Chapter 16

The Punishment

Zeus Pov:

All the minor goddess and gods should know by now that were protective of the boy even if the boy shouldn't have been born due to the pact me and my brothers made when we first heard the prophecy.

I watched my family reaction to the punishment I decided for the minor god after what he did to my nephew yesterday. No one seem surprised by the punishment and no one complained about me chosen it by myself and not get their suggestions on what it should be.

I raised my lightning bolt in the air to silence the council. When everyone got quiet, I looked down at the minor god who was shaking in the middle of our thrones looking down at the marble flooring.

"tomorrow we will have the maze run he will stay in the holding cells into then," I announced signaling with my hand to the guards to take him away.

"you have the rest of the day to get whatever you need for this," I said, "monsters need to be in the maze also to the hunters,"

As I finished everyone got up and left to get what was needed for the maze. After a couple of minutes, I was left with my brothers. Which surprised me because I thought Poseidon would have left to check on his son after the meeting.

"I have an idea on if he was to finish what should happen," quietly said Hades.

"what's your idea," I asked

For an hour we discussed what the ending should be and how to accomplish it. Once everything was set Poseidon got up and left the throne room to check on his son. Hades flashed away from his throne without a goodbye leaving me with my thoughts. Into I went to the minor goddess who I need help to set up the surprise at the end of the maze.

Percy Pov

When I got up from my nap, I laid in bed staring up at my Ceiling just thinking about what had happened earlier that day. I never seen dad so mad and scared as he was when I woke up after nearly drowning in the lake.

Whatever the god had against me I didn't understand because I never seen that god anywhere on Olympus. Even though I never had the chance to explore Olympus completely. I was always with someone and not by self.

When I had enough of just laying their doing nothing sat up an looked around my quiet room. I could just hear my dad and stepmom talking in the living room, but from where I was sitting, I couldn't hear what they were talking about.

As I slowly got up and out of my bed, I looked on my table to see the time. I was shocked to see that it was 4 In the afternoon. Dinner was in an hour and my stomach growled telling me that I was hungry.

When I made it to my bedroom door, I opened it slowly and quietly as I can. Once the door was opened enough for me to get through it, I quickly walk in the hallway leading up to the living room. When I got to the corner, I looked in the living room and saw dad and Amphitrite sitting on the couches talking quietly.

"if he's not up in an by dinner I'm going to wake him up he doesn't need to miss dinner," dad Murmured

"good he doesn't need to miss dinner he's already small," Sighed Amphitrite.

I walked around the corner and dad must have saw me because he turned around and smiled at me as I made it to the couch.

When I was close enough to my dad, I snuggled into his lap wrapping my arms around his neck and putting my face into his neck breathing in his sent. He wrapped his arms around my waist and gently squeezed me. Amphitrite must have moved closer because she started rubbing my back.

We stayed like this for a couple of minutes into dad moved me away so he can look at me face. I didn't know I was crying into dad raised his hands and wiped the falling tears from my eyes and cheeks.

He smiled at me and gave me a quick hug then just sat me on his lap.

"were having your favorite for dinner," said Amphitrite

I just nodded my head and snuggled into dadas tightly as I can and stayed there while dad and Amphitrite talked quietly above me.

I must have fallen asleep because next thing I knew was dad shaking me awake saying it was time for dinner. When I opened my eyes, I saw dad looking down at me smiling.

He helped me stand up and walked ahead of me to the dinning room where Amphitrite was sitting waiting for us.

I quickly took my seat and started dishing food onto my plate before I started eating while listening to the adults talking about a prank Apollo and Hermes did while I was asleep. I didn't hear who was the one they prank but I can tell that it was not a nice one.

With the small talk that was happening during dinner I finished my food wat the same time they did. I helped my stepmom clear the table bringing plates to the sink.

"how about I finish helping your mom while you go pick out a movie or game for us to do into your bedtime.," said dad.

I handed the plates I had in my hands to my dad and quickly went to the game room to pick out a game for us to play. It couldn't be a long game since I had an early bedtime. I picked the game box on top which ended up being life the game.

I ran back to the dinning room where my dad and stepmom was setting up cups on the table that they got as I was picking out a game. I handed the game to Amphrite the box and go into my chair and took a sip of the drink which turned out to be chocolate milk.

We played this game before, so we picked our cars and started to play the game. The game play ended up going past my bedtime, but they let me stay up into we finished the game. When I got to the end, I was led to the bathroom for a quick bath.

I didn't get to play with my toys, but I didn't mind that I didn't because I started getting tired. Dad got me out of the bath he carried me into my room and let me pick my underwear and Pjs for the night. I was tucked into bed and he read me a story. I couldn't stay awake into the end of the story. I felt dad kiss me on my head and heard my door close quietly.

Poseidon Pov

When I saw Percy awake and him running to my lap, I knew he was still scared about what happened to him earlier. I just wrapped my arms around him and held him as close to my body as possible. I smiled sadly to my wife.

Percy fell asleep while in my lap and we decided to just leave him be for now and wake him once dinner was ready. The rest of the night was us spending time with each other and enjoying each other company into Percy's bedtime. Once the boy was asleep in bed, I went back to the living room and sat next to my wife. That's how we spent the rest of the night into we went to bed.

We got up at dawn when the maze trial was happening, I asked the minor goddess Hebe to watch over my son into we got back.

"he should sleep into seven or eight but hopefully were back before then if were not then make sure he has breakfast and let him play with his toys or something into we get back," said Poseidon

Hebe Smiled and said that she got it and to get going before were late. When we left, she was sitting on the couch flipping through the tv channels trying to decide what to watch.

We were the last to arrive the others were in groups talking quietly. I was shocked by the maze. The hedges were taller than me in my normal form maybe in my godly form. From what I saw of the maze it looked like it went on forever. Above the maze it was dark like a storm was brewing and the clouds were going to let loose gallons of rain at any minute. It seems like there was a force field around its area keeping any monsters from escaping. The maze had different monsters around for the guy to fight against that and some hunters hidden inside the maze. The hunter wert told to not kill him only wound him. Zen was able to us his powers to fight and protect himself from the hunters and monsters

When we got closer my brother Zeus saw us and shot lightning into the air getting everyone attention.

"good since were all here let's get started," Zeus announced

Signaling Artemis to start. We watched Artemis fly over the maze, and someone drop a body into the middle of the area the chariot turned around and flew off and landed behind everyone.

Zen Pov

I was woken up rudely from my sleep early in the morning. The guards came in and put something over my head as they led me out of my cell to an unknown location.

I knew when I did what I did to that little boy I knew that I would probably be killed or badly punished if I was caught. I even tried to hide but many of the other minor gods and goddess turned on me and captured me.

How I was going to die was a mystery due to them not saying what exactly a maze would be. I was startled out of my thought when I was roughly picked up and thrown into chariot. As we took off, I became scared because I didn't know where I was headed too only that I was leading to my doom. My mask hiding my eyes was taken off it took me a little bit for my eyes to adjust to the light. When I was able to, I looked around and saw that we were in the sky and that I was in Artemis chariot which was not good for me.

Without any warning she made me stand by pulling on the ropes around me and pushed me out of the chariot. I landed on my butt in the middle of the maze with only tall hedges and dead quiet around me.

Once the ropes where untied and I was free I looked around and noticed paths that I can take. Without thinking I just chose a path and walked that way. It felt like I was walking for years into I ran into someone. That someone was one of the hunters. She pointed an arrow at my face but before she could do anything, I threw fire at her making her jump out of the way before se got burnt. It also gave me time to get as far away as I could from her. I ran around corners not caring what might be around it. Which was bad because I ran right into the manticore. He pierced me in the leg when I was too stunned to try to dodge the attack. I tried using fire against him but all that seemed to do was make him madder. I quickly backed up and tried thinking about ways to kill him. When I got a way, I took out a hunting knife I hid in my boot and ran towards the manticore and stabbed it through the mouth before it could poison me again.

When he falls, I ran around him and went around another corner before I stopped and slid down the hedge to catch my breath and see how bad I was hurt. The pain was agony, but I knew that I needed to keep walking, or something might come up and kill me when I wasn't looking.

After five dead ends and running into monsters and hunters which I barely got away from I got to a square area in the maze and in front of me was an angry minotaur looking ready to charge. I quickly got out of the way and used fire to distract him while I jumped onto his back and broke one of his horns off and stabbed the beasty in the side when it knocked me off its back.

I used my power and burned a hole into the hedge so I can walk through to the other side. Which seemed like a mistake because it felt like I stepped into quicksand and was sinking fast. I tried to grab something before I went down lower into the sand. I had nothing in my reach, so I just let the sand take me down to my death. Instead of dying I landed in some water with fish swimming quickly around me. I realized what type of fish they were into it was too late and they started to eat my skin. I tried desperately to try to swim to shore but my strength was failing me. When I was close to death, I saw a hand pulling me put of the water which mad me cry out in agony from the pain.

Poseidon Pov

We watched Zen leave the maze in land in the water he started screaming as soon as he hit the water. We left him in them for a couple of minutes and then pulled him out. Letting him think he was safe and free of punishment now.

We let Zoe one of Artemis hunters to finish him off. Once he was dead hades made sure he went to Tartarus where he would stay for eternity.

Watching all this just made me want to hug my son tightly and never let him go. Once everything was over, I quickly went to my palace and saw that Percy was wake and playing with Hebe in the living room while watching some cartoons. I went to him and hugged him as tightly as I could.

"how about we go to the beach for the day," I asked

"can we," Percy asked excitedly

I smiled and nodded I told him to go get his trunks on while we get some lunch ready for the trip. He quickly ran to his room to change. Which he did in record time. The rest of the family met us there and we spent the day playing in the water and building sandcastles. After everything that happened spending time with family was wonderful.