Annabeth Chase and the Sea of Monsters

Chapter 32 - Grover is exposed as a boy

The most annoying thing about the Cyclops's island? It looked nice. I was expecting craggy rocks and dreary shores and bones and monsters awaiting our arrival. Instead we were greeted with a postcard worthy view. The only thing that marked it as being 'evil' was the rope bridge across a chasm, but really, it looked perfect.

I breathed in the sweet fresh air appreciatively, even more so after the staleness of Percy's bubble. "The Fleece."

"If we take it away, will the island die?" Percy asked, sounding concerned.

I shook my head. "It'll fade. Go back to what it would be normally, whatever that is."

Percy didn't exactly look reassured by that, but I wasn't bothered to ask him what was on his mind.

Near the shore, grazing on the emerald grass was a small herd of sheep, milling around peacefully. I wouldn't have even noticed them if it wasn't for their size - they looked like woolly rhinos. Just past them was a path that led up to the hills. On top of one of those hills was a massive oak tree. And in one of its branches glinted a certain gold item.

"This it too easy," Percy grumbled, sounding disappointed. "We could just hike up there and take it."

"There's supposed to be a guardian," I said, narrowing my eyes suspiciously. "A dragon or . . ."

A deer suddenly caught my eye. I broke off, watching as it emerged from some bushes near the sheep. I was turning away when the sheep all bleated together. It didn't sound anything like what I'd heard sheep do before. It sounded evil.

The whole herd suddenly surged forward, surrounding the deer. There was a flurry of movement, fur flying in the air before the sheep moved away. I swear my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

One moment the deer was there. The next it was a pile of picked clean bones.

Percy looked as stunned as I. We met eyes in horror.

"They're like piranhas," I said.

"Piranhas with wool. How will we -"

"Percy!" I gasped, spotting something more shocking than carnivorous sheep. "Look."

He followed my pointing finger to see a familiar lifeboat run aground on the beach below the sheep meadow. It was from the CSS Birmingham.

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"I still think I should have gotten the Fleece," I grumbled as I climbed the cliff face.

"No way," Percy gasped immediately from below me. "We've . . . been over this."

I sulked to myself as I kept climbing, feeling like my body was on fire. When we discovered that we weren't the only survivors from the disaster at Scylla and Charybdis, we started to go over plans about what to do. We had to get the Fleece but we also had to get Grover and whoever the survivor was. I knew that Percy hoped it was Tyson, but I doubted it.

We had a debate over what the priority was. What decided it for us was the fact that it was currently 'impossible' to get the Fleece. I still reckoned that I could sneak past the sheep invisibly, but Percy was adamant against the idea. He looked panicked every time I mentioned it. He said that too much could go wrong, like the sheep smelling me. So he completely cancelled that idea.

With the Fleece out of the question at the moment, Grover's rescue seemed the only option. We moored the Queen Anne's Revenge beside some cliffs, about sixty feet high and far away from the carnivorous sheep. The cliffs looked climbable, at least that's what we thought as we rowed a lifeboat in. Now we knew how wrong we were.