A/N Hello, and sorry about the long wait, but my hiatus was much needed. Now, it's been quite some time since I've written and so I've lost all the reviews for the last chapter, so there will be no review replies today.

Chapter 13

Really?

I leaned forward on my stool and stared the younger audience members straight in the eyes.

"And then," I said, "the clock began striking midnight." A few of them gasped, other laughed. "Cinderella had to run! She ran from the prince, through the halls, across the ballroom, and down, down, down the palace steps!"

"Then what happened, Songbird?" A little girl with braids asked me.

"Well, Cinderella was almost at the bottom of the steps when one of her shoes fell off."

"Oh no!" The little girl cried.

"She had to keep going! She jumped in her carriage and the driver snapped the reins. The horses took off. But the prince had stopped chasing her, for he had found her shoe. So he issued a royal proclamation. He would be going around the kingdom and trying the shoe on the foot of every woman. Young or old, fat or thin, tall or short, it didn't matter, because when he found the fit, he would marry her."

"Just like that?" Astrid called out curiously. I winked at her.

"Yes, Astrid, because he knew that only the mysterious princess that he'd fallen in love with would fit the shoe." Astrid nodded, satisfied. After all, it was just a fairy tale.

After a while, I'd come to the grand end of the story, with Cinderella marrying her prince, and her wicked stepsisters getting their comeuppance. To my surprise, the Vikings had never even heard a story similar to Cinderella, and so the were quite shocked at what happened to the sisters. After a while, people dispersed. Percy and Annabeth joined me on my way to go to bed. After bidding them goodnight, I realized I'd never seen Ruffnut, Tuffnut, or Snotlout after we'd arrived in the Great Hall. That made me suspicious, but I was too tired to think about it. I fell asleep quickly.

I woke up coughing. Annabeth was crying and clinging to Percy in his bed, and the room was filled with smoke. Percy was hyperventilating, and there was a strange light filtering through the smoke, like fire but not quite. A strange disembodied voice was speaking to us.

"There is no escape..."

My eyes narrowed. I knew that voice, distorted as it was.

"SNOTLOUT JORGENSON!" I yelled at the top of my voice. The whispering suddenly cut out. The flickery lights stopped moving. "GET YOUR RUDE SELF OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!"

The door, which I now noticed was open, swung shut to reveal Snotlout standing behind it with what looked like a tube of wood. He looked surprised. I swung out of bed, stalked over, and punched him in the jaw.

"Ow!" he yelped. "What was that for?!"

"You idiot!" I yelled, shaking out my hand. "Where are Ruffnut and Tuffnut?!"

"Under those empty beds," Snotlout whined, rubbing his jaw. "You didn't have to hit so hard..." I wasn't listening. I stalked over to the empty beds and pulled Ruff and Tuff out by the ears. They were clutching small metal pots with little fires in them.

"Ow-ow-ow!"

"Chill, Songbird!"

I shook them. "You blithering idiots. Slack-jawed muttonheads!" I glanced over at Percy and Annabeth. They were still clinging to each other but they'd calmed down. I felt so horrible. I knew exactly why they'd woken up so scared. In Tarterous, they'd come face to face with the personification of The Pit itself, and I was reasonably sure that Tarterous had said something similar to what Snotlout said, that there was no escape. I didn't really want them to have any PTSD attacks or terrible nightmares about their trip through the Pit, but I couldn't really do much. The least I could do was make sure Ruff, Tuff, and Snotlout apologized.

"Now. Ruffnut. Tuffnut. Snotlout."

"Y-yeah?" Snotlout visibly swallowed. Ruff and Tuff looked at me silently.

"You are going to do what I say now. First, you are going to put out the fire. Then you're going to-all three of you-go and say you're sorry to Per...Seafarer and Wisdom Speaker. THEN. You're going to get the smoke out of here. Then you're going to go away and not come back unless you're invited. Got it?"

"Y-yes, Songbird."

They meekly obeyed. Percy and Annabeth gracefully accepted the apologies, though I caught Percy muttering something. Snotlout got rid of the smoke (employing the use of Hookfang's wings) and Ruff and Tuff put out the fires. I sent them out forcefully, then turned to Percy and Annabeth, who were still curled up together.

"Look, guys. I'm sorry about that. I know what you must have been thinking when you woke up. But you're never going to have to go back there and more than that, I hereby make a promise, though I don't know if it'll work here, I swear on the River Styx that I will do everything in my power to make sure that something like those muttonheads and their prank doesn't happen again."

Percy gave me a strange look with those green eyes of his. Annabeth regarded me with a degree of interest.

"So you know..." Annabeth started.

"About Tarterous?" I saw them flinch, but kept going. "I know about everything. I know that you guys are powerful demigods and all that, but I'm gonna try to keep you safe. 'Kay?"

Percy nodded. I could tell that it was enough for them right now, so I smiled at them and went back to bed.

"Goodnight, guys."

A/N Well, I hope you enjoyed.