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chapter thirty-three. ☄︎. *. ⋆
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NEXT THING I KNEW, my hippocampus was splashing saltwater in my face to wake me up. I spluttered and nearly slid off his back.
I said something really intelligent, like, "Bl—wh—ah?"
"We're in Miami, I think," Annabeth replied. "But all the hippocampi are acting weird."
Sure enough, our fishy friends had slowed down and were whinnying and swimming in circles, sniffing the water. They didn't look happy. Mine sneezed.
"This is as far as they'll take us," Percy said. "Too many humans. Too much pollution. We'll have to swim to shore on our own."
None of us was very psyched about that, but we thanked Rainbow and his friends for the ride. Tyson cried a little. He unfastened the makeshift saddle pack he'd made, which contained his tool kit and a couple of other things he had salvaged from the Birmingham wreck. He hugged Rainbow around the neck, gave him a soggy mango he'd picked up on the island, and said goodbye.
Once the hippocampi's white manes disappeared into the sea, we swam for shore. The waves pushed us forward, and in no time we were back in the mortal world. We wandered along the cruise line docks, pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Porters bustled around with carts of luggage. Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish and tried to cut in line for customers. If anybody noticed us—five kids dripping wet and looking like they'd just had a fight with a monster—they didn't let on.
Now that we were back among mortals, Tyson's single eye had blurred from the Mist. Grover had put on his cap and sneakers. Even the Fleece had transformed from a sheepskin to a red-and-gold high school letter jacket with a large glittery Omega on the pocket.
Annabeth ran to the nearest newspaper box and checked the date on the Miami Herald. She cursed. "June eighteenth! We've been away from camp ten days!"
"That's impossible!" Clarisse said.
But I knew it wasn't. Time traveled differently in monstrous places. "Thalia's tree must be almost dead," I said sensibly. "We have to get the Fleece back tonight."
Clarisse slumped down on the pavement. "How are we supposed to do that?" Her voice trembled. "We're hundreds of miles away. This is just like the Oracle said. And it's your faults!" She was glaring at me and Percy. "If you hadn't interfered—"
"If we hadn't interfered, you would be married to that big, ugly Cyclops and stuck on that island forever!" I argued. My cheeks burned. We'd come all this way, just for Clarisse to get a big head and act like it was our fault she was going to fail the quest.
