The Lightning Thief [Book One]

Reagan Makes a Friend.

The Underworld was definitely depressing. Black mountains were in the distance, barely reaching the stalagmite filled ceiling. Charon began to walk, and they all followed after him quickly as to not get lost among the spirits. They walked on a pier towards a boat, and once again Charon had to make sure none of the spirits climbed onto the boat with them. Once on the boat, they were all careful not to tip the boat over or fall into the river. As they waded down the river, Reagan glanced up at Charon, only to inhale sharply and quickly look away. His face has morphed, and instead of flesh and eyes she had seen white bone with dark eyeless sockets.

Eventually they hey reached another pier and the four hopped off of the boat. When they turned to look a him, Charon was already maneuvering the boat around and called out. "Make sure to ask Hades for a raise for me!" he shouted over his shoulder.

They watched him disappear down the river again before turning to continue their journey. There were crowded lines filled with restless spirits. As they waded through all the waiting spirits, the crowd split into lines. Some were long lines that were waiting for judgment, and then a line split off into an EZ line straight into the Fields of Asphodel. Suddenly a growl, low and menacing filled their ears. As they neared where the crowd split into lines, slowly a large silhouette manifested itself. A three headed dog loomed over everything, checking to make sure that all the dead were actually dead and not someone living trying to sneak through. Apparently getting a whiff of fresh Demigods and a goat boy, six beady eyes zoned in on them and growled menacingly. There wasn't anyway to get around, only through his legs.

"How do we get p-passed this?" Grover whimpered.

Reagan was staring at the large dog, lips pursed into a thin line. She turned and rifled through the backpack that Percy was starting to hold instead now, and eventually pulled out the same red rubber ball she had found at the water park.

"What are you going to do?" Percy asked as he shouldered the backpack again.

Reagan weighed the ball in her hand before bouncing the ball high up in the air. The red ball caught the dogs attention, and Cerberus turned all heads as they watched the tiny ball soar into the air right out of reach and back into Reagan's hand.

"I'm going to use this ball to train Cerberus," Reagan explained dryly without looking away from the large dog. "He... He just needs a friend is all," she added, but didn't sound so confident at that. "You guys go on without me. I'll keep him busy."

She bounced the ball gently this time, keeping the dogs attention. Reagan looked up at him and frowned sadly, holding it up experimentally and waving it. As Cerberus' heads all followed after the ball, she grinned and tossed it up. The head to the left caught the red ball eagerly, and the other two heads responded by snapping at the poor third head in attempt to get a turn with the rubber ball. Reagan watched as the rubber ball was already getting torn up between the razor sharp teeth of one head.

"Drop it!" she shouted up at them. All three heads turned to look at her like "Is this puny mortal really asking for our toy?!" But Reagan put her hands on her hips and repeated in a harsher tone. "Drop it!"

Reluctantly the ball dropped from a drooling mouth, covered in saliva as it rolled to Reagan's feet. Percy thought she was crazy as she picked up the ball without a second thought. "Now sit!" she shouted up at them, holding up the ball again to captivate their attention. To Percy's and Grover's surprise, Cerberus plopped down, crushing a group of the dead passing between its legs. The dog's tail was wagging happily, and Reagan was pretty sure that Cerberus hadn't been played with in many, many centuries.

"See. You all just needed some love. Am I right?" Reagan shouted up at them in a mother-like tone, a genuine smile etched into her features.

The heads barked happily in response, causing the cavern to shake like there was an earthquake. Reagan made sure to throw the ball up as hard and high as possible. Cerberus shot up, standing on its hind legs so that the middle head successfully caught the ball. The large dog landed on all fours, the two outer heads growling and snapping or the ball that the middle head had.

"Go!" Reagan said quickly without taking her eyes off of Cerberus.

"What about you?" Percy asked as they all carefully edged underneath Cerberus to pass through his legs.

"I'll catch up."

Annabeth watched Reagan closely, but a tug from Percy brought her back to reality. Turning, the three remaining turned and ran towards the Fields of Asphodel. After a moment of them running, they stopped and started to walk through the boring field. Several minutes passed in silence, but panting caused them to turn around and watch as Reagan was running in their direction away from Cerberus.

"W-What is this place?" Reagan panted as she caught up with them.

"Fields of Asphodel," Annabeth answered, glancing up at Reagan than away. "It's where the spirits that didn't do anything special go for an eternity."

"It's like standing in a wheat field in Arkansas, like, forever," Grover said as he glanced around.

The spirits didn't seem to take any notice of them four, even passing through them sometimes and leaving a cold chill. Stalactites had fallen from the roof of the Underworld, impaling into the ground. It made Percy nervously glance up and hope that they wouldn't get hit by falling rocks. Reagan had gone silent, and Annabeth was the first to notice.

"You okay?" she asked softly.

Reagan was staring at her knotted hands. "I always wanted a dog of my own. I had an alley cat for a friend, because the apartment didn't allow animals," she muttered, thumbs tuning over faint white scars all over her hands. Annabeth noticed them for the first time. Otherwise, if you didn't really look at her hands too long you'd never really notice all of the scars that lined her flesh in random, zig-zagging patterns. "I always loved to play with the kitten, even though he cut me up really badly."

Annabeth stared at her hands as they walked, Cerberus' mournful howls impossible to ignore as his newfound friend left.