The Gods 3: The Underworld

11 - Sam

"Where are we even going?" I asked Percy for the twelfth time after it seemed like we have been going in circles forever. Jake looked bored as he followed behind me, and Percy was getting mildly annoyed at me, well maybe not mildly.

"Sam, I've already explained it to you. I know you understand. this place pulls you to its deepest part, you just have to keep walking in the direction that it pulls you towards." Percy said snapping the beginning part before explaining it gently once again. I stopped pestering Percy and fell back next to Jake.

"Hey, you doing okay?" I asked quietly, nudging his arm with mine. He looked at me over his glasses.

"Yeah, I'm good. How bout you?" Jake asked.

"I've been better." I admitted. The fact that we were stuck in tartarus was starting to get to me, and my back had a dull constant ache despite all that Jake had tried to do to help. My hand slipped to my back and held the sore spot as we walked for a bit. We walked until Percy almost fell over with exhaustion. We set up camp, and Jake volunteered to go on first watch. Percy couldn't protest because he was already asleep and I was exhausted as well. I curled up by Percy and fell asleep within seconds.

***

Percy shook me awake, but before I could say anything he covered my mouth  and pointed to Jake. He was about 40 feet away, talking to a women. She had a green aura around her, and you could feel the power she possessed.  The women was wearing a greek style black dress with silver runes on it, that appeared to be trying to float off of her dress, Her dark hair barely reached her shoulders, and even from forty feet away you could see her piercing green eyes. She carried to old fashioned torches, one in each hand, and she was the same height as Jake.

"It's Hecate." Percy whispered into my ear as quietly as he could. Her eyes were completely focused on Jake, and you could tell that they were arguing about something. Percy nudged me a bit, and we quietly crawled behind some debris.

"What do you think they are talking about?" I whispered.

"I don't know, but they obviously seem to know each other. Jacob isn't telling us everything. I told you we shouldn't trust him." Percy whispered back. Hecate seemed to be calmly explaining something to Jake, using her torches as an example. From what Percy and I could figure out he had some sort of choice to make, and we just hoped that whatever it was it wouldn't affect our agenda. Hecate disappeared in a cloud of dark green smoke leaving Jake alone and distraught. Jake turned around and walked back to the camp with his head down. Percy quickly jumped out from behind the debris and walked up to Jake quickly. I followed behind him as fast as I could but not in enough time to save Jake from being punched in the face by Percy. Jake fell to the ground and Percy jumped on top of him. I quickly pulled Percy off of Jacob, and Jake wiped some blood off of his lip. Without Annabeth around, Percy was a bit temperamental and it probably didn't help that we were stuck in Tartarus. 

"I can explain." Jacob said quickly, propping himself up on his elbow and inching himself a bit further from Percy.

"You've been lying to us, haven't you?" Percy said.

"Well yes, and no." Jake said. Percy was about to go at him again, but I gave him a tiny zap on his arm as a warning, he looked at me.

"Let him explain."

"When did you learn how to do that?" He asked.

"Just now." I said. I looked at Jake. "I'm not going to stop him next time. You better explain quickly." Jake quickly nodded.

"Okay. I was going to tell you, but i never got around to it and I didn't know how. Please Sam you have to believe me."

"You still haven't told me anything." I said sharply.

"I'm getting there." He said fixing his glasses that were sitting a little crooked on his face. "My name isn't Jacob. It's Phaidros, and I'm technically a god."

He explained everything to us, how Hecate and Apollo was his parents, how he was raised my mortals, and how he had to accept that he was a god in order to become fully powerful, until he did that he was just like us.

"Why should we believe you?" Percy said angrily. 

"Why do I have any reason to lie to you at this point?"

"Percy, go pack up the camp. We have to keep moving." I said looking at Percy. He still looked like he wanted to repeatedly punch Jacob in the face but he listened and left.

"Sam, I am so sorry. I didn't want to lie to you." Jake said staring at me pleadingly.

"So, It's Phaidros, right?" I asked double checking.

"Yeah." He said giving me a small smile. I helped him up, and we walked back to where Percy was packing up the last few things into the bags. He handed us a bag and we took off. Back on our imaginary path to wherever we were supposed to go.