𝙩𝙪 𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨 - p. jackson [₂]

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒊𝒊.

―✧―

𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐀 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐔𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐍'𝐓 𝐅𝐔𝐍.

i resisted the urge to gag, even though the remnants of the curtain didn't stick to me. the feeling while going through it was revolting enough on its own.

the three of us found ourselves in a cool, damp pit that seemed to be the basement level of a temple. all around us, uneven ground stretched into darkness under a low ceiling of stone.

directly above our heads, a rectangular gap was open to the sky. i could see the edges of walls and the tops of columns, but no monsters... yet.

the mucus-camouflage membrane had closed behind us and blended into the ground. 

piper pressed her hand against it, but the area was solid rock. i turned around quickly, trying not to throw up at the reminder of the feeling. 

percy ran his hand along some marks on the ground — a jagged crow's-foot shape as long as a human body. the area was lumpy and white, like stone scar tissue.

"that's the place," i told percy, crouching next to him to touch the scars. "these are the trident marks of poseidon."

"he must've been using his extra-extra-large trident," percy commented.

the two of us stared at the marks, basking in the history behind them. even now, so many years later, the power of poseidon radiated off of the scars.

"we're beneath the erechtheion," i said, getting up after a minute. "it's a temple to both athena and poseidon, so that should at least cover percy's scent. the parthenon should be diagonally to the southeast of here. we'll need to sneak around the perimeter and disable as many siege weapons as we can, make an approach path for the argo i."

"it's broad daylight," piper said. "how will we go unnoticed?"

"lucky for us, annabeth thought of that already. she made a plan with frank and hazel. hopefully... ah, look!" i said, scanning the sky. i grinned a bee zipped overhead. dozens more followed. they swarmed around a column, then hovered over the opening of the pit. "say hi to frank, everyone!"

piper waved. the cloud of bees zipped away.

"how does that even work?" percy said. "like... one bee is a finger? two bees are his eyes?"

"i don't know," i admitted. "not sure i want to know, either. but he's our go-between. as soon as he gives hazel the word, she will—"

"gah!" percy yelped.

i clamped my hand over his mouth.

which looked strange, because suddenly each of us had turned into a hulking, six-armed earthborn.