The Siren and The Sun

10) Charybdis and Scylla

Atlantis knew the Charybdis and Scylla were large, but she quickly realized she had heavily underestimated them. One of Scylla's head was easily twice the length of the siren's entire body! The confidence Atlantis felt on the way to the Sea of Monsters vanished. Apollo, still in merman form, gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. He spoke quietly, as though the two monsters could hear them from over a mile away.

"We'll take Scylla. There's a better chance we can talk with her because she can actually hear us. Charybdis eats first, and talks- well, never."

"I'll go to her first and try to get her to free my parents without a conflict."

"But if she attacks," Apollo cut in, "I've got six arrows with her name on them."

With their plan set, the two swan closer, giving much room to the lackadaisically swirling water about a hundred feet from Scylla's island. Luckily, Charybdis didn't notice them from wherever she was. On the other hand, Scylla did.

The monster curled her bright red, scaly body around so more heads were facing Apollo and Atlantis. All of the heads were identical, but her necks had different crimson designs that melted into a red body and twenty-four dark green legs. Two heads came closer to the siren and god, examining them.

Atlantis stiffened as two giant green and yellow eyes surveyed her. Looking over at Apollo, she saw the same things she felt. His hands seemed to be itching to summon his bow, but he remained motionless until the two heads retreated. Pulling as far away as possible, Scylla's heads stared unblinkingly at Atlantis and Apollo, her neutral expression conveying nothing.

After a few moments of tense gazes from all eight parties, Atlantis found her voice. "We humbly greet thee, great and powerful Scylla." She said with a bow. When in doubt, be as formal as possible and smother everything in compliments. "Have mercy on our lives."

One of the head whistled in surprise, and Atlantis straightened. It tilted to the side and came closer, like a twisting screw. By the time they were at conversational range, the head was completely upside-down. "Gur-l! Wassup?! And who's this?" Scylla asked excitedly, gesturing to Apollo. "Is he ya bf? He's ya bf, ain't he? Gurl, you luck-y!" Her voice dropped to a whisper as she came closer, as if confessing a secret. "Last time I was hooked up, that punk-"

"Last L, for crying out loud, give the poor thing some space!" Another head cried, hitting the head that had first spoken. Heaving a sigh and shaking itself, the head apologized. "Last L's a bit- over the top. I'm First L, by the way." First L gasped. "Ladies, we haven't introduced ourselves! These poor lovebirds are probably confused as I don't know what!"

The heads arranged themselves in a straight, diagonal line. Starting at the top, the head introduced themselves as S, C, Y, First L, Last L, and A.

"And together we're Scylla!" They all said in unison.

S came closer. "Now ya'll know us, so who are you? Aside from a siren."

"Well," Atlantis began. She was very surprised at Scylla's personality. She, or they, didn't seem like a deadly and scary monster at all. "I am a siren, as you said, but I've actually never been to Siren Island."

"Then where ya from?" C asked, twisting to the side.

"The ocean." The siren answered with a smirk. Scylla seemed amused by her attitude, and Atlantis decided to push her luck a bit. "More specifically, I'm from Atlantis, the city I was named after. But I'm going to cut the reason I'm here. My parents were kidnapped."

Six heads gasped simultaneously, and began firing questions. Before they could get too far, Atlantis held up a hand to pause the interrogation.

"I was wondering if you- all, possibly, maybe, know where they are."

A frowned. "You poor thing. Well who are they, honey? We'll if we know of anything."

"Poseidon and Amphitrite."

Immediately, Atlantis knew she had crossed the line.

Scylla roared. "Poseidon! The siren's with Poseidon!" Before Apollo could react or Atlantis could move, a head swept toward her. The next instant, she was airborne and screaming. The head cried out as a golden arrow embedded itself in her eye. Atlantis crashed into the water, a jagged rock ripping into her side.

Her body surfaced long enough for Atlantis to hear Scylla call for Charybdis. Being unable to swim, the siren was dragged into a current of swirling water that grew stronger with every second. Atlantis clung to a large, triangular shape for dear life, trying to forget it was one of Charybdis's teeth.

An eternity later, the current was so strong that the only thing keeping Atlantis on the tooth was her bleeding fingers and willpower. The glint of something shiny caught her eye. She realized it was Apollo's golden tail- in the middle of Charybdis's current! What was he doing there?!

The god began to glow, and the water temperature rose. Soon, Atlantis couldn't even look in his direction, but the current had slowed down. Unfortunately, the water was so hot the siren thought her scales were melting. And the heat didn't do anything good for the gash across her body. Partly from the pain, and partly from the stress, Atlantis screamed.

The next thing she remembered was laying on a beach. "What happened?" The siren asked groggily. "Where am I?"

"Delos. I have to get you healed before we go to Olympus. We're going there because Scylla and Charybdis didn't have your parents anymore."

That news alone was enough for Atlantis to throw her head back on the sand. "Are you kidding me?! Ah!" Sharp pain burst from her side.

"Sorry, this is going to hurt. And it might scar, too." Apollo said quietly.

The siren groaned, which turned a pained moan. "Ow!"

"Zeus has Poseidon and Amphitrite."

Despite the pain, Atlantis sat up. "What?!"

"Yep." The god said tiredly. "Hey, look at that! No scar!"

Atlantis glanced at her side. It looked normal, but was very sore when she tried to move. Apollo scooped the siren up bridal style and smiled at her.

"We're not leaving Olympus until you get your parents back and this whole thing is solved." Still carrying Atlantis, the god teleported to the throne room of Olympus, determined.