Dancing with Death

The Crew Takes a Dive

Eliza steadied herself against the side of the ship as the scolopendra bashed into the side of the Argo II.

Percy and the others were nearby, struggling to stay on their feet. Leo was trying to get to where Coach Hedge was manning the helm. The satyr attempted in vain to pull away from the massive sea creature.

Eliza looked at Percy. "Do I want to know?"

He gripped the railing tighter. "We sort of offended the goddess of sea monsters while we were in Atlanta."

Eliza almost pitched over the side of the ship as it rocked violently. "Of course you did."

"They were gonna lock us in a fish tank." He countered.

"Fair enough." Eliza released the ship with one hand and a thorn grew from her palm. "Now, let's get rid of this thing."

A smirk spread across Percy's face. "Now you're speaking my language."

They both let go of the railing and let gravity pull them towards the monster. Percy uncapped his sword - Riptide; and Eliza sprouted another long thorn in her free hand. They slashed at the tentacle things that were entangling the ship, but, no matter how many they severed, more appeared, wrapping around the ship's mast and threatening to snap it in two.

Eliza reached the other side of the ship and thrust out her hand. The thorn-sword rapidly extended, stabbing into the beasts slimy body.

It released a deafening roar and a tentacle lashed out of nowhere, wrapping tightly around Eliza's body. One arm was trapped beneath the wet sticky appendage, which was squeezing her so tightly she could barely breath.

Reflexive tears sprang to her eyes as the air rushed from her lungs. Her swords had crumbled to dust in her hands and she pushed against the tentacle desperately, but her hand kept slipping across the slick surface. The red and brown of her hair blurred together as her vision ringed with black. Clenching her fists, she summoned a ring of curved thorns around her body, almost like a saw blade.

The scolopendra screeched and released her, it's tentacle crumbling to dust.

Eliza dropped and rolled across the deck, half-conscious and gasping for breath.

Jason stood over her, holding back the monster. He clutched his sword with a white-knuckled grip and glared at the beast with a fierce fire in his eyes.

Eliza fought the darkness that was pulling her under. The others still needed her help. She tried to push herself to her hands and knees, but the world spun and she collapsed back to the deck, the lack of oxygen finally dragging her under.
* * *
Eliza was lying on her bed when she woke up. Jason sat next to her, his head in his hands. She watched him for a minute, a smile spreading across her face. "Why is it that one of us always gets knocked out?"

His head snapped up and he threw his arms around her.

Eliza sank into the hug, returning the embrace.

He sighed in relief as he pulled away. "I'm glad you're okay."

Eliza chuckled and sat up, crossing her legs. "I can tell." She massaged her chest, which still ached. "How'd you fair without me?"

"We fought it off." There was a sorrowful edge to his voice."

"But?" She asked.

He sighed. "Leo, Frank, and Hazel fell overboard. Percy's looking for them now, but... it's been a few hours. If he finds them, I'm afraid they'll already have..."

"Drowned." She finished. "Jason," she placed a hand on his shoulder. "if I have learned anything about this group of Half-bloods, it's that they don't die easily. We'll find them." She scooted to the edge of the bed and stood up. "In fact, I'm going to go help look right now."

Jason scoffed. "You're not exactly a daughter a Poseidon."

Eliza shot him a death glare. "That doesn't mean I can't swim." She turned and walked out of the room.
                                    *   *   *
Her air bubble merged with the larger one where Percy was waiting for her. He sat at the bottom of the sphere, messing around with the water beneath it.

She slid to the bottom of the bubble next to him. "Find anything?"

Percy gave a heavy sigh. "No."

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "They'll be okay. Two of them are Roman legionnaires and the other is Leo." She chuckled. "Trust me. They'll be fine."

He couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Come on." Eliza nudged him with her elbow. "Let's head back up. We need to regroup."

Percy nodded and dove out of the bubble, which rapidly shrank and settled around Eliza's head, allowing her to breath as she started the long swim back to the surface. She couldn't go nearly as deep as Percy, but she'd gotten surprisingly deep.
                                   *   *   *
"So, what do we do now?" Piper stood next to Jason as they regrouped on the deck of the Argo II.

Annabeth manned the helm and Hedge kept a sharp eye out for anymore monsters.

"We can't do much more than we already have." Eliza pointed out. She hadn't bothered to changed into dry clothes, expecting to go back down. Her hair was soaked and clung to her face.

Percy, who was perfectly dry, nodded. "She's right. I don't know what else we can do."

"Are we interrupting something?" Everyone whirled at the sound of Leo's voice. He, Frank, and Hazel stood on the deck, completely dry and unharmed.

"You've got to be kidding me." Jason walked over and gave his best friend a hug, which quickly turned into a headlock as he roughly ruffled Leo's hair.

"Dude, the hair." Leo whined as he pulled free of Jason's grasp, quickly fixing the thick black strands.

"What happened?" Annabeth asked from the helm.

"It's kind of a long story." Hazel observed.

"We'll tell you on the way." Leo rushed over to Annabeth and took over command of the helm. "Next stop, Rome."

A/N
Hey guys! 👋
Hope you've all had an amazing week and that you enjoyed this chapter.
Heads up!!!
I will be going to camp next week so I will not be updating. So, don't worry. I'm not dead, I'm just off the grid. 😊
Anyway, thank you all SO much for all the support. I appreciate it more than you know.
I'll see you all later.
-Cheshire