THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH Percy Jackson ... - No one's invited.
THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH Percy Jackson ... - No one's invited.
THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH Percy Jackson ... - No one's invited.
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Annabeth and I helped him up, and together we waded across the underground river. The current was<br />
strong. The water came up to our waists. I willed myself to stay dry, which is a handy little ability, but that<br />
didn’t help the others, and I could still feel the cold, like wading through a snowdrift.<br />
“I think we’re in Carlsbad Caverns,” Annabeth said, her teeth chattering.“Maybe an unexplored<br />
section.”<br />
“How do you know?”<br />
“Carlsbad is in New Mexico,” she said. “That would explain last winter.”<br />
I nodded. Grover’s swooning episode had happened when we passed through New Mexico. That’s<br />
where he’d felt closest to the power of Pan.<br />
We got out of the water and kept walking. As the crystal pillars loomed larger, I started to feel the<br />
power emanating from the next room. I’d been in the presence of gods before, but this was different. My<br />
skin tingled with living energy. My weariness fell away, as if I’d just gotten a good night’s sleep. I could<br />
feel myself growing stronger, like one of those plants in a time-lapse video. And the scent coming from<br />
the cave was nothing like the dank wet underground. It smelled of trees and flowers and a warm summer<br />
day.<br />
Grover whimpered with excitement. I was too stunned to talk. Even Nico seemed speechless. We<br />
stepped into the cave, and Rachel said, “Oh, wow.”<br />
The walls glittered with crystals—red, green, and blue. In the strange light, beautiful plants grew—giant<br />
orchids, star-shaped flowers, vines bursting with orange and purple berries that crept among the crystals.<br />
The cave floor was covered with green moss. Overhead, the ceiling was higher than a cathedral,<br />
sparkling like a galaxy of stars. In the center of the cave stood a Roman-style bed, gilded wood shaped<br />
like a curly U, with velvet cushions. Animals lounged around it—but they were animals that shouldn’t<br />
have been alive. There was a dodo bird, something that looked like a cross between a wolf and a tiger, a<br />
huge rodent like the mother of all guinea pigs, and roaming behind the bed, picking berries with its trunk,<br />
was a wooly mammoth.<br />
On the bed lay an old satyr. He watched us as we approached, his eyes as blue as the sky. His curly<br />
hair was white and so was his pointed beard. Even the goat fur on his legs was frosted with gray. His<br />
horns were enormous— glossy brown and curved. There was no way he could’ve hidden those under a<br />
hat the way Grover did.Around his neck hung a set of reed pipes.<br />
Grover fell to his knees in front of the bed. “Lord Pan!”<br />
The god smiled kindly, but there was sadness in his eyes.“Grover, my dear, brave satyr. I have waited a<br />
very long time for you.”<br />
“I…got lost,” Grover apologized.<br />
Pan laughed. It was a wonderful sound, like the first breeze of springtime, filling the whole cavern with<br />
hope. The tiger-wolf sighed and rested his head on the god’s knee. The dodo bird pecked affectionately<br />
at the god’s hooves, making a strange sound in the back of its bill. I could swear it was humming “It’s a<br />
Small World.”<br />
Still, Pan looked tired. His whole form shimmered as if he were made of Mist.