Camp Hermit-Blood - The Sea of Monsters

Annabeth

Annabeth had to admit that Percy hanging off the bottom of a sheep was a little bit funny.

"Can we go now?" he pleaded.

"One, two, three, four," Bdubs counted.

"Once Polyphemus gets back," Annabeth said. "Bdubs, you need to do it too."

"No!" Bdubs said. "I'm staying with Ren!"

"Ren's going in too," Annabeth said.

"Oh," Bdubs said, and resumed counting. "Five, six..."

"What are you counting?" Percy asked.

"Sheep," Bdubs said. "Seven, eight, nine, ten! Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, eighteen-"

"You skipped seventeen," Annabeth observed.

"IM COUNTING BY TWOS NOW!"

"That's nice. Now get on sheep."

Annabeth helped Bdubs get into the same position Percy was in: twisting wool into strands and loops to be hand- and footholds, and then Bdubs grabbed those and tried to stay on.

Sunset was approaching quickly, when Polyphemus would inevitably bring his sheep inside. Probably.

Annabeth was hoping.

Why did the fate of Camp Half-Blood have to depend on sheep?

"IT SHMELLS BAD!" Bdubs complained.

"Stop complaining, it's the only way I can think of," Annabeth said, bringing her hand to the ground for Guinea Pig Ren to jump into. She put him in her pocket. He squeaked at Bdubs, possibly bragging.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKIN' ABOUT, YOU'RE A HAMSTER!"

Annabeth ignored both of them and put on her invisibility cap, hoping Ren was small enough that it would turn him invisible, too. She had enough problems already.

Thankfully, it worked.

The sky was turning pink and gold, shimmering on the ocean. And Polyphemus was panting up the hill with a couple of coconuts.

"Those aren't mangoes," Annabeth said, half laughing. There was a muffled "HA" from Bdubs, and then they fell silent.

Polyphemus rolled the rock aside and the sheep all went up the hill like a bunch of dogs. Percy grunted as his started moving.

Annabeth knew they were trying to hold on, but she wished they would be a little quieter about it.

"Just don't let go," she reminded them

"It smells like a sweater dragged in the mud," Bdubs complained.

"Shh!"

"Hasenpfeffer!" Polyphemus said cheerfully, patting each sheep and goat as it passed him. "Einstein! Widget! Putting on some extra mutton there?"

He patted Percy's sheep. Annabeth held her breath, but he didn't fall.

And then Annabeth realized he would find them if she didn't provide a distraction.

Oh, well, time to improvise. How had Odysseus escaped Polyphemus in the myth?

Nobody.

"Hey! Ugly!" Annabeth yelled, right as Polyphemus was about to roll the stone back into place. It needed to stay open so Percy, Bdubs, Clarisse, and Grover could get out.

Polyphemus stiffened. "Who said that?"

Ren wriggled out of her pocket and ran inside. It was a good thing that the Cyclops had bad eyesight from when he had got stabbed.

"Nobody!" Annabeth said.

And she got the exact reaction she had been hoping for.

He turned red with anger and abandoned the boulder. "Nobody! I remember you!"

"You're too stupid to remember anybody," Annabeth taunted. "Much less Nobody!"

Polyphemus must have been extra angry, because he threw his own front door at where Annabeth had been a couple seconds ago.

Annabeth let the seconds draw out, and watched hope appear on the monster's face.

And then she said, "And you haven't learned to throw any better, either!"

Polyphemus roared. "Let me kill you, Nobody!"

"Come find me!" Annabeth challenged.

She glimpsed Bdubs and Percy dropping off their sheep and going deeper into the cave to find the others.

Annabeth kept running, holding her cap in place so it wouldn't come off.

Another boulder smashed the area behind her, getting dangerously close. Annabeth decided to focus her energy on running rather than mocking Polyphemus.

She kept him in her sight, doubling back when she needed to.

She stopped to take a breath and ducked behind a larger rock... which happened to be the next one the Cyclops grabbed.

She ran, but Polyphemus slammed the boulder against the ground.

It shattered.

Annabeth made one last lunge for safety.

She felt her cap fly off.

A single scream escaped her lips and the last thing she heard before everything went silent was a roar of triumph.

"I DID IT! I CAUGHT NOBODY!"