❦𝓕𝓪𝓿𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓒𝓻𝓲𝓶𝓮❦ - 𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓬𝔂 𝓙𝓪𝓬𝓴𝓼𝓸𝓷

𝒳𝒱𝐼𝐼. 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝐼𝓈𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒮𝒾𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓈

𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓎 sailed through the night. Annabeth tried to help Percy and Zoe keep lookout, but sailing didn't agree with her. After a few hours rocking back and forth, her face turned the color of guacamole and she went below to lie in a hammock.

The two of them watched the horizon. More than once they spotted monsters. A plume of water as tall as a skyscraper spewed into the moonlight. A row of green spines slithered across the waves— something maybe a hundred feet long, reptilian. Zoe wasn't sure what it was, and she didn't want to know.

Once, they saw Nereids, the glowing lady spirits of the sea. Percy tried to wave at them, but they disappeared into the depths, leaving Zoe chuckling quietly and Percy unsure whether they'd seen him or not.

After a few hours, the daughter of Aphrodite broke the silence.

"So..." she started, glancing at Percy. "Are you ok?"

Percy thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know. Tyson might be dead, I was a guinea pig only a few hours ago, and my best friend is about to be married to or eaten by a cyclops."

Zoe nodded, grimacing. "Ok, fair point. Sorry."

Percy shook his head, a soft smile on his face. "It's fine. Thanks for saving me back there."

Zoe looked at him, grinning bashfully. "Yeah, well. It's what friends do, right? Don't let each other die. Or get turned into rodents."

Percy laughed, Zoe chuckling along with him. After a few moments of silence, Percy's face turned serious.

"What are we gonna do?" He asked, looking out at the horizon.

"About?" Zoe questioned softly, coming to stand beside him at the railing.

"Everything. Grover, Luke, the camp," Percy listed.

"We... deal with them as they come. For now, we have a friend to save. Then we'll worry about camp, then we'll worry about Luke." Zoe's voice was confident but her face portrayed her worry.

"Thanks, Zoe." Percy said, still watching where the sky met the sea. Zoe sensed his gratitude at her words.

"Any time, Seaweed Brain," Zoe grinned, bumping her shoulder against his. The son of Poseidon laughed, his sea green eyes flicking over to meet her chocolate brown ones.

"You know," Zoe started again in a teasing manner, "I didn't know you could control boats."

Percy smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, neither did I."

The two of them lapsed back into silence. Sometime after midnight, Annabeth came up on deck. They were just passing a smoking volcano island. One of Hephaestus's forges. The sea bubbled and steamed around the shore.

"One of the forges of Hephaestus," Annabeth said. "Where he makes his metal monsters."

"Like the bronze bulls?" Percy questioned and the blond nodded.

"Go around. Far around."

Zoe pouted but didn't say anything as they steered clear of the island. She thought her great grandfather's forages would be awesome but eventually it was just a red patch of haze behind them.

Percy looked between Annabeth and Zoe. "The reason you hate Cyclopes so much...the story about how Thalia really died. What happened?"

"I guess you deserve to know," the blond said finally. "The night Grover was escorting us to camp, he got confused, took some wrong turns. You remember he told you that once?"

Percy nodded. "Well, the worst wrong turn was into a Cyclops's lair in Brooklyn."

"They've got Cyclopes in Brooklyn?" He asked.