Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus - the House of Hades

Percy VII

Percy took a moment to take in his surroundings; it was so bland and boring that he forgot where he was. It kind of reminded him of New Jersey.

The atmosphere was humid, and red. It was bizarre, he wouldn't usually describe an atmosphere by it's colour, but it just felt...red. There was no other way to describe it. A dim, ominous, bloody glow pored from cracks in cavern walls and seeped through deepened ridges, slippery with residue from...oh, Gods knows what, Percy thought. Actually, scratch that, the Gods don't even know. The floor was strange; when he and Annabeth had first laid eyes on it, and felt their shoes crunch on the gnarly surface, they had assumed the floor was bones. They had definitely been rounded and shaped. But after a moment of boredom waiting for Annabeth to wake up, he had dug around a little. And underneath, there were dozens of huge, giant tree roots, curled and overlapping each other like fringes of waves paused in motion.

The ceiling never ended; it was like a starless sky, its hands reaching up into empty nothingness, an empty charcoal easel. Or maybe Percy was just being sentimental, it was kind of lonely and desolate.

Right now, the twosome were hiking up a bony incline, every so often pausing to catch breathe. It looked as if something may be over this ledge, Percy thought.

"I hope there's something over this hill. This scenery is getting dull."

"Mhmm." Annabeth mumbled in response, her forehead beading with sweat from concentration, "I just...hope...there's not some kind of...monster wait-waiting to kill...us."

Percy felt her forehead, and withdrew instantly. It was like the engine room on the Argo II, boiling and unstable. He grabbed her hand tightly and she squeezed back loosely.

"Come on, Wise Girl. We are gonna make it through this. Just imagine seeing everyone again, owl." Percy hoped she hung onto that small thought, and although she appeared to be fighting the fatigue, but it overcame her and she began to collapse, slipping out of Percy's grip. He held onto her and hoisted Annabeth onto his back.

" Make it easier, why don't you." Percy grunted jokingly. "Nobody listening to me. Ookay. Pizza."

He slowly trudged his way to the top of the hill, his feet slipping loosely inside his trainers. His laces had come untied but Percy couldn't risk Annabeth slipping off his back. He'd do anything to have Frank, or Jason with him. Even Leo. To be honest, he thought, i'd stretch to Piper or Hazel or Nico. Hmm. Maybe not Nico, he'd just be another body on my back.

Slowly, he began to see the hilltop rolling backwards and unveiling the sight he'd been waiting eagerly to see.

As soon as he saw it, he frowned and put Annabeth down.

There was a huge field about the size of Camp Half-Blood, covered in marshes and bogland.

The occasional dead, spindly black tree stuck out, the ends of its dead branches snubbed out like charcoal sticks. Spines which seemed to glow like moonlight sparkled, acting like pond thrushes, sticking out from murky deep red water in the marshes. But what really struck Percy was the house in the middle of the field.

It was a bungalow, and looked as if it had been zapped straight out of the wizard of Oz. Or Kansas. Whats the difference? Anyway, Percy thought, it was quite eerie. The actual building was wooden and had one of those spinny wind turners, an old-fashioned weather tuner and an old rocking chair on the porch. The windows were all bordered off with nailed up slabs of wood which looked as if it hadn't been replaced since the original Oz was filmed. Percy turned back around to attend to Annabeth, when he caught some movement out of the corner of his eye- the rocking chair, swiging clunkily with jagged movement. But he swung back around and there was nothing there. Weird.

Percy easily found some shelter- a few bent trees and barren bushed clustered around provided adequate protection. There was nobody here anyway. He carried Annabeth and gently put her down in he centre of the shelter, resting her head on his tshirt, he undressed the top of his body. Using the very last of his water supplies, he drank a few sips and splashed his body and face with the lukecool water, before dabbing himself with his spare camp half-blood tee. Weird. It was as if Annabeth knew exactly what he'd needed, as if if they ever ran away these supplies would be what they both needed. Putting the wet tee on Annabeth's forehead, he rummaged in the rucksack and found the last bit of ambrosia, he made up his mind and fed it to her. Percy cleaned her wound and changed the wrappings before making her drink a small amount of her water, conserving it carefully. And then he waited. And waited.

___________________________________________

Annabeth stirred. She coughed a little and her eyes fluttered open weakly.

"Oh, thank the Gods you're alive." Percy sighed and kissed her happily.

She nodded before licking her cracked lips and saying, "Water."

Percy nodded and grabbed the canteen, before realising with dismay there was only about 1/8th left. Her poured a little into her mouth and sensed her dissatisfaction.

"I know, I know." Percy sympathised, "But we have to keep it. You'll regret not doing it."

Annabeth nodded, and began to sit up. He held back and supported her.

"Listen. There's a house down there, and we're low on supplies," Percy felt worried, as Annabeth was plan girl, and he felt stupid suggesting anything, but he ploughed ahead, "So, whilst i'm up and running, i'll go see what's down there, and you, stay here. I'll leave when you feel capable of handling yourself-"

"I feel fine." She said stubbornly.

"Oh please. Stop trying to prove yourself. It's unhealthy." Percy smirked.

"Shut up, seaweed brain. Please." Annabeth rested her eyes.

Percy put on puppy dog eyes and frowned. "I'm going in about forty minutes. Ish. From what I can tell. Sleep."

Annabeth suddenly sat up and kissed Percy passionately, slowly creeping her hand down by his neck and his hairline. He held her waist and kissed back, but broke the moment.

"What was that?" He asked dizzily.

"What was what?" She asked.

"That noise!" A thudding, as if the sound of metal clanking, rang through the valley.

Percy grabbed Riptide and leapt up, but Annabeth pulled him down.

"No! You idiot. Crawl. It sounded heavy duty, if whatever it was sees you, you're dead." She reasoned,

"Ah, yes, i see." Percy gulped. Her crawled through the thickets and tufts of their make-do shelter. The sight that met his eyes made him feel very, very small.

A huge line of cyclops' trudged past, chained and with large metal balls on their feet. A large man rode one smaller cyclops, with a large whip.

Percy rolled back into the den.

"I...think i'll wait a while before I go." He mumbled.