Zero to Hero (Percy Jackson Fanfic)

Chapter Thirty-One-Mnemosyne

Wattpad is being frustrating right now. This chapter is dedicated to kenneypenney13

Annabeth's POV

Inside the anthill was dark. Sight was impossible. I could only hear the scuttling of hundreds upon hundreds of spiny legs echoing through the tunnels, and the scent was horrendous. Imagine the smell of a zoo mixed with the moldy sandwich from last week's lunch multiplied by a hundred. That doesn't even begin to describe how much I wanted to gag from the stench of it. 

I could feel Percy sitting in front of me on the mermeke's back, but I couldn't see him. He gripped my arm. 

"Jump off to your left in three, two, one."

We slid off the ant's back as lightly as we could. Luckily it was so noisy from all the chittering and moving ant legs that none of the mermeke's seemed to notice us. The ground was slanted steeply, and I had to practically get on all fours to prevent slipping.

"We have to go back," Percy said anxiously. 

I looked up at the tiny pinprick of light that had let us enter. "It's too far," I whispered. "They'll bring Grover to the heart of the nest. We have to make our way there."

"How do you know?" he challenged.

I felt for him in front of me, grabbing his hand so we wouldn't lose each other in the dark. "I just know. Come on."

He resisted for a moment, but eventually he allowed me to pull him along next to the line of giant crawling insects. 

"I can't see a thing," Percy whined under his breath. I ignored him, guiding him by listening for the mermekes. 

We walked for what felt like hours. Fortunately, Percy didn't say anything about how much his feet hurt, but mine sure did. The air around us changed, the sounds echoing, and the temperature getting colder. We must have stepped into an open room of some kind.

Next to me there was a peel of metal, followed immediately by a burst of blinding bronze light. I whirled on Percy, who was holding his sword staring at it in shock. 

"Your sword glows?"

"I...guess." Percy gave it a few experimental thrusts, but it still gave off a faint bronze glow. 

I shook my head. How could you not know about your sword glowing in the dark? Glancing around the room, I was met with a rather unpleasant sight. There were mounds upon mounds of gooey pockets lining the walls. They layered on top of each other, up and up, out of the range of Percy's glowing sword's light. I could barely make out hints of movement inside the grayish translucent pods. They were larvae. Mermeke larvae. Thankfully, the queen was nowhere in sight.

Mermekes crawled all over the pods, but there was still a line of them leading into another tunnel. I pointed.

Percy grimaced, but started walking in that direction, his sword held out front like a torch. I worried that the mermekes would realize there were intruders and turn on us, but I suppose they didn't have great eyesight, and with all the ants in here, it was probably hard to distinguish a human smell.

We followed the trail of mermekes for several more minutes. As we walked, I started dragging my feet. It was so humid in the anthill, I could barely think straight. What were we doing here again? 

Ahead of me, Percy stopped. 

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I...I feel like we're supposed to be doing something. Something important. I can't remember what it was."

"Me neither." I furrowed my brow. A name popped into my head: Mnemosyne.

"Maybe," I said, feeling like my voice was a bit slurred, "it's Mnemosyne messing with us. Maybe she doesn't want us to follow the ants."