Gone Girl.¹

𝟬𝟬𝟴. the dying god

gone girl.
━━━ chapter eight

❀

The five of them found Tyson and Grover in a large cave with huge stalagmite columns, a river running through the center of it. The Cyclops was cradling the unconscious young satyr in his lap, a worried look on his face. After everything that they had gone through the last days, Amaryllis refused to believe that Grover was dead, he just couldn't be. They ran over to Tyson, who seemed relieved to see that Percy and Annabeth were okay, like he momentarily forgot about the boy in his lap.

"He's not dead," said Annabeth as she immediately got down on her knees and checked Grover's pulse. He looked just like she remembered him, almost unsettingly so and the only difference was his horns that had grown out a bit. 

They all breathed a sigh of relief. "What happened?" Percy asked his brother, after a quick assessment to make sure that he wasn't injured.

"So many things," Tyson murmured. "Large snake. Large dogs. Men withswords. But then...we got close to here. Grover was excited. He ran. Thenwe reached this room, and he fell. Like this."

"Did he say anything?"

"He said, 'We're close.' Then hit his head on rocks." 

As Percy knelt beside him, Amaryllis looked around the strange cave. It was a beautiful spot, but the atmosphere felt weird, like they were in the presence of something or rather, someone really powerful. Her eyes were fixated on the doorway past the river that seemed to lead in another cave and without realising it, she took some steps closer to the river. 

"Amaryllis!" she heard Rachel call her name and she felt a hand dragging her away from the water. She blinked a few times seeing her worried green eyes. "You were about to fall into the river. Are you okay?"

She reassured the redhead that she was fine and turned her head to see Percy and Annabeth helping Grover to stand up. The girls rushed back to their friends, though Amaryllis was a bit hesitant to approach her old friend. She remembered how none of her friends at Camp recognized her before she introduced herself, not even Annabeth and in a way, she was scared that Grover had forgotten her too.

However, his eyes lit up when he looked at her, even though he still seemed disoriented after he hit his head. "No way, this- Amaryllis?" he asked with furrowed brows, almost as if he didn't believe it. It made sense, considering she was supposed to be dead.

She smiled at him and it was like that simple gesture confirmed her identity for the satyr. He looked at Annabeth semi-freaked out to make sure he wasn't the only one who was seeing the blonde girl. "How-"

"Long story short, I was never dead," Amaryllis shrugged, as if it was nothing and before she knew it, she was pulled into a tight hug. Grover and Amaryllis used to be pretty close, not as close as Annabeth was with both of them, but still. She always treasured his friendship and it wasn't rare that she'd tell Calypso stories of their shenanigans while she was still in Ogygia. "If there's one thing you were always good at is giving hugs," she said as he pulled away. 

"Okay, you have a lot of explaining to do once we're done with this whole Labyrinth shit," he said, still smiling. It felt good to see that she was missed and not entirely forgotten. Though she wasn't exactly picturing her reunion with one of her closest friends to be in an underground mystical cavern, under the looming presence of danger.