The Sea // pjo

Chapter Sixteen // We Have a Rock Fight and I (Kinda) Sleep

    "You'd think he'd run out of rocks," Percy muttered beside me.

    In my delirium, I laughed, rubbing a hand over my grimy forehead, "But nooooo."

    He snickered at me, looking just as exhausted as me as Grover shouted, "Swim for it!"

    Clarisse and Grover took off into the surf, taking a still-weak Annabeth and the sopping-wet Golden Fleece with them.

    But Polyphemus was not mad about the Fleece but at my brother.

    "You, young Cyclops!" The monster bellowed. "Traitor to your kind!"

    Tyson's body went rigid as he stopped in his spot.

    "Don't listen to him!" Percy begged him. "Come on."

    I grabbed Tyson's hand while Percy pulled at his arm, and we both tried to drag him into the water.

    It was impossible.

    Tyson turned to the giant Cyclops and said, "I am not a traitor."

    "You serve mortals!" Polyphemus screamed at him. "Thieving humans!"

    He threw another boulder in our direction, but Tyson swiped it out of the air, snapping back, "Not a traitor. And you are not my kind."

    "Death or victory!" Polyphemus snarled as he charged into the water. He face-planted, though, his foot still injured, sending waves towards us as Percy shouted, "Percy! Come on!"

    I turned, seeing that they were almost to the ship, pinching my lips before I spun back at the sound of Tyson saying, "Go. I will hold Big Ugly."

    "No! He'll kill you." Percy retorted, his voice firm. "We'll fight him together."

    "Yeah, Tyson, we're in this together," I reassured him.

    "Together," Tyson agreed with Percy and I.

    I drew Undertow, ignoring the heat that surged from the hilt, and stood between my brothers, getting ready to fight.

    Polyphemus came at us again, wielding another boulder.

    Which he promptly chucked at us like a dodgeball.

    My brain was not really working and continued not to work when Percy yanked me out of the way of the boulder, and Tyson threw his fist forward, turning the boulder into gravel.

    "Sally?!" Percy shouted at me, "You gonna help?!"

    I blinked a few times, "Yeah, sorry, HELPING!!!"

    I willed the water to raise twenty feet into the air, surging us towards the monster.

    Percy kicked the monster in the eye while I punched Polyphemus's nose, letting the water spray the Cyclops in the face.

    My brother and I flew over his head as Polyphemus sputtered, "D-Destroy you! Fleece stealers!"

    "You stole the Fleece!" Percy yelled at him. "You've been using it to lure satyrs to their deaths!"

    "So? Satyrs good eating!"

    I frowned, deepening, "The Fleece is supposed to be used to heal and protect people! It belongs to us, the children of the gods!"

    "I am a child of the gods!" Polyphemus threw his hand at us, but we both ducked away. "Father Poseidon, curse these thieves!"

    The Cyclops was blinking from the saltwater in his eyes, and I rolled my eyes as I realized he could locate us by listening to our voices.