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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𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖎𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊-𝖍𝖚𝖎𝖙: UNSURPRISINGLY, THEY GET CAPTURED
★ 。／｜＼。★
IT WAS EASY at first. There were monsters everywhere. Hundreds of Ogres, Earthborn, and Cyclopes were milling through the ruins, although most of them were gathered at the Parthenon to watch the ceremony in progress. Belle followed Piper along the cliffs of the Acropolis, occasionally nervously glancing at the large crowd. She wasn't exactly very keen to be separated from Percy and Annabeth — especially at the Parthenon where Poseidon and Athena's rivalry started — but she had to stick to the plan. Belle held Sunflower's hilt tightly in her hand (which was disguised as a huge club) and tried to repeat positive affirmations in her head.
Belle and Piper approached the first onager. Next to it, three Earthborn were sunbathing on the rocks. The two shared a quick glance.
Piper walked right up to them and smiled. "Hello."
Before any of them could make a sound, Piper took her jagged Boread sword and cut them down. All three melted into heaps of sludge. Meanwhile, Belle cut the onager's spring cord with Sunflower to disable the weapon. Both girls nodded their heads subtly to each other. One down, a lot more to go. The two of them knew they were committed now. There was no backing out. They had to do as much damage as possible before the sabotage was discovered. Then they continued to walk.
They skirted around a patrol of Cyclopes. The second onager was surrounded by many tattooed Laistrygonian Ogres, but Piper approached the weapon without any suspicion. She dropped a vial of Greek fire in the sling. The plan was as soon as the monsters would try to load the catapult, everything would explode in their faces. That was if they were lucky, which normally they weren't.
Both of them kept moving. Belle, once again, glanced nervously into the crowd. She didn't see Percy or Annabeth (even in disguise) anywhere. That made her heartbeat increase. Nevertheless, she paid attention to the task at hand. Gryphons were roosting on the colonnade of an old temple. A group of Empousai (ugh, Belle was so done with them) had retreated themselves into a shadowy archway. They appeared to be sleeping, their fiery hair flickering dimly and their brass legs glinting. Hopefully the sunlight would make them sluggish if they had to fight, since they were vampires and all.
Wherever they could, Belle and Piper took the opportunity to slay isolated monsters. The farther they walked, the larger the groups were. Meanwhile, the crowd at the Parthenon was also growing larger. Belle wasn't able to see what was happening inside the ruins except for the heads of maybe twenty or thirty Giants standing in a circle, mumbling and swaying.
