ɪ'ʟʟ ꜱᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ ᴡʜᴇɴ ɪ ᴇꜱᴄᴀᴘᴇ

Rescued by a Foe

USUALLY, MONSTERS WERE UGLY. But not this one. The drakon was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, right up there with Atlantis and Annabeth.

It's hide was dappled green and yellow, like sunlight through a forest canopy. Its reptilian eyes reminded Percy of the sun shining on the sea, and when its frills unfurled around it's head, he couldn't help but think what a regal and amazing monster it was that was about to kill him.

Wow, he really needed some therapy sessions.

It hissed again, spraying sweet smelling poison all over the trees and rocks. It stalked closer to him, huge talons digging into the mud. It looked like it could use a nice demigod snack.

Percy crouched down, bending his knees. Just as the drakon charged, he leapt up, seizing one of its green frills and hanging on for dear life.

Using the water in the damp, sticky air, he created a rope and pulled himself onto the drakon as it hissed on fury.

He wedged the tip of Bob's spear underneath a scale and pushed on the opposite end. He yelped as the drakon jerked sideways, trying to throw him off, causing Percy to jerk to the right and almost lose his grip on his water rope.

Putting all his weight in the spear, he shoved it down, prying a glittering green scale from the drakon. It snarled in pain, snapping its teeth at Percy, but unable to reach him.

The drakon spat poison again, straight at Percy. Out of pure instinct, he reached it and felt the water within the poison and shoved at it. The green haze flew away from him, and he directed it at the exposed chunk of flesh where the scale had been pried out.

The drakon hissed in agony, and Percy yanked his water rope, causing it to rear backwards.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Small Bob jump onto the drakon in full skeleton-cat form, momentarily distracting it.

He reached out for the poison again and sent it flying at the drakon's mouth and down it's throat. With an earth-shuddering roar, the monster fell to the ground, dissolving into dust until all that was left was the skeleton.

Percy stumbled to his feet, dizzy and disoriented. Swaying on his feet, he leant on a twisted tree that looked like one of those black licorice sticks.

Panting heavily, he trudged through the mud. Stumbling past huge footprints the size of trash can lids, drakon skeletons, slime, trees and monster dust, he tried not to pass out as his increasingly blurry vision started to give out.

Just as he was sure that he couldn't go further without collapsing, he thought he glimpsed a small cottage in the distance. Or it might have been a cotton candy tree, it kind of looked like both, considering how tired he was. But Percy was pretty sure there were no cotton candy trees in Tartarus, although a cottage seemed unlikely as well.

He fell to his knees, breathing heavily, the murky swamp coming in and out of his sight. He might have been imagining it, but he thought he saw a huge figure emerge from the cottage, so bright red it was almost blinding against the dull tones of the marsh.

Small Bob purred gently, curled up on his shoulder, trying to comfort Percy. He gently stroked the cat as his limbs felt weaker and weaker by the second.

Unable to resist or any longer, his eyes shut and he fell sideways, hitting the squishy muck.

He felt gigantic hands wrap around him, lifting him up. Oh, wonderful. He was being kidnapped by a giant.

"Who are you?" Asked the giant in a surprisingly gentle voice.

"Percy." He mumbled, but it probably came out more like "Puherrrtie"

On second thought, it robably wasn't a good idea to tell a random giant his name, but he was too tired to care.

He heard the creak of a door opening and the clattering of utensils before he was placed in a bundle of warm blankets and dropped off to sleep.

~🌊