𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓𝒃𝒂𝒍𝒍 - 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒋𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒙 𝒐𝒄

✯¸.•'*¨'*• 𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑬 •*'¨*'•.¸✯

"Thermos!" Percy screamed as they hurtled toward the water.

"What?" Annabeth must've thought Percy'd lost his mind. She was holding on to the boat straps for dear life, her hair flying straight up like a torch.

But Tyson understood. He managed to open Percy's duffel bag and take out Hermes's magical thermos without losing his grip on it or the boat. Arrows and javelins whistled past him.

Percy grabbed the thermos and hoped he was doing the right thing. "Hang on!"

"I am hanging on!" Phoenix yelled.

"Tighter!" Percy hooked his feet under the boat's inflatable bench, and as Tyson grabbed Annabeth and Phoenix by the backs of their shirts, Percy gave the thermos cap a quarter turn.

Instantly, a white sheet of wind jetted out of the thermos and propelled them sideways, turning their downward plummet into a forty-five-degree crash landing. The wind seemed to laugh as it shot from the thermos, like it was glad to be free. As they hit the ocean, they bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone, then they were whizzing along like a speed boat, salt spray in their faces and nothing but sea ahead.

Phoenix heard a wail of outrage from the ship behind them, but they were already out of weapon range. The Princess Andromeda faded to the size of a white toy boat in the distance, and then it was gone. 

As they raced over the sea, Phoenix, Annabeth and Percy tried to send an Iris-message to Chiron. They figured it was important they let somebody know what Luke was doing, and they didn't know who else to trust. The wind from the thermos stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight-perfect for an Iris-message-but their connection was still poor. 

When Annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show Chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.

They told him about sneaking away from camp, and Luke and the Princess Andromeda and the golden box for Kronos's remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on our end, Phoenix wasn't not sure how much he heard.

"Percy," Chiron yelled, "you have to watch out for-" His voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him-a bunch of voices whooping it up like Comanche warriors.

"What?" Percy yelled.

"Curse my relatives!" Chiron ducked as a plate flew over his head and shattered somewhere out of sight. "Annabeth, you shouldn't have let Percy leave camp! But if you do get the Fleece-"

"Yeah, baby!" somebody behind Chiron yelled. "Woo-hoooooo!"The music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made the boat vibrate."-Miami," Chiron was yelling. "I'll try to keep watc-"

The misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and Chiron was gone. An hour later they spotted land-a long stretch of beach lined with high-rise hotels. The water became crowded with fishing boats and tankers. A coast guard cruiser passed on their starboard side, then turned like it wanted a second look.  

"That's Virginia Beach!" Annabeth said as we approached the shoreline. "Oh my gods, how did the Princess Andromeda travel so far overnight? That's like-"

"Five hundred and thirty nautical miles," Percy said.

Annabeth stared at Percy. "How did you know that?"

"I-I'm not sure."

"Percy, what's our position?" Phoenix asked.

"36 degrees, 44 minutes north, 76 degrees, 2 minutes west," Percy said immediately. Then she shook his head. "Whoa. How did I know that?"