Sign of the Times

How much do you like sheep?

The rest of the ship ride was awkward to say the least. 

I don't know how I should react around Percy Jackson. On one hand, his father killed the only family I had. On the other hand, he saved my life. On the third hand, he decided it would be best to not wake me as we passed the sirens. 

Yup, Annabeth reminded him to lock the door at least since he didn't want to wake me up. Oh, what did he forget to do? Lock the door. So, technically the second and third hand cancel out and I can be mad at him. Right?

The time that wasn't spent trying to avoid the son of a bitch/Poseidon was spent with Annabeth filling me in about the last 80 years. Apparently, we went to the fucking moon, which is awesome. Pluto, my favorite planet, was declared not a planet. Something called an iPhone was invented. But most importantly, global warming! Wow, apparently humanity still sucks.

She also filled me in on the whole quest I joined in on. We had to go get this fleece to save a tree that Annabeth's "misunderstood" friend poisoned/didn't poison (it depended on who you asked). The little bonus of this quest, though, was crashing a wedding  between a cyclops and a satyr, or as Annabeth called it, our "speak now moment."

When I asked what a speak now moment was, all she could do was start ranting about how culturally significant this one songwriter Taylor Swift was, promising to show me all of her music and explain the pop culture references as well. Gods, what did I get myself into?

The time flew by while talking with Annabeth and soon enough we found ourselves at the destination of the cyclops's island and home of the fleece. 

When I was told we were going to a monster island, I expected dark, rocky shores with skulls and bones of whoever dared step foot on the island littering the beach. On the flip side, it was actually a gorgeous island. Ton's of vegetation, cute animals, and a shit load of sheep. 

Not only did it look straight out of a vacation dream, but it also made me feel more full of life than I ever had. It gave me a feeling that I could do anything I wanted. Climb Mount Everest? Done. Eat 100 cheeseburgers? Easy. Do a backflip? Maybe. 

"Are we at the right place?" I asked.

"Yeah, this doesn't really seem like the kind of place where an evil cyclops would live,"  Annabeth added. 

Despite our concerns, Percy's face remained determined. "This is the right place." He gulped, looking around the island some more. "If we take this fleece, will the island die?" 

"No, it will just fade back to what it was without all the magical help from the fleece." Part of me wants to feel bad, but this isn't natural how perfect things are here. Nothing here looks dead at all . . . everything needs to die at some point.

We walked around until we found a pathway that led to a giant tree, the fleece shimmering within its branches. 

"Do we just go and grab it?" I asked, looking at the clear path to the tree. 

"No, it's too easy." Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows.

"Eh, just let Aqua Boy over here have his shot at the fleece." I punched his shoulder lightly as he rolled his eyes at me. 

"How about you have a try, death breath?" he retorted, earning him another punch, this time harder. 

Just as I was about to push Percy towards the fleece to make him get it, a deer wandered out into the field just in front of the tree. Within a second of it being there, it was buried in a pile of sheep. When the sheep walked away as if nothing happened all that was left in its place was a little blood stain on the ground. No bones, fur, or anything else left behind.