The Battle of the Conflicted

III - Annabeth

We walked about fifty feet before we realized we had no idea where we were. The room we had entered was circular and was constructed out of red bricks with portholes every few feet. Even though it was simple, I couldn't help but admire the structure.

'Wait'  I thought  'This wasn't here when I came in with Percy.'

I should have realized that it would have changed. Luckily, I had made sure to study the maps of the labyrinth thoroughly so they were now pretty clear in my head. I figured that if we stayed close to the left wall we could try to backtrack and we could perhaps try to find another way.

"If we keep one hand on the left wall and follow it, we should be able to find our way out again by reversing course."

Though as soon as I had finished, the left wall had vanished and we appeared in a circular chamber with eight tunnels leading out.

I know that the labyrinth was meant to confuse and trick you but I honestly didn't think it would be this bad, even if the maps had made it look pretty confusing I figured I would at least be able to get farther than this.

"Which way did we come in?" Grover said with a quiver in his voice.

"Just turn around." I said nervously, but tried to disguise it as confidence.

They all turned around and I immediately knew that they too were trying to figure out which way would lead us back to camp. Each one of them turned to look down a separate tunnel.

"Left walls are mean," Tyson said. "Which way now?"

I swept my flashlight beam over the eight tunnels. Four of the tunnels had absolutely no light from what could see, the other four had slight light but three out of those had shadows moving in them, very slightly, and you couldn't see them if you weren't trying to, but i figured it would be safe to go with the one that didn't have any movement.

"That way." I said

"How do you know?" Percy asked.

"Deductive reasoning."

"So... you're guessing."

Wow. I knew Percy wasn't the smartest person I knew, but after him knowing me this long and still doubting my abilities? It was honestly impressive that he had lasted as long as he had before he met me.

"Just come on."

The tunnel narrowed quickly as we trudged through the almost complete darkness. I could see as the walls changed from red bricks to gray cement, and as the ceiling got lower and lower, to the point where Tyson had to crawl.

"I can't stand it anymore! Are we there yet?" Grover said, hyperventilating loudly.

I turned to look at him, "We've been down here maybe five minutes."

"It's been longer than that! And why would Pan be down here? This is the opposite of the wild!"

I chose to ignore him and we all kept on walking. All of a sudden the tunnel opened into a huge room. Percy and I shined our flashlights around the walls and I was struck with how beautiful the room was.

The whole room was covered in mosaic tiles. All of a sudden I realized what had looked to be just dull colors on a dirty wall were beautiful murals. I silently gasped. They were gorgeous, with the gods, the roman gods, all put into it and colors of red, green, gold, and blue, dancing on the walls.

I then took notice of a three-tiered fountain that looked like it hadn't held water in it for over a thousand years, in the middle of the room.

"What is this place?" Percy whispered rather loudly. "It looks---"