The Chronicles of Olympus, Book 1, The Goddess's Fury

The Land of The Dead

I looked around, breathtaken. The underworld was quite a cool, scary, amazing, and even beautiful place.

There was a river in the front. There was a man on a small boat at the river who was making his way back to land. The man was likely Charon, the person who led the dead to the other side of the river.

That's when I spotted the dead.

They were like ghosts, and they were transparent. But I could see faint details of faces and clothes. They were sad, beautiful, and scary. I assumed that the ghosts were dead souls.

The ceiling to the underworld was simply a cave ceiling. The whole underworld was a cave. Here and there ghostly plants glowed, and gems were clustered here and there on the ground.

All of a sudden, Julia rushed forward to Charon.

"Julia!" I cried. The ghosts looked at us, there faces curious. I could hear mutters of "living!" in the crowd.

"Um... hi," Julia said. "Can you get us to the other end of the river?" she asked.

"Well..." said Charon. "I'm guessing you're not dead."

"Uh.... ya... We're not dead." Xander said.

"Sorry, but I don't take living souls across the river."

My heart sank. What do we do now? I thought. Just then, I had an idea.

I reached into my backpack and grabbed the plastic baggie full of drachmas Zeus had gifted me.

"Here," I said, shoving the coins at him. Charon's face lighted up with greed.

"Um... fine," he said, taking the bag. "Come along." I and my friends climbed into his ferry, and we watched the other side.

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem," Charon replied. Me and my friends approached a pair of black gates. And guarding it was a huge dog. When I say huge, I don't mean a dog the size of you. I mean a dog the size of a house.

The dog was obviously a lab, and it had blood red eyes with obsidian fur. Only one dog could be that big. Only one dog could be located at such a place.

Cerberus, the dog who guarded the entrance to the underworld.

Imagine the dog who snarls at you.

Imagine the dog who makes you run away in fright and avoid it.

Imagine the dog that animals even run away from.

To make things worse, Cerberus had three heads. The three blackheads were as dark as night, with glowing blood eyes.

The dog roared and charged at us.

"Run!!" I yelled, at the top of my lungs, petrified. Me and my friends started running away. Cerberus raced after us.

"Ahhhhhhh!" screamed Julia. Just then, I heard a voice.

"Cerberus, stop!" I stopped and turned around to see who had saved our lives.