there must be more than this provincial life.
[ percy jackson x original character ]
[ book three in the belle series ]
[ the mark of athena, the house of hades, & the blood of olympus ]
[ bonus: the lost hero, the hidden oracle, the ship of the dea...
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𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖎𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖙-𝖙𝖗𝖔𝖎𝖘: AKHLYS
★ 。／｜＼。★
BELLE WANTED TO go back to the swamp. It was the first place in Tartarus where she had felt like she could finally relax and let her guard down, even for a little while. She never thought she would ever say she would miss sleeping in a leather bed made for a Giant in a hut constructed of Drakon bones, but Tartarus was a different place. Right now that hut sounded like Elysium.
She had left the hut rejuvinated and clear-headed. But now her legs were sore and her muscles ached again. Her, Percy, and Bob stumbled along the downwards slope in the darkness. Thick and cold air hung around them and the ground alternated in between dangerously sharp rocks and pools of muck. Belle could feel herself being pulled tugged down by the immense force of gravity. She couldn't focus on anything else besides walking downwards and Percy being by her side. They walked closely pressed up against one another while holding hands in effort to both keep themselves warm and not lose each other.
Belle kept thinking about Damasen. She wasn't very good at hiding her emotions at all — especially around Percy since he knew her so well — so when tears began to fall down her face as they walked, she didn't even bother to wipe them away. Belle knew with absolutely certainty that Damasen had to help them. Yet he had turned down her offer, not even considering leaving his little hut to go see the sunlight again. She hated that she couldn't convince him, although she understood that he probably didn't want to leave the comfort of his own home to go find the Doors of Death with two Demigods and a Titan. It was basically a suicide mission.
She wondered what had happened to Damasen after they left the hut. He probably destroyed the Drakon again, but what had he said to their pursuers? They had left the Giant Polybotes and his followers hours ago, yet Belle knew they hadn't escaped them completely. That crew was still back there somewhere following them and pushing them a lot deeper into Tartarus.
Belle sniffled and tried to will herself to stop crying. She really had to pull herself together. Percy leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead that reminded her there was indeed still warmth left in the world despite the cold they were enduring. In order to keep her spirits up, she began to think of all of the good things that made her happy. She imagined sitting on the beach with Katie, Connor, and Travis like they normally did and relaxing on the dock of the lake at Camp Half-Blood with Percy, where they had shared a kiss underwater after the Battle of Manhattan.
But those felt like dreams, like a far away thought that couldn't be reality. Belle began to feel that nothing else existed except Tartarus. All of the death, darkness, cold, and pain was what the real world actually was — no. Belle shook that horrible thought off. A dream is a wish your heart makes, Belle reminded herself, those lyrics from Cinderella echoing throughout her mind. She wished greatly that her and Percy would reach the mortal world again. That couldn't happen unless Belle focused on the task at hand. However, it became harder and harder to stay focused the deeper they travelled.
