Courageous. (Percy Jackson Fanfiction.)

2.

2.

Melody opened her eyes.

She was lying on the floor of a small hewn stone cavern. Water dripped steadily from somewhere behind her. The only light came from a golden casket in the center of the cavern.

Melody got to her feet shakily. Around her two other figures got to their feet. She vaguely knew them from camp, Jace something-or-other from Hermes cabin and Cathrine Chen, a small Asian girl from Demeter. Melody didn't know them very well, and from the looks of it they didn't know each other at all.

Melody decided to ignore them for the time being and went to examine the casket. Three golden steps lead up to a platform where the casket lay. Markings were etched all around the base, but she couldn't read them. In the center of the casket was a statue of a golden eagle, wings spread as though in flight. The base of the statue was molded to the top of the casket. Its ruby eyes seemed to follow Melody as she examined the casket.

Melody took a step away from it. The casket was starting to glow brighter. Melody didn't want to know what was in there. She wanted to leave.

She looked around the cavern searchingly, but there didn't seem to be a way out. The place was circular and the walls were solid rock.

She looked up. Right above the tomb was a fist-sized hole in the ceiling, barely noticeable in the light given off by the casket.

“What was that?!” Cathrine shrieked. Melody whirled, her hand going to her empty belt loop. She cursed when she realized she hadn't taken her sword with her.

Cathrin was cowering behind Jace, who had a pocket knife out. Something was slinking around in the shadows at the far end of the cavern.

“Be quiet!” Melody hissed. Something brushed against her ankles, and she screamed, abandoning any pretenses of being calm.

Snakes. Three of them.

Melody jumped back as they slithered across the floor, hissing, and wrapped themselves around the base of the casket. And then starting at the tip of the third snakes tail, they began to turn into solid gold. The snakes writhed and hissed as they changed into gold, but stayed locked into place.

No one spoke. Cathrine and Jace were frozen in shock, Cathrine gripping Jace's arm tight enough to leave a bruise.

The casket glowed brighter than ever as soon as the last bit of snake was changed. Melody gasped as the floor rumbled beneath their feet.

Something was awakening, something older than anything she'd ever seen or felt before.

The floor rumbled again, and then shook. Melody barely stayed on her feet. The source of the rumbling seemed to come from the casket. The hole in the ceiling was starting to glow.

Bits of rock fell from the shaking ceiling. And then the first touch of moonlight came through the small hole in the ceiling, shining down on the center of the casket. The floor began to crack as pure power swept through the room. Melody slipped and fell, shielding her eyes from the rubble as the hole in the ceiling grew larger.

The moonlight caught the eagle statue in the very center of the casket.

The ruby eyes of the golden eagle glowed red, and the casket lid slid off and fell on the base, cracking it in two.

Everything went still.

Melody looked over to Jace and Cathrine, who got to their feet unsteadily. Melody stood.

The glow from the casket was gone. The only light was the moonlight coming through the now much larger hole in the ceiling, which streamed down to something moving in the casket.