It was still light when we got into the woods, but the shadows from the trees made it feel like midnight. It was cold, too, even in summer, it didn't bother me much, I always seemed warmer than everyone around me. But Rah shivered, he readjusted his amour. 

"Shoulda wore sleeves." I teased quietly. 

"Aren't you cold?" 

"Nah. I'm always hot." 

He snorted in amusement and raised an eyebrow. 

"Ha ha. Not what I meant, but it's true too." I smirked back and tossed my hair over my shoulder and sauntered forwards. He scoffed, but followed. I could hear the sounds of other pairs getting further and further away. Even in the dark forest we found tracks almost immediately-scuttling marks made by something with a lot of legs. We began to follow the trail. We jumped a creek and heard some twigs snapping nearby. We crouched behind a tree, but it was only the Stoll brothers tripping through the woods and cursing. Their dad was the god of thieves, but they were about as stealthy as buffaloes. Once the Stolls had passed, we forged deeper into the west woods where the monsters were wilder.

"So...uh Raph..?" I finally stammered. 

He just hummed. 

I ran a hand through my hair and tried to figure out how to word my problem. 

"Forget how to talk Sunshine?" 

"No." I snapped. I groaned. "Fine, the prophesy I was given. I need two people, the Healer, Will. I talked to him this morning. He's in. Reluctantly but he's in. The last person, The son of War...will you come on the quest?" 

He stopped walking and turned to look at me. The setting sun that trickled through the tree tops made his dark eyes almost sparkle and it cast shadows over his face. He folded his huge bare arms over his chest plate. "Why me?" He asked.

"Well...that's the other thing."

He was quiet, his face impassive and stone. With the shadows over his face, he looked a little scary, the intense stare, that kept me in place, the muscle in his jaw was clenching. 

"I know about the Labyrinth, I know Chiron sent you and Clarisse into the depths for a bit of scouting. It fits. The next line talks about twists and turns. We need to go into the labyrinth. And I need you." 

His eyes lit up in amusement and I knew right away I said the wrong words. I growled in frustrating again. I swallowed my irritation with his snarky arrogance. 

"You need me Sunshine?" 

"On the quest. I hardly know you. But will you accept?" 

A branch snapped behind us in the woods. Dry leaves rustled. Something large was moving in the trees, just beyond us, on the other side of the row of bushes.

"That's not the Stoll brothers," Raph whispered. He grabbed my arm and yanked me closer to himself, and then behind him. He pulled out his spear and pulled the shield off his back and I yanked my pendent off my necklace. Drawing the string back making it tight, I could feel the strain in my arm muscle. The scuttling got louder, together we slowly backed up. 

"It's right in front of us." He whispered. 

"No, wait," I said. "Behind us."

It was weird. Scuttling noises seemed to be coming from several different directions. We were slowly backing up, carefully stepping over the roots and undergrowth, our weapons drawn, when I heard the same noise come from our left. Raph and I turned. Coming out of the woods was a glistening amber insect, ten feet long, with jagged pincers, an armored tail, and a stinger as long as my sword. A scorpion. Tied to its back was a red silk package.

"One of us gets behind it,"  Raph said, as the thing clattered toward us. "Cut off its tail while the other distracts it in front."

"I'll take point," I said. "I can keep it busy with the arrows."

"Done." He nodded. 

We'd never fought together, but for some reason, he seemed to read my thoughts, maybe it was the battle of Ares thing, him knowing how to fit with someone, a partner, just being able to anticipate my moves. But it all went wrong when I let my arrow go. It tinged off the outer shell. 

"Di immortals!" I cursed. 

"Well...don't know how good those arrows are gonna be against those shells."

"Thanks for summing up my misery. Now what?" 

Raph threw his shield up, blocking the one pincher. I attached my bow back to the chain, and yanked out my twin blades, just in time too, the scorpion tail swung towards us, and I crossed them, blocking the stinger. 

"BACK!" he yelled. He grabbed my arm and together we backed up as another one emerged from over the ridge, the one we originally heard.  We kept backing up. We made it to a clearing, I glanced behind me. 

"Raph! Rocks at our back." 

He nodded, throwing his shield up again, and stabbing at the monster. Our backs were now up against the huge pile of boulders. We slowly edged around them, the scorpions followed. I blocked another attempted grab from one of the punches when my back hit something. 

"What?" 

"Hey!"

"Percy?"

"Nora?"  

"Three?" Annabeth said. "That's not possible! The whole woods, and half the monsters come at us?"

"Well, to be fare, Sunshine and I had two on us." Raph called back. 

"Not helpful!" I heard Annabeth yell. 

The four of us stood clumped together, put our backs against the nearest boulder. The scorpions scurried toward us, whipping their barbed tails like they'd come here just to kill us. 

"Climb?" Percy said.

"No time," Annabeth said. "Nora? Bow?" She called.

"Tried, they just bounce off the shell, I need them to rear up and expose the underbelly.

Percy cursed. The scorpions were already surrounding us. They were so close I could see their hideous mouths foaming, anticipating an ice juicy meal of demigods. 

"Maybe...I can get the arrow inside their mouth?" 

I sheathed the blades and yanked the bow off just as Annabeth yelled, "Look out!" 

She parried away a stinger with the flat of her blade. Percy stabbed with Riptide, Raph kept the third one at a spear length. But the scorpions backed out of range. We clambered sideways along the boulders, but the scorpions followed us. Percy slashed at another one, but going on the offensive was too dangerous. If they went for the body, the tail stabbed downward. If we went for the tail, the thing's pincers came from either side and tried to grab us. All we could do was defend, and we wouldn't be able to keep that up for very long. I kept stumbling, with everyone so close together. I pulled the string back and was about to release, when I felt a elbow slam into my side as they parried the stinger. I cried in pain, and my hand let go of the string, and the arrow bounced harmlessly off the shell.  Percy had elbowed me in the same side that was, of curse, the same side that was still bruised. The breaks were healed, but the bruising and tenderness was still there. 

"Oh Styx. Sorry Nora!" 

I took another step sideways, and suddenly there was nothing behind me. It was a crack between two of the largest boulders.

"In here," I said.

Annabeth sliced at a scorpion then looked at me like I was crazy. "In there? It's too narrow."

"Go! We'll cover you girls. Go!" Raph yelled. 

Percy nodded, "Go!"

Annabeth ducked behind Percy and Raph tucked me behind his body, she started squeezing between the two boulders, I was right on her heels. Then she yelped and grabbed my armor straps, and I grabbed Percy who got tangled in Raph's shield and straps and suddenly the four of us were tumbling into a pit that hadn't been there a moment before. I could see the scorpions above us, the purple evening sky and the trees, and then the hole shut like the lens of a camera, and we were in complete darkness.

Our breathing echoed against stone. It was wet and cold. I was sitting on a bumpy floor that seemed to be made of bricks. Percy lifted Riptide. The faint glow of the blade was just enough to illuminate Annabeth and my frightened faces and the mossy stone walls on either side of us.

"Wh-where are we?" Annabeth said.

"Safe from the scorpions, anyway," Percy tried to sound calm. 

"Excellent." I agreed, but inside I was freaking out.

 The crack between the boulders couldn't have led into a cave. I would've known if there was a cave here; I was sure of it. It was like the ground had opened up and swallowed us.

Percy lifted his sword again for light.

"It's a long room," I muttered.

Annabeth gripped my arm. "It's not a room. It's a corridor." She had also grabbed ahold of Percy.

She was right the darkness felt...emptier in front of us. There was a warm breeze, like in subway tunnels, only it felt older, more dangerous somehow. It smelt stale and old.

Percy started forward, but Annabeth stopped him. "Don't take another step," she warned.

"We need to find the exit." Raph agreed.

She sounded really scared now.

"It's okay," he promised. "It's right-"

I looked up at Raph, his usually impassive face held shock and slight fear.

"You know where we are, don't you."

I saw his eyes dart down to mine. And he nodded. I gulped. If Raph was nervous and Annabeth sounded scared I knew we were in trouble. I looked up and realized I couldn't see where we'd fallen in. The ceiling was solid stone. The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions. I could feel the panic rising inside.

Before I could overthink, I slipped my hand into his. I felt his hand tighten around mine. Under different circumstances I would've been embarrassed, but here in the dark I was glad to know where he was here. Percy and Annabeth seemed to feel similar.

"Two steps back," Annabeth advised.

"Watch your step. Nice and slow. On three." Raph ordered. "One. Two. Three."

We stepped backward together like we were in a minefield.

"Careful where you step. But turn to the wall and help me examine the walls."

"What for?"

"The mark of Daedalus," Annabeth said, as if that was supposed to make sense.

"Uh, okay. What kind of-"

"Looks like a small little triangle." Raph said, running his hand along the wall.

"Got it!" Annabeth said with relief. She set her hand on the wall and pressed against a tiny fissure, which began to glow blue. A Greek symbol appeared: Δ, the Ancient Greek Delta.

The roof slid open and we saw night sky, stars blazing. It was a lot darker than it should've been. Metal ladder rungs appeared in the side of the wall, leading up, and I could hear people yelling our names.

"Percy! Annabeth!" Tyson's voice bellowed the loudest, "Nora! Raph!"

Others were calling out too. I looked nervously at Annabeth, Raph and Percy. Annabeth went first, then me then Raph and Percy brought up the rear. We made our way around the rocks and ran into Clarisse and a bunch of other campers carrying torches.

"Where have you two been?" Clarisse demanded.

"We've been looking forever." Lee cried, he came running.

"But we were gone only a few minutes," I said.

Chiron trotted up, followed by Tyson and Grover.

"Percy! Nora!" Tyson said. "You are okay?"

"We're fine," Percy said. "We fell in a hole."

The others looked at me and Raph skeptically, then at Annabeth as Percy. A few raised their eyebrows.

"Honest!" I said.

"There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid in the rocks. But we were only gone a minute."

"You've been missing for almost an hour," Chiron said. "The game is over."

"Yeah," Grover muttered. "We would've won, but a Cyclops sat on me."

"Was an accident!" Tyson protested, and then he sneezed.

Clarisse was wearing the gold laurels, but she didn't even brag about winning them, which wasn't like her. "A hole?" she said suspiciously, looking at Raph hard and then looking at Annabeth. Annabeth took a deep breath. She looked around at the other campers.

"Chiron...maybe we should talk about this at the Big House."

Clarisse gasped. "You found it, didn't you?"

Annabeth bit her lip. "I- Yeah. Yeah, we did."

Raph nodded, confirming Annabeth's unspoken declaration.

A bunch of campers started asking questions, but Chiron raised his hand for silence. "Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." He stared at boulders as if he'd just noticed how dangerous they were. "All of you, back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well played, but curfew is past!"

There was a lot of mumbling and complaints, but the campers drifted off, talking among themselves and giving me suspicious looks.

"This explains a lot," Clarisse said. "It explains what Luke is after."

"Wait a second," Percy said. "What do you mean? What did we find?"

"We...did we just find..." I stammered.

Annabeth turned toward him, her eyes dark with worry. "An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp."

"Oh Styx."

🔆

A big shinny mahogany door opened and a huge man with short cut jet black hair walked in. He was busy giving orders to a small whispy little nymph who floated beside him scribbling down all his instructions.

"Yes sir....yep...uh huh...yes." she was saying as she nodded and took his notes.

"That's all Wendy. Thank you." He snapped and waved his large hand and she floated back out the door.

The man sighed and took his gold rimmed glasses off and ran a hand down his face. His electric blue eyes wondered the office for a minute. He huffed and sat down in the desk chair and pulled the Manila folded closer and flipped through it. An intercom buzzed.

"What Wendy?" He snapped.

"Zeus, sir? The management team is ready for you."

He groane in annoyance, making the office rumble with thunder.

"Fine thank you, Wendy."

"Yes Sir."

Zeus got up, putting his glasses back on, he straightened his tie and taking the manila folder with him, he left his office and went down the hall to the board room. Even before entering the room he could hear them all arguing.

He slammed the door open and slapped the folder down on the table.

"Nice of you to show up." A man with black hair and sea green eyes yawned. Zeus scoffed at the man. His top button of his shirt was in done, no tie, sleeves rolled up.

"This is a board meeting Posiden, not a fishing club. Where's your tie?"

"Breath dear brother." He rolled his eyes. "This is the last meeting this week, were all tired. Let's just get on with this down sizing, shall we?"

Zeus ground his teeth. "All right listen up. Last one."

A few of the other gods and goddesses muttered and nodded. Zeus slammed a button in the intercom.

"Wendy!"

"Yes sir?"

"Bring in Apollo!"

"Yes sir."

He shuffled papers while he waited. He jumped when the door flung opened and his son walked in. He had ridiculous sunglasses on, his white button up shirt was undone so low his tanned chest muscles showed. He flashed Zeus a dazzling smile.

"Hey! Pops! How's it hangin'?" He pulled the sun glasses down, and winked, giving him a few finger guns.

"Sit down boy." Zeus waved a hand, not affected by his son's outrageous behaviour. Apollo sauntered to a chair, clasping the hand of Posiden as he passed.

"Yo! My favorite uncle!"

"Excuse me? What am I? Mince meat?" A tall thin yet well muscled man with dark eyes and hair forwned deeply.

"Ahhh! , Uncle Hades!" He grinned even more, his smile was smooth and flashy. He held his arms wide, he walked closer to the man. "My other favorite uncle!"

"Oh sit down." He rolled his eyes.

Apollo plopped down at the end of the table lacing his hands behind his head and leaned back.

"So? What's this about?"

"We are downsizing. Mainstreaming. Helios-"

"Ol' Gramps?" Apollo said sitting forward.

"He's not actually-"

"Ya ya." Apollo flicked his wrist. "But still. Good ol' Gramps?"

"Yes, Helios's mind is going. He's driving erratically. He's not paying attention to where he's driving!"

"Ya! Have you seen the North and South Pole? Melting ice caps!" Demeter cried.

Zeus slammed his fist on the table, silencing everyone. "We have had to suspend his license a few times. Apollo, you did well when you had to drive him around. We will be taking his license away for good. And granting you full responsibility of the Sun Chariot."

"Awesome!" He cried.

"It's a huge responsibility!"

"I know."

"If you fail-"

"Ya ya...you'll smite me." Apollo rolls his eyes.

"So? What's gonna happen to good ol' Gramps now?" Apollo asked.

"He will be re-evaluated and he's retired. Free to do...whatever." Athena nodded solumly.

"Golf is a new thing these older mortals are into." Dionysus suggested.

"You take full responsibility of the sun chariot? You will drive it every morning."

"Can I change the look from a gross old chair?"

"As long as it can get from the East to the west, I don't care what it looks like."

"Right on Pops!" Apollo stood up. "I accept."

"Good." Zeus said. He pressed the button on the intercom. "Wendy. Send in Helios."

The door opened and an old man with whispy gold hair that was almost white, his shirt was miss buttoned, he wondered in like he was lost. He kept patting his pockets. And he slowly turned in a circle, frowning and muttering.

"Helios!" Hadies said loudly.

"What? Huh? Yes?"

"Please sit down. We are having a meeting."

"A what?"

"A meeting." Areas cried loudly, like he was deaf. "We. Are. Having. A. Meeting."

"Oh! A meeting. How nice. Yes yes yes." He mumbled.

"Come on Gramps, come sit down." Apollo got up and swept his arm to his seat. The old man ambled forwards and sat down.

"Have you seen my glasses son? I can't seem to find them!" He said patting his chest pocket.

"Right where ya left 'em Gramps!" Apollo grinned and winked. And took the glasses off the old man's head.

"Oh! Look! You found them! Such a good lad!"

"Helios! Titan god of the sun and all seeing one. The planning committ here has made the...hard decision to hand the sun chariot keys over to Apollo. You can spend your free time playing golf, lawn bowling or taking tie chi classes in the park. How does that sound?"

"Eh?" Heiols said, "speak up man!"

"You. Are. Re-ti-red!" Ares yelled every word slowly pronouncing each syllable.

"Retired you say!" He gasped in surprise. "Who's gonna drive my chariot?"

"Apollo." Zeus said slowly.

"Ah! He's a good lad. Where is he?" Helios asked.

"Oh for the love-" Zeus cried slamming his fists on the table. The room shook with thunder.

I sat bolt upright with a gasp, covered in sweat and shaking, tangled in my blanket.

"You too?" Will's voice spoke through the dark of the cabin.

🔆