XXXVII

Annabeth

(A/N: Never did I ever think my fan fiction would become this popular. Thank you to everyone who had read it, and also, please read and review! Means a lot. Oh, and please tell me who your favourite character in the series is in the comments. Mine as of now is Frank. So, anyways, enjoy!)

Annabeth had a sneaky suspicion that they probably weren't going to get out of this alive. But nonetheless, she and Percy leaped into battle.

The nest of flying snakes (English is sometimes weird like that) was probably a hundred strong, and they probably all were venomous.

"Percy, be careful!" she yelled. She pulled out her dagger and faced the serpents head-on. She leaped into battle.

Slashing horde after horde of snakes, she felt monster dust rain down in torrents. Dodging their venomous fangs was hard enough, but having to concentrate amidst all the flapping wings was insanely hard, and adding the fact that they had to actually slice them apart didn't make it much easier. Of course, it didn't help that there were probably well over a hundred of them. They formed a giant, thick, black cloud of scales and wings, sending up wave after wave of dust.

The Ophies Pteretoi slowly gained on them. Annabeth was now forced to drop her offense and go on all-out defense, trying not to get bitten. She ducked, weaved, desperately trying to get away. Although they were only as long as an arm and not exactly the most responsive of monsters, their sheer numbers easily allowed them to outclass Percy and Annabeth.

She finally was out, but a group of them followed her. She cursed and once again, had to blindly swing her sword around her. They were so small, she realized, that it was really hard to hit one of them. They swarmed her once again.

Suddenly, the ground rumbled underneath her. The dry, parched ground turned a dark hue, and water slowly seeped out of the Earth.

Percy. He was doing this.

Slowly the water pooled, and started to form ponds. Annabeth kept fighting, trying to keep them at bay until the very end.

Suddenly, the ground exploded in a shower of droplets.

The water engulfed her, taking the Ophies Pteretoi along. She was in a giant bubble of water, not very surprised that she was completely dry. The serpents' wings were too weighed down to be able to fly off, and they suffocated, exploding into little dust particles. Percy was in the bubble too, controlling it from the inside. Once all the serpents had been killed, he released the water, sending it splashing down on the ground. Annabeth was now soaking wet, and Percy was completely dry. He simply waved his hand, and she dried off.

"Well, that was easy enough." He muttered. "Let's get back to Chronos."

"And how do you propose to do that?" Annabeth asked. Just as she said that, Chronos appeared in front of them.

"Good job." He said in a bored voice, like he couldn't care less that they had managed to beat his challenge. "I was so hoping that I would be able to get into those fields. Anyways, you still have two challenges left. Hmm, what to give, what to give…" he stroked his chin for a bit, then snapped his fingers. "I'll be sending you to Pakistan in a bit. For what, you might ask?"

"Yeah." Percy said. "For what? To fight the war?"

"Percy, that's Afghanistan." Annabeth sighed. Boys-so clueless.

"Anyways, the reason I am sending you there is because I want you to get rid of a giant worm that has been lurking in the Indus River for millennia. It is ruining everything! Go and kill this beast for me, and then I'll give you your final task." He rubbed his hands together, excited. "We're going to have so much fun!"

"Yeah." Annabeth muttered. "We so are."

"All right!" he said, grinning from ear to ear. "This worm is about a hundred meters long. You can't miss it- it's grown so much since I last saw it! Well, have fun!" he waved his hand, and off they went.

Whatever Chronos was doing to speed them to Pakistan, it wasn't good for Annabeth's stomach. After only having done the exact same thing fifteen minutes ago, she was not feeling so hot after it. She immediately threw up her lunch.

"Where are we?" she muttered to herself. She looked around, and saw that Chronos had spirited them away next to a large city. They were on a road right next to a river-presumably the Indus. Behind them was a few sparsely scattered, generic, grey- tiled houses.

"Well," Percy said, "Perhaps we should go search for worms."

The midday sun was brutal. Scanning the river, which was brown, rushing, and chock-full of sludge, Annabeth couldn't see a thing. Pretty soon, they were drenched in sweat. After nearly an hour, nothing had risen up from the river. They sat down underneath a tree, out of the way of the midday sun. Cars occasionally passed them on the road behind them.

"You'd think finding a giant worm would be easier to find." Percy muttered."

"Well, the Indus is pretty long. It wouldn't be a walk in the park to find it." She replied.

"Well, Chronus probably put us on the complete wrong end. The douche." He muttered.

Suddenly Annabeth remembered something kind of important. "Hey, Percy." She whispered, tapping him on the shoulder. "I only kind of just remembered this, but I think the reason why we haven't seen it yet is because it only comes out at night."

"Really?" Percy groaned. "So the last hour- that was all worthless! We spent sixty minutes getting absolutely nowhere!"

"Well, at least we figured it out." Annabeth said. "Come on, let's get something to eat." She pulled out her phone, opened the Olympus currency app, and specified for rupees, and from the screen, thousand dollar notes peeled off and floated into her hand. Percy stared at her in awe.

She waved the notes in his face. "Come on."

They went into the nearest restaurant they could find. The food was slightly spicy, but still pretty good. After that, they wandered around the city, waiting for night to come, wandering into shops and checking out clothes. They both bought new clothes, because theirs were pretty dirty and sweaty. They rented a hotel room and quickly washed themselves down.

At 7.00 pm, they went out of the hotel and walked to the riverfront. As soon as they got there, a giant shadow leaped out of the water.

"That's the worm, all right." Percy muttered. "If I don't come back after five minutes, start panicking."

He jumped right into the river.

Annabeth knew that it was okay. It was Percy, after all. He knew how to take care of himself.

But the minutes ticked by. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Still no sign of him.

She forced herself no to panic. It couldn't be that bad, could it?

Suddenly, right in front of her, the worm popped straight out of the water. Percy was being flung straight into the air.

It was completely white, and its slimy skin glistened in the moonlight. Its two eyes were on the sides of its face, and its mouth was a giant circle, covered in teeth from every angle possible.

Annabeth stood, mouth gaping, as Percy desperately tried to escape. But no such luck. He fell straight into the mouth, and it swallowed him whole.

She shuddered as the worm looked straight at her.

"Oh, no." she muttered. "Oh, no you don't."

She tried to run away, but the worm was too fast. In a flash, its mouth was right on top of her, and her world turned black as she tumbled down its throat.