'•' The Sea of Monsters '•'

4 :: Pretty Pretty Guinea Pig

Published: October 3, 2021
Edited: July 28, 2022
'•'

Annabeth of course had the perfect plan to find Percy. I'm not supposed to say that we both spent an hour crying before said plan was hatched but oh well.

I swam around the sea of monsters near our little rowboat until I found Percy, (unconious but unharmed) while Annabeth got to stay up in the warm, dry, not monster infested sun and stitch some old uniforms into a sail. I hate to tell you it worked like a charm. Percy woke up soon enough and Annabeth immediately snatched her hand away from his forehead, where it had been resting the entire time he was passed out. I sat nearby, tacking into the wind. Percy tried to sit up and his face turned a sort of pale green. 

"Rest," Annabeth insisted. "You're going to need it." 

"Tyson...?" 

She shook her head. "Percy, I'm really sorry." We were all silent while the waves tossed us up and down. 

"He may have survived," I suggested halfheartedly, though I didn't believe it. "I mean, fire can't kill him." 

Percy nodded, but he had no reason to feel hopeful. I'd seen that explosion rip through solid iron. If Tyson had been down in the boiler room, there was no way he could've lived.

He'd given his life for us. A cyclopes doing something noble and self sacrificial...

Waves lapped at the boat. Annabeth showed Percy some things I'd salvaged from the wreckage—Hermes's thermos (now empty), a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia, a couple of sailors' shirts, and a bottle of Dr. Pepper.

I'd fished him out of the water and found his knapsack, bitten in half by Scylla's teeth. Most of the stuff had floated away, but he still had Hermes's bottle of multivitamins, and of course Riptide. The ballpoint pen always appeared back in his pocket no matter where Percy lost it.

We sailed for hours. Now that we were in the Sea of Monsters, the water glittered a more brilliant green, like Hydra acid. The wind smelled fresh and salty, but it carried a strange metallic scent, too—as if a thunderstorm were coming or as if the water was filled into blood. Or something even more dangerous.

I knew what direction we needed to go. I knew we were exactly one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by north west of our destination. But that didn't make me feel any less lost. No matter which way we turned, the sun seemed to shine straight into my eyes. We took turns sipping from the Dr. Pepper, shading ourselves with the sail as best we could. And we talked about Percy and I's dream of Grover.

Percy also explained Grover's situation, which made me feel better, I had thought Grover had actually wanted to marry a cyclopes. Annabeth speculated that Percy and I already had a natural empathy link, because we were twins. It was what allowed us to communicate telepathically and send each other small waves of emotion.

By Annabeth's estimate, we had less than twenty-four hours to find Grover, assuming the dream was accurate, and assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus didn't change his mind and try to marry Grover earlier.

"Yeah," Percy snarled bitterly. "You can never trust a Cyclops." I winced and Annabeth stared across the water. 

"I'm sorry, Percy. I was wrong about Tyson, okay? I wish I could tell him that."

"Yeah Perce, I don't trust cyclopes but Tyson was sweet. He's not like them." I whispered, truly meaning it. Percy was quiet for a couple long moments.

"Annabeth, what's Chiron's prophecy?" He asked. She pursed her lips. 

"Percy, I shouldn't—"

"I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn't tell me. But you didn't promise, did you?"