Annabeth Chase the Triwizard Champion

Chapter Thirty Five

All the noise was hushed as the hedges rose around Annabeth. They cast long shadows across the entire passage, throwing Annabeth and Harry into darkness. The hedges were unpruned and wild looking, giving Annabeth the impression of fingers and claws reaching out in the dark, trying to grab her. Shivering, Annabeth lit the tip of her wand, and next to her she heard and saw Harry do the same.

After only a minute or two, they reached a fork in the path.

"Good luck, Harry," Annabeth said, turning towards the right fork.

"You too, Annabeth." Harry turned towards the left, and then he was gone as Annabeth started walking and the whistle blew again.

The maze was dark and only getting darker, and Annabeth was reminded so strongly of the labyrinth that she had to stop and take a short second to convince her mind otherwise. Still, it was a maze, and it was packed with obstacles, and she felt like she was being watched by unseen eyes, and it was dark. Really dark. The light from her wand falling over the dirt ground was just like the beams of Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson's flashlights, though the wand's light was less focused, and Annabeth was alone.

The whistle sounded a third time. Everyone was in.

Annabeth glanced up. She couldn't see the stands, which meant they couldn't see her. Quickly, Annabeth took off her baggy sweater and undid the knot around her waist, grabbing her actual dagger and holster that she had tied to her back.

Of course she had expected them to take her weapons. Even if she had been hoping they wouldn't, Annabeth wasn't one to leave things up to chance.

Strapping the holster onto its rightful place on her arm, Annabeth put her sweater back on and continued.

She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched, and after a moment, Annabeth heard something: little scuttling footsteps. She knew those sounds. It was one of Hagrid's Blast Ended Skrewts, and judging by how fast they had grown at the beginning of the year and the volume of the scuttles, Annabeth guessed that it was a lot bigger than it had been when she'd last seen it.

Unfortunately, she was right.

The skrewt rounded a corner, and it was huge, bigger than the scorpions had been in the woods at Camp. What had Hagrid been feeding them?!

The exoskeleton was a deep red, armored plates layered over each other, stinger curved over its back and dripping with venom. As it scuttled forward, it's butt let out a short blast of fire, propelling it forward a few feet.

Annabeth unsheathed her dagger and tensed, sinking into her stance.

The Skrewt lashed out with a claw, unreasonably fast for a bug its size. Annabeth dogged and felt the pincers snap shut on thin air right next to her neck. She ran to the side, away from a corner, looking for a weakness in the shell. After a second, still dodging the claws and stinger, she found it.

Where one of the legs met the rest of the body, where the armor plates overlapped. When the skrewt moved that leg to walk, a gap formed, just big enough for a dagger or a well aimed spell.

Annabeth had a plan. She fell back and away from any corners, hopping over a root that curved up from the ground. She waited until the skrewt was just in the right position, and—

"Incendio!" Annabeth shouted, aiming for the face. The spell sent a thin jet of flame straight for where an eye might have been and hit true, sending the screw scrambling backwards.

One of the scuttling legs hooked around the root and sent the skrewt flailing. It wasn't enough to knock it down, but it was enough for Annabeth to get at its underbelly, where the armor was soft and pliable. Carefully, she tried to get close, but a scuttling leg cut her cheek and she fell back, adjusting her grip on her dagger.