𝑳𝑶𝑵𝑮 𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑬 || 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒋𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒙 𝒐𝒄

with a yo ho ho

When Percy first arrived at camp, he sucked at everything. He'd gotten a lot better with a sword, and was considered now to be one of the best sword-wielders Camp Half-Blood had seen in a long time. But everything else from the start had gone pretty poorly for him. Sparring, running, climbing, archery.

But he finally found something he was instantly good at. Being a Pirate! The Queen Anne's Revenge responded to his every command. He knew which ropes to hoist, which sails to raise, which direction to steer. They plowed through the waves at what Percy figured was about ten knots. He even understood how fast that was! For a sailing ship, pretty damn fast.

"This is really cool, Perce," Maisie marveled. "Can you make the sails dance?"

Annabeth scrunched up her face. "Huh?"

But Percy already took up the request. "Atta been cotton-eye joe—I been married long time ago—Where'd you come from? Where'd you go?—Dah-dah dah dah cotton-eye joe." The sails moved in sink to his awful singing.

"Half of that was unintelligible," Annabeth said flatly.

"Sounded like the lyrics to me," Maisie shrugged.

"Yeah, pretty sure you just don't know the song, Annabeth," said Percy.

Maisie watched as Percy made the sails do another little dance.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. Whether it was do to the other two's antics, or the swaying of the boat, she started to feel sea-sick. "How did you know the Vitamins would work?" Annabeth asked Maisie.

"Yeah," Percy said, "That was smart. What made you think to do that?"

Maisie sucked in her lips, looking like she just got caught stealing the last cookie from a cookie jar, and avoided eye contact with her friends. "Oh, yeah. Ha! Funny story. I actually had no idea if that would really work or not."

Percy blinked. "Heh?"

"Yeahhhh," Maisie drew out. "It was kinda a shot in the dark. I just remembered you said Hermes told you to use them when you needed them. Had no idea what that meant. But I went with it. Though I'll take the compliment that it was a smart move!"

"Well, if you didn't know it would work—"

Maisie cut Percy off and said, "No take-backs!"

They sailed across the sea at a fast pace. The smell of ocean wafted over the waves. The sky turned dark. Stars came out of hiding, twinkling in the night sky.

Annabeth was keeping lookout, but sailing didn't agree with her. After a while of rocking back
and forth, her face turned the color of guacamole and Maisie walked her below the deck to have her lay down.

Now that they were out of danger, all Percy could think about was how much he missed Tyson, and how worried he was about Grover.

He couldn't get over how badly he'd messed up on Circe's Island. If it hadn't been for Maisie, and her quick but random thinking, he would still be a rodent, hiding in a hutch with a bunch of other furry pirates.