¹On This Spring Day, percy jackson & the olympians

005.

ON THIS SPRING DAY
━━━━━ chapter five

━━━━━ THE BRIGHT SIDE to the pathway Violet had chosen was that, for once, there were no side exits, twists, or turns. It was a straight tunnel made out of dirty, grimy cement. But the dark side was the fact it was a dead end.

               After Violet and the others had sprinted about a hundred yards, they ran head-on into an enormous boulder that completely blocked their path. Behind them, the sounds of dragging footsteps and heavy breathing echoed down the corridor. Something—definitely not human—was on their tail.

               "Tyson," said Percy, "can you—"

               "Yes!" He slammed his shoulder against the rock so hard the whole tunnel shook. Dust trickled from the stone ceiling.

               "Hurry!" Grover said. "Don't bring the roof down, but hurry!"

               The boulder finally gave way with a horrible grinding noise. Tyson pushed it into a small room, and they all dashed through behind it.

               "Close the entrance!" Annabeth hissed at them.

               Together, they all got on the other side of the boulder and pushed. Whatever was chasing them wailed in frustration as they heaved the rock back into place and sealed the corridor.

               "We trapped it," Percy sighed, his shoulders dropping with relief.

               "Or trapped ourselves," Grover whimpered.

               Violet frowned at the satyr. "Okay, no need to be such a downer, goat boy."

               "Look, Vi," advised Annabeth.

               Violet did; she turned and looked around. They were in a twenty-foot-square cement room, and the opposite wall was covered with metal bars. They'd tunneled straight into a cell.

               Violet's shoulders slumped. "Never thought I'd see myself behind bars ..." she muttered gloomily. "Always thought it'd be Connor and Travis, not me."

               "What in Hades?" Annabeth tugged on the bars. They didn't budge. Through the bars, Violet could see rows of cells in a ring around a dark courtyard—at least three stories of metal doors and metal catwalks.

               "So this is a prison," Percy muttered, staring at it all. "Maybe Tyson can break—"

               "Shh," said Grover. "Listen."

               Somewhere above them, deep sobbing echoed through the building. There was another sound, too—a raspy voice muttering something that Violate couldn't make out. The words were strange, like rocks in a tumbler.

               "What's that language?" Percy whispered.

               Tyson's eye widened. "Can't be."

               "What, Tyson?" asked Violet. "What is it?"

               The Cyclops grabbed two bars on their cell door and bent them wide enough for even a Cyclops to slip through.

               "Wait!" Grover called.

               But Tyson wasn't about to wait. He marched on ahead, leaving the others to run after him. The prison was dark, with only a few dim fluorescent lights flickering above.