(no subject)

Everything is going wrong.

Nothing is going according to whatever plan she thinks she has.

She's following the spider, never forgetting how much she's grossed out by them, but in her mind, there's the niggling notion that this is bad. All of this shouldn't be happening.

It's her fault; she wanted another person on her team for the quest, and you never mess with the prophecies of the Oracle.

The tunnels are hot, the stone walls nearly glowing. Her hair is in the way, and her skin is slick with sweat. But none of that is important.

They have to find the forge of Hephaestus. They have to complete this part of the deal if they want to find Daedalus and get him to help them. It's simple logic, really. It's logic she understands, even if she doesn't understand why things had to go so wrong in the meantime.

(no subject)

She'd been elsewhere, Yankees cap on her head, sneaking around the fringe of Hephaestus' forge, hoping to get a good look at what they were up against.

It was difficult, even being invisible.

She spots Percy ahead of her, running towards a platform by the lava lake and takes his yell of her name as her cue.

"Annabeth!"

It isn't long before she's caught up to him, her hand clamped around his mouth, leading him towards the big bronze cauldron while he struggles. He's a lot stronger than she remembers.

"Shh!" she hisses. "You want to get us killed?"

She takes her Yankees cap off, reappearing once more. She frowns at him.

"Percy, what's your problem?"