Daughter of Mother Earth

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Crystal lunged at its face, aiming for the eye. He moved his hand and batted her away from his face. She slammed into a wall, the world going black.
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As Crystal's eyes opened, she realized she was upside down, yet again. Even worse, she was upside down in a Cyclops hand.

Immediately she started to silently panic. Her heartbeat increased majorly. Adrenaline rushed through her veins. Millions of thoughts raced through her head, but the loudest one that stuck was, Oh, God. I'm going to be eaten.

Trying to calm herself, Crystal looked around at the upside down world. Nearby was two small objects hanging from chains. One was flailing around.

Suddenly, the Cyclops holding her shifted.

"Leo! Leo, help me!" He said in Crystal's voice.

Crystal prayed that if Leo heard it, he'd stay quiet.

Silence.

"Leo?" Crystal's voice impersonator called out again.

"Just give it up. No demigod is this quiet. He probably ran away," The other Cyclops said.

The Cyclops holding Crystal replied, "Lets get cooking."

Crystal was immediately blinded by a bright orange light. Spots danced around her eyes. She blinked until the were gone. She looked around again and realized the two cocoons were actually Jason and Piper. Piper was wringing around violently and Jaosn hung limp with a large red bump on his forehead. She found that, besides the humanoid holding her, there were two more Cyclopes gathered around the fire. They had hairy bodies and skin that seemed to glow red in the firelight. The one holding her wore a chain mail loincloth that made Crystal feel extremely uncomfortable. The other next to him wore a fuzzy toga.

Suddenly Crystal was shaken like a child shaking a fish bag. She tried hard not to throw up.

"Are you awake! I'm hungry! Scream or something!" Loincloth said.

"Nah, I'm good." Crystal managed to say.

Loincloth flipped her right side up. "Excuse me?"

"Mr. Cyclops, can you please put my friend down and let us go?" Piper spoke up.

Her gag had been taken off earlier in hopes she would scream. She did the opposite. She calmed herself before she spoke up.

Loincloth scratched his head and looked at Crystal.

"We should let them go, Torque. This one is really pretty."

"No!" Torque, the one in the toga yelled.

He snatched Crystal from the Cyclops. "I saw her first, Sump! She's mine! I'll let her go."

The third and nearly forgotten Cyclops stood up and shouted, "Idiots!"

With a start, Crystal realized it was a woman. She wore a chain mail muumuu and had greasy black pigtails. She walked toward Torque and grabbed Crystal from him. The female Cyclops gripped her with such force, she found it difficult to breathe. When she was brought up to its face, Crystal was glad she could barely breathe. The Cyclops breath was horrendous.

Crystal couldn't help but gag. Ma Gasket furrowed her eyebrows- er, eyebrow.

"How dare you react to me that way! I'll eat you first!"

Crystal did what Piper would do. Talk and distract.

"You wouldn't want to eat me! I'm so salty." She said.

"Yeah, no kidding." Ma Gasket grumbled.

"Excuse you? I hope you're talking to someone else, cause I know you sure as hell aren't talking me like that!" Crystal yelled, pounding her fists on Ma Gasket's hand.

Ma Gasket roared angrily.

Well, so much for talking my way out... Crystal thought.

"You think you're so tough! I've eaten heroes tougher than you for lunch!"

"You know what? I'm-"

"Please ma'am!" Piper interrupted Crystal's threat. "Crystal is just-"

"Don't try your charmspeak on me, Venus spawn." Ma Gasket turned back to Sump and Torque and yelled at them for being stupid.

Crystal huffed and looked behind Ma Gasket. She saw a figure dash between some robotic arms and realized with a start that it was Leo. Crystal caught Piper's glance and they shared a look. She brought a finger up to her lips to make sure Piper didn't say anything.

Then she gasped.