A Tale of Romans and Slaves | PJO/HOO

Chapter 3: Annabeth

The ludus was alive with sound.

Everyone was rushing to the courtyard. Lord Dionysus had returned from Lord Hades' slave auction, and everyone wanted to take a look at the new to-be gladiators from Argos.

I had been gathering water from the well when his carriage rolled up, so I didn't have to move. Instead, I was in the front row of the slaves waiting to see.

Lord Dionysus climbed out of the carriage, his wife, Lady Ariadne, right behind him. Then, my friend and fellow slave Clarisse unlocked and opened the cell attached to the carriage.

A boy with curly hair and a mischievous look in his eye climbed out first. He didn't have much muscle, but he looked fast. And in the arena, speed is just as important as strength.

Then five more boys climbed out, all of them super big and well-muscled. Then a beautiful girl followed them.

I thought that was it, but then another boy climbed out. He had black hair, and sea-green eyes. Also, he was super handsome.

I noticed my jaw was open, so I hastily shut it.

The boys were led off to the doctors, to make sure they were in good enough shape to fight. The rest of us started to break off to get back to our chores.

"Hey, you!" I snapped my head over to Lady Ariadne, who was pointing at me. "Show this one around."

I nodded and curtsied, then looked at the new girl, whom Lady Ariadne was now pointing at. "Of course, my lady."

Lady Ariadne left, followed by her handmaidens. The girl approached me, her wrists tied together.

"Hi," She said, her voice soft and laced with fear, "I'm Silena."

"Annabeth," I replied as I untied her. "Welcome to Dionysus' ludus."

"I'm not going to have to fight, right?" She asked, rubbing her wrists. I thought she was joking, but then I noticed the fear in her eyes.

"Of course not," I said. "The arena is for the men. You'll be doing chores for the gladiators and the nobles."

She smiled. "Oh, phew. I should've guessed that. It's just, the boys spent the whole ride talking about their futures as gladiators, and it made me think, and-"

"I get it," I said, cutting her off. I didn't have those questions when I first got here, but my friend Katie did.

I spent the next three hours showing Silena where everything was, and explaining all the jobs to her. Then it was dinner.

After dinner, which was bread and soup, I got to my chores. Seeing as I'd been showing Silena around, I had a lot. Laundry, sewing, cooking... you name it, I did it.

Finally, I finished everything but my final one, which was feeding the gladiators. I grabbed the tray that held the plates of meat and headed to the cells.

While the gladiators' lunch was served in the mess hall, breakfast and dinner was served in their cells.

The cells were all in one long hall, and the farther you walked down, the newer the gladiators got.

Most of them said nothing to me when I slide their dinner through the small slab at the bottom of their doors, while others said 'thank you' in either Greek or Latin.

Finally, I got to Luke's cell.

"Hey," He whispered.

"Hey," I replied. Luke was my half-brother Matthew's friend, back in Athens. Back when I was Lady Annabeth, my father's forgotten daughter.

But that life was gone, and Matthew and my father were dead. I didn't even know what happened to my other half-brother, Bobby.

"How was practice today?" I asked.

"I'm alive," He said, taking the plate from me. In his first arena fight, he had gotten a nasty scar on his eye. He had killed the gladiator who gave it to him.

"Good," I said, and then I stood up and moved on. I wasn't technically allowed to talk to the gladiators, and I couldn't let anyone find out about Luke and I's friendship.

I continued down the hall. Eventually, I got to the new curly-haired boy.

"Hi, I'm Travis," He whispered as I gave him his food.

"Annabeth," I replied as I stood up.

Two cells later, there was sea-eyes.

"Hi," He said as I gave him his food.

"Hi," I replied. I knew I should leave, but something made me want to talk to this boy.

"My name's Percy," He said.

"Annabeth," I replied. He tilted his head at me.

"As in Annabeth Chase?" He asked. "From Athens?"

"That was me," I replied sadly. "Before."

He didn't press the topic. Suddenly, I noticed that he had a bandage wrapped around his chest. How did I not notice that?

"Training incident?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah," He replied. "I'm a fisherman's son. I've never even held a sword before."

"You'll get the hang of it," I replied.

We stared at each other for a couple seconds, my words hanging in the air. I had a weird feeling in my gut, like butterflies were flying around in it.

Percy cleared his threat, breaking the silence. I stood up and straightened my dress.

"See you tomorrow?" He asked.

"Yeah," I replied with a smile. "See you tomorrow."