Forbidden Quests

Chapter 28

Annabeth

"How long until we get there?" I asked tiredly, yawning. Of course, I was wide awake and alert, but I was faking being tired and nonchalant.

The lead merman turned to me with an annoyed look, "Will you please shut your mouth, you impatient girl? You've asked that futile question every minute or so!"

"Well, sorry. I'm just wondering." I said.

I needed to slow this travel down, so maybe Percy could find me and we could get back to the Teleporting Twin's fortress. The only way I could do that at the moment is talking.

"So, merman. I have no idea what to call you. Can you share your name so I can stop calling you 'merman'?" I asked the leader.

He looked at me, eyes narrowed. Then he just shrugged and said, "General Shar, defeater of the Great Sea Serpent of the East, General for forty years, winner of the Annual Games of the Underseas for three years in a row, Vanquisher of-"

"I asked for your name, Shar, not you're life story." I said, annoyed.

The general frowned, "General Shar."

I took a deep breath, staring at my shoes, "Whatever, General Demandy-Pants," I muttered.

"What?"

I looked up, "Nothing. I simply was wondering what that building was over there to our left?"

I hoped there was a building to our left. I couldn't see anything, cause it was too dark. I gazed to our side, pretending to be studying something.

General Shar nodded, "Ah yes. That is our stadium where we hold our sea games, or carnivals. Can you see the magnificence of the architecture, daughter of Athena? One of the most notable structures in the history of Greece."

I dipped my head slowly. I still couldn't see anything, but we had stopped moving, so I kept up the act.

"I can see that," I said. "Those support poles underneath it sure do look strong." I assumed there was support poles, for almost every building had to have those.

Shar narrowed his eyes, looking at me suspiciously, "There are no support poles. The stadium floats."

I gulped, and slowly turned to look at the general, a small and worried smile upon my face.

"Haha," I laughed weakly. "I was just joking."

The general regarded me, then he turned away, "On to the prison."

He started to move again, and the rest of the mermen followed him, including the two pushing me. Percy should be here by now. I've delayed a lot over the small trip. But still, the son of Poseidon was a no-show as of yet. He needed to get here.

All of a sudden, when I was glancing back, one of the guards in the back of the circle of the merman was pulled back so far that I couldn't see him anymore. Apparently, I was the only one who saw him, cause I was looking back, and the merman hadn't made a noise, and he was little bit behind everyone else, so nobody else had seen him get taken away.

I stared wide-eyed, wondering what did that. But then I realized that whatever it was, it was kinda helping me, and staring back there might raise suspicion, and make others look back to see what I was looking at. Then they would realize one of the guards was missing. So I pivoted, and forced myself not to look back.

After about minute, I couldn't resist it. I glanced back, and was shocked to see at least five of the mermen missing. Even more shocked to know that none of the mermen had noticed yet. If I was in the circle, or any other human, I would at least be able to notice a movement in my peripheral vision, indicating that the guards were being taken.