Annabeth

At the conference, I immediately recognized Lord Zeus. He looked exactly like the way Athena had described him to me at my asking. Because gods were . . . Well, gods, they could change their age and appearance. Most of them liked the age of about thirty years, though.

Zeus was tall, muscular, and had a neatly trimmed brown beard. Long brown hair fell around his shoulders. His eyes were electric blue, and I swear I could see lightning bolts flashing in them. Speaking of lightning, in his right hand he held the legendary lightning bolt. It was said that in that one bolt it held the voltage power of about five hundred normal lightning bolts. So, yeah, it was kinda dangerous.

I also knew Hades, sitting at Zeus' left. Although Athena has never described him to me, he had the Helm of Darkness on his head, and only the Lord of the Underworld wore that. It covered most of his head, but you could see long black hair coming out the sides of the helmet. A sharp pointy nose, and two black eyes were visible as well. The helm radiated darkness. Literally. Everything within a foot of the helm seemed shadowy. Just looking at it triggered my deepest fears.

Spiders. I shuddered and looked away from the sinister helm.

Then my gaze traveled to the throne on Zeus' right.

On that throne sat a tall, tan and muscular man. He had messy black hair reaching his shoulders, but no facial hair. The sides of his eyes had crinkles, the result of frequent smiles. He looked really relaxed, and was casually leaning back in his coral throne, while Zeus and Hades sat stiff and upright. But what really got me were the eyes. Sure, they were bright green and looked like miniature seas, but they were cheerful and happy, which was the complete opposite of Zeus and Hades. Both of their eyes were cold and forbearing, held aloof with haughtiness. I glanced back at the third god I had seen, wondering who this joyful person was.

Wait . . . sea green eyes? Miniature oceans? Sitting on the right of Zeus? Coral throne? Just then I noticed a trident leaning against the throne. Oh, great. This must be Poseidon.

Annabeth! You were just thinking that this god was pretty good looking! You're supposed to hate him! I screamed at myself. My hatred returned immediately.

But I found it was hard to hate him. He was just so nice to me.

I know, it was weird, since he was the one that murdered my father, and also was my mother's archenemy . . . but he smiled at me and it was a genuine smile, but it had a touch of sadness in it.

Annabeth, my dear.

My head snappy around, looking for whoever had spoken to me. However, nobody was looking at me, just Poseidon. Only then did I realize the deep voice was Poseidon's, and it was in my head, reverberating around my skull like an echo.

I am very sorry about your father. We did it for everybody, for without Athena in her right mind, things would not go well. I'm so sorry that you had to go without a father figure in your life. Please forgive me, but I will understand if you don't. I left you a gift at the temple, and you will find it when you get back, but don't tell your mother, for she will probably destroy it on sight. Again, I'm sorry.

I looked dumbfounded at Poseidon. Everything I thought of this god was wrong. He definitely wasn't a ugly, old hag. But I also thought he would be mean. Just saying. He did kill my father, but now he was apologizing and begging for forgiveness. I didn't know what to think. I wasn't ready to just forgive the murderer of my father, but he seemed genuinely sad and apologetic . . .

But what if he was pretending to be nice to get me on his good side to acquire an advantage over my mother when they had their arguments? Or if he was just faking it so I wouldn't think of him so badly? I didn't know, there was just too many bad consequences that could happen if I forgave him. I decided to hold off. I swear I saw Poseidon nod his head as if in acknowledgment. It's creepy how much gods know.

I was still confused about the god of seas' actions. I sat through the whole conference thinking about Poseidon's apology. It was kind of boring, though, and soon I had fallen asleep. I know, how could you fall asleep at a council with powerful and immortal gods and goddesses? Hey-I was thirteen. Give me a break.

When I woke up, I found myself back in my room at Athena's temple in Athens. I groggily sat up, rubbing the sleep in my tired eyes away. My hands shoved the covers off of me, and my legs carried me out into my balcony. I leant against the side, gazing into the shimmering blue and green sea. Then I remembered that Poseidon had said he had left me a gift. I had no idea where he would put it, so I just started wandering the halls of the temple.

I soon had looked almost everywhere. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary, or any box or something like that. Where would he put it?

Suddenly I froze. How could I be so stupid? Athena had a saltwater fountain. Ocean water. There were sea creatures in it. It had to be here.

Sure enough, I walked into the room with the vast water fountain and sitting on top of the fountain was what looked like a stone box from down here where I stood. The room was huge with a glass ceiling towering over me, seeming to reach to the sky. The whole floor was made of mosaic tiles forming a giant picture of Athena. I sighed in relief when I found it, but the bad news was that the god of seas had put the stone box on the top of the fountain. The very top. And this fountain reached about thirty feet up into the air. Great. Thanks Poseidon, for the convenient place, I thought sarcastically. Suddenly, I heard a resonant chuckle inside my head, and a burst of water lifted the box into the air, making it fall down. But before it had reached ten feet, a hand made of water reached out and snatched it, then the hand rode the water down the fountain, and it came up to me and offered me the box. In my head I heard a familiar voice said, Here you are. If you would like to keep it, I would start running to your room now, for Athena is walking towards this fountain room right now, and I know she would not be too fond of this gift.

I knew it was Poseidon, but I wondered how he knew where Athena was. I wondered if I should trust him, then I heard some footsteps walking towards the fountain room. I panicked. Grabbing the box, I realized too late that that there was only one entrance, and one exit . . . and they were the same. Athena was coming to the entrance right now, she would see me if I tried to leave. The box was too big to hide behind me back. I couldn't get out.

Oh no. Poseidon, if you're still here, a little help would be appreciated! I thought frantically, but I was convinced that he wasn't there and/or wouldn't help me. But once again I thought wrong of the god. A string of water broke free of the fountain, and traveled through the air towards a spot in the corner, then it fell onto the tiles that formed a strand of Athena's hair. I ran over there, and saw that one of her strands of hair, the one the water had landed on, created a perfect "P." The P was huge, and if I laid down on the floor, then I would be the length of it.

P for Poseidon? thought. Now what?

I absentmindedly pushed the tile of the very tip of the P, but froze when I felt it give a little. I kept pushing it farther down but it stopped after an inch. I pushed the next one.

It went down too.

I pushed every single tile of the P, starting at the bottom, then going up and around and ending up in the middle of the line.

They all pushed down. I did them one by one, and when I pushed the very last one, I heard a click, then some gears creaked.

I waited impatiently. Athena could get here any moment. Then the footsteps stopped. For a second, I was scared that she had found me, then I heard two voices. Someone was talking to her. I thanked whoever that was in my head, but I was pretty sure I knew who it was or who sent the person. And sure enough, after I said thank you in my head, Poseidon replied with, You're welcome.

I looked back at the opening in middle of the P and saw that the tiles were going down into the floor. When they reached about a foot down, they slid to the side, underneath the tiles that were next to them. Where the tiles had just been was a big hole.

I looked down in the hole and saw that it was about a ten foot drop to the stone floor, and then stairs led you farther down as far as I could see.

I was hesitant, for I had no idea where this led. But then I heard Athena say goodbye to the person she was talking to, and resume her walking over to the fountain room.

Here goes nothing. I muttered in my head, then jumped down the ten foot drop.

The drop didn't bother me, because I was a demigod. I was trained for these things. Plus, I have Athena as a personal teacher. Not to brag, but I was a pretty good fighter. I was included among the list of the top skilled demigods, and I even used a knife, which took a lot of extra work. But I'd been training with a dagger my whole life. It was an extension of my arm now. Adding to the training with my knife, I also can keep myself safe without any weapons. However, when weapons fail me, I use my body as a weapon. It was flexible and tough.

Therefore, the drop wasn't bad at all. I simple broke the fall with a roll, because there was enough room that I wouldn't go tumbling down the stairs. When I spun up from my roll without using my hands, just my momentum, I realized that I had no idea how to close the gaping whole in the mosaic tiles. Athena couldn't miss the hole, it was big enough for two people to fit into it, and as it dropped, it got wider.

All this was for nothing if I couldn't close the gap. As if answering me, the the tiles that covered the gap came out from underneath the neighboring tiles and slid back into place.

I waited. It wasn't dark, quite the opposite, actually, for the whole path was lit with torches made of greek fire. The flames flickered against the walls eerily. I heard Athena's footsteps in the room above me. They stepped all around the room from what I could hear, then I heard them receding down the hallway, disappearing from my line of hearing. Silence dropped around me, and I looked forward. There were stairs, then what seemed like an endless corridor after that.

I took a deep breath and started walking down the passageway.