My brothers helped me pack for my first quest. They were rambling on about what dad will say once he comes back to camp. I finished zipping up my bag and sat on the edge of my bed. The twins stopped talking, exchanging a look.

"You okay, Ivy?" Pollux sat beside me.

"I don't know if I'm ready for this quest." I breathed out, looking up at him with wide eyes. "The others all have experience doing this. Annabeth told me she wants me with them because of Dad's knowledge of the maze and Ariadne."

"Well, I mean, she's not wrong." Castor sat on the other side of me. He leaned forward, his forearms on his thighs. "Plus, you're pretty smart, Ives.  She will need the extra help."

"If I couldn't help Chris fight the madness..." I trailed off. "What if something happens in that maze where I need to cure the madness? I couldn't do it for Chris, how can I do it for them?"

"Hey, that was your first attempt even trying to heal madness. Don't beat yourself up." Pollux bumped his shoulder against mine.

"Yeah, I'm sure when the time is right you can do it. You just need practice, is all." Castor added. "We're older than you and we couldn't do it. But, that's also because that was our first few tries as well."

"If Annabeth chose you to be a part of this quest, don't fight fate. There's a reason why you're going." Pollux placed a hand on my shoulder. "Now, get some rest. You leave tomorrow, okay?"

I gave him a slow nod. He smiled and ruffled my hair. I breathed out a laugh, smacking his hand away. Castor stood up with a teasing smirk.

"Have sweet dreams about Percy." He teased and quickly dodged a kick to his leg. My face heated at the mention of the boy. Castor laughed and quickly made his way to his bunk. "Still have a crush on him?"

"Shut up." I grabbed a nearby pillow and threw it at him.

"I think so." Pollux added with a playful grin. Castor dodged the pillow and threw it back at me. With a huff, I caught it. "Dad is going to be pissed."

"Yeah, don't remind me." I grumbled, getting under my covers. "So much for me keeping that promise."

There was a moment of silence as we get into our beds. Castor turned off the lights. The slight hum from the soda fountain machine lingered in the air.

"Why does Dad want you far away from Percy anyways?" Castor questioned.

"I have no idea." I frowned, staring up at underside of the bunk above me. "Something about him being dangerous?"

"Do you think it's about the Great Prophecy? On which side he will choose?" Pollux thought aloud. "The gods are nervous about that."

"But why make her promise to stay away from him?" Castor rebutted.

I stayed quiet and turned to my side. My brothers continued to talk theories and reasons why dad made me promise to stay away from Percy Jackson. It wasn't long until I fell asleep.

🍇

The sun beat down on my neck, the sweat curling my dark hair at the ends. I wiped the back of my hand against my forehead to stop sweat from getting into my eyes. I was kneeling in front of a strawberry bush in the fields at Camp. The vines grew a little more green as the flowers bloomed into strawberries. My hand extended toward them, the strawberries were almost ripe.

"So this is where you've been hiding." A voice came from behind me, startling me. The strawberries quickly turned to raisins and a few grapevines grew from the ground. One vine grew a cluster of baby grapes. The person laughed at my mistake. "I make you that nervous, Ives?"

"Shut up." I groaned out, standing to my feet. My heart swelled when I turned to see Percy. He was wearing his famous smirk. "What do you want, Shark Boy?"

"I was just looking for my Vine Girl." He shrugged, taking a step closer to me. I let out a hum and glanced back at the raisins. "How do you even turn strawberries into raisins?"

"I don't even know." I sighed, rubbing my face in frustration.

"You okay?" Percy frowned, gently taking a hold of my hands and pulling them away from my face.

"No." I pouted, looking up at him. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "It's hot, I'm hungry, and I'm pretty sure I stink like rotten strawberries."

"More like sour grapes." Percy teased, stepping closer to me. I gave him a look. "Let's get you out of this sun and get you something to eat, yeah?"

"Yeah." I nodded, my stomach grumbling.

"I have some leftover candy?" Percy offered and started to lead me away from the fields.

"They better not be the shark gummies. Those have a weird aftertaste-like gummy mints. Mints should not be in gummy form." I scrunched my nose.

"No, those are mine and I'm not sharing those." Percy shook his head, and glanced at me. A smile grew on his face. He leaned toward me, kissing my forehead. My face warmed. "I got the sour Trolli gummies that you love."

"Oh, the gummy worms!" I beamed in excitement.

"You know," a feminine voice came from beside me, "no matter how hard your father tries, he can't keep the both of you away. It's already destined."

"What?" I blinked and turned to the woman. She had long black hair with curtain bangs and green eyes. Her white floral maxi dress billowed in the sudden breeze. "Who are you?"

"Let's have a seat." She motioned to a picnic table that appeared from nowhere. I glanced back at Percy to see that he was gone. "I can tell you a little about that promise you broke."

"Why only a little bit?" I sat down at the table.

A pitcher of iced tea appeared on the table with two pink glass cups. An assorted tray of tea sandwiches spread across the table. A plate poofed in front of me.

"Because your father should explain the other part to you." The lady poured us both iced tea. "Now, I had a talk with Perseus not that long ago. Now, it's your turn."

"Talk? What talk? Who are you?" I questioned.

"Aphrodite, my dear. Oh, let's get you cleaned up." She quickly reached over and fixed my hair. I flushed in embarrassment. "And the love talk. That's the main reason why your father made you promise to stay away from Percy."

"Love?" I choked out.

"Yes, love. Ah, young heroic love."  Aphrodite sighed happily. She started to place sandwiches onto my plate. "I had predestined your love far long ago. It was a promise I made to both your father and Poseidon. That a daughter of Dionysus and a son of Poseidon would fall in love during the Great Prophecy."

"If that was already predestined, then why is my father upset about this?" I blushed.

"That is up to your father to tell you." Aphrodite gave me an all too familiar smile. "Now, I can't promise you your future relationship with Perseus will be smooth. No, what type of heroic love story would that be? Not a good one."

"You can't, like, make it an easy one?" I nervously asked.

"Oh, don't worry, I've already blessed the relationship dear. I'm just saying, the both of you will go through hard trials is all." Aphrodite stated.

"Oh, well if that's it." I rolled my eyes and slumped in my seat.

Thunder rumbled far in the distance. Aphrodite pouted and grumbled under her breath.

"Oh, I better go." She stood up. "You'll be seeing me soon."

And with a wink, she disappeared.

🍇

I awoke to Castor looking through my bag. I rubbed the sleep from my eye, using the heel of my hand. Castor looked up at me when he heard the bed creak from me sitting up.

"What are you doing?" I mumbled, stifling a yawn.

"Just double checking to see if you had everything packed. Don't need you forgetting anything important on your quest." Castor zipped my bag up. "You have everything though."

"Thanks." I sent him a small smile and got out of bed. "Where's Poll?"

"Getting you breakfast. Sounded like your leaving before we all eat." Castor informed me. "Go get ready. He should be back by the time you finish."

With a nod, I prepared for the day. I had slung a strap from my bag over my shoulder when Pollux entered. He handed me a brown bag with food inside. I didn't get a chance to eat it when Chiron walked by our cabin and motioned for us to follow. My brothers walked with me to Zeus's Fist. Along the way, I ate the breakfast taco Pollux got me.

The others were already waiting for us.  There were tents set up around the boulders for guard duty. Percy was talking with Chiron. He glanced at me and my face heated at the thought of my dream. I quickly adverted my gaze the the gap between the boulders.

"You got this, Ives." Castor pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around him, fear and worry gnawing at my stomach. "Make us proud, yeah?"

"Show them what a child of Dionysus can really do." Pollux enveloped me in a hug once Castor let go.

"I'll see you soon." I gave them a smile and a nod before joining the other at the entrance.

"Well, goodbye sunshine." Grover nervously said.

"Hello rocks." Tyson added.

Then, the five of us entered the darkness and into the maze.

🍇

We walked the tunnel using a flashlight to guide us. I examined the walls to notice they were not like the ones Percy and I stumbled into the other day.

"If we keep one hand on the left wall and follow it," Annabeth instructed, "we should be able to find our way out again by reversing course."

As if the maze was messing with us, the left wall suddenly disappeared. Now, we were in the center of a circular room.  I glanced around warily.

"Um, which way did we come in?" Grover asked nervously.

"Just turn around." Annabeth said.

We followed her directions to see a different tunnel than before.

"Left walls are mean." Tyson muttered. "Which way now?"

"That way." Annabeth moved her flashlight at the eight tunnels in front of us.  Her flashlight stopped at one of the entrances.

"How do you know?" Percy asked.

"Deductive reasoning."

"So...you're guessing."

"Just come on." Annabeth exasperated.

We entered her chosen tunnel. It quickly narrowed, having us walking in a straight line. Percy made sure that Annabeth and I were in front of him. The further we walked, the lower the ceiling got. At one point, Tyson had to crawl.

"I can't stand it anymore. Are we there yet?" Grover whispered.

"We've been down here maybe five minutes." Annabeth said.

"It's been longer than that." Grover insisted. "And why would Pan be down here? It's the opposite of the wild!"

We continued to press on forward until we entered another room. I stood up straight, rubbing the back of my neck from being hunched over. The big room was covered in mosaic tiles. The walls depicted pictures of the Olympian gods. I walked closer to one of the pictures and ran my hand over the one of my father.

"What is this place?" Percy asked as he stared at the three tiered fountain in the center of the room. "It looks-"

"Roman." Annabeth finished. "Those mosaics are about two thousand years old."

"Roman?" I muttered, noticing how my father looked different in the mosaic. More younger, skinnier, and with longer hair.

"But how can it be Roman?" Percy questioned.

"The Labyrinth is a patchwork. I told you, it's always expanding, adding pieces. It's the only work of architecture that grows itself." Annabeth explained.

"You make it sound like it's alive."

"Isn't it though?" I walked over to them. "The way it shifts rooms randomly..."

I trailed off when a loud groaning noise echoed from the tunnel in front of us.

"Let's not talk about it being alive. Please?" Grover whimpered.

"All right." Annabeth nodded. "Forward."

"Down the hall with bad sounds?" Tyson nervously looked around.

"Yeah. The architecture is getting older. That's a good sign. Daedalus's workshop would be in the oldest part." Annabeth reassured him as we walked down the tunnel.

The walls changed once again. Rough brick covered the walls with a neon graffiti tagged on it: MOZ RULZ. This was probably the most modern area we've been too so far in the quest.

"I'm thinking this is not Roman." Percy mentioned.

We continued to trek onwards. The next few minutes was filled with silence. When the room changed again, I looked around to study it. The rooms continued to change the longer we walked. One changed from a wine cellar to a basement under a bar.

"A milkman." Annabeth stated.

I stopped looking at the wooden planks above us and followed their gaze. A skeleton leaned against the wall with a crate of bottles next to him. He was still dressed in white clothes.

"What?" Percy asked.

"You don't know what a milkman is?" I raised a brow at him.

"They used to deliver milk."

"Yeah, I know what they are." Percy gave Annabeth and I an irritated look. "But... that was when my mom was little, like a million years ago. What's he doing here?"

"Some people wander in by mistake. Some come exploring on purpose and never make it back. A long time ago, Cretans even sent people in here as human sacrifices." Annabeth glanced at me.

"How reassuring." I grumbled, crossing my arms.

"He's been down here a long time." Grover gulped and pointed to the bottles that were covered in white dust.

"Only bones." Tyson tried to reassure Grover. "Don't worry, goat boy. The milkman is dead."

"The milkman doesn't bother me." Grover stated. "It's the smell. Monsters. Can't you smell it?"

"Lots of monsters. But underground smells like that. Monsters and dead milk people." Tyson nodded.

"Oh, good." Grover whimpered. "I thought maybe I was wrong."

"We have to get deeper into the maze. There has to be a center." Annabeth continued to walk, the rest of us following after her.

The Quest has officially started!!!

Things are going to start picking up my friends  ◡̈

Also, let's talk about that love chat 😁