the winemaker's daughter [ percy jackson & the olympians ]

chapter thirty-two

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙸𝙽𝙴𝙼𝙰𝙺𝙴𝚁'𝚂 𝙳𝙰𝚄𝙶𝙷𝚃𝙴𝚁༉‧₊˚.[𝙿𝙴𝚁𝙲𝚈 𝙹𝙰𝙲𝙺𝚂𝙾𝙽 & 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙾𝙻𝚈𝙼𝙿𝙸𝙰𝙽𝚂]

chapter thirty-two: two weeks, five hours and thirteen minutes later

__________________________________________

ANNABETH AND ashanti returned to camp half-blood three days after the...incident at mount. st. helens.

the dionysus demigoddess at clutched the blonde's hand, holding it tightly in her own without the slightest hint of letting go. an abnormally a tight feeling constructed in her chest, making it quite difficult to breath as she struggled to process what'd happened in hephaestus' forge.

"smell the flowers, blow out the candles," annabeth reminded the girl with inky black hair. the athena girl had been listening to her breathing, trying to even it out. whenever it picked up, annabeth reminded her of the saying. she spoke in an air-soft tone as to calm ashanit down. the dionysus girl's cold, clammy hands gripping at the athena girl's as if they were her only life line as the two demigoddesses wobbled through the darkness of the dangerous labyrinth, following the trail of the mechanical spider.

their spat from earlier was long forgotten as swells of appreciation ran through ashanti, she opened her mouth with the effort to thank the girl, but the words seemed weighted, and she did not feel strong, nor stable enough to express them.

they'd met up with hephaestus after fleeing the fiery earthquake that would forever haunt ashanti's nightmares. the boiling hot temperatures, and the deadly shaking of the mountain flashed behind her eyelids everytime she closed her eyes. she caught her breath, it felt as if something lodged itself in her throat as she struggled to hold back hot tears as annabeth retraced what happened to the forge god, though he didn't look too sad to have lost a workshop. it was almost lit the girl up in untapped anger at the fact that percy's life seemed almost meaningless to the god when annabeth described that he'd died.

almost.

ashanti hadn't uttered a single word. not since she held percy close for what seemed like the last time, and ran, like a coward, back into the labyrinth as he risked his life for her. she was barely breathing as her feelings weighed her down, almost crushing her. chiron was wrong about her. how could she lead anyone when she couldn't even save those close to her? she'd failed.

when they'd finally managed to return to camp, and the dionysus still hadn't breathed a single word. the news of mount st. helens erupting for the first time in years travelled quickly around the world in a wild frenzy. an inactive volcano suddenly exploding? percy had a way with shaking things up. a horrible bad habit that always had the son of poseidon flirting with death, but this time, he'd actually taken him out on a date he'd most-likely never make it back from.

when chiron caught a single glance at the two girls returning without any of their quest mates, he already assumed the worst. the unresponsive way ashanti reacted to questions thrown her way sent a jolt of fear down her brothers' spine, the blank, numb expression, and the sad tinge in her large purple eyes.

annabeth contacted sally in a way that was calm, and mature, speaking to the women with heavy heart. sally requested to speak to ashanti, wanting to know how the girl was doing know that with out a doubt, she was hurting as well, but the dionysus girl hadn't stepped foot out her cabin in days.