidon helped me to find? Yeah, well, I like to explore those corridors a lot (it's awesome architecture!) I still haven't found the end. But I haven't gone that far down it, because I keep running into rooms. These rooms actually have doors, not paintings that you have to touch a certain spot for it to open. Well, I've seen some paintings that probably conceal rooms, but most of them have just doors. Most of the rooms are completely empty and bare, but every once in a while I come across a room that has something in it.

Like one room, had about twenty crates of greek fire… which is super dangerous when you have that much. I didn't stay there for long, cause I really didn't want to accidentally make one of the crates explode, for it would most likely blow up Athena's temple.

Another room was full of paintings, and they were gorgeous. I only saw a few, cause Poseidon had warned me in my head that Athena was on her way to my room.

You might be wondering a couple things. Like Poseidon. I haven't seen him since the conference, but he still talks to me in my head. Like warnings to make sure I don't get caught when I'm exploring the passageway (nobody that I know of knows it is there, other than Poseidon) or when I thank him for something. There have been a few times when we have a pretty lengthy conversation, but they usually end up as arguments… I guess I still have that side of Athena when I talk to Poseidon. But it's hard not to argue with him. I mean, he is pretty dumb. He knows a lot, but he has "blonde" moments. (A/N no offense to any blondes out there! :)) And he cares nothing about architecture and battle strategy. He just likes to fight. But strategy and wisdom can be super helpful, but he doesn't see that. So that's a frequent disagreement between us.

Anyways, back to the rooms.

After the room full of paintings, there was another room that was concealed by a tapestry of a little girl on the beach. Poseidon told me how to open it, and inside I found a room with a table in the middle. There was four torches on the walls, which left the room a little bit lightened, but it was still pretty dark. The walls and floor were black, which did not help with brightening the room. The room was completely black, the only color was the greek fire torches, which were green. The table was a small roundish table, and completely unadorned.

But smack dad on the middle of the table was a rose. It was under a glass case (A/N just imagine the disney movie Beauty and the Beast. The beast's rose. That's what this table and rose look like) The color of the rose was black. I'm not joking, it was dead black, and it was somehow standing straight up in a small bowl of water, like the water was holding it up, which is impossible.

But then I looked closer and saw cracks in the water, and the water kinda traveled up the stem a little bit. The water was ice. That was how it was staying straight up. But the rose was still alive.

Well, it was alive, but it sure looked like it represented death.

The room itself had an… eerie feeling. Like the room was mourning something. This room was depressing. I all of a sudden felt really sad. I felt like I should be crying. I didn't know why.

I had gotten out of that room pretty fast. But the room was bewitching. The black rose, with ice climbing in swirls up its grey stem, and the black unadorned table that matched the rest of the shady room. I have been in their probably five times. You might say, why would you go into a room that makes you sad and want to cry?

Well, the rose is… horrifyingly beautiful. I loved looking at it, even though it made me get miserable. I'm in the middle of drawing the room with the rose right now. I've been down to the Misery Room (that's what I've started calling it) a lot. I've asked Poseidon what the room was for countless times, but he doesn't answer.

And I know he can hear me. It's like he's ignoring the question.

Anyways, about two years ago, I stumbled upon a room filled with daggers.

No joke, it was stuffed with the blades. You could see the ceiling and the floor, but not the walls, for all the spaces were covered by knives. There wasn't any furniture in the room. Just hooks on the walls that hung the hundreds of daggers.

I walked in and looked around, just admiring the daggers. Most of them were plain, with wooden hilts and metal blades.

Except for one. I noticed one different knife.

The hilt was a black sort of leather, with carvings etched into it. The carvings were intricate swirls and wavy lines that hypnotized you with its grace and elegance.

The scabbard was also black, and appeared to be made out of metal. The scabbard didn't have any carvings, though. All it had was three gems lined at the tip of the scabbard. Each were sea green, and each were gorgeous.

They went up in a line on the bottom and edge. The very bottom one was probably the size of a grape, the next was probably half a grape size, and the next was pearl size.

I had no idea if the gems were real, or if they were of any worth, but they definitely were beautiful with the black metal background, and they also had silver linings around the edge of the jewels.

I was enchanted with the scabbard and the hilt. I grabbed the hilt gingerly, and pulled the knife free of the scabbard. The blade was celestial bronze, and it was polished so nicely that I could easily see my reflection in it. It had an edge that was straight, but did have pricks along the blade.

But then… I noticed that the dents in the edge were only on one side, and they were all the same length apart. So it was meant to be pricked, and it looked kinda cool, with eighth inch pricks up and down the blade, each about a fingernail's width apart.

I loved the blade. So naturally, I took it to use it. I couldn't help myself. When it was in my hand, it felt… perfect. I mean, my father's old dagger that I had trained with was good enough, but it was kinda heavy for me, and the hilt didn't fit my hand very well, because it was made for my father. But this… this felt like an extension of my arm.

I knew I shouldn't use it, and keep using my father's because it was, well, his. But I didn't like using it. I took a risk of it denting or breaking whenever I trained with it, and I didn't want a possession of my deceased father to break. So I could keep it safe, and use this one instead.

I took it to my room and hid it, but I knew it was useless to hide it, cause someone is eventually gonna see it. I don't practice by myself every day, and this blade was definitely going to be my all-time weapon. And I get personal lessons from Athena every week. So she is definitely gonna see it.

But I was a daughter of Athena, so it wasn't hard to find a sensible lie.

It went like this - "That's a beautiful dagger Annabeth. Fascinating. May I hold it?"

I looked at my mother and replied, "Sure mom."

After handing her the dagger, and she holding it and testing it's balance, and looking at the blade, she handed it back and said, "Good balance. Where did you get it?"

I knew what I was gonna say. I had figured out the moment I took it. "Oh, you know when I was walking around town yesterday? Well, I visited Mito, and he showed me this one. Said he had recently made it. I loved it, so I used my birthday drachmas to get it."

Mito was the town weapon seller. He was this really nice and old man. He treated me like a granddaughter, and he absolutely adored me. I loved him like a grandpa, cause he was always so nice, and I could just hang out at his store whenever I wanted to, and he wouldn't care. He was really easy to talk to also. I had been in town yesterday, but it was just to tell Mito that if Athena or anybody comes down here, Mito was to tell them that he did make it.

"I just really need this. Please, Grandpa Mito." He loved it when I called him Grandpa Mito.

He looked at me skeptically and raised an eyebrow, "Why are you sneaking around daggers, and lying about where you go them?"

"I just need it to be- be a surprise!" I reassured him, thinking quickly.

He still looked at me suspiciously, but then he chuckled and replied, "Ah, well, I guess it won' hurt. But I'll be telling yer goddess of war a lie if she asks."

"It'll be all my fault if she figures out. Thanks, Grandpa!" I said.

So thats the story of how I got my dagger. Turns out that Athena never went to ask Mito. Well, that I know of.

Anyways, back to the present time. I grabbed my dagger, tightened my armor straps, then walked over to the first dummy.

I looked at it's clay head sitting atop it's straw body covered by sackcloth.

Quick as a viper, my right arm snaked out and sliced off one of it's arms, then I spun around it, dodging an imaginary sword swing, and ended up behind the dummy, and sliced off it's other arm. I didn't stop my spin and when I slit it's arm off, I kept spinning, and off went his head.

I nodded triumphantly. I walked over to the next dummy, and preceded to cut off both legs, then doing a backflip, landing on my knee with my dagger plunged into the hay chest.

I dissected a few more straw dummies, then I advanced onto the ones that move. They don't really move, they are just attached to poles underneath the ground, and the poles were in cracks that went all over. The moving area consisted of about thirty by thirty feet floor of cracks that were from half a foot to two feet wide. That makes it even harder. Because while the dummies are moving, you have to get them, but also watch out for the several cracks randomly placed around the movement area.

I walked in and flipped the switch. The switch proceeds to alert the ground nymphs whose duties are to move the dummies from underground. They do this by holding the poles attached to the dummies and just running around. They can see me, so they know where to move and when, making it even harder to get these blasted dummies.

I moved onto the first dummy, and swiped at it. As expected, it moved before I could touch it. I chased after it, front flipping and cartwheeling and jumping over cracks. I couldn't catch it. Damn, these nymphs are fast. I decided to use my trickery, and mid chase, I swiveled abruptly, slashing as fast as I could at the one that was next to me, hoping to catch the nymph in charge of that one off guard, thinking I was still going for the other dummy.

Sure enough, I got it. The head of the dummy rolled around on the ground, and eventually fell through the cracks.

I heard a clunk, then a "Ow! Annabeth! That's cheating!" I knew these nymphs pretty well, and they were used to me practicing in the early mornings. I chatted with them a lot. They were actually pretty talkative and really friendly.

"It's not cheating, it's called using your head. Heads are useful things."

"Well, you used your so useful head to get rid of another useful head, so feel guilt, girl," the nymph said sarcastically. I couldn't tell who it was, because I couldn't see the nymph, and they all sound alike, so it's kinda hard to tell.

I chuckled. Another fun day at the arena!

Turning around, I prepared to chase after a dummy, but was stopped.

I felt a pressure in my back. Up high, right around my shoulder blade. My body froze. I attempted to turn around, but pain hit me like one of Apollo's red cattle (trust me, that does not feel good. Don't ever anger one of his cherry bulls.) I gasped and fell to my knees.

My eyesight started blurring. Blinking, I trying to clear them. My eyes started watering, and I felt something warm ooze on my back. Like someone was pouring warm water on my spine.

The nymphs were yelling around me. Is this a prank by them? Why is there so much pain?

I smelled blood. Why did I smell blood? Suddenly, I didn't have the strength to hold myself up. My knees buckled, and I fell forward, but someone caught me.

Right before I blacked out, I saw the girl nymph that had caught me, and she was crying. I saw Athena rushing towards me. I saw many people standing over me. Past them, several men were restraining one man.

The one they were restraining was dressed in all black. And he was holding a crossbow.

Then everything went dark and silent, and my brain teeming with questions was put to rest.

How was it? Please review and tell me! I really need some reviews. I'll update often if I get more reviews… unfortunately, I'm not getting that many reviews.

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