~Someplace I Dunno~

Leo brought his hand up to his head. It felt like someone had dropped a bowling ball on him from really high up. He felt around for a bump, but everything seemed normal except for his pounding headache.

He opened his eyes. Then blinked to make sure he had opened them. Another blink confirmed it.

He was in the dark.

The dark didn't bother Leo, it never had. Once upon a time, he avoided it like a plague. Now, though, he could light a flame and be able to see.

Leo sat up, ignoring the wave of nausea that passed over him

He clicked his fingers and a fire sparked to life in his palm. It wasn't necessary to click, but Leo liked doing it. It made him feel like some sort of superhero.

Leo inspected his surroundings, but there wasn't much around him. Standing up, he could see eight dimly lit tunnels leading away in different directions, like the spokes of a wheel. The archways of the tunnels glowed in a pattern of light; gold, silver, gold, silver. They were outlined in what looked like real diamond and gold, glistening in the flickering light of his personal fire.

The eight tunnels were connected to this one circular room, centred around a small wooden table. The table itself was nothing special, but on it lay the final clue.

Without touching the paper, Leo read the note aloud to himself. He needed the familiar comfort of a voice, but the only voice around was his own.

'"On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, twelve rising suns, eleven soaring stars, ten bouncing baubles, nine fairy fires, eight snowy messes, seven dancing canes, six Christmas goblets, five wooden sleighs, four working craftsmen, three volar reindeer, two wrapped up presents, and mistletoe up a pine tree."'

Leo glanced around him. Twelve rising suns. Christmas was supposed to be a time of joy and happiness, and sunlight brought joy and happiness, he supposed. That kind of made sense.

What did not make sense was how the messenger expected him to get out of here. And how to find rising suns in a maze of tunnels.

Thinking ahead, Leo had slept with the pouch around his neck and his tool belt around his waist. At present, he didn't want to be without either.

'Rising suns,' he muttered to himself, as if saying the words would reveal their meaning. 'Rising suns, rising suns, rising suns.'

He repeated the phrase like an incantation, barely aware of any sound his mouth made. While his lips moved without command, his mind whirred and clicked like a well oiled machine.

When the sun rose, that was sunrise. Twelve, that was just the next number in the song. The last number, thank the gods.

But that still didn't tell him how to get out of here.

He checked out the shimmering tunnels. If some where silver and some were gold, than the colour must have some significance.

Gold; sun. Silver; moon.

Suddenly it made sense. The gold represented the sun, and the silver represented the moon. That meant that the right tunnel had to be one of the gold tunnels. The eliminated the four silver passages, but still left four others.

Which one? Twelve risings suns. The rising part must mean something. The note could've said golden suns, or glittering suns, or shining suns. But it said risings suns.

Something about sunrise. He gazed at the golden tunnels heading off in four directions like the North, South, East and West on a compass.

A compass!

A smile attached itself to Leo's face, a mischievous, fiery light dancing in his eyes. The sun rose in the east! If he was right, which wasn't, whichever tunnel ran east was the tunnel he needed to take.

Of course, if he was wrong, he had a feeling he would be trapped in the tunnels forever. But no pressure!

He dug around in his tool belt for a compass. The equipment was kind of specialized, so it would take the tool belt a little while to recharge. But if he was right, it wouldn't matter. If he was wrong, it probably still wouldn't matter because he would be trapped down here.

He held the compass flat on his palm while his other hand held the fire close. It spun wildly for a few seconds before settling on North, which made east right behind him. Leo grinned. He just hoped he wasn't misreading the riddle.

He started down the tunnel, fiery hand outstretched like a bizarre, male version of the Statue of Liberty. Almost immediately, a stone door closed behind him.

'Hey!' Leo yelled. 'Let me out!'

Through the stone, he could hear what sounded like a girls laugh. Not one, though, but two or three. Maybe even four. There was more than one person in on this. That made Leo mad, they'd been manipulated.

There was nowhere to go but forward now.

He walked carefully. He didn't know what those witches put in place to stop him reading his friends. Or maybe they wanted him to reach his friends. Maybe his friends weren't even here.

No maybes, he chided himself. Can't think of maybes.

He just led himself down the passage and, all too soon, came across what he was looking for. A miniature metal half sun; sunrise.

'Twelve rising suns,' he muttered yet again as he stuffed the key inside the magic pouch.

He kept going until his feet felt like sand blocks. Every now and then, he would come across a sunrise key, put it in the bag and walked on. Soon enough, he had eleven of the twelve. The twelfth sat in front of a giant metal door with a giant, circular indentation in the centre.

He picked up the final key and put it in the bag with the others. The pouch suddenly glowed a rainbow of colours, nearly blinding Leo with the bright light. He'd been in mostly darkness all day.

Was it still day? Or was it night?

The light shimmered longer than usual, and died down more slowly. But when it did, only then did Leo approach the doors.

The first step and the pouch began to quiver. The closer he got, the more the pouch shook, like it was trying to tell him something. He knew the keys were important, but how.

He knelt in front of the doors and poured the contents of the bag on the hard stone ground. Nothing broke, but a few had scratches. Each of the keys glowed different colours like they'd been infused with neon.

'What the-?' Leo murmured.

He looked up at the indentation in the door, and then down at the fire in his hand. Up, down, up, down.

He knew what he had to do.

Leo realized why he was left over. He realized how the keys were enchanted.

With the fire still in his palm, Leo tipped his hand upside down and held it over the collection of objects.

They all began to shake even more, coming together, forming a circle. The 78 different keys melted into each other, blending to make one big key that fitted the door. It was Leo's fire that was needed to make the key, that's why he was here.

The flames grew brighter and brighter, hotter and hotter. Usually, Leo could withstand any heat. But this was a burning sensation like he'd never felt, like the metal was breathing air the temperature of the sun. He'd almost decided he couldn't take it anymore when his flames shut off of their own accord.

Leo blinked spots out of his eyes. The sudden darkness was eerily calm. Taking a break, he lit one finger carefully, the fire blazing like the tail of a shooting star.

The key was done. It was circular, the size of the indentation in the door. Upon picking it up, Leo discovered it was no ordinary metal. It was lighter than any other, even Celestial bronze and Imperial gold.

He fitted it in the door and it swung open, emitting a sound like opening a bottle of soft drink. Pfft.

Leo glanced around the other room. It was just as dark as the tunnel. But he didn't have much choice if he wanted to find his friends.

He decided against calling out. That would be a stupid thing to do. He just crept forward into the darkness. Yeah, that was so much smarter.

A light in the distance grew bigger, like a candle. As he got closer, Leo could see more candles, lining the walls. It looked like something out of Harry Potter.

Leo finally reached a range where he could properly see. He stopped short. His mouth fell open. His eyes grew wide.

'You made it!' Jason cried. 'Oh, thank the gods. Christmas really is boring without your humour.'

'We have humour,' Travis argued while Connor nodded his agreement.

'Yeah, but not the Leo kind of humour,' Percy said, siding with his cousin.

'Boys,' Hazel yelled. 'Poor Leo just got here.'

'Ya,' Frank's voice was muffled through layers of food. 'Ow om espect.'

'I think that was meant to be show some respect,' Reyna guessed.

Frank nodded and gulped, 'It's the chicken. So good!'

'Hold up!' Leo shouted. 'You guys have been just sitting around eating? While I was wandering blind through tunnels.'

'It wasn't like there was much we could do,' Annebeth shrugged. 'The door was locked. And none of us could resist all this.'

She gestured to the incredibly long table piled high with every Christmas food you could imagine. There was pork, chicken, ham, seafood and sausages. There were salads and pies, cakes, fruits and chocolate deserts. A feast in one word.

Leo's mouth watered. The smell was intoxicating.

'What are you waiting for, Repair Boy?' Piper rolled her eyes. 'A special invitation? Dig in!'

Leo needed no further persuading. He and everyone else tucked into the food, sitting in comfortable leather chairs, enclosed in a cave with candles floating around them.

'So,' Leo gasped between mouthfuls of everything he could get his hands on. 'What's been happening? Who did all this? What's with the food?'

'Well, we only really know the answer to one of those questions,' Frank said. 'What's happening is, well, one person kept appearing every day. They would come from the direction you came from and stumbled upon this table. It never runs out of food, which is awesome. And none of us has gotten tired here.'

'It's enchanted,' Thalia breathed.

'I'm happy with that,' Connor said. 'More food and no bed time? It's perfect!'

Once they'd all eaten their fill and could eat no more, they lounged around on the comfortable chairs, rubbing their bellies and talking.

'I have an idea of who might be behind it all,' Leo told the group. 'Or at least some idea of the person.'

Nico sat forward in his chain. The thin son of Hades had eaten more than any of them had ever seen.

'Who?' he asked with intense interest.

'I think it's more than one person,' Leo supplied. 'Girls. I heard them laughing when I was trapped in the tunnels.'

'You know,' Percy sounded thoughtful. 'I could swear I've heard voices here. Like, not any of us.'

Frank frowned, 'When I first got here, I head a voice whisper something. A spell.'

'I thought I was going mad,' Reyna said. 'But if you two have heard them, maybe that means what I heard was real too.'

They were silent for a few seconds, and they heard it. A high pitched, tinkly giggle. Then a few other voices shushing the one who had laughed.

Hazel snapped her head around the far wall, opposite to the door, which was visible in the light of the floating candles.

'Something's there,' she whispered. 'The Mist. It's strong there, I can feel it.'

The room was silent now. Even the mysterious voices seemed to be holding their breaths.

The other eleven demigods got off the chairs and followed Hazel as she lead them to the wall. It looked like any other stone wall. Travis pressed his hand against it.

'Seems pretty solid to me,' he said simply.

'Oh, it's not solid at all,' Hazel replied with a small smile. 'It's not even there.'

Everyone else knew enough to take a step back as Hazel closed her eyes and concentrated. She held her hands out and extended her will, manipulating the Mist. Her confidence in her abilities won out.

The illusion melted away.

The demigods jaws dropped, one by one; Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, Percy, Reyna, Travis, Connor, Nico, Thalia, Jason, Piper, Leo.

There were four people sitting in a room that was separated from the cave by a shiny, glass wall. Inside the other room were comfy couches, a small kitchen, bathroom, even a treadmill.

But the four girls were what stunned the twelve demigods the most. For a while, they all just stopped and stared, not knowing what to say or even how to react. The four girls hadn't counted on Hazel being more confident with the Mist.

Finally, Annabeth seemed to regain her composure.

'You four have a lot of explaining to do,' she stuttered in a shaky voice.

Lou, Clarisse, Rachel and Drew glanced at each other with fearful eyes and gulped.