fifteen
the art of falling into a hole

LENNON AWOKE TO JULIAN shaking her awake. She shot up, "What,"

"There's an Aethiopian drakon at the borders. Em spotted it. Lee's gonna take a few of us to drive it away,"

Lennon yawned tiredly and said, "Cool,"

They hurriedly strapped on their armor over their pajamas and made the journey to the camp's borders. She frowned at her Looney tunes pants and Queen shirt.

"You think the drakon would be more considerate to attack during the day," Michael said in annoyance as they reached the border.

They could hear the drakon roar again.

"That would be the dream," Lee huffed as he led their group— which consisted of him, Lennon, Julian, and Michael. They were all the oldest of Apollo cabin. Lee was 18, Michael and Emelee were 17, and Lennon and Julian were 15.

"Hey!" Emelee stood at the border. She had been put on patrol that night. "I couldn't do much to ward it off with my sword, that's why I called you guys,"

"Ok," Lee said, turning around to face them. "We'll drive it off with arrows. I don't know how effective it'll be but we'll get to that when we get there,"

They all collectively nodded and then turned to where Emelee pointed. The drakon was a giant bright green creature, somewhat the mix between a snake and lizard but its scales were probably twice as thick. Its eyes were an electric yellow that seemed to follow you wherever you went. It was incredibly unnerving.

Lennon snapped her hair tie and it elongated into a bow. Then they started firing their arrows. Lennon had brought a quiver with her.

"Aim for the soft spots, under its belly, its neck!" Lee said.

"Yeah," Michael shot another arrow. "It's hard to do that when it's so close to the ground,"

The drakon roared in outrage, obviously not liking the fact that they were firing arrows at it.

Julian hummed in agreement. "Especially from the way it's moving,"

"I could go and distract it," Emelee said from behind them, her sword still at the ready.

"No!" All four of them shouted in disagreement.

"Too dangerous," Lee commented.

"I've got an idea," Lennon said as she aimed and shot another arrow.

"If it involves being bait, then no," Lee said.

"No, no. I think I can use my powers to get it to stand up. Then you guys can hit all the chinks in its armor, under its belly,"

"It sounds like that requires you to get close to it," Michael said, disapproving in his voice.

"No, I've been working on something new. I can do it from here,"

"And it's not dangerous?" Lee asked.

"Nope,"

"Then try it,"

"Okay," she exhaled. "When I say go, hit it with all the arrows you've got,"

Her hands shimmered with light and an arrow of light formed in her hands. She aimed right between its eyes. She let the world quiet around her and pulled the bow taut, her thumb reaching her cheek.

Then she let it fly. The arrow hit its target and burst into light. Most likely temporarily blinding the drakon. It roared and reared up on its hind legs, leaving its belly vulnerable. "Go!"

Her siblings let their arrows fly. The drakon roared once more and dropped back to the ground, quickly slithering away from the border.

When it was gone, Michael let out a whoop of celebration. He clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Good job,"

She smiled, "Thanks,"

"Good thinking Len," Lee said. "Okay, let's get back to camp. We'll have to tell Chiron what happened,"

"It's still out there," Lee warned the next morning, standing up at the table during announcements. "The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. It's eyes—" he shuddered. "Thanks to Lennon, we were able to get twenty-something arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad,"

Michael nudged her proudly and she looked down at her lap, embarrassed by the attention from others. She caught Percy's eyes and saw he was grinning at her, holding a thumbs up.

"You all did well," Chiron patted him on the shoulder before he sat down. "Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

Campers murmured among themselves. It was no secret that it was rumored that Luke and his army were planning an invasion. It didn't help that their attendance was down. They only had about eighty campers when, three years ago, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.

"This is a good reason for new war games," Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."

"Yes..." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods."

They all raised their glasses and repeated the blessing. Apollo cabin went to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of their food in the fire. Most of them broke off a piece of their banana nut muffin (because their father had previously told them that that was his favorite) except for Michael who was allergic to tree nuts.

Lennon enjoyed her fruit and muffin, as she slumped at the table. After fighting the drakon, she hadn't been able to sleep. Especially with the dream she'd had before. Xia had figured out something that could break the curse and she didn't even get a chance to tell her.

She took a sip from her cup and was happy to taste coffee.

"You okay?" Julian asked her.

"Yeah, just tired,"

"You look terrible," Michael commented.

Lennon glared at him.

"Come with me," Lennon was surprised to see Annabeth standing next to her, holding onto her arm. The blonde glanced at the table, waving at Julian, who waved back. Lennon cataloged the interaction in her mind and then set it aside for a later time.

"What?"

"We're going to talk with Percy," She said as they moved away from the table.

"Wait! My coffee," Annabeth sighed and picked up the cup. Then the two made their way to Percy's table.

Annabeth slid into the seat next to Percy while Lennon took a seat across from him.

"I'll tell you what it's about," Annabeth said, interjecting into whatever conversation Grover and Percy were having. "The Labyrinth."

Lennon hummed. So that's what this was about. She'd known that Annabeth had been researching the Labyrinth for a while. Lennon had been helping her occasionally, especially since she had been having her own dreams of the walls of the Labyrinth.

"You two aren't supposed to be here," is all Percy says.

Lennon widened her eyes, remembering the rules. "We aren't,"

"Shh, it doesn't matter. We need to talk,"

"What matters is Grover is in trouble," Annabeth said, "There's only one way we can help him. The Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse and I have been investigating. And Lennon, well..."

"You know, dreams and whatnot," she waved her hand tiredly while her other hand held her head up. She was slowly dozing off when Percy's voice woke her up.

"Lennon, what's wrong?" Percy asked, his concerned eyes gazing at her.

Lennon shrugged. "Just the drakon,"

Annabeth furrowed her brows, examining her. "Yeah, you're more tired than usual. Dreams?"

There was more behind the word. She was asking about curse-related dreams. The dreams that usually left Lennon up all night.

Lennon shrugged as if it meant nothing. "Just dreams,"

Percy gave her an odd look, unconvinced and as he opened his mouth to say more, Annabeth saved her. "Well, back to the labyrinth,"  she clapped her hands together.

"You mean the maze where they kept the Minotaur, back in the old days?" Percy asked.

"Exactly," Annabeth said.

"So...it's not under the king's palace in Crete anymore," Percy guessed. "The Labyrinth is under some building in America."

"Percy," Lennon said, though she began to doze off again as soon as she said it. Annabeth nudged her with her elbow and she realized they were waiting for it to talk. "It wouldn't be under a building,"

"It's huge. It wouldn't fit under a single city, much less a single building." Annabeth said, her eyes starting to twinkle with admiration. "It's really amazing, actually.

"Is the Labyrinth part of the Underworld?" Percy asked as he nudged Lennon's cup of coffee to her.

"No." Annabeth frowned. "Well, there may be passages from the Labyrinth down into the Underworld. I'm not sure. But the Underworld is way, way down. The Labyrinth is right under the surface of the mortal world, kind of like a second skin. It's practically everywhere, growing for thousands of years,"

"If you don't get lost," Grover muttered. "And die a horrible death."

"Grover, there has to be a way," Annabeth said, repeating the conversation they'd had a dozen times before. "Clarisse lived."

"Barely!" Grover said. "And the other guy—"

"He was driven insane. He didn't die."

Lennon nodded. "That is objectively better,"

"Oh, joy." Grover's lower lip quivered. "That makes me feel much better."

"Whoa," Percy said. "Back up. What's this about Clarisse and a crazy guy?"

Annabeth glanced over toward the Ares table. Clarisse was watching them, probably aware of what they were talking about. Lennon sent her a small smile and Clarisse narrowed her eyes (what Lennon liked to think of as her version of a smile), then she fixed her eyes on her breakfast plate.

"Last year," Annabeth said, lowering her voice, "Clarisse went on a mission for Chiron."

"I remember," Percy said. "It was secret."

Annabeth nodded.

"It was secret," Lennon chimed in, feeling more awake now, "because she found Chris Rodriguez."

"The guy from the Hermes cabin?" Percy remembered.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, near Clarisse's mom's house."

"What do you mean he just appeared?" Percy asked.

"He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armor, babbling about string," Lennon answered.

"String," he said.

"He'd been driven completely insane. Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's men have been exploring the Labyrinth."

"Okay. Why were they exploring the Labyrinth?"

"We weren't sure," Lennon answered. "That's what we've been trying to figure out,"

Annabeth nodded. "That's why Clarisse went on a scouting expedition. Chiron kept things hushed up because he didn't want anyone panicking. He got me involved because...well, the Labyrinth has always been one of my favorite subjects. The architecture involved—" Her expression turned a little dreamy. "The builder, Daedalus, was a genius,"

"Originally, I was just helping Beth with research," Lennon said. If she let Annabeth continue, she would go on a rant about his genius. "But then I got dreams of the Labyrinth..."

"The point is," Annabeth said, picking the topic back up, "the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed."

"Except it's a maze, right?"

"Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters."

"Ariadne's string will help though," Lennon said.

Annabeth nodded. "In the old days, her string guided Theseus out of the maze. It was a navigation instrument of some kind, invented by Daedalus. And Chris Rodriguez was mumbling about string."

"So Luke is trying to find Ariadne's string," Percy said. "Why? What's he planning?"

"That's what we don't know," Lennon said, shaking her head.

"I thought maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that doesn't make any sense," Annabeth said. "The closest entrances Clarisse found were in Manhattan, which wouldn't help Luke get past our borders. Clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but...it was very dangerous. She had some close calls,"

    "Annabeth and I researched everything we could find," Lennon said.

"I didn't help," Annabeth added.

"We'll figure it out though,"

Annabeth nodded wearily at her optimism. "I don't understand exactly what Luke's planning, but I do know this: the Labyrinth might be the key to Grover's problem."

Percy blinked. "You think Pan is underground?"

"It would explain why he's been impossible to find."

Grover shuddered. "Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!"

"But," Annabeth said, "the Labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was designed to fool you, trick you, and kill you; but if you can make the Labyrinth work for yo —"

"It could lead you to the wild god," Percy finished her words.

"I can't do it." Grover hugged his stomach. "Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware."

"Grover, it may be your last chance," Annabeth said. "The council is serious. One week or you learn to tap dance!"

Over at the head table, Quintus cleared his throat. Lennon glanced around to see others stealing glances at them. Lennon realized that they'd probably been pushing it, sitting at Percy's table for so long.

"We'll talk later," Annabeth squeezed his arm. "Convince him, will you?"

Lennon got up with her and sent a small smile to the three before turning around and leaving for her table.

"Right," Quintus said, standing on the head dining table. "Gather 'round."

After dinner, he'd had them suit up in combat armor. He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost. Mrs. O'Leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.

"You will be in teams of two," Quintus announced. When everybody started talking and trying to grab their friends, he yelled: "Which have already been chosen!"

"AWWWWW!" everybody complained.

"Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, and tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course...you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."

The crowd started murmuring excitedly. The game actually seemed pretty interesting.

"I will now announce your partners," Quintus said. "There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining."

"Aroooof!" Mrs. O'Leary buried her face in a plate of pizza.

Quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names.

Beckendorf and Silena.

Travis and Connor.

Clarisse and Lee.

"Annabeth and Julian," Julian sent Annabeth a grin and Lennon could already see Annabeth working through dozens of strategies.

"Percy and Lennon,"

Percy nudged Lennon enthusiastically. "It's you and me, sunshine,"

"We're still going to win," Annabeth raised a brow at them.

"Grover Underwood," Quintus said, "with Tyson."

Grover just about jumped out of his goat fur. "What? B-but—"

"No, no," Tyson whimpered. "Must be a mistake. Goat boy—"

"No complaining!" Quintus ordered. "Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!"

Everyone split off with their partners.

"So, are we coming up with a plan or are we just gonna go with the flow?" Lennon asked Percy.

"The usual," Percy shrugged. "Make a plan, let it get ruined, and make a new one,"

Lennon grinned. "Fun,"

Soon enough, they ventured into the woods, finding tracks almost immediately. They followed the trail. As they were jumping a creek, they heard twigs snapping nearby. They crouched behind a boulder only to see the Stoll brothers tripping through the woods and cursing.

Lennon wasn't surprised. When she used to help them with pranks, they were never quiet.

After the Stolls passed, they continued on. They were standing on a ledge, overlooking a marshy pond.

Lennon recognized this area. "I think... this is where we stopped looking," They'd searched for Nico all through the woods but hadn't found him.

"I saw him last night," Percy said.

Lennon whipped her head to him. "What?"

He told her about the Iris message he had seen last night.

"Summoning the dead? That's..." she tried to think of something positive. "I can't see any way that could be good,'

Percy nodded. "And the ghost was giving him bad advice. Telling him to take revenge and shit,"

Lennon frowned. "That's not good. Spirits give terrible advice since all they care about are themselves,"

Percy nodded in agreement. "It's really weird though. Who sent the message?"

Lennon opened her mouth to respond but then a branch snapped in the woods. Dry leaves rustled and something large was moving in the trees, just beyond the ridge.

Lennon flicked her bow down into a sword. "That's definitely not the Stolls,"

They got to Zeus' Fist. Lennon pointed in the distance, whispering, "It's over there,"

"No, wait," He said. "Behind us."

There were scuttling noises coming from all around them. They were circling the boulders, when someone behind them said, "Hi,"

They whirled around, only to see Juniper, who yelped.

"Put those down!" she protested. "Dryads don't like sharp blades, okay?"

"Hi Juniper," Lennon exhaled. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here."

Percy and Lennon lowered their swords. "In the boulders?" He asked.

"In the juniper. Duh." She pointed toward the edge of the clearing. Lennon nodded. "Are you guys busy?"

"Well," Percy said, "we're in the middle of this game against a bunch of monsters and we're trying not to die."

Lennon elbowed him lightly. "But that's the usual so no, we're not busy," Lennon scanned her face, and her brows furrowed in concern. "What's wrong, Juniper?"

Juniper sniffled. She wiped her silky sleeve under her eyes. "It's Grover. He seems so distraught. All year he's been out looking for Pan. And every time he comes back, it's worse. I thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree."

"No," Lennon shook her head, rubbing her back reassuringly. "He would never, he's just stressed out about his searcher's license" Lennon glanced at Percy for help.

Percy nodded. "I know Grover. He wouldn't do that,"

"He can't go underground!" she protested. "You can't let him."

Lennon frowned. "I don't know. It may be the only way to help him,"

"Ah." Juniper wiped a green tear off her cheek. "About that..."

Another rustle in the woods and Juniper yelled, "Hide!" Before they could say another word, Juniper poofed into green mist.

They turned to see something coming out of the woods. It was a glistening amber insect, ten feet long, with jagged pincers, an armored tail, and a stinger as long as Lennon's sword. A scorpion. Tied to its back was a red silk package.

Percy and Lennon shared a look and she already knew what he would say.

"Distract and Attack?"

Lennon nodded. "You'll be the distraction?" He nodded.

She was getting ready to move when two more scorpions appeared.

"Three?" Percy said. "Oh come on, that's just shit luck,"

Lennon shrugged warily as they put their backs to the nearest boulders. "Luck is still luck,"

"Even when it's against us?"

"Yes?"

"Climb?" Percy asked.

She shook her head. "No time," The scorpions were closing in on them.

"Look out!" Percy shouted.

Lennon moved out of the line of the stinger as Percy blocked it with his sword. Lennon slashed at it with her sword but it backed out of range.

Quickly they clambered along the boulders, adopting a strategy of Lennon shooting bursts of light at the insects and Percy stabbing at them while they were distracted. Still, there were too many. They wouldn't be able to keep it up for long.

"In here," Percy said.

He was talking about the crack between two of the largest boulders. Lennon glanced at it, then back at him, all while shooting another burst of light at a scorpion.

"What?"

"I'll cover you. Go!"

Lennon sighed and ducked behind him, squeezing between the two boulders. Then she felt the ground disappear from under her feet. She yelped and quickly grabbed onto Percy's armor straps, pulling him with her. They tumbled into a pit, the world above shutting away, leaving them in complete darkness.

Lennon could hear their breath echoing against the stone. Percy lifted riptide and it created a faint glow.  "Are you okay?"

She nodded, "Yeah. Are you?"

"Yup," He glanced at her, "Can you...?"

She nodded and opened her hands, letting a ball of light shine.

"Where are we?"

"I don't know. On the bright side,  we don't have to deal with those scorpions anymore,"

Percy sighed, glancing around. "It's a long room,"

"A corridor?"

He hummed, "Or that,"

She studied the walls more and then furrowed her brows. This was familiar. She was brought back into her dreams. Dark, constricting walls on every side of her. Without thinking, she slipped her hand into Percy's, squeezing his hand.

"What's wrong?" He studied her face, trying to find answers.

"I think this is..." Percy started forward and she pulled him back. "Don't move. We have to find the exit,"

"It's okay. It's right—" He looked up only to see the ceiling where they'd fallen in was solid stone. The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions.

Lennon squeezed his hand again. "We have to stay together. Let's take two steps back,"

He nodded, and slowly they took two steps back.

"Okay, if Beth's research is right then... We need to examine the walls,"

"Okay," He looked at the wall. "Why?"

"There's this thing, the mark of Daedalus. It supposed to..." she trailed off, dragging Percy with her as she moved closer to the walls. She ran her hand over the wall, examining it.

"Len? What kind of—"

She let out a little gasp. "I think I found it," Percy moved to stand next to her and see. Lennon pressed her hand on the symbol and it glowed blue.

The roof slid open and they could see the night sky, except it was way too dark. Metal ladder rungs appeared on the side of the wall, leading up, and she could hear people yelling their names. Tyson's was the loudest.

Percy and Lennon glanced at each other and then began climbing. Eventually, they made their way around the rocks and ran into Clarisse and others.

"Where have you two been?" Clarisse demanded.

"We've been looking forever."

"But we were gone only a few minutes," Percy said.

Chiron trotted up, followed by Tyson and Grover.

"Percy! Lennon!" Tyson said. "You are okay?"

"We're fine," Percy said.

Annabeth was standing beside Julian, behind Chiron. "What happened?"

"We fell in a hole," Lennon said.

Everyone looked at them skeptically. A few people glance at their hands intertwined, making Lennon drop his hand. She spotted Michael raising his eyebrows at her in a teasing manner.

"It's the truth! There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid in the rocks. But we were only gone a minute." Percy said.

"You've been missing for almost an hour," Chiron said. "The game is over."

Clarisse was wearing the gold laurels, but she hadn't bragged about winning them. "A hole?" she said suspiciously.

Lennon sent a look to Annabeth and the blonde easily read her expression. "Did you—"

Lennon nodded at her unfinished question.

Annabeth took a deep breath. She looked at the other campers. "Chiron... I think we should talk about this at the Big House,"

Clarisse gasped. "You found it, didn't you?"

"We did," Lennon confirmed.

A bunch of campers started asking questions, looking confused, but Chiron raised his hand for silence. "Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." He stared at the boulders as if he'd just noticed how dangerous they were. "All of you, back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well played, but curfew is past!"

There was a lot of mumbling and complaints, but the campers drifted off, talking among themselves and shooting suspicious looks at Lennon and Percy.

"This explains a lot," Clarisse said. "It explains what Luke is after."

"Wait a second," Percy said. He turned to Lennon. "What do you mean? What did we find?"

Annabeth turned to him. "An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp."

The next morning, Chiron called a war council in the sword arena. Chiron and Quintus stood at the front by the weapon racks. Clarisse and Annabeth sat next to each other and led the briefing. Lennon had come to the council with Lee.

Around the table sat the others: Juniper, Silena Beauregard, Travis and Connor Stoll, Charles Beckendorf, and Percy. Even Argus was there and he never shows up unless something major was happening.

"Luke must have known about the Labyrinth entrance," Annabeth said. "He knew everything about camp."

Juniper cleared her throat. "That's what I was trying to tell you last night. The cave entrance has been there a long time. Luke used to use it."

Silena Beauregard frowned. "You knew about the Labyrinth entrance, and you didn't say anything?"

Juniper's face turned green. "I didn't know it was important. Just a cave. I don't like yucky old caves."

"She has good taste," Grover said.

"I wouldn't have paid any attention except...well, it was Luke." She blushed a little greener.

Grover huffed. "Forget what I said about good taste."

"Interesting," Quintus polished his sword as he spoke. "And you believe this young man, Luke, would dare use the Labyrinth as an invasion route?"

"Of course, he would," Clarisse scoffed. "If he could get an army of monsters inside Camp Half-Blood, just pop up in the middle of the woods without worrying about our magical boundaries, we wouldn't stand a chance. He could wipe us out easily. He must've been planning this for months."

"And he's been sending scouts into the maze," Annabeth said. "We know because...because we found one."

"Chris Rodriguez," Chiron said. He gave Quintus a meaningful look.

"Ah," Quintus said. "The one in the...Yes, I understand."

"The one in the what?" Percy asked. It seems he still needed to be caught up on things.

Clarisse glared at him. "The point is, Luke has been looking for a way to navigate the maze. He's searching for Daedalus's workshop."

"The guy who created the maze."

"Yes," Annabeth said. "The greatest architect, the greatest inventor of all time. If the legends are true, his workshop is in the center of the Labyrinth. He's the only one who knew how to navigate the maze perfectly. If Luke managed to find the workshop and convince Daedalus to help him, Luke wouldn't have to fumble around searching for paths or risk losing his army in the maze's traps. He could navigate anywhere he wanted—quickly and safely. First to Camp Half-Blood to wipe us out. Then...to Olympus."

The silent arena was interrupted by the squeak of Mrs. O'Leary's squeaky toy.

Lennon cringed at the silence. "There's a chance he doesn't find a way to navigate it," Lennon says hopefully.

"Have you had any dreams about it?" Clarisse asked pressingly. In the time that Lennon had started helping Annabeth with her research and getting dreams of the Labyrinth, they had filled Clarisse in on her prophetic dreams.

"No," she frowned. "But, there could be a chance, right?"

The table was silent. No one said what they were all thinking. So instead, Beckendorf put his hands on the table. "Back up a sec, Annabeth, you said 'convince Daedalus'? Isn't Daedalus dead?"

"I would hope so. He lived, what, three thousand years ago?" Quintus grunted. "And even if he were alive, don't the old stories say he fled from the Labyrinth?"

Chiron clopped restlessly on his hooves. "That's the problem, my dear Quintus. No one knows. There are rumors...well, there are many disturbing rumors about Daedalus, but one is that he disappeared back into the Labyrinth toward the end of his life. He might still be there."

"We need to go in," Annabeth announced. "We have to find the workshop before Luke does. If Daedalus is alive, we convince him to help us, not Luke. If Ariadne's string still exists, we make sure it never falls into Luke's hands."

"Wait a second," Percy said. "If we're worried about an attack, why not just blow up the entrance? Seal the tunnel?"

"Great idea!" Grover said. "I'll get the dynamite!"

"It's not so easy, stupid," Clarisse growled. "We tried that at the entrance we found in Phoenix. It didn't go well."

Annabeth nodded. "The Labyrinth is magical architecture, Percy. It would take huge power to seal even one of its entrances. In Phoenix, Clarisse demolished a whole building with a wrecking ball, and the maze entrance just shifted a few feet. The best we can do is prevent Luke from learning to navigate the Labyrinth."

"Which could work," Lennon chimed in.

"Or, we could fight," Lee said, glancing at Lennon. "We know where the entrance is now. We can set up a defensive line and wait for them. If an army tries to come through, they'll find us waiting."

"We will certainly set up defenses," Chiron agreed. "But I fear Clarisse is right. The magical borders have kept this camp safe for hundreds of years. If Luke manages to get a large army of monsters into the center of camp, bypassing our boundaries...we may not have the strength to defeat them."

Lennon frowned. The odds were stacked against them.

"We have to get to Daedalus's workshop first," Annabeth insisted. "Find Ariadne's string and prevent Luke from using it."

"But if nobody can navigate in there," Percy said, "what chance do we have?"

"I've been studying architecture for years," she said. "I know Daedalus's Labyrinth better than anybody."

"From reading about it."

"Well, yes."

"It's something," Lennon interjected.

"That's not enough."

"It has to be!" Annabeth insisted.

"It isn't!"

"Are you going to help me or not?" Annabeth glared at him.

"Guys, arguing isn't going to help," Lennon didn't like seeing two of her closest friends at odds. If anything, it just made her more anxious about whatever was coming ahead.

Chiron cleared his throat. "First things first. We need a quest. Someone must enter the Labyrinth, find the workshop of Daedalus, and prevent Luke from using the maze to invade this camp."

"We all know who should lead this," Clarisse said. "Annabeth."

They all murmured in agreement.

"You've done as much as I have, Clarisse," she said, a bit uncomfortably. "You should go, too."

"No offense, but hell no," Clarisse shook her head. "I'm not going back in there."

    Travis laughed. "Don't tell me you're chicken, Clarisse?"

    Clarisse got to her feet. In a shaky voice, she said, "You don't understand anything, punk. I'm never going in there again. Never!" She stormed out of the arena.

    Travis looked around sheepishly. "I didn't mean to—"

Chiron raised his hand. "The poor girl has had a difficult year. Now, do we have agreement that Annabeth should lead the quest?"

They all nodded except Quintus who folded his arms and stared at the table.

"Very well," Chiron turned to Annabeth. "My dear, it's your time to visit the Oracle. Assuming you return to us in one piece, we shall discuss what to do next."

AUTHORS NOTE:
new chapter to bring in the new year!
comment and tell me ur thoughts don't be a silent reader