Annabeth's POV

I sighed as I slouched in my throne. The midday heat was intense and the sun was glaring down on Athens. My father the King of our city. We were sat in the stadium that surrounded the main Gladiator arena of Athens. Father often dragged me here. Though he was the king of Athens he still felt small and so he came here were he felt empowered. He felt empowered by the feeling of being able to choose whether a man lives or dies. A conch horn blew signalling the beginning of todays fights. Two men walked into the arena. One carried a sword and helmet , the other a net and spear. They knelt to my father. He gave a lazy nod. They stood and begun to fight. Time crawled by and the two men hacked away at each other, then one man fell. His helmet rolled away. The man with the net placed his foot on the fallen man's chest and snatched his sword away. The crowds cheering stopped in anticipation, as they looked towards my father. He held out his hand , it was a thumb down. The man grinned in triumph and swung his sword down towards the other man's neck. I grimaced and looked away. When I looked back they were cleaning away the mans corpse.

" You do not like arena fights, Princess?" said Luke who was standing near by , a smirk on his face. We were betrothed and to be wed in a few years time , when I turned 21. I was 19 and Luke was 25. He disliked me and I disliked him and neither of us were afraid to show it.

" I do not care for this so called sport. I prefer to spend my time reading scrolls and riding my chariot and not watching two men ripping each others throats out ." I replied .

Luke snorted. Before I could stand up and throttle him, Thalia who was sat next to me on the next throne said " Oh stop it. We all know you hate each other and blah blah but nothing can be done about your marriage without the king's consent , and he is as oblivious to you two arguing as water is to fire." Luckily at this point the King was at the edge of the balcony waving to the people.

I sighed. I knew Thalia was right. He wasn't actually the father of Thalia or Luke. But we were all demigods and if you were a demigod you were considered royalty. Also on the balcony was Nico Di' Angelo , Selena Beauregard , Charles Beckendorf , Connor and Travis Stoll and Katie Gardener. All of the demigods were betrothed to another demigod. Thalia was with Nico, Selena and Charles , Katie and Travis and Connor was on his own and loving it. Selena and Beckendorf were ecstatic about their wedding. Katie and Travis hated each other and Thalia liked Nico quite a lot and was ecstatic about their wedding ,but didn't know how Nico felt about it so acted like she didn't care.

We sat for hours watching men butchering their opponents or being savaged by animals. I couldn't help but wonder how such a civilized city could enjoy such a grotesque and brutal sport.

A few hours later and we were back in the palace. I was sat on my bed watching the sun go down out of my window. The beds in the palace were all the same, the frame was made of rosewood and had a straw mattress , feather pillows and cotton sheets. My room was white marble walls and floors. The windows were just rectangular holes in the walls with cotton drapes. Like a dormitory all the girls slept in one chamber and all the boys slept in another. A soft cool wind blew in through the window. I longed to run over the horizon, to see what was on the other side. Tears trickled down my cheeks. I knew that would never happen. I would probably never go outside the city walls. Sometimes Thalia and I would talk about what would happen if we ran away. We would laugh and joke that we would cut our hair and pretend to be a man, get a job and live a life of work and labour. But we both knew that could never happen. I set my head down on my pillow and as I closed my eyes I dreamt of running away into the sunset.

AN: So what do you think? Please review but no flames please just constructive criticism. My first story so be nice :)