Sea Princess

Chapter 31

I woke up to see I was the only one up right now. I sighed and moved so I was leaning against the wall. I rubbed my eyes trying to get the sleep out of my eyes. It was eerily quiet in the maze right now and it left me to think of Luke and what had happened in the dream. He had wished me luck. I sighed and pulled my knees up to my chest as I pulled a snack out of my bookbag and started to munch quietly. Over the next half hour or so everyone else started to wake up. Percy glanced at me as he woke up.

"You good?" He asked. I nodded. Once we all got something to snack on, we headed back down the tunnel. After a while we were all in a cave where there was a rectangular pit dug out in the dirt. I glanced around looking for something to pop out at us, but it was quiet. 

"Smells like the Underworld in here." Grover muttered. That's when Percy walked over to it and shined his flashlight down into the pit.

"What is it?" I muttered looking at the frown on his face.

"Nico. He was summoning the dead again." Percy muttered. I frowned. I didn't like the sound of that.

"Ghosts were here. I don't like ghosts." Tyson whimpered. I glanced back at Tyson and shook my head.

"We got to find him." Percy said taking off. I couldn't let that little idiot go off by himself especially since I think Nico and Blake were related.

"Hey wait!" I yelled running off after him. 

"Cassi! Percy wait!" Annabeth yelled after us. I heard their footsteps running behind us and when we finally came to a stop I was out of breath. Percy had paused underneath a metal grate. We could see the sky above through the metal bars of the grate. 

"Where are we?" Percy asked. I coughed and shrugged. I needed to do more cardio when we got back to camp. That's when a cow's face came into view. It mooed at us, and I stared up at it confused because it was bright red. I heard Percy start talking but I tuned him out. I stood up on my tiptoes trying to figure out where it led. 

"Cassi move." Percy muttered. He pulled me to the side as Tyson put his hands against the bars and pushed. He pushed the thing straight up and out of the way. We heard a startled moo after a clang. I nodded and then I was the first one to be boosted out of the tunnel.  My mouth dropped open as I stared at the plains that were surrounding us. 

"I don't think I've ever been so happy to see grass." I muttered as I glanced up at the blue sky.

"Red cattle. The cattle of the sun." Annabeth said. I glanced to see all the cows were indeed a red color. They were walking around grazing on the grass around them. 

"What?" Percy asked confused.

"They're sacred to Apollo." I said. 

"Holy cows?" He chuckled.

"Exactly. But what are they doing-?" Annabeth asked confused.

"Wait, listen." Grover muttered. That's when we heard dogs. Great that's just what I wanted, to be chased by dogs after getting out of the labyrinth. They got closer until it appeared out from underneath some brush by us. It was one dog with two heads and growling at us. Grover tried to speak to it, but it snapped at him. I rolled my eyes and then a huge guy appeared behind the dog with the two heads. I blinked really confused at the guy. He reminded me of Hulk Hogan if he was a redneck. I shook my head.

"Heel Orthus." He said to the dog. The dog growled and then went back to the huge guy.

"What do we have here? Cattle rustlers?" He asked. 

"Just travelers. We're on a quest." Annabeth said quickly.

"Half-bloods, eh?" He asked. I nodded. 

"I'm Annabeth, daughter of Athena. This is Percy and Cassandra, daughter and son of Poseidon. Grover the satyr. Tyson the-" She said listing off everyone in order.