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𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔
┏━━━━ ★ ━━━━┓ 𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓬𝔂 𝓙 ┗━━━━ ★ ━━━━┛
He wasn't sure why she froze, but the minute they stopped running she moved to the side and puke. Before he could move, Grover moved to hold her hair back.
They stopped in a room full of waterfalls. The floor was one big pit, ringed by a slippery stone walkway. Around them, on all four walls, water tumbled from huge pipes. The water spilled down into the pit, and even when he shined a light, he 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."
"Don't talk that way," Annabeth told him, glancing at Anastasia. "You can come back to camp with us. You can help us prepare. You know more about fighting Titans than anybody."
Anastasia raised a thumbs down. Grover pushed it down.
"I have nothing to offer," Briares said. "I have lost everything."
"What about your brothers?" Tyson asked. "The other two must stand tall as mountains! We can take you to them."
Briares's expression 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.
"What exactly do you mean, they faded?" Percy asked. "I thought monsters were immortal, like the gods."
"Percy," Grover said weakly as he looked through a yellow bag. Anastasia stood and gave a cough, wiping her mouth. "Even immortality has limits. Sometimes... sometimes monsters get forgotten and they lose their will to stay immortal."
By the look on Grover's face, he had to be thinking of Pan. He remembered Medusa once told them how her sisters, the other two gorgons, had passed on and left her alone. Then last year Apollo said something about the old god Helios disappearing and leaving him with the duties of the sun god. He'd never thought about it too much, never had a reason too, but now, looking at Briares, he realized how terrible it would be to be so old—thousands and thousands of years old—and totally alone.
