I 023. I

𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒐𝒓𝒔

❝ pit ❞

ARIADNE HAD BEEN UP SINCE FOUR. She couldn't sleep after her terrible dream, and the girl had just missed the Apollo cabin's battle against an Aethiopian drakon which had been spotted at the borders of camp.

She had spent her time organizing the large amount of cups in the cabinet by the drink fountain. The girl then went through Castor and Pollux's amount of useless junk in their loft, which happened to result in alot being thrown down the random magic hole they have in their basement.

The girl didn't know where it led to, and frankly, she could care less. She spent time in the small grotto, listening to the waterfall and catching up on a few books Annabeth and recommended for her when she couldn't sleep.

At first, not sleeping was a bummer, but it left her time to think about her dream. Aphrodite was incredibly serious about her never doubting her feelings, but that didn't seem human to her, and it was as if she wanted her to always trust Percy.

And she did. But at times, the girl wondered if he only felt the way he did because of the prophecy, and thought that they would only be a possibility and not a reality.

Of course, that was considered doubting his feelings and she was specifically told not to. But the girl was confident her feelings meant something. Butterflies and blushes, hand holds and small whispered jokes between them, what was there not to feel?

She had been caught many times by herself or Annabeth or even Grover when she would stare at him. Or even when she would involuntarily run her hands through his hair, attempting to fix it, but never successful.

And there were many times where he was caught. Either humming when she played with the gray streak in his hair, or smiling when she sang, she wasn't as oblivious as he was. But she was self conscious.

After dressing in a pair of shorts and an orange camp t-shirt, she had time to just relax before her brothers came running down the stairs with a new problem for her to solve seeing as she was their counselor.

Her hair was becoming to hot around her neck, and she brushed it, causing it to become fuzzy and frizzy. The girl pulled her knotted curls into a high ponytail and brushed aside the bangs which were growing awkwardly. They still looked choppy but were growing at different rates.

And soon, it was time for breakfast. Her brothers woke up five minutes before and quickly changed before bickering about who looked better in the morning.

The girl led them down the pathway and towards the dining pavilion with the rest of the campers following their counselors. She waved at Silena and Charlie, smiling at the two who would send one another loving looks.

Ariadne didn't need to be a child of Aphrodite to know that Silena and Beckendorf were definitely crushing.

Will gave her a large grin before letting it drop as soon as one of his siblings said something. He slapped them up the head and walked on, in true twelve year old fashion.

Pollux and Castor sat across from their sister, waiting to scarf down the large amount of strawberry pancakes on their plates. They were itching to drink the coffee in their glasses, giving her smiles as she laughed.

She wanted to take a bite of her chocolate waffles and drink a bit of her hot chocolate but knew she had to wait.

People were buzzing about the Aethiopian drakon that showed up last night. She had been in the middle of her dream with Aphrodite, and she was sure that the goddess had enough grip on her for her to not hear. From what she had heard, it didn't seem too anxious to go away until the Lee Fletcher led the Apollo cabin in pursuit.

A few dozen arrows lodged in the chunks of the drakon' as armor, it got the message and withdrew.

"It's still out there," Lee warned them during announcements. "Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it made. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. It's eyes—" he shuddered.

"You did well, Lee," Chiron patted him on the shoulder. "Everybody stay alert, but calm. This has happened before."

"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

The campers murmured among themselves.

Everyone knew the rumores: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of them expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that their attendance was down.
They only had eight campers. Three years ago, when Percy showed up, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had disappeared.

"This is a good reason for new war games," Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all so with that tonight."

"Yes..." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless his meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods."

They all raised their glasses and repeated the blessing.

Tyson and Percy were first, taking their bronze brazier and scraping a portion of their food into the flames. Cabins trickled by after that, and soon, it was Dionysus cabin's turn.

They were always the last ones, and that means they had to starve the longest. Castor and Pollux grumbled before knocking a few strawberries into the flames, whispering to who she could only assume to be their father.

Ariadne dropped a piece of of chocolate waffle into the flames, it smelled heavenly. "To anyone who will listen," she whispered. "Help us."

She headed back to her table.

Tyson left the Poseidon table once Grover and Chiron walked over. She knew of the Cyclops's fear of satyrs, and of Grover's fear of Cyclops. Chiron said something before trotting out of the pavilion.

The girl had finished her food just as Annabeth walked over. She nodded at the brunette and grabbed her arm, tugging her out of her seat. Her brothers watched with wonder at what they were doing.

Annabeth shoved her onto the bench, right next to Percy. The blonde sat across from them. "I'll tell you what it's about," she said. "The Labyrinth."

It was hard to concentrate on what she was saying, because everybody in the dining pavilion was stealing glances at them and whispering. Percy also found it quiet hard because Ariadne's hand was on his thigh, and it didn't seem as if she was moving it anytime soon. His heart tugged and pulled harshly inside his chest.

"You're not supposed to be here," Percy said.

"We need to talk," she insisted.

"But the rules..."

Ariadne and Annabeth knew as well as he did that campers weren't allowed to switch tables. Satyrs were different. They weren't really demigod's. But the half-bloods had to sit with their cabins. Ariadne had only seen one punishment when she was six, and they were forced to be her father's assistant for a month, they had enough stories to shake them for a lifetime.

If her father had been there, he probably would've strangled Annabeth with magical grapevines, and wrestle his daughter for control while she would probably just get scolded. Chiron has already left the pavilion. Quintus looked over at them and raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything.

"Look," Annabeth said, "Grover is in trouble. There's only one way we can figure to help him. It's the Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse and I have been investigating."

Percy shifts around, trying to think clearly. "You mean the maze where they kept the Minotaur, back in the old days?"

"Exactly," Annabeth said

Ariadne just noticed her hand and moved it, only for him to grab hold of it under the table. He sent a squeeze before letting them rest on his leg. She had to hide her smile.

"So... it's not under the Kong's palace in Crete anymore," Percy guessed. "The Labyrinth is under some building in America."

She rolled her eyes. Only took him a few years to understand. "Under a building? Perc, the Labyrinth is huge. It wouldn't fit under a single city, much less a single building."

He looked at her. "So... is the Labyrinth part of the Underworld?"

"No." Annabeth frowned. "Well, there may be passages from the Labyrinth down into the Underworld. Im not sure. But the Underworld is way, way down. The Labyrinth is right under the surface of the mortal world, kind of like a second skin. It's been growing for thousands of years, lacing it's way under Western cities, connecting everything together underground. You can get anywhere thorough the Labyrinth."

"If you don't get lost," Grover muttered. "And die a horrible death."

"Grover, there has to be a way," Ariadne said. "Clarisse lived."

"Barely!" Grover said. "And the other guy—"

"He was driven insane. He didn't die."

"Oh, joy." Grover's lower lip quivered. "That makes me feel much better."

Annabeth tilted her head. "Ariadne's dad is the god of madness—"

"That doesn't mean he'll fix me! Or even if she can fix me!"

The brunette let her eyes shift to the table. Percy squeezed her hand, and began tracing circles along the back of her hand, calming her down slightly.

"Whoa," Percy said. "Back up. What's this about Clarisse and a crazy guy?"

Annabeth glanced over towards the Ares table. Clarisse was watching them like she knew what they were talking about, but then she fixed her eyes on her breakfast plate.

"Last year," Annabeth's aid, lowering her voice, "Clarisse went on a mission for Chiron."

"I remember," Percy said. "It was a secret."

Annabeth nodded. "It was a secret," she said, "because she found Chris Rodriguez."

"The guy from Hermes cabin?"

He had been on the Princess Andromeda two years ago, when they were eavesdropping. He had abandoned camp and joined the Titan Army.

"Yeah," Ariadne said. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, bear Clarisse's mom's house."

"What do you mean he just appeared?"

"He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armor, babbling about string.0

"String," Percy said.

"He'd been driven completely insane," Annabeth said. "Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's men had been exploring the Labyrinth."

Percy shivered next to her. Ariadne was no fan of the idea. And although it was practically impossible for her to lose her mind, that didn't mean none of her other friends couldn't.

Also, being in a Labyrinth was not exactly good for people with her namesake. Ended with them abandoned by the one they believed they could trust.

"Okay," Percy said. "Why are they exploring the Labyrinth?"

"We weren't sure," Annabeth said. "That's why Clarisse went on a counting expedition. Chiron kept things hushed up because he didn't want anyone panicking. The architecture involved—" Her expression turned a little dreamy. "The builder, Daedalus, was a genius. But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed."

"Except it's a maze, right?"

"Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters."

"But not if you had Ariadne's string," Annabeth said. "In the old days, Ariadne's string guided Theseus out of the maze. It was a navigation I gruñe y of some kind, invented by Daedalus. And Chris Rodriguez was mumbling about string."

All three of them looked to the brunette who knew what was coming. "Do you have any idea where it is?" Percy asked.

She shook her head. "I haven't talked to Aria in months. I haven't seen her since Christmas. And besides, whenever I brought up the topic she got all upset and angry. I stoped asking, and she told me that she hadn't seen the ball of string since Theseus had left her. And that was thousands of years ago."

"So Luke is trying to find Ariadne's string," Percy said. "Why? What's he planning?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I don't know. I thought maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that doesn't make any sense. The closest entrances Clarisse found were in Manhattan, which wouldn't help Luke get past our borders."

"Clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but... it was very dangerous. She had some close calls. I researched everything I void find about Daedalus. I'm afraid it didn't help much. I don't understand exactly what Luke's planning, but I do know this: the Labyrinth might be the key to Grover's problem."

Ariadne blinked. "You think Pan is underground?"

"It would explain why he's been impossible to find."

Grover shuddered. "Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!"

Ariadne some what agreed. She wasn't a whole fan of just rocks, seeing as she couldn't utilize vines to her advantage.

"But," Annabeth said, "the Labyrinth can lead you almost everywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was designed to fool you, trick you and kill you; but if you can make the Labyrinth work for you—"

"It can lead you to the wild god," Percy said.

"I can't do it." Grover bugged his stomach. "Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware."

The brunette sighed. "Grover, it may be your last chance. The council is serious. One week or you learn to tap dance!"

Over at the head table, Quintus cleared his throat. She got the feeling that he didn't want to make a scene, but both girls were really pushing it, sitting at Percy's table for so long.

"We'll talk later," Annabeth said. "Convince him, will you?"

She walked towards the Athena table.

Ariadne gave Grover a smile. "Think about it."

Her eyes moved to Percy and squeezed his hand. She stood up and let go, ruffling his hair and letting it stay there for a few seconds. "Try to get him to see what we're saying," she said.

He nodded with a smile.

Ariadne returned to the Dionysus table, ignoring all the people who were staring at her. She looked at her brothers who held shocked looks. "What was that?" Castor asked.

The girl stared at her hands. "I'm not sure. But I'll find out soon enough."

They took the answer and whispered between one another, most likely about her odd behavior and talk with her friends.

***

THE GIRL CRINGED. She watched as Will ran towards his Apollo sibling Jenna who was wailing loudly. An arrow stuck out from her leg, and the girl had tears down her face.

Ariadne hadn't meant to land an arrow in someone's leg, but it happened. Chiron knew how terrible she was at archery and forced the girl to work with Jenna and Michael Yew on her skills. Will was there for the extra help as well, but he had more of a talent in medicine.

She knew Apollo would be saying something about her skills, most likely in the form of a terribly crafted poem or annoying haiku.

After breakfast, Ariadne had spent the majority of the day helping Quintus with a few campers who wouldn't listen. But for once, the girl had agreed to help with the strawberry fields like her brothers.

They weren't exactly pleased. Apparently they had a set order and particular way of doing things, and growing vines randomly was not the way to do it. ( "Honestly, sis," Castor has said, "you need to learn not everything is meant to be rushed." ).

Castor and Pollux told her she was meant to be slow and meticulous. The strawberries needed to be as close to perfect as they could, and she watched them with wide eyes as they raised their hands and vines poked from the ground.

Ariadne had tried herself, and she had successfully grown a vine that looked nearly identical to the rest. It wasn't longer or shorter or randomized with fruits like they usually were. They weren't sharpened to a point sharp enough to slash someone, or had thorns poking slightly and leaves that could rip someone apart. They were normal.

It felt nice for once, but weird at the same time.

But soon, it was time for dinner and they cleaned up.

Dinner was uneventful. But the real fun was after their meal. Quintus had everyone suit up in combat armor like they were getting ready for capture the flag, but he mood among the campers was a lot more serious. Sometime during the day the crates in the arena had disappeared, and she had a feeling whatever was in them had been emptied into the woods.

"Right," Quintus said, standing on the head dining table. "Gather 'round."

He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost. Mrs. O'Leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.

""You will be in teams of two," Quintus announced. When everybody started talking and trying to grab their friends, he yelled: "Which have already been chosen!"

"AWWWWW!" everybody complained.

"Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must grin the wreath before the other teams. And, of course... you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."

The crowd murmured excitedly. The task sounded pretty straightforward.

"I will announce your partners," Quintus said. "There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining."

"Aroooof!" Mrs. O'Leary buried her face in a plate of pizza.

Quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names. Beckendorf and Silena, which both seemed to be pretty happy about. The Stoll brothers would be together. No surprise. They did everything together. Clarisse was with Lee Fletcher, she knew they would be quiet difficult to beat.

And to her joy, the next pair was Pollux and Sydney. Sydney Lightway was Pollux's crush of three years. They were good friends, and she knew that they were both too scared to say anything.

Sydney was a daughter of Apollo, which seemed great enough because her brother and the older girl would talk about anything that dealt with music or the arts. She was of African-American descent, and the girl was pretty in Ariadne's opinion.

The pair seemed to be happy about their partnership.

Annabeth was partnered up with Castor, the blonde rolling her eyes at the boys he found to be like a cousin to her.

"Try not to kill him," Ariadne told her. "And you," her finger pointed at her brother, "don't do anything stupid to make her mad. She will rip your head off."

Castor nodded and the two blondes stood to converse. Luckily, Castor was the strategic half of the twins, and that seemed to give Annabeth some peace of mind.

Quintus kept rattling off names until he said, "Percy Jackson and Ariadne Phoenix."

"Cool." Percy grinned at Ariadne.

"Your armor is crooked," she said, and she redid his straps for him. The girl smiled at him before focusing back on Quintus.

Campers groaned at the pairing. They all knew they would most likely win. Percy and Ariadne were beasts when they were paired together, cutting through everyone easily. It also helped that they were considered the two most powerful demigods at camp, and when paired up, they knew what plan to use.

"Grover Underwood," Quintus said, "with Tyson."

Grover just about jumped out of his goat fur. "What? B-but—"

"No, no," Tyson whimpered. "Must be a mistake. Goat boy—"

"No complaining!" Quintus ordered. "Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!"

Tyson and Grover gave Percy and Ariadne a pleading look. Percy tried to give them an encouraging nod, and gestures that they should move together. Tyson sneezed. Grover started chewing nervously on his wooden club.

"They'll be fine," Ariadne said. "Come on. How about we focus on how we're going to take everyone down."

"Are you planning on sending everyone to the infirmary?" he asked.

"Maybe."

It was still light out when they got into the woods, but the shadows from the trees made it feel like midnight. It was cold, too, even in summer.

Ariadne and Percy found tracks almost immediately—scuttling marks made by something with a lot of legs. They began to follow the trail.

They jumped a creek and heard some twigs snapping nearby. The pair crouched behind a boulder, but it was only the Stoll brothers tripping through the words and cursing. Their dad was the god of thieves, but they were as stealthy as Percy in his first capture the flag game.

Once the Stolls had passed, they forged deeper into the west wood where the monsters were wilder. They were standing on a ledge overlooking a marshy pond when the brunette tensed. "This is where we stopped looking."

It took him a second to realize what she meant. Last winter, when they'd given up hope of finding him, Grover, Annabeth, Percy and her had stood on the rock, and he had convinced them not to tell Chiron the truth: that Nico was a son of Hades.

At the time it had been the right thing to do, she knew that. But it has been six months and they hadn't come close to finding him. It had made her a bit nervous and frightened, because sooner or later, she wouldn't be able to keep her promise on the River Styx, and that was a fate worse than death.

"I saw him last night," Percy said.

Ariadne knit her eyebrows together. "What do you mean?"

He told her about the Iris-Message. When he was done, she stared into the shadows of the woods. "It's not a good thing that he's summoning the dead," she said.

"Theo ghost was giving him bad advice," Percy said. "Telling him to take revenge."

"Yeah... spirits are never good advisers, they've got their own agendas. Old grudges. And they resent the living."

"He's going to come after me," Percy said. "The spirit mentioned a maze."

She nodded. "That settles it. We have to figure out the Labyrinth."

"Maybe," Percy said uncomfortable. "But who sent the Iris-Message? If Nico didn't know I was there—"

A branch snapped in the woods. Dry leaves rustled. Something large was moving in the trees, just beyond the ridge.

"Definitely not the Stolls," Ariadne whispered.

Together they drew their swords.

Once they got to Zeus's Fist, which was a huge pile of boulders in the middle of the west woods. It was a natural landmark where campers often rendezvoused on hunting expeditions, but now there was nobody around.

"There," she whispered.

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

It was weird. Scuttling noises seemed to be coming from several different directions. They were circling the boulders, swords drawn, when someone right behind them said, "Hi."

They whirled around, and the tree nymph Juniper yelped.

"Put those down!" she protested. "Dryads don't like sharp blades, okay?"

"Juniper," Ariadne exhaled. "Why are you out here alone?"

"I live here."

Percy lowered his swords. "In the boulders?"

She pointed toward the edge of the clearing. "In the juniper. Duh."

Ariadne gave the boy a small smirk.

"Are you guys busy?" Juniper asked.

"Well," Percy said, "we're in the middle of a game against a bunch of monsters and we're trying not to die."

"Hey," Ariadne said, "we're not too busy for you. What's wrong, Juniper?"

Juniper sniffled. She wiped her silky sleeve under her eyes. "It's Grover. He seemed so distraught. All year he's been looking out for Pan. And every time he come back, it's worse. I thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree."

The brunette shook her head. "I've known Grover for years, I doubt that's it."

"He had a crush on a blueberry bush once," Juniper said miserably.

"Juniper. Grover would never even look at another tree. He's stressed because of his searcher's license."

"He can't go underground!" she protested. "You can't let him."

She furrowed her brows, face twitching slight discomfort. "I don't like the idea of going underground either, but it may be the only way to help him. We just need to know where to start."

"Ah." Juniper wiped a green tear off her cheek. "About that..."

Another rustle in the woods, and Juniper yelled, "Hide!"

Before they could even ask, she went poof into green mist.

Ariadne and Percy turned. Coming out if the woods was a glistening amber insect, ten feet long, with jagged pincers, an armored tail, and a stinger as long as Lunacy. A scorpion. Tied to its back was a red silk package.

She tried to think like Annabeth for a few seconds. Her usual ideas were to just charge, but they needed to focus.

"One of us gets behind it," Ariadne said, as the thing clattered toward them. "Cut off It's tail while the other distracts it."

"I'll cut its tail off," Percy said. "You've got your vines, try to distract it."

She nodded. They'd fought together so many times they knew each other's moves and what they could do. But it all went wrong when the other two scorpions appeared from the woods.

"Three?" Annabeth said. "The entire god damn woods and we get all three?!"

Percy swallowed. Both knew what the other was thinking. One, they could take. Two, with a little luck. Three? Doubtful.

The scorpions scurried towards them, whipping their barbed tails like they'd come there to kill them. Both put their backs against the nearest boulder.

"Can't you do something with the vines?" Percy asked quickly.

She nodded. The girl threw out a vine, but a barbed tail was quick to cut it down and send a jab at her face. The girl ducked and pushed Percy to the side, leaning against another boulder.

"Well," she panted, "guess that answers your question."

"In here," Percy said.

Her eyes slid towards the small opening between the boulders. "Its too narrow."

"I'll cover you. Go!"

She ducked behind him and squeezed between the two boulders. The ground beneath her opened up. She helped and grabbed Percy by his armor straps, and suddenly they were both tumbling into a pit that hadn't been there a moment before.

The scorpions were above them, the purple evening sky and the trees, and then the hole shut like the lens of a camera, and they were in complete darkness.

Ariadne's breathing echoed against the stone. It was wet and cold. Percy was sitting on a bumpy floor, and the girl had stood up in panic.

"Oh, gods, oh gods," she whispered, frightened by the situation. "This isn't good."

"Aidan?" Percy said.

She attempted looking around for the boy, but she could t see anything. Lunacy was resting on her finger in its ring form and her hands were shaking a bit too much for her to grab it successfully.

Percy lifted Riptide. The faint glow of the blade was enough to illuminate Ariadne's fearful expression and the mossy stone walls around them.

She let out a shaky breath. "Where are we?"

"Safe from the scorpions, anyway," he tried to sound calm, but she knew he was freaking out as well. The crack between the boulders in no way could've led to the cave. She hadn't even known there was an entrance there, much less a cave.

All that came to mind was the fissure crack in the dining pavilion that had erupted skeletons the year prior.

Once she finally seemed to regain control of her self, Ariadne found her ring and twisted Lunacy into its form, a glint falling off of the sharp blade and added to their limited light.

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

Her whole body seized up. The girl's free hand found Percy's armor strap. "A corridor," she whispered harshly.

The darkness before them was emptier. A warm breeze brushed back the small hairs around their faces, like in subway tunnels, only it felt older, more dangerous somehow.

She hated the way a chill ran along her spine. Her purple eyes glinted with fear and confusion, but also understanding. A purple haze swept over her eyes, as if had in the cab on their first quest in LA.

She felt her body tug, itching to move forward, but the girl moved her hand to group Percy's arm in fear she would start taking off against her own will.

Percy made a move to go forward, but the brunette pulled him back. "Stop," her voice had an edge to it, an edge that seemed sharper than their blades. He backed up to her side. "Exit. We need to find an exit."

She tried not to sound scared, but the boy knew her well, and that irked her at the moment.

Percy glanced up and he couldn't see where they had fallen. The ceiling was solid stone. The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions.

Soon, she knew where they were.

Ariadne slipped her free hand into Percy's. Under different circumstances she would've shyly smiled, but how was not the time. It was a comfort for them both to know where the other was.

"Two steps back," she advised him.

They stepped backward together like they were in a minefield.

"Help me find it," she said.

"Find what?"

"The mark of Daedalus," she told him, as if he should've known.

Her eyes seemed to glow brightly in the dark. "How do you know it's there?"

The girl let out a shuddered breath, her fingers scanning the stone walls. "I've listened to Annabeth ramble on about it enough to know what this is."

"Uh, okay. What kind of—"

"Got it!" she sighed in 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 they 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 she could hear people yelling their names.

"Percy! Aria!" Tyson's voice bellowed the lifestyle, but others were calling out too.

Percy looked at her nervously. Then they began to climb.

Ariadne and Percy made their way around the rocks and ran into Clarisse and a bunch of other campers carrying torches—Annabeth, Castor and Pollux by her.

"Where Have you two been?" Clarisse demanded.

"We've been looking forever," Pollux said.

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

Chiron trotted up, followed by Tyson and Grover.

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

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

The other gave them skeptical looks.

"Honest!" he 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 lurked, but she didn't brag. "A hole?" she said suspiciously.

Ariadne's purple haze ended, and she regained full color vision once again. The girl looked at Annabeth and Chiron. "We found it," she whispered urgently.

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 doin it, didn't you?"

Ariadne nodded. She didn't need any confirmation from anyone, she knew they had found what they had been seeking. It was all due to the chill all over her body, and the girl knew what it was.

Campers began asking questions, looking about as confused as Percy was, but Chiron raised a hand fro silence. "Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." He stared at the 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 the duo suspicious looks.

Pollux and Castor sent a message through their purple eyes: We need to talk. She nodded subtly and they turned away, heading back with their torches.

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

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

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

Chiron looked at Ariadne, who held a far away look, as if she wasn't all there. "You felt it, didnt you, child?" he said.

The girl nodded.

"Felt what?" Clarisse asked.

Ariadne gulped. "I felt a chill over my body," she said quietly."

Clarisse raised a brow. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I felt a message."

Annabeth bit her lip. "Like what?" she asked.

Ariadne gave the group a fearful look. "That my stepmother is warning me of what is in there."

authors note:

It's been too long, guys. I've been busy with school, and today I just moved half of the stuff at my moms house into a storage container.

My mom is stressed and I've been doing my best to help her out. Sorry if these updates aren't as quick as you guys are used to.

Anyways, there will be more soon, I promise!

I hope you guys enjoyed!

Let me know what you all think of my character and of the story. PS: Sydney Lightway is played by Yara Shahidi.

My offer of a face reveal still stands!

Love you guys!