✦ ༉‧₊˚⋆˚( ᵖᵉʳᶠᵉᶜᵗ ʷᵒʳˡᵈ )˚⁺✧₊˚.*♡

🍦— 003. they fall into a hole ( literally )

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

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!"

Everybody complained and let out protests. Vivi looked around at all the campers. She really wanted to be paired with one of her siblings, or Percy, or Annabeth, or any unclaimed kids that she grew to love and care as her own siblings. There was one Vivi adored the most ( don't let the others hear her ) ─ Louise Kang. She was a lovely girl, always by herself or in presence of her cat she named Red, although, Vivi found something weird about the creature. Louise, or how she liked people to call her, Isa, had ran away from home five years ago, when she was nine. One night, the younger girl was having a nightmare and woke Vivi up and asked to sleep in her bed with her. And how could Vivi say no to those puppy eyes that were staring at her. Later, Isa started opening up to Vivi, and Vivi only. She asked Vivi to train with her, to do her hair and help her study. In less then a week, the two were like mother and daughter duo.

"Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, 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 task sounded pretty straight forward. Vivi didn't trust that.

"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 would be with Silena Beauregard, which Beckendorf looked pretty happy about. Travis and Connor would be together ( lucky ). Clarisse was with Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin ─ melee and ranged combat combined, they would be a tough combo to beat. 

"Annabeth Chase and George Yoo," Quintus called out

The pair looked at each other, before breaking an eye contact. George moved over to stand next to Annabeth, and Vivi could see the way her best friend's face brightened at the closeness with son of Ares.

"Will Solace and Louise Kang,"

"But I want to be with you, Vivi," Isa whined next to Vivi, tugging at the end of her shirt.

"You'll be fine, Lou," Vivi reassured her, "Will is good, and you can make new friends!"

Quintus kept rattling off the names until he said, "Percy Jackson with Vivienne Wu."

"Nice." Percy grinned at Vivi. "Hope you can keep up, V."

"Is that a challenge, Aquaboy?"

"Aquaboy?"

"Gotta find a nickname for you."

"Got any weapon with you?"

Vivi held out her arm.

"You want me to hold it?" Percy asked, "I'll do it gladly."

"No, you idiot," Vivi rolled her eyes, but the idea of Percy holding her hand didn't sound that bad, "It's disguised as my bracelet." she puller her off the silver bracelet and the dagger her grandma had giver her appeared in her hands, "Meet πεταλούδα or Butterfly in English."

"Wow, it's beautiful," Percy examined the weapon, "Your father gave it you?"

"No, my grandma. It was hers when she was our age."

"Well, your grandma is cool."

It was still light when the pair got into the woods, but the shadows from the trees made it feel like midnight. It was cold, too, even in summer. Vivi and Percy found tracks almost immediately ─ scuttling marks made by something with a lot of legs. They began to follow the trail. Jumping a creek, they heard some twigs snapping nearby. Vivi and Percy crouched behind a boulder, but it was only her brothers tripping through the woods and cursing.

"How am I related to them?" Vivi sighed.

Suddenly, a branch snapped in the woods. Dry leaves rustled. Something large was moving in the trees, just beyond the ridge.

"That are not my brothers," Vivi whispered.

Percy drew out his sword, while Vivi firmly held her dagger. They got to Zeus's Fist, a huge pile of boulders in the middle of the west woods. It was a natural landmark where campers often rendezvoused on hunting expeditions, but now there was nobody around.

"Over there," Vivi whispered.

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

It was weird. Scuttling noises seemed to be coming from several different directions. They were circling the boulders, weapons drawn, when someone right behind them said, "Hi."

The pair whirled around, and the tree nymph Juniper yelped. "Put those down!" she protested. "Dryads don't like sharp blades, okay?"

"Juniper," Vivi exhaled. "You can't sneak up on people like that."

"What are you doing here?" Percy asked.

"I live here."

Percy lowered his sword. "In the boulders?"

She pointed toward the edge of the clearing. "In the juniper. Duh." 

"Are you guys busy?" Juniper asked.

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

"We're not," Vivi said, rolling her eyes at Percy. "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," Vivi said, as Juniper started crying. "I'm sure that's not it. Grover would never do that. You guys are fine."

"He had a crush on a blueberry bush once," Juniper said miserably.

"Juniper," Vivi said, "Grover would never even look at another tree. He's just stressed out about his searcher's license."

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

"It might be the only way to help him; if we just knew where to start."

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

Another rustle in the woods, and Juniper yelled, "Hide!" she went poof into green mist.

Vivi and Percy turned. Coming out of the woods was a glistening amber insect, ten feet long, with jagged pincers, an armored tail, and a stinger as long a sword. A scorpion. Tied to its back was a red silk package.

"One of us gets behind it," Vivi said, as the thing clattered toward them. "Cuts off its tail while the other distracts it in front."

"And you're gonna do that how?"

"One of my father's powers I inherited," Vivi said, "Superspeed."

"Okay. . . I feel like I shouldn't ask how you found out."

"Good."

Vivi, with dagger in her hand, was ready to run behind the scorpion, when the other two scorpions appeared from the woods. 

"Three?" Vivi said. "Why are half of the monsters coming after us?"

The scorpions scurried toward them, whipping their barbed tails like they'd come here just to kill them. Vivi and Percy put their backs against the nearest boulder.

"Climb?" Percy said.

"No time," Vivi said. 

The scorpions were already surrounding the pair. They were so close Vivi could see their hideous mouths foaming, anticipating a nice juicy meal of demigods. "Look out!" parried away a stinger with the flat of her blade, Percy stabbed with Riptide, but the scorpion backed out of range. They clambered sideways along the boulders, but the scorpions followed after them. 

"In here," Percy said.

Vivi moved out of scorpions' reach, her figure like a blur came towards Percy, "In there? It's too narrow."

"I'll cover you. Go!"

Vivi ducked behind Percy and started squeezing between the two boulders. As she moved, she lost the ground under her feet and with a loud yell, grabbed Percy's armor straps, and sent them both tumbling into a pit that hadn't been there a moment before. Vivi could see the scorpions above them, the purple evening sky and the trees, and then the hole shut like the lens of a camera, and they were in complete darkness.

Their heavy breathing echoed against stone. It was wet and cold, and they were sitting on a bumpy floor that seemed to be made of bricks. Percy lifted Riptide. The faint glow of the blade was just enough to illuminate the room.

"I think we've found something we're not supposed to." Vivi said. 

"Safe from scorpions, anyway." 

Vivi lifter her dagger up for some light.

"It's a long room," Percy muttered. 

Vivi gripped his arm. "It's not a room. It's a corridor."

Percy started forward, but Vivi pulled him back by a tug at his arm. "Don't move," she warned. "We need to find the exit."

"Hey, Vee, it's okay," Percy promised. "It's right ─ " he looked up and realized that the ceiling was solid stone. The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions. Vivi's hand slipped into Percy's. The warmth was enough to keep her from panicking.

"If this is what I think it is, and I hope I am wrong," Vivi frowned, "Two steps back. Yeah, two steps back."

The pair stepped backward together like they were in a minefield. "Okay," she said. "Help me examine the walls."

"What for?"

"The mark of Daedalus," 

"Uh, okay. What kind of ─ "

"Got it! Bless you, Annie!" she said with relief. Vivi set her hand on the wall and pressed against a tiny fissure, which began to glow blue. A Greek symbol appeared; the Ancient Greek Delta. The roof slid open and they saw night sky, stars blazing. It was a lot darker than it should've been. Metal ladder rungs appeared in the side of the wall, leading up, and they could hear people yelling our names.

"Percy! Vivi!"

Tyson the Cyclops' voice bellowed the loudest, but Vivi could hear Connor, Travis, Annabeth and Isa's voices calling in extreme panic too. She shared a nervous look with Percy and flicked her dagger so it became a bracelet again, now attached around her wrist. They began to climb. Once they made it up, the pair walked around the rocks and ran into Clarisse and a bunch of other campers carrying torches.

"Where have you two been?" Clarisse demanded. "We've been looking forever."

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

Chiron trotted up, followed by Tyson, Grover, Annabeth, Connor, Travis, Isa, George and the rest of her siblings. Travis, Connor and Isa ran to the girl and hugged her tightly, the younger girl not letting go off her after.

"Are you guys okay?" Annabeth asked, checking Vivi for any wounds.

"We're fine." Vivi assured her.

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

"We're fine," Percy said. "We fell in a hole."

The others looked at me skeptically, then at Vivi, who could feel her face brighten.

"Honest!" Percy said. "There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid the rocks."

"We were only gone a minute." Vivi said.

"You've been missing for almost an hour," George said. "The game is over." he was standing next to Annabeth with his helmet in hand.

"Yeah," Grover muttered. "We would've won, but a Cyclops sat on me."

"Was an accident!" Tyson protested, and then he sneezed.

Clarisse was wearing the gold laurels, but she didn't even brag about winning them, which wasn't like her. "A hole?" she said suspiciously.

"Not Alice in Wonderland kind, but yeah." Vivi agreed.

Annabeth took a deep breath. She looked between Percy and Vivi, "Chiron. . . maybe we should talk about this at the Big House."

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

"If we are talking about you know what. . . then yeah, we found it."

A bunch of campers started asking questions, looking about 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 giving them suspicious looks. Connor, Travis and Isa wanted to stay, but Vivi told them to go and she will be there shortly.

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

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

Annabeth turned toward them, her eyes dark with worry. "An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp."

"Oh, we're so fucked."

niki speaks!

hello people of this beautiful world,
how are you doing?
i hope you're having a good day/night!

here's another chapter of perfect world
a bit shorter, but fun none the less.

this series got to be my favorite ever
i've written.
i'm just so in love with the characters
and the plot and everything!

tell me what you think
and see you soon!

bye!