[DanMachi/Percy Jackson] Prytaneum

Chapter 3: Shedding Light

Mrs. O'Leary whined in the darkness, the sound echoing. She was pressed close to me—or rather, I was lying against her on the wet ground, having finally collapsed from the exertion.
"I'm okay," I assured her, reaching out to touch her fur. The words might have been ruined by the coughing fit that followed, though. Although my wounds had healed, I felt ill, probably as a side effect of creating so much water—and while said water had fixed pretty much everything else it hadn't healed the damage it caused itself. On top of that, I felt dry in a way that no amount of drinking seemed to fix. Maybe if I drank it all but...well, there was a lot of water and it didn't taste great. "It wasn't your fault."
Mrs. O'Leary whined again, the sound one of disagreement and remorse.
I patted her consolingly but honestly didn't have the energy for much more. But there were still things I had to ask.
"Do you know what happened?" I asked. "Do you know where the others are? I just woke up, but...are there others?"
Mrs. O'Leary barked loudly enough to deafen me briefly, a paw scratching at the floor and peeling up massive shavings. It seemed like she was trying to tell me something.
Unfortunately, I didn't speak dog very well.
"Could you take me to any of them?" I asked, rolling slightly to press a cheek into her side. When she went silent and still, I closed my eyes and sighed. "Do you know if...if I'm here, do you think any of the others are alive?"
She whimpered.
"I hope so, too," I said before coughing again. Mrs. O'Leary shifted slightly, nearly bowling me over with a twitch. Her face brushed close, pressing against me in concern, and I opened my eyes quickly when I realized I was falling asleep. "I need water. And...someplace safe. To recover. Do you...?"
She was silent for what seemed like a long, long time before shaking once and rising to her feet. After a moment, she picked me up in her mouth—far more gently than last time, of course—and began running. I felt it when she slid into the shadows again, but I didn't realize I'd blacked out until the shock of water reawakened me.
When I opened my eyes, I was sinking slowly, looking up at Mrs. O'Leary's face as she stared down at me worriedly from above the water. Only a moment after I realized we'd arrived, I felt the sharp edge of exhaustion that I'd been ignoring dull and fade away. Energy flowed into me from the water and I opened my mouth to take a deep breath, filling my lungs with the stuff. Then, once they were full, I began to swallow it instead, quenching my thirst. I didn't leave the water yet, though—or rather, I didn't dare to. By now, all my injuries had healed, but that didn't mean that the exhaustion had simply faded, except perhaps some of the physical side of it. Still, if I was going to do anything about...this, I'd need to recover my strength and think things through.
It was hard. As a demigod—and especially as a son of Poseidon—sitting around doing nothing didn't come easily to me. Though my mind now felt free of the exhaustion that had been weighing it down, that just left it free to worry and race. I wanted to know what had happened. I wanted to know how the battle had gone, who had survived, where I was, how I'd gotten here, and more. I wanted to know what had happened to my mother and father, to the camp, to the people relying on me, to Olympus, to everything. I wanted to find out what had happened to Mrs. O'Leary and I wanted to know if I was alone in this place or if my other friends had come along for the ride, too.
That last one was getting to me especially badly. The situation I'd woken up in hadn't exactly been demigod friendly—odds were good that if I'd tried fighting my way through them, I wouldn't have gotten very far. And those monsters had moved to attack me the moment I'd woken up; if they'd done the same to everyone else...
Well. Not everyone had a handy hellhound to come to their rescue. And even then, my handy hellhound had nearly been the death of me. I could easily imagine some of my friends getting mobbed by monsters, torn apart, and eaten without any idea about what was happening.
I couldn't let that happen. If there was anyone here, if our enemies were still alive and working against us, then I was still their leader. I was the one they'd followed into danger so I had to be the one to get them out of it, whatever it was. And I wouldn't be doing that by staying here with my head in the waves.
But...at the same time, I wasn't going to be helping anyone by just rushing headfirst into an unknown situation, either. I only had a vague idea of how large this place was but I could already tell that just searching randomly wasn't going to get me very far. A sense of urgency was all well and good but rushing off without a plan would get me nowhere. I'd already noticed the similarities between this place and the Labyrinth—and if they truly were similar, I'd just waste time if I didn't think things through carefully.
If my friends were alive and if they were here, then they could be anywhere inside this maze. But—and this was important—I had no way of knowing where. I didn't even know where I was, for crying out loud. My ability to sense water was painting some very weird pictures, however, especially combined with all the things I couldn't sense. Even so, this place had to be enormous. If I was wandering around looking for someone who was wandering around looking for something else in a gigantic maze full of monsters, we had better odds of dying then we did of finding one another, and while I'd happily risk my life for them, I was also aware that actually dying wouldn't help them. I need to think of something more helpful.
At the end of the day, having a bunch of people wandering around a maze was just going to make things difficult—we needed a place that everyone could head towards, at the very least. Preferably a safe place, too, and one they would know to head towards without being told. And if there was somewhere we'd all try to get to in a maze...it was obvious, right?
The exit.
More than that, if I got out of here, I could start looking for answers from that side of things and maybe find some help on the outside. If this was the Labyrinth—or something like it—then finding Rachel or someone else who could guide me was a necessity. I wouldn't be finding anyone in here if I found myself going in circles and falling into traps, after all. If any of the gods had survived the fighting, if anyone at the Camp was still around, or if anyone had woken up before me and managed to escape, then I could get help before diving back in or maybe even a few leads on where to look.
And also...I needed to find out what was happening. If this was all some elaborate hell designed by the Titans or something, then this wouldn't just be a rescue mission and I'd have to prepare myself for that.
I closed my eyes and sighed.
It was a good idea—or at least I thought it was. But it didn't change how it felt. Even if it was the best way to save them, I couldn't keep from wondering if anyone else had woken up at the same time I had. And if they had...had I already failed to protect them? Would I fail more by leaving or delaying? Did I have any choice in the matter?
There was no answer. There was no one to even ask—not anymore.
I placed a hand on Annabeth's dagger and let myself slowly drift off in the shifting waters of the lake. The sooner I recovered, the sooner I could get to work.