100 Theme Challenge
91. Drowning
Drowning- The Son of Neptune, Chapter XLVI
As soon as he went over the edge, Percy was sure he was good as dead.
He had closed his eyes, gripped the 12th Legion's standard, or the "Chicken on a Stick" as Percy secretly liked to call it, and shoved his blade into the ice as hard as he could, making it sink up to the hilt in frozen water.
He, and several tons of rock hard frozen ice and legion buildings, tumbled over the edge of the glacier and towards the cold water below.
Normally, falling into water from a height that could quite possibly kill a mortal didn't bother Percy.
Normally.
Normally, Percy didn't have to worry about whether or not his powers would work; they'd always had before. But he had never been away from the god's realm before. Alaska was not a place he would go if he had a choice.
Looking down, he saw the ice reaching down towards the water as his plummet to his possible and ironic watery doom began to end.
Percy tried to calm his racing heart and took a deep breath, just in case his father's blessing failed him. He crossed his arms across his chest, while still holding the standard in a death grip, and straightened out so when he hit the water, he would go in feet first and water-slide style.
As the wind rushed by his ears he could just make out the sound a huge splash; the ice and buildings had hit the water. Now, it was Percy's turn.
Just a heartbeat after the ice dove into the water, Percy did, and as soon as his feet touched the water, his life flashed before his eyes. He remembered everything.
He remembered getting claimed by Poseidon- so he was Greek-, and falling from the St. Luis Arch.
He remembered destroying C.C.'s Spa with Annabeth and feeding the Nemean Lion dehydrated ice cream.
He remembered Rachel chucking a blue plastic hairbrush at Luke- no, Kronos. Percy could tell by the golden eyes.
And, finally, he remembered handing Luke, the actual Luke this time, Annabeth's knife and saving Olympus.
While any mortal would find this experience terrifying, Percy found it oddly exhilarating. He finally remembered his life!
But, unfortunately, the epiphany was a little too late; Percy's life was sure to end.
The cold water pulled Percy out of his reverie and back into the present, which was much less appealing. Following Percy's splash down were the ghosts, who disintegrated into clouds of bubbles when the reached the water. Their Imperial Gold helmets, weapons, and shields did not disappear and rained down on Percy.
The Imperial Gold weighed Percy down and soon started to carry him down to the bottom of the sea. He struggled to shake off a huge Roman style shield that had caught on his foot. The shield was dragging him down, away from precious oxygen. Bubbles began to escape Percy's mouth as he kicked off the shield and began the painful swim back to air.
Within a minute of dodging more gold and swimming for his life, Percy began to run out of air. The surface was tantalizingly close. He could make it, just a few more yards…
He was a mere five feet away when Percy finally lost his breath and accidently gulped in a mouthful of water. With one finally kick Percy broke the surface and landed on a small ice burg. He was coughing and spitting out water, but he was alive.
After laying flat on his back while waiting for his heart calmed down, he looked at the cliff he had just dropped from. The temples and legion buildings that were once on it were destroyed, but most of the cliff was still there. He couldn't hear any sounds of battle, whether that was good or bad, he didn't know.
All he knew was that he had to get back up there to help out Frank and Hazel and get the standard back to the 12th Legion. Gazing up at the cliffs, he knew he was going to be in for a fun time scaling the icy wall.