𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 ! [percy jackson]¹

C H A P T E R ⬩ N I N E

L ' A M O U R

C H A P T E R   N I N E

( holy cows ? )

⟶⬩♡⬩⟵

          OKAY, I CONSIDER myself to be in relatively good shape. After spending an entire year at Camp Half-Blood and then several years at a military school beforehand, one gets into shape pretty quickly. You would have to be, otherwise the mile-long runs and the constant survival drills would lead to death by exhaustion. 

However, running through the maze proved me wrong. It may have been lack of sleep or lack of food or water or something, but after a few minutes of running through the twisting corridors, I was ready to pass out from lack of oxygen. My lungs burned inside my chest and my throat stung, my legs feeling like jelly. Luckily, the others were just as tired as I was, so the running came to an abrupt stop rather quickly.

We ended up in a room full of waterfalls. The floor was one big pit, ringed by a slippery stone walkway. Around us, on all four walls, water tumbled from huge pipes. The water spilled down into the pit, and even when Percy shined a light, we couldn't see the bottom.

Briares slumped against the wall. He scooped up water in a dozen hands and washed his face. "This pit goes straight to Tartarus," he murmured. "I should jump in and save you trouble."

And I thought I had been suicidal to go into Talos last winter. This Hundred-Handed One was so depressed and broken down that I had little hope of saving him, which was rare. I was an optimistic person, I swear, but sometimes there were cases like these where all hope seemed lost for someone. Of course, I'd still try, but there wasn't much hope for him if he didn't try himself.

"Don't talk that way," Annabeth told him. "You can come back to camp with us. You can help us prepare. You know more about fighting Titans than anybody."

"I have nothing to offer," Briares said. "I have lost everything."

"What about your brothers?" Tyson asked. "The other two must still stand tall as mountains! We can take you to them."

Briares's expressions morphed to something even sadder: his grieving face. "They are no more. They faded."

The waterfalls thundered. Tyson stared into the pit and blinked tears out of his eye. 

Faded? As in vanished? Disappeared? What had he meant?

"What exactly do you mean, they faded?" Ashton asked. "I thought monsters were immortal, like the gods."

"Ashton," Grover said weakly, "even immortality has limits. Sometimes. . . sometimes monsters get forgotten and they lose their will to stay immortal."

Looking at Grover's face, I wondered if he was thinking of Pan. I remembered the one of the stories Percy had told me, the one about him fighting Medusa on his first quest. How she had talked about how her two sisters had passed away, leaving her alone. And the story of Artemis and Apollo taking Helios and Selena's jobs because the god and goddess had disappeared.