Daughter of Apollo (Percy Jackson)

Chapter Fifteen

I don't remember much from the fall, just the screaming coming from us and how long it took. Damn, was it a long fall down. By the time we made it to the end, we were all disoriented.

"It's dark as... well... Tartarus down here," Xavier whispers to our small group. "How are we supposed to navigate this?"

Tartarus is the kind of darkness that is completely without light; the kind of darkness that your eyes can never adjust to because it's so damn dark.

"Well we could go towards the growls," I point out, turning to where I think the group is. "But I'm not really sure I'm about that life."

"You're such a baby, you have a sword. Not only that, but you have a bow and arrows as well," I can't see her or her face, but I'm sure Kelly has her hand on her hip and is rolling her eyes as she said it.

"Okay Kelly, well I don't know about you but I know monsters who are killed on Earth are sent here. I also am not sure where you think we are, but we're in Tartarus. Where are they meant to go if they're killed down here?" Needless to say, I'm getting pretty agitated. As one does in hell.

"Just stop fighting, both of you! You're only going to attract the monsters that you're so afraid of. Arguing isn't going to get us anywhere except dead. Now let's make a game plan and find Apollo and restore some damn order to the world!" Xavier takes the authority position and we stay silent after that, waiting for someone to come up with a plan. 

"I say we just storm the damn thing," Kelly says after a minute.

"And get killed, what a fabulous idea, Kelly! Really, bravo!" Percy exclaims sarcastically.

"Okay, chill, all of you," Xavier interjects. "Let's just stick together as a group and take it from there."

"Alright pretty boy, lead the way," Percy mumbles.

We start all but marching towards the growls, two by two. Percy next to me and Kelly next to Xavier. I, of course, had to make sure it was Percy by asking him loudly, which was shushed immediately by Xavier.

"Hey," I whisper towards the raven haired boy. "Pst"

Percy lets out a breathy laugh, "what, Spence?"

"Do you think that if I sang the song from Rapunzel that my hair would start glowing and we could see what this place looks like?" I ask.

He's silent for a moment. "Probably not but it's worth a shot,"

As soon as I start singing the flower song, I can feel the glares from the little toy soldiers ahead of me, sending Percy and I into a fit of quiet giggles.

"Wait guys, what's that ahead? Is that... light?" Ahead of our small group, which I am now starting to be able to see a silhouette of, there is a flickering of light, growing with the growls we were following. Our speed noticeably speeds up, eager to get to the light, but as we get closer, the tension grows, not knowing what will come with the glow.

The light gets brighter, and my eyes hurt as they adjust. A weird feeling comes over me, something like knots in my stomach, and my hand goes for my sword, prepared for the worst.

Once we got to the fire, we were greeted by a lot of monsters, most of which I hadn't bothered to learn the name of in mythological studies. All I know is that in a flash, we were prepared to fight; the monsters seemed to feel the same way, as I'm sure they weren't too happy we crashed their party. In a second, we all lunged towards one another, slashing, jabbing, and on our counterparts end, attempting to bite and claw.

After a valiant effort from our foes, they were defeated; where they went I don't want to think about. Breathing heavy, our group lets out some breathy laughs, exchanging glances as we regain composure.

"That was freaking wild," Xavier exclaims, smiling proudly as he swings his sword in a small circle. "But what do we do now? I mean, where do we go to try and find Apollo?"

"Onwards, I guess," Kelly chimed. "But not without something for light, does anyone see a stick? We can use a jacket or something to keep the fire going." Everyone quickly scrambles, looking around for a stick, or at the very least, a stick substitute. Xavier rushed back over, a stick in one hand, a strip of cloth from his spare jacket in the other. Luckily, crafting the torch was simple enough, and in a few minutes, we had a great light source to continue on our journey in the abyss that is Tartarus.

It takes us a while before coming to something else of interest. In front of us stands a giant door with a big knocker on it, standing in the middle of our path. I went to go around it, just to see where it led, but to my surprise, I found just the back of the door.

"Guys what the hell is this?" I questioned, walking back towards the group from my circle around the free standing dark wooden structure.

"Well, I say we knock," Percy quips while shrugging, making his way towards the gold knocker.

I quickly seize his hand. "Percy what are you doing? You can't just knock on random doors you find in hell!"

"Well, I mean what's the worst that could happen?" Percy complains. "We're the ones with weapons with the ability to kill these little shits if there's anything we don't want to deal with behind it."

Slowly, I let his arm go and nod, watching as he grins and picks up the giant knocker, slamming it down on the wood three times before backing up and waiting in a line with the rest of us, swords drawn. The door in front of us slowly creaks open, revealing a beautiful woman in a blue and gold robe, yawning.

"Guys, seriously? I'm trying to sleep here, what do you want?" the woman asks groggily.

We exchange glances, the group and the woman in front of us. Percy decides to speak up, "Who are you?"

"Hemera, Protogenos of Day, and currently trying to get some sleep, considering I need to be back up on Earth once the sun comes up," Hemera stressed, annoyed at the teenagers standing in front of her.

"That's actually kind of perfect," I began. "My name is Spencer Smith. These are my friends, Kelly Peterson, Xavier Noel, and Percy Jackson. We're on a quest to find my," Kelly coughs. "Sorry, our father, Apollo. Artemis said she saw a vision of him here, in Tartarus, and if you could help us find him, and then help us get out of here, we'd be forever grateful."

"And why should I help you?" Hemera retorts, leaning casually against her door frame.

"I don't know if you've noticed while you're off galavanting on Earth," Xavier sneered, "but the world has kind of lost order without Apollo there to help. Without him, the world will surely go into utter chaos. His son can't do everything forever, and I'm not sure if you know this, but Olympus works like a well oiled machine. Without one of the cogs that keeps it going, it will fall apart. So you can either risk leaving a bunch of teenagers to save Olympus, or you can help us and make sure that it doesn't crumble." Panting, Xavier finishes his speech as all of us, including the Protogenos in front of us, gape at the brunette.

"Well... when you put it that way... I'm in, let's go restore some order."

--

Heyyy guys... long time no see! I'm so sorry I've been AWOL, but I'm back to writing, and hopefully I'll finish this book soon so I can be off to newer things! Which brings me to my next topic, the book will be finishing soon! I know I know, after however long, it's about time. But I'm in a place where I want to knock this out and move on to better stories, so keep an eye out for those!

I have been noticing some extra love being given to DoA though, and to those of you newer readers, welcome to the book that takes forever to upload! Hope you enjoy the ride!

As always, let me know what you think in the comments below and vote and follow!

xx Emily