𝐖𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐂! percy jackson

xxx. A Night Away

━━ chapter thirty
a night away

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

     ━━While the chicken-nugget smoke screen sounded really cool and really yummy (can you eat smoke?), Percy wanted Leo to invent an anti-dream hat instead; yeah, that would be much better, that way, Percy could actually get a goodnight sleep for once in his life.

    That night, he had horrible nightmares. First, he had dreamed he was back in Alaska on the quest for the legion's eagle. He was hiking along a mountain road, Fiona was there, it was all great━but as soon as she stepped off the shoulder he was swallowed by the bog━muskeg, Hazel and Fiona had called it. He found himself choking in mud, unable to move or to see or to breathe. For the first time in his life, he understood what it was like to drown.

    It's just a dream, he told himself. I'll wake up.

    (But that didn't change how terrifying it was).

    Percy had never been scared of water in his life. He had always been that kid his mom fought to get out of the pool, or the bath or the gross water fountain covered in pigeon poo ... and why would he? It was his father's element. He was the son of Poseidon. A son of Poseidon doesn't drown. But since the muskeg experience ... Percy felt like that had changed. He wouldn't admit this━to anyone ... but he had since been nervous about going into the water, scared he'd feel that same suffocation he had in the mud━the burst of his lungs, the ache in his throat, the fighting for breath when there was none. He knew it was silly and stupid, and irrational. He couldn't drown. But ... what if he could? And that stupid fear━if he couldn't control it, what if the fear started to control him?

    Thalia was scared of heights even though she was the daughter of Zeus. What if she could fly, but never did because she was terrified of the fall? If Percy started to believe he could drown ...

    The muskeg pressed against his chest, making his lungs want to burst━

    Stop it, stop panicking, Jackson! he told himself. This isn't real.

    Just when Percy couldn't hold his breath any longer, the dream changed.

    Feeling the fresh breath of air, he took a long gulp, filling up his lungs that still ached. He stumbled slightly, standing in a vast gloomy space like an underground parking garage. Rows of stone pillars marched off in every direction, holding up the ceiling that loomed about twenty feet above. Freestanding braziers casted a dim, blood-red glow over the floor, but even then, Percy couldn't see very far in the shadows. He took another deep breath, just to make sure that there was no more mud in his lungs, and peered into the darkness. Up above, hanging from the ceiling were pulley systems, sandbags and rows of dark theatre lights. Piled around the chamber, wooden crates were labelled PROPS, WEAPONS, and COSTUMES. One read: ASSORTED ROCKET LAUNCHERS.

    In the darkness, machinery creaked━huge gears turning and water rushing through pipes. It was then that he saw the giant ... or at least, Percy guessed that he was a giant.

    He stood about twelve feet tall━a respectable height for a Cylcopes, but tiny in comparison to the other giants Percy had faced. He looked more human than any other typical giant: he held no dragonlike legs, which in Percy's book, meant he must have gotten the better looks of the family. Then again, maybe dragon legs are attractive to other giants. Nevertheless, his long purple hair was braided in a ponytail of dreadlocks, woven with gold and silver coins, which struck Percy as a giantish hairstyle. That and the ten-foot spear strapped to his back.