Annabeth Chase and the Sea of Monsters

Chapter 25 - Percy pressures me for answers

Even though I knew it was hopeless, I went back. At first, I tried to paddle with my hands now that I no longer had my super powered wind bag, but then I managed to grab a hunk of wood.

I was surprised at the arrange of stuff that had survived. It was like shopping and fishing at the same time.

I managed to scoop an airtight bag full of ambrosia, several sailor shirts and a bottle of Dr Pepper. Other than that, there wasn't much else that was whole or undamaged by the blast.

There wasn't anyone around either, the zombies probably having been destroyed in the explosion. My heart heavy, I turned to paddle my way away when I caught sight of a familiar figure.

I nearly had a heart attack from the shock as I paddled desperately towards Percy, noting that he was floating face down. With any one else, I would have been worried, but he was a son of Poseidon, so the water was his friend.

As I reached him, I saw this his backpack was torn from Scylla's teeth so most of the contents had floated away. The only thing I could find was Hermes's bottle of multivitamins, which I guess was better than nothing.

It took me awhile to drag Percy into the lifeboat. He was surprisingly heavy and being unconscious, he was a deadweight. I nearly tipped myself into the water as I dragged his shoulders over first before trying to lever his legs in. At one point, I banged his head heavily on the side of the boat and looked surreptitiously around before realizing that there was no one around to see me do it.

After much struggling and heaving, I managed to get him fully into the boat, lying him out on the floor in the most comfortable position I could get his lanky body in. Fortunately the water had healed his injuries, so he didn't look too banged up. He slept peacefully as I turned my mind to our next problem: getting out of there.

We were out of range of both Charybdis and Scylla, but I preferred to get away from them further. If I tried to row, I would only exhaust myself and that wasn't good with Percy out of it.

A faint wind stirred my hair, catching my attention. I frowned and saw that it was blowing the boat slowly away from the entrance to the Sea of Monsters. Looking at my feet, I saw the grey uniforms I'd salvaged and an idea popped into my head.

I managed to catch hold of a long narrow stick from the wreckage and attached it to the bottom of the boat by drilling a small hole in with my knife and quickly sticking the end of the stick in. Finding some rope lying around in the bottom of the boat, I split half of it to make thinner strands, then used my ancestral skills at weaving to sew several of the uniforms together until I had one massive cloth.

Using the rest of the ropes, I attached the cloth to the stick, leaving two ropes trailing. When I extended my makeshift sail out, holding the two leftover ropes, the wind caught ahold and billowed it out, sending us soaring across the water at a respectable speed. I could control the direction by tugging on one of my ropes.

Sitting by Percy, I watched our surroundings pass by as I guided us down the strait between the two sides of cliffs. It was rather desolate, the same sight over and over until I felt that I was close to losing my mind.

If Percy hadn't woken up so soon, I'm pretty sure I would have.

I felt him stir beside me and looked down to see his green eyes open blearily, taking in the rowboat with some confusion. He tried to sit up but nearly collapsed immediately. He didn't look too good.

"Rest," I told him. "You're going to need it."

"Tyson . . ?" he croaked, looking at me hopefully.

I shook my head sadly, seeing the crushed look on his face. "Percy, I'm really sorry."

He looked away, blinking rapidly. I felt genuine sadness twist in me on seeing him like that. It didn't help that I was also feeling like I'd been a complete idiot for treating Tyson so badly before I'd even got to know him.