Percy wished he could've put the mechanical spider on a leash.
It scuttled along the tunnels so fast, most of time Percy couldn't even see it. If it hadn't been for Tyson's and Grover's excellent hearing, the group never would've known which way it was going.
They ran down a marble tunnel, then dashed to the left and almost fell into an abyss. Tyson grabbed Percy and hauled him back before he could fall.
The tunnel continued in front of them, but there was no floor for about a hundred feet, just gaping darkness and a series of iron rungs in the ceiling. The mechanical spider was about halfway across, swinging from bar to bar by shooting out metal web fiber.
"Monkey bars," Annabeth said. "I'm great at these." She leaped onto the first rung and started swinging her way across. She was scared of tiny spiders, but not of plummeting to her death from a set of monkey bars.
Annabeth got to the opposite side and ran after the spider. Percy followed.
When he got across, he saw Elise having trouble getting down. Percy grabbed her waist to help her down. He could feel her ribs as he set her down; Percy immediately knew she was underweight.
"Uh- uhm, uh thanks." she whispered.
"No problem."
Behind her Tyson giving Grover a piggyback ride. The big guy made it across in three swings, which was a good thing since, just as he landed, the last iron bar ripped free under his weight.
They kept moving and passed a skeleton crumpled in the tunnel.
The spider didn't slow down. Percy almosted slipped on a pile of wood scraps, but when he shined a light on them, he realized they were pencils—hundreds of them, all broken in half.
The tunnel opened up onto a large room. A blinding light hit the demigods. Once their eyes adjusted, the first thing they noticed were the skeletons. Dozens littered the floor around us. Some were old and bleached white. Others were more recent and a lot grosser.
Then the group saw the monster. She stood on a glittery dais on the opposite side of the room. She had the body of a huge lion and the head of a woman. She had a blue ribbon badge pinned to her chest that took me a moment to read: THIS MONSTER HAS BEEN RATED EXEMPLARY!
Tyson whimpered. "Sphinx." Percy knew exactly why he was scared. When he was small, Tyson had been attacked by a Sphinx's paws and disappeared.
Annabeth started forward, but the Sphinx roared, showing fangs in her otherwise human face. Bars came down on both tunnel exits, behind them and in front.
Immediately the monster's snarl turned into a brilliant smile. "Welcome, lucky contestants!" she announced. "Get ready to play...ANSWER THAT RIDDLE!"
Canned applause blasted from the ceiling, as if there were invisible loudspeakers. Spotlights swept across the room and reflected off the dais, throwing disco glitter over the skeletons on the floor.
"Fabulous prizes!" the Sphinx said. "Pass the test, and you get to advance! Fail, and I get to eat you! Who will be our contestant?"
Annabeth grabbed Percy's arm. "I've got this," she whispered. "I know what she's going to ask."
Percy didn't argue too hard. He didn't want Annabeth getting devoured by a monster, but he figured if the Sphinx was going to ask riddles, Annabeth was the best one of us to try. Maybe Elise was, maybe she wasn't, Percy didn't know.
She stepped forward to the contestant's podium, which had a skeleton in a school uniform hunched over it. She pushed the skeleton out of the way, and it clattered to the floor.
"Sorry," Annabeth told it.
"Welcome, Annabeth Chase!" the monster cried, though Annabeth hadn't said her name. "Are you ready for your test?"
"Yes," she said. "Ask your riddle."
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SAFE || percy jackson
Fanfiction" she lived with hurricane eyes and he fell in love with the way the waved collapsed on her cheeks. " - christopher poindexter [book one] [percy jackson x oc] [battle of the labyrinth]
