Percy Jackson Meet The Underland

Scared

Percy jumped to his feet and tried to make sense of the situation. Everyone was up, but they were confused, too. The Underlanders usually faced an emergency with precision, as if they'd drilled for the crisis a million times. Percy had a feeling that none of them had ever dealt with a whirlpool, either...and that they had no emergency response at the ready.

Photos Glow-Glow and Zap were burning at full brightness, but they're still wasn't enough light to see far out into the water. Percy pulled out the biggest flashlight he had, one with a wide sweeping beam, and clicked it on. What he saw took his breath away.

The boats were on the outer edge of a huge vortex. The whirlpool must have been at least a hundred yards wide. The water was rushing at a dizzying speed, grasping at anything in its reach, carrying it around and around until it was sucked down into a black gaping hole in the center.

Howard and Mareth were shouting at each other across the rope that tethered the two boats together.

"I am cutting loose!" Howard yelled as he began to hack away at the rope between them.

"No!" Mareth cried. "The fliers will carry us out!"

"They can only take one boat! Do it, Mareth! Pandora can come back for me!" Howard shouted, and the rope severed under his sword. It was just in the nick of time. The lead boat containing Howard, Pandora, Donar, and Zap was snagged by the outer ring of the whirlpool and carried off into the maelstrom.

It was only a matter of seconds before the second boat would meet the same fate. 

The boat suddenly yanked to the side. "It's got us!" Percy cried out. But then there was an upward jerk. Percy sprawled forward, barely avoiding crushing Nico, and found they were rising out of the water. The bats! The bats were lifting them using the rope loops on the sides of the boats. Aurora and Andromeda were in the front, Ares and Pandora in the back.

"Go, Pandora. Mars can take it! Go!" Percy heard Mareth order.

Mars spread his feet, holding his own loop in one claw and grasping Pandora's in his other. The boat dipped down a bit, but the big black bat soon had it under control. "Man, he's strong!" thought Percy.

Pandora hovered for one moment, to make sure Ares had things covered, then dove. Percy leaned over the side of the boat to see what was going on.

They were fifty feet above the water now, safe from the clutches of the raging whirlpool, but below them, it was another matter. The lead boat, with Howard and Twitchtip clinging to the mast, was spinning helplessly around in the whirlpool, smashing into debris, buckling under the pressure of the current. Except for the light from Gregor's flashlight, the boat was in complete darkness.

Percy spun back around to the whirlpool in time to see Howard launch himself out over the water, arms straight out to his sides. Pandora caught him by the arms and carried him straight up to safety. She set Howard in a soggy pile on the floor and took her rope handle back from Mars.

Down in the water, Donar still clung desperately to the mast. The boat was quickly approaching the inner rings of the whirlpool and the black hole in the center.

"Wait a minute!" Percy cried. "Aren't you going back in for Donar?"

There was no answer. He looked to Mareth, to Luxa, to Howard dripping and panting on the floor. Something in their faces made a chill go through him. "He's going to drown, you know! We've got to get in there!"

"It is not possible, Overlander," said Mareth. "We cannot reach her by boat. A single flier could not get hold of her. It is not possible."

"Luxa?" said Percy. She was a queen; she could probably make them if she wanted to.

"I think Mareth is right. We will risk more loss in the effort, and the likelihood of success is almost nonexistent," said Luxa.

"But we need him! We need her to navigate in the Labyrinth!" said Percy. Why were they just standing there?

"The bats will be sufficient," said Mareth. "And they can be trusted."

So, that was it. Now he understood. "It's because she's a rat," he said. "You're just going to sit here and watch her drown because she's a rat, right? If it were Howard or Andromeda or even Temp, you'd be down there, all right, but not for a rat! You'd probably have killed him already if you could have!"

Hands grabbed him as he climbed up the side of the boat. "Do not be a madman, Overlander," said Howard. "You cannot help her!"

"You make me the sickest of all!" said Percy. "You were just down there a minute ago. You got rescued! And what about what you swore? About saving anyone in water trouble! In peril! What you said! What about that?"

Howard's face flushed. Percy had touched a nerve.

"Percy!" Luxa had his hand. "I forbid you to go, Percy! You will not survive."

"Not with you guys as backup!" said Percy. He was so furious, he could have thrown her over the side of the boat. See how she liked it down there. " He brought him to help me, so I could help you guys and your whole stupid kingdom!" he said.

I used my powers and made hands of water and grabbed him.  

"Don't — let — go!" he choked out.

 "No."

Percy carried him with water for a while until he was out of the whirlpool's reach. Then he was in the waves, half-treading water, half-using the life jacket to stay afloat, as the Underlanders reeled them in. Hands pulled them into the boat. When he felt the floor beneath him, Percy released the rat from the watery grasp.

They lay side by side, gasping, coughing up water.  

Howard was at his side. 

Percy gritted his teeth as Howard flushed out the wounds on his arm, poured a cooling solution over the skin, and bandaged it in fresh fabric.

"I know this comes a bit late," said Howard. "But try to keep it dry." There was something in his eyes that reminded Percy of Howard's grandfather, Vikus. An odd twinkle, even while the rest of his face remained serious.

Percy couldn't help laughing. "Yeah. I'll do that."

Howard toweled off Doner and wrapped him in blankets. He was too exhausted to object when he poured a bottle of medicine down her throat. He went to sleep almost immediately.

"Is he all right?" Percy asked him.

"Yes. We must keep her warm. The cold water has been a shock. But he is a fighter," Howard said with respect.

The boat was packed now, with all thirteen of them in it. Somehow everyone had found a place, but it was tight.

Gregor POV

Luxa sat next to Gregor and handed him something. "Here. I made you a sandwich."

He looked down at the clunky version of a roast beef sandwich. He had taught her to make her first sandwich on their last trip. "Thanks." He didn't eat it.

"Do not be angry with us, Gregor. Mareth and I have lost more than you know to the rats. It is hard for us to risk anything to save one. Even if it is of use," said Luxa.

"He. Doner is a he. And he's had a bad time, too. The rats chased him out because he's a scent seer and he's been living all alone in the Dead Land," said Gregor.

"Has he?" asked Luxa. "I did not know this about him."

"Well, no, because no one talks to him!" Gregor said, and then had a pang of guilt. He hadn't been talking to him, either. He hadn't wanted to ride in his boat. At least he'd gone in to save him. "But he's incredible. You should see him in action. I mean, maybe he didn't know what a whirlpool was. But he could tell all the way from the arena to the palace what color shirt Boots was wearing. And once we're in that Labyrinth thing, I think he's the only way we'll find the guy!" His words were tumbling out now; he couldn't stop them, but he couldn't organize them quite right, either. 

"It's no good to sit up in the boat and watch her drown."

Gregor took a bite of the sandwich — more to stop talking than anything. It was all so confusing, the whole thing with the rats and the humans. They had killed Luxa's parents, and he didn't know how many others she loved. Another thought struck him. "Helping a rat doesn't make you like Henry, you know."

"You see it that way. Others might not," she said.

They sat in silence while he ate his sandwich. He couldn't argue with her there.