The Half-Blood Games | Percabeth

Chapter 22: Climb

I woke up the next morning to sunlight streaming in through the cave entrance. The air was warmer, which was a relief. At this altitude, the air was close to freezing, and my sleeping bag barely kept me warm. I couldn't wait to be back on the ground again.

Quickly, I glanced over at Percy, half-expecting him to be gone, to have taken all of my stuff and ran, though I don't quite know why. I think I can trust him; if he wanted me dead, he would've let the shark take care of me, and still be with the careers.

The Careers. He said that he'd only allied with them to protect me. Did he really care about me that much? I couldn't imagine why he would, but there was no reason for him to lie to me. Maybe he really did care about me.

And, deep down, maybe I cared about him too.

Percy awoke as I was shoving my sleeping bag back into my backpack. He wiped some drool off his face and blinked wearily. "What's the plan?"

"I thought that we should climb down the mountain," I replied, slinging my backpack over my shoulders. "If we don't leave soon, the gamemakers will give us a... incentive to."

He sighed. "Yeah, probably. I'll pack up my crap."

A few minutes later, we were ready to go. We split some of his food, and realized that we had a dangerously low supply. What remained my food was destroyed in the flood, and all he had was some dried fruit and roast beef.  With two mouths to fill, this couldn't last us more than two days.

We'd cross that bridge when we got to it.

"You ready?" he asked, brushing some of his black hair out of his eyes and giving me his signature smirk.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I nodded. With those words, the two of us stepped out of the cave and onto the mountain ledge outside it.

Without having water to swim through, getting down the mountain was far more challenging than getting up had been. Seeing as the sun had only just risen, the sides of the mountain were still wet from the flood, making all of our handholds slippery.

Percy had some rope, which we used to tie ourselves together for support, but it wasn't much. He started climbing down first, with me above him, seeing as it would be easier for him to hold me if I fell, but I doubted that either of us would be able to hold each other for very long. 

The longer we climbed, the more exhausted I got. It didn't help that the sun was beating down on us, making the climb ten times harder. Around midday, I found a ledge, and I took the chance for a break eagerly.

We sat next to each other and leaned against the mountain, panting heavily. I managed to summon the strength to get my water bottle out of my bag, and we shared it. That was another thing we were running dangerously low on; water. Seeing as the only water source either of us knew of was the one in the forest, that was far from a good thing.

I tried not to think about it. We'll get down the mountain first, then we'll worry about all the other crap that could kill us.

"It's a pretty sight, isn't it?" Percy asked, gesturing at the view beneath us.

He was right, of course. You could see the entirety of the arena from here; the desert, the cornucopia with the Careers surrounding it, the burnt-down remains of the forest. There was a sense of tranquillity to it. After everything I'd been through in the past few days, this calmness was comforting.

"It is," I agreed.

He smiled and sighed, leaning back against the mountain.

Before I even knew what I was doing, my hand reached for his, and I threaded my fingers through his. He looked down at our conjoined hands, and then up to my face before smiling. I smiled back and rested my head on his shoulder, and the two of us looked out at the view together.

I could've stayed like that for hours, but we both knew that we had to get back down before dark. We retied the rope between us and started making our way back down. 

The ledge we'd rested on had been about halfway down the mountain, meaning that we still had a long way to go. If anything, the rest of the climb was worse than the first half had been. Even though most of the water had evaporated by now, the handholds were few and far in between. I had to stretch my arms and legs painfully to reach some of them.

By the time the sun started to set, we were still a good distance from the ground. That was when I started to panic. From what I could see, there weren't any more ledges between us and our destination, and without the sun, there was no way we'd be able to make our way down. The moonlight wouldn't be enough.

That thought incentivized me to work harder, to push myself more. If I was going to die here, it wouldn't be like this. I wouldn't let it be.

Just as the sun dipped below the horizon, my feet made contact with the ground. As soon as Percy was safely off the mountain, I collapsed, the sand cushioning my fall. He did the same, landing right next to me.

For a long time, I felt like I couldn't move. My throat was drier than the desert surrounding us. Breathing scraped at my lungs, making pain course through my body with every rise and fall of my chest. I desperately wanted water, but I couldn't find the strength to get it out of my backpack.

"Well," Percy breathed after we had been lying there for at least half an hour. "That was fun."

I turned to look at him. He was looking right at me, smiling. As soon as we made eye contact, we both started laughing, amazed at what we'd just accomplished.

We didn't get up for a long time.