Amaurosis

VII: Percy's Brother

Echoing screams bounced off the ceiling of the lithosphere loud enough to shatter the eardrums of the average human being. Luckily, the Mist was ever so helpful. Who knew what the humans were seeing and hearing, but it definitely was not a ginormous-- actually, I don't know how to describe such a thing.

Misshapen. That is the perfect word.

He had hands for feet, and his calves were as large and muscular as thighs. The monster's skin was a dirty olive, and his groin area was covered by a Tarzan-esque ratty and frayed leather cloth. He held an elongated bar behind his pointed, elvish ears like a bat or club, ready to swing.

His stomach muscles ballooned and pulsed like beetles crawling underneath his skin, and deformed lumps covered his entire torso. Beady eyes popped from their sockets, and his nose looked like a clump of grapes in the center of his face. Throbbing veins convulsed and bulged from his arms, his biceps protruding massive spheres. He was completely disfigured, not taking on a specific shape, like a blob of flab and muscle.

He was attacking something, swinging his stick at a speck latched to his bulbous ankle. He swat and swat and swat at it, stubbing his toes against the seemingly inferior-- compared to him, at least-- trees surrounding the large rock of past presidents' faces.

Mortals screamed and ran in the opposite direction, struggling to crawl over the others to get to their cars and trucks in a stampede. My eyes, however, zeroed in on a dark-skinned girl with frizzy black hair in a purple t-shirt clutching onto the giant's leg hair and the over-sized elephant ramming its head into its foot.

I glanced around vigorously, trying to find anyone from the ship, but my surroundings began to blur, the scenery slurring into a thin line of green, then gray, then black. Darkness consumed the world once full of sunshine, and everything felt like it was collapsing in on me.

Wind swirled in heavy, cold gusts and the breath was knocked from my lungs as I was pushed through a never-ending tunnel of pure blackness at one hundred miles an hour.

The earth returned in a series of blinding white light, and I stumbled forwards, falling to the ground. Colors soon followed and returned to reality one by one, but I was not by the ship anymore.

Instead, I was just below the giant's looming body, between his colossal, warty feet. His extensive shadow's gloom darkened the sky, but knowing the seven demigods I was with, he wouldn't be standing for much longer.

A mop of black hair and sea-green eyes soared through the air, riding a funneled whirlpool toward the giant. Flying beside him was a matching body, almost an exact replica, but with four eyes and golden blonde hair, the orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt appearing somewhat off on him.

They dove toward the monster, Jason summoning gusts of wind to kick him off balance while Percy splashed water in his face, shouting, "You want to fight, bro?" Percy willed the tornado of lake water forward as he inched up to the giant's irregularly shaped lump of a nose. "Fight me!"

Next thing I knew, the giant brought up his arm and smacked Percy backwards, sending him crashing into Jason, and both of them plunging to the shadowed cement below with an umph.

My fingers tingled, itching to get their feet wet and play, but I wasn't ready for anyone to know yet. Using them will only increase the already rising distrust. Still, I could feel the power swirling in my veins, trying to disobey my strict orders.

Above, Percy got back up, lobbing waves of water at the giant's stomach as Leo hurled fireballs that hit dangerously close to Frank-- now a Tyrannosaurus Rex--. Nothing was taking effect, not even slowing him down.

Below, Annabeth was yelling and screaming, trying to get his attention. After every wave Percy flung at him, the giant took another step forward, even more refreshed than the one before.