"So your brilliant plan is to ride around the Florida Keys looking for the right island?" Jess asked climbing onto the hippocampus Percy had sent us.
"Pretty much," Ryan replied.
"We're going to have some major sun burn," Leo said.
"What about Archaeos?" I asked Ryan.
"He can shadow travel where ever he wants," Ryan replied.
"What if he gets lost?" I said and ruffled Archaeos's fur.
"He'll be fine," Ryan replied firmly and pushed me over to the water next to one of the hippocampus. Archaeos began to whimper and laid down on the sand.
"Awww, we can't leave him," I said and pulled away from Ryan.
"Well we can't take him with us," Ryan said and pulled on my arm.
"But, he's going to be alone," I said.
"What's more important, saving a major god who caries the sun across the sky or a hell hound?" Ryan asked.
"You're right," I sighed. I turned away and began to walk away but turned around and ran back to hug Archaeos. He licked my face with his huge dog tongue and I laughed. I pulled away and climbed onto one of the hippocampus. I didn't look back at Archaeos, because I knew if I did I wouldn't be able to leave him.
"Whoa wait! In the prophecy didn't it mention Scylla! The monster with six heads that will eat us all!" Leo sounded terrified.
"Yeah, it also mentioned Charybdis and that's more terrifying than Scylla," Ryan said calmly.
"How can it be more terrifying than six heads and three rows of teeth?" Leo asked.
"Because Charybdis is a whirl pool that erupts 3 times and can sink ships. We don't have a ship so I'm pretty sure we'd be dead as soon as we were sucked in. At least we can try and fight Scylla," Ryan replied.
"I should have stayed at camp," Leo moaned. We road along in silence and Ryan kept a sharp lookout for any islands that might be holding Apollo.
"Do you still have the golden bow?" Ryan asked.
"Of course," I said and pulled it out of my pocket.
"Good," Ryan replied, but then my hippocampus jerked suddenly and I dropped the bow. It's made of solid gold so of course it sank extremely fast. I jumped off of the hippocampus and dived into the water.
"Sophia!" I heard Ryan calling me. His voice sounded far away because of the water. I could see the gold shining a little deeper than where I was but it was still falling and I couldn't see the bottom of the ocean. I swam faster, but my lungs were screaming for air. I reached for the bow. The water was so dark I couldn't tell which way would lead me back to air. My lungs couldn't take it and I inhaled. Water filled my lungs and I began to choke. I saw a shape coming toward me. It grabbed me and brought me back to the surface. I coughed and choked. Ryan had saved me and he pulled me onto his hippocampus. We were both shivering. Even in Florida winter was still cold and the water was freezing. I slid the bow back into my pocket.
"Are you okay?" Leo asked me.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. Ryan was still treading in the water and I scooted over so that he could climb onto the hippocampus. He was shivering so bad he couldn't even manage to get on the hippocampus. I reached down and pulled him up.
"Are you okay?" I asked him. His teeth were chattering so much that he couldn't speak so he just nodded his head. Leo held out his jacket for Ryan to take. I grabbed the jacket and draped it over Ryan's shoulders. He was shivering so bad it looked like he was having a seizure.
"We're going to have to speed up this rescue mission because we have to get Ryan back to the camp," Grover said. I nodded in agreement and Grover led the way and all the other Hippocampus followed behind.
"I think that's the island," Grover said. I looked up and followed his gaze. I didn't even see an island.
"I don't see anything," I said.
"Try harder. Concentrate, the mist is really strong here," Grover said and I looked again. All I saw was ocean, but I did what Grover said and concentrated and I could see the island. I was very small from this distance, but you could clearly see a huge monster on the island.
"I'm guessing that's Scylla," I said.
"Yeah, which means Charybdis is near by," Grover said, "Sophia, your job is to protect Ryan, let Leo and I handle Scylla."
"What about us?" Jess asked gesturing to him and Alex.
"You don't have weapons and have no experience fighting, so you just try not to get eaten," Grover replied. Jess and Alex didn't look very happy but they didn't argue with Grover. As we got closer to the island it became easier to see Scylla's six heads and a few feet away the water was rougher and it swirled at high speeds.
I looked down at Ryan. He was still convulsing and he had squeezed his eyes shut, like it could shield him from the pain. I grabbed his hand and he squeezed it tightly. I rubbed my hands against his to attempt to bring some warmth to them.
"Ok, get ready," Grover told us. We were almost in reach of one of Scylla's heads. I let go of Ryan's hand and took out the cell phone shaped bow and I let it change to its original form.
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