tartarus and back ⇩

23. You get a monster, and you get a monster. Guess what, YOU get a monster!

Lucy and I got along GREAT. She went out and hunted for food somewhere, and I provided water. I'd like to say I was an expert at creating and controlling the liquid by now.

At least, we got along great until a little shard at the opening of the cave, hidden in the glass, rose up and floated away. Then Lucy turned to me and growled, pawing at the ground.

I'd assumed she was the runt of the pack, and got kicked out of her family for it. Still, she was pretty powerful and was extremely fast. Normally, I could have taken her down without too big of a fight, but I'd become too attached to Lucy. She was my only companion I'd had for a long time, and it was safe to say I loved her.

"Lucy, calm down!" I pleaded, but it was no use.

"What's wrong? Did I do something? Please, Lucy! Don't do this!"

Lucy kept advancing, slower this time. It was almost like she was resisting something.

"Lucy please! Please!" I sobbed.

The hellhound jumped, claws out. I threw up my hands and doused her with a powerful wave, pushing her back. She skidded against the rock and lay there, unmoving.

I let out a large sob, but didn't move to check on her for fear she might attack me again. "Lucy?"

For a minutes, I just stood there and watched. Then Lucy stirred, then slowly stood up and shook her wet fur.

Slowly, she turned to me. I tended, waiting for her next movement.

Then she bounded toward me in two great steps, and knocked me to the ground. She whimpered and whined, leaking my face with her large tongue.

"Oh, Lucy! We talked about this" I kidded, but I was extremely relieved. I didn't want to be alone again.

As soon as she was off me, I hugged her. "Oh Lucy, I wish you could talk so I would know what happened."

But I did know what happened. The last piece of Kronos left Tartarus, and he was now fully alive and preparing to attack my family.

⇩⇩⇩

I woke up to Lucy gently pawing me on the side, something she'd never done before.

"What's wrong?" I asked, immediately worried. She whined in response.

I drew my sword and exited the tent, slowly walking to the entrance of my cave. I heard what was wrong before I saw it.

There were snarls, shouts, and about every other noise a monster could make.

About a hundred monsters were all gathered together, fighting each other. A hellhound was trying to snap at a stymphalian bird, An empousa was attacking a telekhine. So many more monsters, all battling their way to some giant doors.

The doors looked similar to elevator doors, and they were colored black and silver. They seemed to radiate power, but it's just felt wrong. Why were they here, and where had they been before? Surely I would have known if they were here before.

The monsters were pushing past each other to get to the doors, but the compartment was full. As soon as the doors closed, everyone stopped fighting and the ones with human like faces looked disappointed.

An unidentifiable creature stood next to the doors, looking to be holding down a button.

The crowd dispersed, the monsters each walking in different directions, when a dracaena stopped, and sniffed the air.

She turned in the direction of my cave. "Human."

All of the other monsters stopped, and turned in my direction also.

I barely had time to gather my stuff. I didn't want to fight, I wanted to flee. But the monsters had other ideas. They all charged at the same time.

Whatever happened next was a blur. Every monster that came close to me, I slashed with my sword. Lucy helped fend them off too. But there were too many. Every kill, another two monsters appeared.

Birds pecked at me, something was blowing fire, and I'm pretty sure I was bit by something. I couldn't feel any of it though, my adrenaline was pumping.

I was sobbing, which was affecting my vision. Fear was the only emotion I felt. I knew Lucy and I couldn't defeat the horde all by ourselves.

Somewhere to the side, The doors were rattling. Whatever monster was holding down the button, it was now counting to itself.

"10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1..." It let go of the button, and with one last shuddered, the doors popped and disappeared.

The sound distracting most of the monsters, so I took a run for it. But then I tripped.

The sounds of the monsters, their terrifying faces and bodies and weapons, it was all too much. I found myself facing my daily dilemma, do I give up? Would it be easier to just let the monsters trample me, and at least die fighting?

My mind went back to my father, him telling me that he knew my fate. Somehow, I knew that meant I would make it out of Tartarus. I would survive, whether I liked it or not.

All my built up emotion, my sadness, my anger, my fear, I just let it all out. I screamed as loud as I could, wanting to free myself from the burden.

My neck tingled. For a moment, none of the monsters moved. Then, it was like a switch flipped. A huge ring of water appeared, with me in the circle. It blasted outwards with so much force, some of the monsters flew back 10 feet.

I wanted to collapse, but I had to keep going. I had to get away from here, and I had to do it quickly.

Somehow the water blast healed my leg that had been hit, so I could run. Lucy and I ran as fast as we could, keeping a lookout for other monsters.

I don't know how fast we ran, but we stopped at a sheltered crater. We both stumbled in, glad for rest. Inside was a ring of broken black marble columns surrounding an alter of some sorts.

At first it was empty, but then roaring flames appeared. Then, as quickly as they came, the went away.

In the alter were strawberries, roast beef, french fries, a slice of cake, and a package of peanut m&ms.

⇩⇩⇩

hey guys, I'm working daily to prewrite chapters so I can get Kai out of Tartarus.
I just wanna go over some things. I guess I kinda changed the universe a bit, because it says on riordan wiki that the doors of death are guarded by Thanatos and stuff like that's But I just can't really believe that the doors never appear in tartarus, and and I think that when they do any monster close enough would race towards them.
Also, I don't think the proportions of monsters i've added in the story are real, but rick never explained too much about tartarus, so that leaves me to create what I want a little. I think that since Kronos is trying to take over, he collects every monster that reforms and makes sure most don't die, leaving it where there aren't many in tartarus. I do not know if madea, midas or any humans? are in tartarus, so even if they are kai never really encountered them.
tbh, i'm not super excited with how I wrote tartarus either but i just want to finish the story before I think about rewriting. please let me know your honest opinions on how i've written everything, and i'll try and do better ig?
thank you for number 3 in #frankzhang!!
i've tried for most of the story to have my chapters be over 2000 words, but there's just going to be shorted chapters until kai gets out. i'm sorry
1300 words
-xoxo, author