𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 | 𝐩. 𝐣𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐨𝐧

Monster sex ed

It wasn't long before the tunnel started to get hot.

The stone walls glowed. The air felt as if they were walking through an oven. The tunnel sloped down and Evangeline could hear a loud roar like a river of metal. The spider skittered along, with Annabeth right behind.

"Hey, wait up," Percy called.

Annabeth glanced at him. "Yeah?"

"Something Hephaestus said back there... about Athena."

"She swore never to marry," she said. "Like Artemis and Hestia. She's one of the maiden goddesses."

Percy blinked. "But then—"

"How come she has demigod children?"

The son of Poseidon nodded.

"Percy, you know how Athena was born?"

"She sprang from the head of Zeus in full battle armor or something," he said.

"Exactly. She wasn't born in the normal way. She was born from thoughts. Her children are born the same way. When Athena falls in love with a mortal man, it's purely intellectual, the way she loved Odysseus in the old stories. It's a meeting of minds. She would tell you that's the purest kind of love."

"So your dad and Athena..." Percy's were wide. "So you weren't..."

"I was a brainchild," Annabeth huffed. "Literally. Children of Athena are sprung from the divine thoughts of our mother and the mortal ingenuity of our father. We are supposed to be a gift, a blessing from Athena on the men she favors."

"The spiders getting away," Annabeth said. "I'm assuming you don't need me to explain either process of having kids?"

"Um... no. That's okay."

The daughter of Athena smirked. "I thought not," And she ran ahead.

Percy grabbed the brunette and pulled her next to him. She had noticed the looks he was giving her.

"Percy, my parents had sex like yours did." She rolled her eyes.

Percy's face turned red, as he let go of her arm. Evangeline walked forward, following after the blonde.

Mary hadn't gotten the chance to give Evangeline the talk, but Hades had, well not exactly, he begged Persephone to do it. It was an awkward Tuesday for the brunette and her step mother.

The roaring got louder. After another half mile or so, the three emerged in a cavern the size of a stadium. The spider escort stopped and curled into a ball. They had arrived at the forge of Hephaestus.

There was no floor, just bubbling lava hundreds of feet below. They stood on a rock ridge that circled the cavern. A network of metal bridges spanned across it. At the center was a huge platform with all sorts of machines, cauldrons, forges, and the largest anvil she had ever seen— a block of iron the size of a house. Creatures moved around the platform—several strange, dark shapes, but they were too far away to make out the details.

Annabeth picked up the metal spider and slipped it into her pocket. "I'm going to go scope the place. You two wait here."

Before the two could say anything Annabeth put on her Yankees cap and turned invisible. Evangeline glanced back toward the Labyrinth tunnel, missing Grover and Tyson already. When she looked back Percy was creeping along the outer rim of the lava lake.

"Percy?" She whispered as she asked. "Perseus Jackson?" She didn't see him anywhere.

That was until Percy grabbed her arm and pulled her next to him as they went along the rim of the boiling lava.