The Battle of the Labyrinth

around.
    “Over there,” Annabeth whispered.
    “No, wait,” I said. “Behind us.”
    It was weird. Scuttling noises seemed to be coming from several different directions. We were circling the boulders, our swords drawn, when someone right behind us said, “Hi.”
    We whirled around, and the tree nymph Juniper yelped.
    “Put those down!” she protested. “Dryads don’t like sharp blades, okay?”
    “Juniper,” Annabeth exhaled. “What are you doing here?”
    “I live here.”
    I lowered my sword. “In the boulders?”
    She pointed toward the edge of the clearing. “In the juniper. Duh.”
    It made sense, and I felt kind of stupid. I’d been hanging around dryads for years, but I never really talked to them much. I knew they couldn’t go very far from their tree, which was their source of life. But I didn’t know much else.
    “Are you guys busy?” Juniper asked.
    “Well,” I said, “we’re in the middle of this game against a bunch of monsters and we’re trying not to die.”
    “We’re not busy,” Annabeth said. “What’s wrong, Juniper?”
    Juniper sniffled. She wiped her silky sleeve under her eyes. “It’s Grover. He seems so distraught. All year he’s been out looking for Pan. And every time he comes back, it’s worse. I thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree.”
    “No,” Annabeth said, as Juniper started crying. “I’m sure that’s not it.”
    “He had a crush on a blueberry bush once,” Juniper said miserably.
    “Juniper,” Annabeth said, “Grover would never even look at another tree. He’s just stressed out about his searcher’s license.”
    “He can’t go underground!” she protested. “You can’t let him.”
    Annabeth looked uncomfortable. “It might be the only way to help him; if we just knew where to start.”
    “Ah.” Juniper wiped a green tear off her cheek. “About that . . .”
    Another rustle in the woods, and Juniper yelled, “Hide!”
    Before I could ask why, she went poof into green mist.
    Annabeth and I turned. Coming out of the woods was a glistening amber insect, ten feet long, with jagged pincers, an armored tail, and a stinger as long as my sword. A scorpion. Tied to its back was a red silk package.
    “One of us gets behind it,” Annabeth said, as the thing clattered toward us. “Cuts off its tail while the other distracts it in front.”
    “I’ll take point,” I said. “You’ve got the invisibility hat.”
    She nodded. We’d fought together so many times we knew each other’s moves. We could do this, easy. But it all went wrong when the other two scorpions appeared from the woods.
    “Three?” Annabeth said. “That’s not possible! The whole woods, and half the monsters come at us?”
    I swallowed. One, we could take. Two, with a little luck. Three? Doubtful.
    The scorpions scurried toward us, whipping their barbed tails like they’d come here just to kill us. Annabeth and I put our backs against the nearest boulder.
    “Climb?” I said.
    “No time,” she said.
    She was right. The scorpions were already surrounding us. They were so close I could see their hideous mouths foaming, anticipating a nice juicy meal of demigods.
    “Look out!” Annabeth parried away a stinger with the flat of her blade. I stabbed with Riptide, but the scorpion backed out of range. We clambered sideways along the boulders, but the scorpions followed us. I slashed at another one, but going on the offensive was too dangerous. If I went for the body, the tail stabbed downward. If I went for the tail, the thing’s pincers came from either side and tried to grab me. All we could do was defend, and we wouldn’t be able to keep that up for very long.
    I took another step sideways, and suddenly there was nothing behind me. It was a crack between two of the largest boulders, something I’d probably passed by a million times, but . . .
    “In here,” I said.
    Annabeth sliced at a scorpion then looked at me like I was crazy. “ In there? It’s too narrow.”
    “I’ll cover you. Go!”
    She ducked behind me and started squeezing between the two boulders. Then she yelped and grabbed my armor straps, and suddenly I was tumbling into a pit that hadn’t been there a moment before. I could see the scorpions above us, the purple evening sky and the trees, and then the hole shut like the lens of a camera, and we were in complete darkness.
    Our breathing echoed against stone. It was wet and cold. I was sitting on a bumpy floor that seemed to