Percy Jackson Meet The Underland

Once Again in the Labyrinth

The walls were an impenetrable dark grey stone, covered with moss and towered a good twenty feet above them. Wherever they went the walls stretched away from them as far as the eye could see. Unless there was some trickery with unseen mirrors they were miles deep in a Labyrinth of unending passageways with no memory of how they had gotten there. As the light of the day dwindled into twilight and threatened to die altogether, they heard a great savage howling from somewhere in the maze.

They made good time. The path continued to be smooth and straight, sloping gently downward. It was easy to travel but Percy had the sense they were descending the throat of some horrible beast. "Just waiting for the right moment to swallow us up," he thought.

Eventually, they came to a large clearing, shaped in a geometrically perfect circle. Across the path from which they had arrived, three smaller paths branched out from a single point, equal angles between them. Like they had been measured and drawn with the aid of a protractor. Percy had never seen anything like this in the Underland. 

Sure, he'd run into plenty of paths that forked, but they were a variety of sizes and shapes and seemed to have formed naturally, by streams or rivers that had dried up long ago. the labyrinth had been carefully designed and executed by someone. Or something.  

We checked two of the paths and they both ended.  

Then with a deafening grinding noise that shook the hard-baked earth, the walls of the maze themselves began to move. When they stopped there was only one path they could take, and it was in the direction of the beast. 

Howard positioned a lantern directly in the center of the circle and they all gathered tightly around it while they ate. When they were done, Howard rose.

 "I am going to take Gregor and scout the paths," he said.

"Fine. The rest of us can take turns sleeping," said Mareth.

"I'm going with you," said Percy, jumping up.

"You will be safe here, Percy," said Howard. "Mareth will look after you."

"Will they be all right?" Percy asked Mareth.

"Don't worry about Howard. He can look after himself," said Mareth.

There was no sound except their breathing while Mareth considered this. Percy looked into the Labyrinth and saw the lantern light reflecting off numerous pairs of eyes. 

"You may as well know," said Mareth finally. "I expect Vikus is only waiting, but you need to know."

"Tell me what," said Doran. "And Vikus and I will both be in your debt."

He slouched over on his side and stared into the lantern's flame. "Now where to begin?... You see, the thing is. . ." 

They came back to us panting.

"It's the Minotaur." I looked at the ceiling angerly.  How many times did I have to kill that thing?  We stood up and started getting ready to move.  

"How far?" asked Mareth.

"About 4 miles up."  He took a deep breath and started walking toward it.

For a while, all Percy could hear was the occasional crackle of the lantern.  Then the roar shook the tunnel again.   Gregor jumped and yelped.  

"Shhh," I told him. 

"Percy, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"His sight and hearing are terrible," I said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage.

"Guys,"  I said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

Another bellow of rage and the bull-man started tromping down the tunnel.

He'd smelled us.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.

I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.

The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward Howard.

We'd reached the end of the tunnel. Down the other side, I could see a valley.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground.

Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Nico died.

The bull-man bore down on Howard, who lay helpless on the ground. 

The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend as if he were about to lift Howard up and rip him apart.

I couldn't allow that.

I ran at him.

"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists in remembrance of this name.

I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the wall and waved my sword in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.

But it didn't happen like that.

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.

Time slowed down.

My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. 

The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the wall and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.

Meanwhile, Howard started groaning on the ground. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.

The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how Nico died because of the gods and rage-filled me like high-octane fuel. I got my sword out and cut off beef-boys horns.

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the cold stone. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I still had my sword in my hands.

The monster charged.

Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the sword straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate.

The monster was gone.

The last thing I remember is collapsing on the ground looking at them.