It almost worked ✸ Apollo ¹

XXX. A ship of a screaming princess

Lydia had barely even gotten to sleep when she heard yelling outside, and it sounded like Percy yelling for help. Castor or Pollux didn't seem to hear anything. Which didn't surprise her because her brothers were heavy sleepers. So she put on her shoes and walked outside.

She found all of her friends outside too with Percy.

"What's going on?" Annabeth asked. "I heard you calling for help!"

"Me, too!" Tyson said. "Heard you yell, 'Bad things are attacking!"

Lydia rushed over to them "What's going on? Is Percy okay?"

"I didn't call you guys," Percy said. "I'm fine."
"But then who ..."

Lydia looked down to see three yellow duffel bags, and a thermos with a bottle of vitamins Percy was holding. "What-"

"Just listen," Percy said. "We don't have much time."

He told Lydia and the others about some conversation he had with Hermes. By the time he was finished, they could hear screeching in the distance-patrol harpies picking up our scent.

"Percy," Annabeth said, "we have to do the quest."

"Yeah, but you promised Chiron-"

"I promised I'd keep you from danger. I can only do that by coming with you! Tyson can stay behind and tell them-"

"I want to go," Tyson said.

"No!" Annabeth's voice sounded close to panic. "I mean ... Percy, come on. You know that's impossible."

Lydia was looking at her friends back and forth. She didn't have enough time to put in what she wanted to say. They needed to hurry and up and figure out their plan before the harpies caught up to them.

"Tyson can go," Percy insisted, "if he wants to."

Tyson clapped his hands. "Want to!"

Annabeth gave him the evil eye. Lydia was just wondering how they'd get on the ship from that far away. None of them would be able to swim that far except for Percy. And he definitely couldn't carry all of them out there either.

"Now that the useless argument is over," Lydia said. "How do we get to that ship?"

"Hermes said my father would help." Percy told her.

Lydia knew he always had trouble calling up Poseidon. They'd only met like one time, and even then he wasn't much of a talker. But he did send Tyson to find Percy. So there was only a little chance he'd actually help.

Percy seemed to be thinking the same thing. He hesitantly made his way over to the water, as if posideon was under there watching him. Maybe he was. Nobody knew.

"Urn, Dad?" He called. "How's it going?"

"Percy!" Annabeth whispered. "We're in a hurry!"

"We need your help," He called a little louder. "We need to get to that ship, like, before we get eaten and stuff, so..."

At first, nothing happened. Waves crashed against the shore like normal. The harpies sounded like they were right behind the sand dunes. Then, about a hundred yards out to sea, three white lines appeared on the surface. They moved fast toward the shore, like claws ripping through the ocean.

Lydia blinked "Percy, what did he send you?"

"I'm not sure." He mumbled.

As they neared the beach, the surf burst apart and the heads of four white stallions reared out of the waves. Tyson caught his breath. "Fish ponies!"