Tidal Wave (Luke Castellan)

The Realization

 I don't know what I was expecting from the Underworld, but a mountainous desert was not it. The whole place was a mix of greys, tans, and whites. There weren't any ghosts roaming around. It was all just kind of... bare. And very very bright.

We were well on our way to Hades's palace when Cerberus finally caught up to us. At first, none of us seemed to realize it. The howling had stopped a while back so there was no way to tell where the dog was. In the blink of an eye, he was standing right in front of us on all fours and growling. How we missed him, I had no idea because he was extremely big with three heads. But the second we all saw him, we were all frozen in place. I didn't know if it was out of caution, fear, or both.

"Uh, Genius?" I mumbled as one of the heads stared at me.

"Yeah?" Annabeth asked back quietly.

"I hope you have a plan."

"Um... no, not really," Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her glance off to the side, "Wait! Grover, give me the ball."

"The ball? Oh, the one from Crusty's?" Grover asked, their voices still in a whisper.

"Yeah, hand it over," there was shuffling before Annabeth said louder, "See the ball? You want the ball, Cerberus? Sit!"

All at once, Percy, Grover, Cerberus's three heads, and I all gave Annabeth a look of confusion. I'd learned to trust the daughter of Athena's plans but this was something else. She was asking the dog of death to sit. We were about to get eaten for sure.

"Sit!" Annabeth commanded again.

I watched in awe as Cerberus actually sat. She threw the ball and the dog ran after it. It was official, I was adopting Annabeth as my unofficial little sister.

"We need to get over onto that ledge. Grover can use the flying shoes to get up there. Take Percy first, then Cass. I'll keep Cerberus distracted."

"But what about you?" Percy asked, "We're not just going to leave you behind."

"I'll figure something out," She gave him a brief smile as Cerberus brought the ball back, "Go now."

Grover muttered the magic words and the shoes came to life. He grabbed onto Percy and the two of them shot up, into the air. I kept looking between them and Cerberus to make sure everything was going to plan. Grover dropped off Percy and came back for me. We grabbed onto each other and once again went up into the air. My stomach dropped instantly. The sky was no place for a daughter of Poseidon. Neither was the Underworld I guess but this was a special circumstance.

"Alright Annabeth, we're all up here," Grover called out. The three of us looked over the edge but couldn't spot her, "Annabeth?"

"Watch out!" she screamed moments before the red ball rolled up onto the cliff, soon followed by Cerberus's huge front paws. I picked the ball and held it up. Cerberus stared at it almost motionlessly, giving Annabeth enough time to climb off the dog's back. I handed the ball to her and she threw it off the cliff. Cerberus didn't hesitate to jump off the cliff after it.

"I have to say, that was very impressive, Genius. You just tamed the dog of death," I gave her a half grin.

Annabeth shrugged like it was nothing, "Cerberus is just that. A dog. And almost all dogs love to play. I'm sure he hasn't received attention like that in a long time."

"Guys, as much as I love talking about animals, we're still on a time deadline here," Grover said.

We continued walking through the barren land. We didn't really do much talking for a while. The weight of where we were and the situation we were in was on our minds. Or at least it was stuck on mine. In hours, we were possibly going to be in front of Hades. I'd never personally met him but he had sent hellhounds to kill me when I was merely 7 years old based on a suspicion that I might be a child of Poseidon. He sent legions of hellhouds and the Furies after Thalia when her parentage was proven. Now Percy and I, two children of Poseidon, were going to be face to face with him. Was he going to murder us on the spot? Or would he toy with us first before killing us?