{1} Princess - P. Jackson 🔱

"Hephaestus sends me on a date. I blew it up... literally."

🌊

The Sphinx bared her claws, which gleamed like stainless steel. She pounced at the podium.

"No!" Tyson charged. He hates it when people threaten Annabeth, but I couldn't believe he was being so brave, especially since he'd had such a bad experience with a Sphinx before.

He tackled the Sphinx midair and they crashed sideways into a pile of bones. This gave Annabeth just enough time to gather her wits and draw her knife. Tyson got up, his shirt clawed to shreds. The Sphinx growled, looking for an opening.

I drew Riptide and stepped in front of Annabeth. "Turn invisible," I told her.

"I can fight!"

"No!" Maria yelled, taking off her arm cuff which turned into Heartstopper, her sword. "The Sphinx is after you! Let us get it."

As if to prove Maria's point, the Sphinx knocked Tyson aside and tried to charge past me. Grover poked her in the eye with somebody's leg bone and Maria hit her sword in one of her paws.

She screeched in pain. Annabeth put on her cap and vanished. The Sphinx pounced right where she'd been standing, but came up with empty paws.

"No fair!" the Sphinx wailed. "Cheater!"

With Annabeth no longer in sight, the Sphinx turned on me. Maria stepped in front of me and created a wall of pink mist, protecting both of us from any attack she could make. Tyson ripped the monster's grading machine out of the floor and threw it at the Sphinx's head, ruining her hair bun. It landed in pieces all around her.

"My grading machine!" she cried. "I can't be exemplary without my test scores!"

The bars lifted from the exits. We all dashed for the far tunnel. I could only hope Annabeth was doing the same.

The Sphinx started to follow, but Grover raised his reed pipes and began to play. Suddenly the pencils remembered they used to be parts of trees. They collected around the Sphinx's paws, grew roots and branches, and began wrapping around the monster's legs. The Sphinx ripped through them, but it bought us just enough time.

Tyson pulled Grover into the tunnel, and the bars slammed shut behind us. "Annabeth!" I yelled at the same time as Maria.

"Here!" she said, right next to me. "Keep moving!" We ran through the dark tunnels, listening to the roar of the Sphinx behind us as she complained about all the tests she would have to grade by hand.

I thought we'd lost the spider until Tyson heard a faint pinging sound. We made a few turns, backtracked a few times, and eventually found the spider banging its tiny head on a metal door.

The door looked like one of those old-fashioned submarine hatches— oval, with metal rivets around the edges and a wheel for a doorknob. Where the portal should've been was a big brass plaque, green with age, with a Greek Êta inscribed in the middle.

We all looked at each other.

"Ready to meet Hephaestus?" Grover said nervously.

"No," I admitted.

"I'm never ready to meet a god." Maria said, tying her hair on a ponytail. Even after running around in this maze, she still looks pretty.

I'm just commenting.

"But just a second." She said, opening her bag. She got out a dark green shirt, big enough to fit Tyson. Did she—

"I have this for you, Tyson." She said, handing him the shirt. "I brought one for all of us, If anyone wants to change." It always made me angry how thoughtful she was, but I guess it's the way she expresses how she cares for those around her.