THE CHALLENGE OF THE GODS: The City Of Beasts

We Find The Sun And The Moon

We started following the glowing firefly. The whole time I still wasn't sure if it was a trick or not, but Clarisse is a good fighter, Grover is a protector and I... have Riptide! Grover and I exchanged concerned looks the entire time that we were travelling, but Clarisse just kept walking, following the firefly with ease. No sign of concern. Nothing. Eventually, when me and Grover were a bit behind Clarisse, she stopped.
"Clarisse?" I said, bumping into her. As I looked up, I saw a rock formation of a skull, where the firefly had entered. I stood and stared at the rocks. They weren't naturally placed like that. Someone or something had placed them like that. It was either life-threatening or a hideout - either one, if we were to enter, would be bad for us. Riptide began to shake as if we were in danger, yet I felt somehow at peace. I ignored the vibrations and continued to inspect the rocks. There seemed to be a sun tapestry in one eye and a moon tapestry in the other.
"Well, if this is where it's guiding us." Grover said, ending the long silence of confusion and worries. I turned to him, eyes wide. "It's telling us to go in, so we might as well. We've come this far." he said, shrugging his shoulders. Without a word, Clarisse glided into the cave, eager to follow the firefly deeper into the skull. Me and Grover chased after her, hoping we wouldn't lose her.

The trip into the skull was hard. There were caves after caves, each one getting deeper and deeper. The caves felt like they were closing in on us. Through the cracks of light, I could see more sun and moons. They were spread all throughout the caves. The deeper we got, I felt water beneath my feet. The water swishing under my feet calmed me down, allowing me to relax. I heard Grover muttering something that sounded like a protection spell. I got closer to him - surprisingly, there was enough room to get closer - and put my arm around him.
"Everything is going to be okay. We're close to the end, I can feel it." I said, smiling at him. He didn't look any better though. Look, I'm trying to get better at comforting people, I'm not not quite there yet. Suddenly, he turned to me, pale.
"No, no. I did a protection spell because of... that." Grover muttered, pointing in-front of us. I looked up to see Clarisse fighting to escape the ton of water that she was being swept away by. My eyes widened and I ran to the water, attempting to use my (demi)-godly powers to move it, but instead, I was swept up too. Though, I was immediately spat out because of the satyr spell. Clarisse looked helpless as her face went purple, but as I was about to try again, an arrow flew at Clarisse, narrowly missing her. It flew through the air at (at least) 200 miles per hour. It stopped in the water, froze, then suddenly the water split, dropping Clarisse. The water all twisted into a ball, getting thrown into the depths of the cave.
"What the Gods just happened?" Clarisse screamed, flying onto her feet and spinning around. As I peered over her shoulders, I saw a dark figure. From what I could see, it was a boy - tall with short, messy hair. He breathed heavily, chuckling softly
"Gods, percy you never learn." I recognized that voice. I couldn't tell where from exactly but I know I've heard it before. He stepped out of the shadows. He had brown hair on the top and blonde underneath. Green eyes and some small freckles on his face. He smiled that same smile I knew.
"Long time no see, little star." A smile unfolded across his face. I couldn't tell exactly who it was, but I knew that I had known him.
"Are you... a demigod?" My voice sounded clearly confused. He lifted an eyebrow, crossing his arms.
"You don't remember me?" His grin slowly dropped. He stepped closer, looking me up and down. "You've grown. A lot. Did you get the Gods to do that?" he continued, tilting his head off to the side. Suddenly, a voice peeped from deeper into the shadows. Another one that I recognised. It felt very familiar.
"Is the flood gone? Can I move?" the voice shouted squeakily. The boy groaned and turned around slowly, flinging his arms around.
"Yes, you can move." he sighed, rolling his eyes as he turned back around. As I looked further back, another boy, who was clearly shorter appeared. He had blonde hair with brown roots. He was wearing jorts and a lot of friendship bracelets. I hope that he still has at least minor circulation in his arm. Then, I looked at his face.
"My legs are dead!" he said, wobbling out of the tiny crevice he was in. His eyes wandered before we both locked eyes, he squirmed and jumped behind the other boy. "Eros, is that really him?" he whispered to him, tapping him on the shoulder.
The boy - Eros - rolled his eyes once again and said, "Yes, Ajax." Then voices seemed...familiar. Ajax seemed excited but nervous. "Your firefly brought the wrong bait." The blonde one came out from behind the tall one. Ajax shrugged his shoulders, clearly not bothered that they didn't have the bait they needed, instead they had us.
'Oops,' he said. 'at least now we're not alone in the cave!' he added. Eros seemed bothered. That was when something clicked inside of me. Bait? I thought to myself. What bait? Before I could openly question them, Grover stepped in.
'So I'm guessing you two are demigods. Why are you both here?' They glanced at each other quickly before Eros spoke.
"Well, it's a really, really long story."
Clarisse straightened her back, raising an eyebrow. "We have time." She said, crossing her arms. Eros looked at Ajax who seemed clueless to the whole situation, just smiling at Eros once he stared at him. I tried to examine them more, attempting to pull memories to the front of my brain. I really couldn't remember them. Right before we questioned them again, the cave began to rumble, making Grover fall to his hooves.
'No we don't,' Eros looked around, avoiding all the rubble that began to fall. 'We should go.' Eros instructed, attempting to stay on his feet. Those instructions were quite hard to follow considering the fact that a cave was about to crush us all to death. Rubble just nearly missed me, but Grover dragged me away - dropping me to the ground and twisting my ankle.
'Ah!' I winced, staring at my ankle. Shouldn't Grover's protection spell have stopped that? Or does it not work with bones? Besides that, now there was no way that I was running if the cave did end up fully collapsing. Ajax dodged a boulder, bouncing off the cave walls to get to me. He laid a hand on my ankle, making me wince. He placed his other hand on top and shouted to Eros,
'Get my herbs!' Eros nodded and ran back into the hole they came from, a few seconds later re-appearing with three different herbs. Ajax grabbed then and started mushing them with his foot. He took one hand off of my ankle and rubbed the herbs onto it. He stood up and yanked me up with him. I expected to feel a sharp pain in my leg, but it was fixed. Right as I was about to thank him, the cave rumbled once again.
'Over here!' Clarisse yelled, running into light that was slightly showing from the angle I was looking at. Happy to be free of pain, I ran to the light. Clarisse jumped out first, then me, then Grover, then - guessing from the scream, since I was laying face first on the ground - Ajax and then Eros. The landing was surprisingly smooth. We landed on something suspiciously soft. Carefully, I lifted my head up to see what it could've been that I'd landed on.