ʙᴏᴏᴋ ɪɪ : 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙖 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 | 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚢 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

Chapter 12

"Trickery," Annabeth decided. "We can't beat him by force, so we'll have to use trickery."

"Okay," Percy said. "What trick?'

"I haven't figured that part out yet."

"Great."

"Shut up, she's thinking!" Y/N scolded.

"Polyphemus will have to move the rock to let the sheep inside." Annabeth told.

"At sunset," Percy said. "Which is when he'll marry Clarisse and have Grover for dinner. I'm not sure which is grosser."

"I could get inside," she said, "invisibly. And Y/N could climb up a tree as a backup incase."

"What about me?"

"The sheep," Annabeth mused. She gave him one of those sly looks that always made him wary. "How much do you like sheep?"

"Just don't let go!" Annabeth said, standing invisibly somewhere off to his right.

That was Annabeth's idea. Percy had sneak in and he was going to do that by hiding under a sheep, hanging onto it's thick wool. It wasn't that harsh on the sheep because of it's huge size and it had enough wool for Percy to tie it around his hands and make a handle out of it.

The sun was going down. The flock dutifully began trudging back up the slopes toward the cave on the Cyclops' command.

"This is it!" Annabeth whispered. "I'll be close by. Don't worry."

Percy made a silent promise to the gods that if he survived this, he'd tell Annabeth she was a genius. The frightening thing was, he knew the gods would hold him to it.

And just like that, he was in the cave.

Percy could see the last of the sheep coming inside. If Annabeth didn't pull off her distraction soon...

The Cyclops was about to roll the stone back into place, when from somewhere outside Annabeth shouted, "Hello, ugly!"

Polyphemus stiffened. "Who said that?"

"Nobody!" Annabeth yelled.

That got exactly the reaction she'd been hoping for. The monster's face turned red with rage.

"Nobody!" Polyphemus yelled back. "I remember you!"

"You're too stupid to remember anybody," Annabeth taunted. "Much less Nobody."

Polyphemus bellowed furiously, grabbed the nearest boulder (which happened to be his front door) and threw it toward the sound of Annabeth's voice. The rock smashed into a thousand fragments. Y/N quietly watched the Cyclops move around furiously from down the hill, her aim was ready. If by chance Annabeth got caught, she would use her arrow to attack him. It would surely give her some time to escape. And she really hoped Percy would also be done by then.

For a terrible moment, there was silence. Then Annabeth shouted, "You haven't learned to throw any better, either!"

Polyphemus howled. "Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!"

"You can't kill Nobody, you stupid oaf," she taunted. "Come find me!"

Polyphemus barreled down the hill toward her voice, closing towards where Y/N hid.

Now, the "Nobody" thing wouldn't have made sense to anybody, but if explained properly it would definitely pass as a brilliant idea. It was the name Odysseus had used to trick Polyphemus centuries ago, right before he poked the Cyclops's eye out with a large hot stick. Annabeth had figured Polyphemus would still have a grudge about that name, and she was right. In his frenzy to find his old enemy, he forgot about resealing the cave entrance. Apparently, he didn't even stop to consider that Annabeth's voice was female, whereas the first Nobody had been male. On the other hand, he'd wanted to marry Grover, so he couldn't have been all that bright about the whole male/female thing.