The Battle of The Labyrinth [Book Four]

The Friends We Made Along The Way.

       They had been given a way to find Daedalus; through Hephaestus. Eurytion had given them a temporary guide, a metallic spider with eight long legs that scurried hastily across the ground in the direction of Hephaestus' Forge. Annabeth was reluctant to follow behind the spider, but they had no choice or it would get away, because the thing didn't seem to have any notion to stop and let them catch up. Several corpses later, the team arrived in a room, fresher dead bodies leaning against the wall that reeked. But once everyone stepped into the room, metal bars slammed down, blocking them from their exit. Blinding lights flashed, and Reagan had to squint until her eyes adjusted to the harsh lighting. And let's just say that she was not prepared for what she saw: A Sphinx was grinning at them broadly from the other side of the room, allowing a perfect sight or her razor sharp teeth.

       Her head was completely human, but her body was that of a lion. Tyson whimpered under his breath from somewhere to her right, and to her left she saw the small spider scurry between the bars without them. When Annabeth tried to advance forward, the Sphinx growled and swiped with one of her massive paws, successfully stopping them from going on. But then she grinned once more, and for the first time Reagan could see a blue sash across her chest that read: THIS MONSTER HAS BEEN RATED EXEMPLARY! The monster pounced forward gracefully, stepping onto a podium that was lit up by a bright spotlight, and it illuminated the pounds of makeup that was caked on her face.

"Are you ready to play, 'Answer That Riddle!'?" she announced, and there was laughter that switched on afterwards, but no audience watching them. Where had it come from? "Who is the lucky contestant?"

"It should obviously be me," Annabeth muttered to her friends and stepped forward onto an opposite podium, cueing more forced laughter from some invisible force.

"Great!" The Sphinx exclaimed gleefully. "Are you ready, Annabeth?"

She nodded even though she never mentioned her name. "Ask me your riddle."

The monster grinned menacingly. "A series of riddles actually! The riddle was becoming easy to solve, so we decided to change it up."

       Annabeth's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. As she opened her mouth to dispute this, the Sphinx asked it's first question, which she answered right after as if she knew what was being asked before it even was. Six questions out of twenty before she spoke up suddenly from the barrage of questions:

"Stop! This is a stupid test!" the girl cut in sharply. "I'm a child of Athena, and this insults my intelligence. I won't take this test."

Reagan wanted her to shut up, to just answer the questions so they can be done and on their without having to start any fight. But part of her felt so proud of Annabeth, to the point that the corner of her lips pulled up into a lopsided smirk and her hands balled up into fists at her sides.

"That's my girl," she whispered under her breath enthusiastically.

The Sphinx's eyes gleamed dangerously in the spotlight, and she smiled calmly to reveal her sharpened fangs once more. "Well, all students who refuse to take the test will be eaten."

       Before anyone could say or do anything, the monster launched itself at Annabeth. Tyson shouted something that Reagan hadn't registered fully yet as she activated her weapon, and the Cyclops charged the Sphinx and the two went flying across the room in a mess of limbs that clawed at each other furiously. But the creature wasn't interested in Tyson, she wanted Annabeth. Brandishing her spear in front of herself and Annabeth, Reagan came to her side, watching as Tyson wrestled the Sphinx down bravely. But that didn't last long, because it was slowly overpowering him.

"She doesn't care about us," Reagan said shortly in one breath. "Put your hat on so she can't find you."

"But I can fight!"