Annabeth Chase and the Battle of the Labyrinth

Chapter 13 - Malcom is awkward

Usually the Athena cabin felt comforting to me. Standing in there, surrounded by books, weapons, war plans, random bits that Athena has claimed to invent, I usually feel at home. But not now. 

My mind was in turmoil, so much so that I couldn't even settle it to one thing. I had been researching and thinking about the Labyrinth for months now, but now that I have confirmation that I was going into it, it felt a lot more realistic. And a lot more scary. 

I didn't even feel any excitement at having my own quest. It had been my dream since I joined camp to lead my own quest. Although I had been involved in several quests before, I had never been able to lead one before. 

But instead of feeling excited, like I thought I would be, all I could feel was dread. The weight of responsibility seemed to settle heavily on my shoulders, so much so that it was almost stifling. I didn't even know if I was going to survive this quest, nevertheless my friends, and the entire camp. 

I didn't even want to think of my prophecy, so I tried to busy myself with the ancient scrolls that we had stored in our room, but words swam before my eyes. I couldn't focus on anything other than the quest and even my attempt to research the Labyrinth wasn't helping. Not as if the scrolls were going to improve my knowledge now: I'd been over them several times already. I knew everything they could possibly tell me about the Labyrinth. 

And yet there was still so much I didn't know. Like how was I going to navigate the maze? Theseus had magical string, but that was given to him by a princess who had his best interests at heart. And how was I going to find Pan? Who even knows where the Lord of the Wilderness would hide in an underground Labyrinth? But most importantly, how was I going to beat Luke? The prophecy gave me a list of things I would find and things that would happen. It didn't exactly tell me what it was that I specifically had to do. I was literally in the dark on this. 

"Knock, knock?" came a voice from the door. 

Startled, I spun around to see Percy standing just inside the doorway, looking lost as he stared at the mass of stuff that was my home. 

"Oh . . . hi," I stuttered, scrambling to regain my composure, which was hard as my nerves were still shot from my meeting with the Oracle. "Didn't hear you."

He frowned at me, concern deep in his eyes. "You okay?"

Struggling to keep eye contact, I looked down at the scroll I was clutching in one hand, not understanding why I was holding one that depicted the Hermathena image. Hopefully Percy couldn't see that from where he stood. 

"Just trying to do some research," I said, hopelessly. "Daedalus's Labyrinth is so huge. None of the stories agree about anything. The maps just lead from nowhere to nowhere."

"We'll figure it out," he said confidently. 

I wished I could feel his belief in me. That I could see myself through his eyes. 

"I've wanted to lead a quest since I was seven," I confessed, feeling the need to explain myself. 

"You're going to be awesome," he said, conviction in his voice. 

I looked up at him gratefully, but as I met his eyes, an image of him lying dead flashed in my eyes. It was like the reoccuring dream I had, of him and the destruction of Olympus. Was this when it was going to happen?

"I'm worried, Percy," I said, trying to not let doubt creep into my voice while pushing the image out of my head. "Maybe I shouldn't have asked you to do this. Or Tyson and Grover."

"Hey, we're your friends. We wouldn't miss it."

"But . . ." You'll die, was what followed the statement, but I couldn't finish it. Not with him standing there before me, looking like he believed I could do anything. How unaware he was of how incompetent and scared I was. I could feel myself start to shake, so I wrapped my arms around myself to try conceal this from him.