𝗚𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗘! 𝙥. 𝙟𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣 ¹

Life Expectancy Who?

CHAPTER TEN: LYDIA

"I got Nobody!" Polyphemus gloated.

They crept to the cave entrance and saw the Cyclops, grinning wickedly, holding up empty air. The monster shook his fist, and a baseball cap fluttered to the ground. There was Annabeth, hanging upside down by her legs.

"Hah!" the Cyclops said. "Nasty invisible girl! Already got feisty one for wife. Means you gotta be grilled with mango chutney!"

Annabeth struggled, but she looked dazed. She had a nasty cut on her forehead. Her eyes were glassy.

"I can take him." Lydia said, pounding her fist into her palm.

She looked about as threatening as Percy did when he was a guinea pig. He pushed her behind him before she actually ran out and charged the Cyclops —that was, like, twenty times her size—like a dumbass and died.

"I'll rush him," He whispered to Clarisse. "Our ship is around the back of the island. You Grover, and Lyd—"

"No way," they all said at the same time.

"So you can beat him up and I can't?" Lydia said with her as-a-matter-of-fact tone. "Is it because I'm a girl? This is super sexist, Percy"

"No!" Percy waved his hands around in a panic and Lydia snickered internally. "That's not what I—"

"Shut up, Prissy." Clarisse growled. "We'll take him together."

She had armed herself with a highly collectible rams horn spear from the Cyclops's cave. Grover had found a sheep's thigh bone, which he didn't look too happy about, but he was gripping it like a club, ready to attack.

"Yeah," Grover said.

Then he blinked, like he couldn't believe he'd just agreed with Clarisse about something.

"Alright!" Lydia said, summoning her sickles.

"Attack plan Macedonia." Percy said.

They nodded. They'd all taken the same training courses at Camp Half-Blood. They knew what exactly what he was talking about. They would sneak around either side and attack the Cyclops from the flanks while Percy and Lydia held his attention in the front.

Percy hefted his sword and shouted, "Hey, Ugly!"

The giant whirled toward them.

"Another one? Who are you?"

"Put down my friend! I'm the one who insulted you." Lydia shouted.

"You are Nobody?"

"You bet we are!"

Lydia really had to give it to this Cyclops. He should get his own page in the Guinness World Record book for being the dumbest creature alive.

"I'm Nobody and I'm proud of it! Now, put her down and get over here. I want to stab your eye out again." Percy added.

"RAAAR!" he bellowed.

The good news: he dropped Annabeth. The bad news: he dropped her headfirst onto the rocks, where she lay motionless as a rag doll. The other bad news: Polyphemus barreled toward them, a thousand smelly pounds of Cyclops that they would have to fight with—compared to his size—toothpicks.

"For Pan!" Grover rushed in from the right.

He threw his sheep bone, which bounced harmlessly off the monster's forehead. Clarisse ran in from the left and set her spear against the ground just in time for the Cyclops to step on it.

He wailed in pain, and Clarisse dove out of the way to avoid getting trampled. But the Cyclops just plucked out the shaft like a large splinter and kept advancing on them.