Mari kicked the wall as she walked. "Stupid labyrinth. Stupid Sphinx," she muttered.
She wasn't entirely sure if the labyrinth a sentient or not, but she'd spent the last however many days (halfheartedly) trying not to piss it off just in case. She probably hadn't succeeded, though, since if the labyrinth was sentient it seemed to be peeved by the mere idea of its inhabitants not being dead, and Mari was very much not dead. Yet.
It didn't amount to a whole lot now, anyway. She was lost beyond belief and completely alone.
Wait a minute.
She was completely, entirely alone. Which meant she could say whatever she wanted without putting anyone in danger.
A shit-eating grin spread across Mari's face. "Hey, Labyrinth," Mari whispered. "Fuck youuu."
"Fuck you! Ha! You hear me, you constipated little tunnel of doom?! I hate you! Ha!" Mari ran through the corridor, banging her hands on the walls as she went and shrieking. Even when her hands got red and started stinging, she kept going.
And elated feeling started forming in her chest. Maybe it was out of place, given that she was probably going to die. But she couldn't help it. And elation was much better than crippling fear.
A broken light dangled from above. Given the low ceilings, it was just within reach, so Mari jumped up and clutched the wire, swinging like a toddler in a playground. "I'm messing up your stupid light, labyrinth! How do you like that?!" she yelled.
The cord snapped in half, crashing Mari to the floor in a mess of limbs and wire.
Mari groaned, untangling herself and kicking the debris away. She rubbed her back and winced. It wasn't bad enough to bruise and the pain was already starting to fade. Really, she'd only been swinging about twenty centimetres from the ground anyway. Didn't hurt. She stretched her arms and gasped. Okay, so it hurt a bit.
Mari looked up. The plaster had split to reveal very old-looking stone, with rows and rows of tally marks scratched along it. She wondered who had made them, and how they'd been covered up. Didn't matter, anyway. Whoever it was, they were probably long dead by now.
"Hey, Circe. Fuck you too. You twisted wanker." Mari whispered this into the void. She didn't insult any other gods. That was as far as she was willing to go. She hoped it gave Circe a headache or something.
Sighing, she got up and trudged along the corridor. Her previous energy had disappeared, and now she just felt tired. Tired and scared.
"Where are you, Clarisse?" she asked aloud. Nobody answered. Unsurprising. Clarisse was probably on the other side of the country by now. That was if she even managed to beat the Sphinx.
Okay. That did it. Mari needed to get the Hades out of the labyrinth, now. She still had a golden drachma left. She could easily IM Clarisse or Chiron when she got out, but IMing didn't seem to work in the labyrinth. Then she could form some kind of plan. Either wait until both her and Clarisse were out, then meet up and try again. Or get Chiron to send Argus to pick her up and hope a monster didn't kill her whilst she was waiting.
But to do all that, she needed to find a bloody door.
She walked and walked, for what seemed like days. That might have just been her ADHD, though. When she was unhappy, ten minutes could feel like an hour. She was considering the possibility that the labyrinth was sending her in circles until she either starved to death or died of boredom, when she stopped in her tracks and stared in disbelief.
A scruffy creature was snuffling in the middle of the passageway.
"Are you some kind of raccoon?" Mari asked.
The thing sniffed at her, as if she'd hurt its pride. To be fair, she'd never heard to any raccoon-esque monsters before.
"Did you accidentally wander through a door or something?" Mari asked. The (raccoon?) cocked its head to the right and stared at her.
Mari sighed. "Here." She pulled out a packet of dried fruit and opened it with her teeth, spilling a few strawberry and banana pieces onto her hand. She held it out, smiling. "Sorry if you can't eat this stuff. I don't know how raccoons work."
The raccoon glared at her and scuttled towards her hand, taking the food before she could change her mind. Mari hoped she didn't accidentally poison it. Raccoon or not, it was the first friend she'd met in the labyrinth for what had to be hours. If it was going to be her friend, though, she should probably name it. Hm. What name suited a raccoon?
The raccoon finished eating, and stared at her for a few minutes.
"Hey, what do you think of the name Raisin? Do you feel like a Raisin?" Mari asked it.
Apparently it hated the name Raisin, because it hissed at her and ran away.
"No, wait! I'm sorry! Please don't leave me alone in here! I'll think of a better name than Raisin!" Mari called, sprinting after it. For a small animal, it was fast.
It turned the corner and Mari's heart sank. Knowing the labyrinth, when she turned the same corner it would be completely gone. She panted, expecting to find nothing, only to stop in her tracks. Raisin was curled up with a bored expression, almost like it was... waiting for her?
As soon as Raisin saw her, it hissed again and scampered away. Mari followed behind it, scowling.
"Can you please slow down? I'm not as fast as you!" she called. Raisin sped up and Mari considered running in the other direction. Then she remembered that if she did, she'd be alone again, so she huffed, following after it. She was not giving Raisin any more of her favourite strawberry pieces, though. It could have the banana ones only.
Eventually, Raisin skidded to a stop and Mari had to catch herself to avoid kicking it into the wall by momentum alone. "Um, can you not-" Mari began, but stopped when she realised why Raisin had stopped there.
A girl was lying on the floor with her eyes closed. Her head lolled to the side. There was a red smear in her hair and her breathing was erratic. Despite that, she was really pretty. Like, if Mari pretended that the blood wasn't there, she looked a bit like a character from one of Mari's childhood princess books. If those princesses regularly wore dirty sweatpants and jumpers that had holes in them.
"Did you lead me here on purpose, Raisin?" Mari asked, crouching down beside the girl. Raisin hissed at her.
The girl was wearing some kind of inky black gloves. Mari needed to turn her over, to look more carefully at her injured head. Foreign germs would not do her any favours, especially since it was probably already five kinds of infected. Mari began to reach for the girl's limp hand to gain some purchase on the unconscious body, but an instinct made Mari yank her own hand back.
Mari frowned. It was as if she'd been about to touch an open flame. She tried again, but again before she'd even reached halfway, her chest started thundering and she had to stop before she threw up all over the sleeping girl.
Mari fished out the Tupperware box of nectar bottles from her bag, and unscrewed one. She brought it to the girl's lips, when a memory flashed through her head.
"No, Mari, you absolutely can't try and feed people solids or liquids whilst they're unconscious!"
"Why?"
"Because they could choke! Oh my gods, I am so glad you asked me to teach you this stuff before we let you loose on the Infirmary on your own..."
"I'm not that bad, Will."
"You didn't even know what the recovery position was when you first got here."
"I knew what Syme amputations were, though."
"In what common situation would a Syme amputation be helpful?"
Mari slapped a hand to her forehead at her stupidity and removed the bottle, racking her brains. As gently as she could, Mari brushed the girl's hair out of the way, searching for the wound. The girl whimpered, and Mari's fingers froze. "Hey, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to help." At least the girl was conscious... well, partly conscious. Probably not conscious enough to drink anything. Wait, was Mari supposed to keep her talking? She was definitely supposed to keep her talking.
"What's your name?" Mari asked. There was no response.
Mentally cursing, Mari continued brushing the girl's hair aside until she finally found it: some kind of puncture wound, about as deep as her thumbnail and still bleeding. Mari frowned, digging through her bag one last time and pulling out a make-up sponge. If he were there, Will would probably be yelling at her for what she was about to do. But Will wasn't there, and Mari was improvising.
As if it were nail polish remover, Mari covered the opening of the nectar mini-bottle with the sponge, and tipped it. She dabbed at the wound with the nectar-soaked sponge.
The girl twitched, gasping in pain and Mari shut her eyes for a second. "I'm sorry! I swear I'm being as gentle as I can!" she whispered. The girl still didn't respond. Something sharp scratched at her leg lightly, and she startled. Raisin growled at her, paw raised over Mari's leg as if threatening to strike again. Honestly, Mari had forgotten it was there. The raccoon glared at her, nudging the unconscious girl with its nose.
Mari dabbed at the wound again, before removing the sponge. Relief flooded through her veins like a placebo drug as the wound started to close on its own. Slowly. Mari tipped more nectar onto the sponge and pressed it to the cut. She did this until the bottle barely had half a sip left. The cut was now only three millimetres deep. The way nectar worked, she wouldn't even have to clean it. But, it was still open. That was a problem. Mari dug through her first-aid kit until she found a needle and some cord, but she didn't know how to suture. Okay, sue her, she'd only been allowed in the infirmary on her own a week before the rest of her siblings left and they weren't exactly around to teach her anything during most of the year.
"Uh..." she pulled out a tube of medical glue, frowning. She had no idea if it would work, but it would have to do. Mari sent a quick prayer up to her Dad (not that she expected him to actually answer) and pressed the cut into a line with her thumb and forefinger. The girl whimpered again, and Mari managed to ignore it. She didn't know how to glue a cut together, either, but surely fucking that up wouldn't be as bad as fucking up a suture. Right?
The glue only took a few minutes to dry. Mari pinched it the whole way, until she was sure it was done. Then she added a few thin, see-through plaster strips. She didn't know what they were called but she'd seen Austin use them on a Son of Ares once, so she knew they went with the medical glue.
Mari was nearly done when the girl shifted and absently nuzzled her face into Mari's left knee.
"Oh!" Mari felt her face heat up. Her stomach did a flip flop and she was pretty sure that any ability to form coherent thoughts deserted her for a full minute. The girl's eyes fluttered and Mari didn't dare move.
"Uh..." Mari didn't know what to do. Was she meant to move the girl back? She still needed to apply the last two plasters, not to mention the fact that she hadn't checked for other injuries...
"Can you hear me?" Mari asked. The girl groaned. Mari wasn't sure if that was a yes or a coincidence, but she chalked it up to a yes in the spirit of optimism anyway. "What's your name?" she asked. Maybe that last question had been a little too ambitious
The girl managed a weak, "Ade," then slurred into unintelligible mumbling.
Raisin frowned and snuggled up against the girl, making some kind of happy animal sound. It sounded like purring, but that would mean...
"Wait, you're not a raccoon?" Mari asked.
The girl made a kind of confused squeak and Raisin glared at Mari.
Then, the worst thing happened. Raisin farted in Mari's face.
"Gah! What the bloody fuck?!" Mari flapped her hands away to try and get rid of the smell, almost sending the 'Ade' girl toppling out of her lap in the process. The air around her smelled like rotten scampi and car fuel, all rolled into one. Mari gagged but that made her breathe more of it in and she thought she was going to be sick...
"Are- hack -you a skunk?!" Mari gasped, covering her and with her mouth.
The thing hissed at her and raised its bum, as if it was going to fart again...
"No! No, wait! I know you're not a skunk! Please, I was just kidding!" Mari begged.
The... thing looked at her, as if it was expecting something.
Oh gods, Mari thought through the smell, it wants me to guess what kind of animal it is...
"Uh... you hissed! That means you're a cat, right?" Mari asked, praying to the gods that she was on the right track. Please, please, I don't want the smell to get worse...
Raisin raised one eyebrow, prompting her to continue.
"Uh, are you a tabby cat?" Mari racked her brains for cat breeds but came up blank. Raisin glared at her and lifted her right leg to go again.
"No, no, please, I know what you are! You're a, um, you're... you're a-"
"Polecat."
Mari jumped at the voice coming from her knee. Raisin startled too, before purring and curling up against the 'Ade' girl's side. She didn't stroke it.
"W-what?" Mari asked.
The girl looked up at her, eyes narrowed. "Gale's a Polecat."
"Oh." Raisin -or Gale- preened at the mention of their name. "Thanks," Mari smiled down at the girl. "Are you okay?"
"Get away from me. Right now," the girl spat.
Mari's mouth fell open. "I'm not trying to hurt you, I swear. I was just-"
"I don't care! Back away!" The girl dug both of her hands under her shirt and glared up at Mari, like she was daring her to come any closer. Mari gulped. For someone with such pretty eyes, she was intimidating.
Gently, Mari lowered the girl's head to the ground and rested it on her backpack as a pillow, then scooted away. The girl's eyes followed her as she went, still glaring. "Is this an okay distance?" Mari asked.
The girl's eyes flicked between Mari and the backpack. She nodded, then shuffled into a sitting position. Mari wondered if that was the best idea, so soon after an injury. She didn't seem very stable, and her skin had seemed kind of clammy.
"Are you sure you don't wanna lie back down?" Mari asked her.
"Yes. Why are you here? What do you want from me?" The girl tucked her knees into her chest, which made her seem a lot less intimidating than she probably intended. "Answer me!" the girl snapped.
"Okay, okay! I, uh, Raisi- Gale led me here. You were hurt, I think that's why." Mari explained.
The girl frowned. "Why would you be able to help?"
"My brother's a medic. I'm not nearly as good as he is, but he taught me a few things. He gets it from our father. At least, he says he does. I think he's pretty talented all on his own." Mari tried not to crack up as she remembered Will chasing after Travis (or Connor) Stoll with a stack of bandages in one hand and a broken thermometer in the other. She still wasn't sure if he'd been trying to wrap the headwound or attempting to strangle Connor (or Travis?) with the bandage. Potentially both.
"Your father?" the girl asked.
"Apollo. Who's your godly..." Mari trailed off as she noticed how the girl was looking at her. Pure horror caked her features, and she scooted back a little. "...parent?"
The girl swallowed. "Hekate. What's your brother's name?"
"Will. Why?"
The girl's shoulder's slumped. "You didn't answer my other question."
"Oh." Mari nodded. "I guess I didn't. What... uh, what was it again?"
"What do you want from me?!" The girl glared at Mari like she was a chimera.
Mari scratched the back of her neck, trying to distract herself from the feeling of blood rushing to her face. Why was she so nervous? "Um... nothing, really?"
The girl's mouth fell into a silent O. "What?"
Mari gulped. "Well, I mean, I would be really happy if you, uh, if you stayed with me whilst I'm in the labyrinth, because, let's be honest, it's a bit scary here on your own, but, um, only if you want to, obviously..."
The girl swallowed and looked at her hands again. "I don't want to." Her voice was hoarse. Mari followed her line of sight, and frowned. Her hands were shaking? Was she scared (that would actually be very understandable), or was she hurt?
"I can look at those, if you want." Mari offered. She thought that maybe the girl would at least accept help, but that seemed to make her even more closed off. She pressed back into the wall, even though Mari hadn't even made a move to shorten the space between them, and held her hands behind her back. "Don't touch them," she seethed.
Mari didn't know why the girl's distaste bothered her so much. "I won't. Not if you don't want me to... but I think you really should let me at least check them." At these words the girl tensed up like a statue. "But I'm not going to if you don't want me to! I swear! Uh, I'm Mari, by the way." Mari shuffled a tiny bit closer, only to stop in her tracks when Gale hissed at her, hackles raised.
"Gale!" the girl snapped. The polecat in question turned around and was met with a chilling glare. Mari was glad she wasn't on the receiving end of that. It was a lot harsher than the girl's previous glares had been... "Stop hissing," the girl whispered.
"Uh, I can hear that," Mari told her. The girl looked startled, which didn't make a lot of sense. She wouldn't she be used to demigod hearing? Unless... "You don't know much about demigods, do you?"
The girl frowned. "How would you know that?"
"I live at camp," Mari explained, "You, um, do you know where camp is?"
The girl nodded. "Yeah. I was there for a few months."
"Really? Are you trying to get back?"
"Absolutely not." The girl clenched her jaw and looked away. Gale whined and curled around the girl's legs, glaring at Mari from behind her left foot. Mari's heart fell.
"Oh. Okay. Well, when you live with demigods for so long you kind of get used to demigod hearing. What's your name?"
"Adela."
"That's really pretty." Mari smiled at Adela, who's cheeks went slightly red.
"What do you want?" Adela asked.
"Huh?"
Adela scoffed. "You healed me, and you're still here. What do you want?"
Mari's stomach didn't feel like fizzy water anymore. "I don't want anything. LIke I said, I just... it's safer to travel the labyrinth if you're not alone."
Adela stared at Mari. Did she have Gale's gross fur in her hair or something? She ran her hands through it... no, her hair was fine. Well, actually it was disgusting because it hadn't been washed in... too long. Way too long. But it didn't have any gross Gale hair in it.
"How did you heal my headwound?" Adela asked.
"I used nectar and bandages. How'd you get the wound?" Mari asked. It had looked pretty deep, but there wouldn't be any foreign objects in it, since monsters dissolved into golden dust when they died...
"I was cornered by one of my sisters," Adela said.
"Uh... did I hear that right?" Mari asked.
Adela sighed. "Hekate is my Mom, remember? She created the empousai. They're my sisters. Terri found me. I killed her, but not before she got to me, obviously." Adela gestured to her head.
"Does it hurt?" Mari asked.
Adela shook her head. "No. Whatever you did, you did it well," She paused for a second, before sighing. "Thanks."
Mari grinned. "No problem! If you want me to look at your hand, I can still-"
"Absolutely not."
Mari pursed her lips. "Okay. Offer still stands."
"It doesn't matter." Adela frowned at Mari. "Why are you here?"
"I'm trying to find my friend. Her name is Clarisse. We got separated," Mari explained.
Adela's jaw clenched. "That's not going to work. She'd probably dead. Don't chase after a lost cause."
Mari's stomach clenched. No, that wasn't true. It couldn't be. Clarisse could handle herself, she was smart- she was strong enough to survive on her own in the labyrinth. Adela just didn't know that. "We haven't been separated for that long. Time works differently in the labyrinth, but it's only been an hour. She's alive."
Adela scoffed. "That's stupid. You have no idea if she's alright or not. Just cut your losses and get out of this place. Like I'm trying to do."
Mari frowned. "How'd you get here, anyway? Other than the Empousa, I mean."
Adela's eyes darkened. "I was being chased."
"By who?"
Adela paused. When she spoke again, her voice was tight. "If you don't already know, then it's none of your business."
Mari frowned. "But-"
"Leave it!" Adela snapped.
"Okay, okay. Sorry. Touchy subject. I get it, I've been there. But if you don't have anywhere else to go, you could always come back to camp."
Adela scooted further away. "I don't want to go back to camp."
Mari faltered. "Oh, gods... you're with Luke, aren't you?!"
Adela's expression contorted into rage. "I am not on that pathetic cockroach! Or his-" she glanced sideways at Mari, then went quiet.
Mari burst out laughing.
Maybe it was inappropriate, for the situation. Scratch that, it was definitely inappropriate for the situation. If the way Adela was staring at her was any indication. But she couldn't help it! Pathetic cockroach was probably the greatest insult she'd ever heard. And she'd heard a lot of insults.
"I like you," Mari told Adela. "I wasn't sure if I did, but I do. Calling someone a pathetic cockroach is... awesome!"
Adela stared at her. "You are insane."
Mari shook her head. "No, no, I'm sorry! I just appreciate humour, I'm sorry! I believe you, by the way. About not being allied with Luke."
"Well..." Adela looked unsure of what to say. "Good. Great. Cool. It doesn't matter, because I'm leaving!"
Mari's heart sank. "What, now?"
Adela froze. "I...no. I'm not going anywhere until my head stops hurting. You do what you want."
Mari gasped. "Why didn't you tell me your head was hurting? I would have shut up and let you nap!"
"What, you mean that was all it would have taken?" Adela snarked.
Mari scowled and play-kicked her foot. "Not what I meant." Adela opened her mouth to say something else, but Mari wagged her finger in her face. "NO! Nope. You have a headache, ergo, you're going to take a nap. Now."
Adela nodded. "Sleep sounds good. I mean, I know I just woke up a few minutes ago, but, still..."
Mari smiled. She wasn't sure if sleeping was a good idea after a headwound, but she couldn't think of a reason why it wouldn't be. She'd ask one of her siblings about it when this was all over, hopefully. Adela curled up in the corner, her arms curled into her sides, and brought her knees to her chest, so that she was in foetal position.
"Goodnight." Mari told her.
"It probably isn't night. Now be quiet, I'm trying to sleep." Adela closed her eyes.
"You can borrow my sleeping bag, if you want," Mari offered.
Adela shook her head. "No. I'm fine. Don't get comfortable, we are not travelling together. And I'm not touching anything of yours."
Mari tried not to feel offended. She actually kept very good hygiene.
Adela didn't breathe very loudly. Maybe it was from so long living outside of camp. If she was on the run like she said, she'd probably need to be quiet and stealthy. But Mari had demigod healing, so if she listened closely, then she could hear quiet, shallow breaths that matched the rise and fall of Adela's chest. Eventually, those near-silent breaths slowed down, and only then did Mari realise she'd been matching her breaths to Adela's...
Mari sighed, blinking and slapping her cheek. She couldn't fall asleep. Adela was asleep, and if two demigods were in a pair and one of them was asleep, the other had to stay awake in case a monster got the munchies and came looking for a snack. It was a kind of unspoken code. She dug through her bag and found a little pale yellow notepad at the bottom. She pulled it out and flipped through, frowning when she was that there were no lines on the page. That would not be easy for a dyslexic to write on. She tried to find something positive - at least it wasn't bright white paper, which would have made it doubly hard for her, and the lack of lines means she could draw instead. Sighing, Mari fished a pencil from the depths of the backpack. She would doodle to keep herself awake.
She let her mind go on a little jog as she sketched. She wondered what the rest of her siblings were doing at that moment. Lee was probably busy with school, Michael too. She wondered if Will was still having trouble with that girl who thought he killed her dog. She hoped not. Austin was probably doing something stupidly impressive with his saxophone. Mari was willing to bet that Austin would make it big someday. If she was still alive by then, he better give her free tickets. Sean... she should talk to Sean more. He may be a lot younger than her, but he was still her brother. Yeah, she would talk to Sean more...
She glanced down at her notebook, and dropped the pen.
Sometimes, when she was doodling, she got lost in her own thoughts and her hand just... moved on its own, across the paper. She'd look at what she was drawing and see random sketches of whatever she was thinking about that day. They usually weren't very good. The shading was always too light, or she got the proportions of the nose wrong. It was always the nose, too. Usually, hours would pass whilst she was drawing, and she was pretty sure that had happened again. She hadn't made a silly sketch of a puppy wearing sunglasses or something, though. She'd drawn Adela.
Oh, this was embarrassing. What kind of person sketched someone else whilst they were asleep? Not a good one, that was for sure.
I should burn it, Mari thought, looking around for a lighter, or something else she could use. Maybe she could find two rocks to smash together or something? She was pretty sure that was how making a fire in the wild was supposed to work. Or was it dry leaves and a rock? It didn't matter anyway, because she didn't have any rocks or dry leaves and she didn't know how to make a fire with anything else she had. Maybe she could leave it behind? No, that would be littering. People who littered were the worst, even if they were only doing it in an evil death maze. Not to mention the fact that maybe starting a fire in a labyrinth corridor wasn't the best idea she'd ever had.
So, she'd have to keep the sketch, then. At least until she found somewhere else to put it. Maybe if they found an exit- Oh, right. Adela didn't want to go with her.
Speaking of, the girl rolled over in her sleep, muttering something about 'Murder' and 'Ray', which made Mari very sceptical of any aquarium she'd ever been to. She was about to glance away, when the girl's entire left arm seized up and she gasped.
Maybe it was because for Mari, the sun didn't gently rise, it yanked itself into the sky and it took Mari's unconsciousness with it. She was a pretty deep sleeper, unless her instincts were playing up. So she didn't really spend an extended amount of time watching other people sleep. It had never occurred to her that sleep would make people so open with their facial expressions, though. And Adela looked scared. The type of scared that Mari was pretty sure she'd never let show if she were awake.
She didn't know if she woke up Adela because she didn't want her to have to sleep through a nightmare, or because she felt like she was intruding, watching like this. But Mari lightly tapped the girl's left foot with her own, and Adela shot up, gasping.
"N-!" She very quickly stopped herself from whatever she was going to say, and glared at Mari.
"Good morning," Mari told her.
"It's probably not morning."
"Gods, there's just no pleasing you, is there?" Mari joked.
Adela didn't seem to find it funny. She shuffled into a standing position, and looked down at Mari with narrow eyes. "I'm leaving now. Good luck with your friend."
Mari's stomach clenched. "N-no, please, wait!"
Adela stopped, with her bag half-slung over her shoulder and a cold look on her face. "What?!"
"I don't know what I did, but I- I feel like I've pissed you off. And I still would like it if you-"
"I'm not staying anywhere near you. Get over it." Adela spun on her heel, her gloved hands clenched, and-
And another, older-looking hand burst through the wall, sending plaster flying everywhere. Mari darted a safe distance away, but Adela was already closer to the hand, so she couldn't get far enough away in time. It caught the tips of her dark hair, yanking her back through - oh gods, that was a fake wall, had whatever the hand belonged to been spying on them?! - the wall and out of sight.
Mari paused for a split second.
What the actual bloody fuck?!
Then, she pressed the button on Drys and barrelled through the Adela-sized hole in the wall.