Truth Builds Trust
Chapter 11
Thalia's Turn
Author's notes: I don't own Percy Jackson and The Olympians or The Heroes of Olympus series. Everything in Bold belongs to Rick Riordan. I am just a humble fan of his work.
The other characters arriving in this book will be: Clarisse La Rue, Chiron, and Thalia Grace. (Maybe Tyson later?)
The Characters arriving in Titan's curse will be: Rachel Elizabeth Dare, maybe Zoe Nightshade, and possibly Bianca if most people want them to appear.
Summary: Now that the Seven, Nico, Reyna, Coach Hedge and Grover have finished reading The Lightning Thief they've moved on to the next book, 'The Sea of Monsters.' Leo is acting mopey, Nico is trying to hide, and the others are desperately trying to get the Truth out of them. Along with Thalia, Chiron and Clarisse they might just be able to get them to talk, if not then they'll have to wait for the books to explain it.
Chapter 11: Clarisse Blows Up Everything
They all looked at her warily.
"You blew up everything?!" Coach said looking at the daughter of Ares.
"You bet I did." Clarisse responded.
"Good work Cupcake!" He nodded approvingly.
Thalia shook her head and began to read on.
"You are in so much trouble, " Clarisse said.
We'd just finished a ship tour we didn't want, through dark rooms overcrowded with dead sailors. We'd seen the coal bunker, the boilers and engine, which huffed and groaned like it would explode any minute. We'd seen the pilothouse and the powder magazine and gunnery deck (Clarisse's favorite)
"Of course the gunnery would be her favorite." Leo commented.
with two Dahlgren smoothbore cannons on the port and starboard sides and a Brooke nine-inch rifled gun fore and aft-all specially refitted to fire celestial bronze cannon balls.
The son of Hephaestus imagined the ship as it was described and he began to sketch it absentmindedly.
Everywhere we went, dead Confederate sailors stared at us, their ghostly bearded faces shimmering over their skulls. They approved of Annabeth because she told them she was from Virginia. They were interested in me, too, because my name was Jackson-like the Southern general-but then I ruined it by telling them I was from New York. They all hissed and muttered curses about Yankees.
The fire-user continued drawing the ship with all the little details.
Tyson was terrified of them. All through the tour, he insisted Annabeth hold his hand, which she didn't look too thrilled about.
Finally, we were escorted to dinner. The CSS Birmingham captain's quarters were about the size of a walk-in closet, but still much bigger than any other room on board. The table was set with white linen and china. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, and Dr Peppers were served by skeletal crewmen. I didn't want to eat anything served by ghosts,
"Probably a wise choice." Nico said quietly.
but my hunger overruled my fear.
The son of Hades rolled his eyes. "Of course it did."
"Tantalus expelled you for eternity, " Clarisse told us smugly. "Mr. D said if any of you show your face at camp again, he'll turn you into squirrels and run you over with his SUV. "
"How nice." Frank said dryly.
"Did they give you this ship?" I asked.
"'Course not. My father did. "
"Ares?"
"No, her dad is Hypnos!" Leo said sarcastically. "Can't you tell?"
Clarisse sneered. "You think your daddy is the only one with sea power? The spirits on the losing side of every war owe a tribute to Ares. That's their curse for being defeated. I prayed to my father for a naval transport and here it is. These guys will do anything I tell them. Won't you, Captain?"
The captain stood behind her looking stiff and angry. His glowing green eyes fixed me with a hungry stare. "If it means an end to this infernal war, ma'am, peace at last, we'll do anything. Destroy anyone. "
Clarisse smiled. "Destroy anyone. I like that. "
"Well, I don't." Grover whimpered.
They all had to agree with the satyr.
Tyson gulped.
"Clarisse, " Annabeth said, "Luke might be after the Fleece, too. We saw him. He's got the coordinates and he's heading south. He has a cruise ship full of monsters-"
"Good! I'll blow him out of the water. "
They rolled their eyes.
"You don't understand, " Annabeth said. We have to combine forces. Let us help you-"
"No!" Clarisse pounded the table. "This is my quest, smart girl! Finally I get to be the hero, and you two will not steal my chance. "
They sighed in response.
"Where are your cabin mates?" I asked. "You were allowed to take two friends with you, weren't you?"
"They didn't ... I let them stay behind. To protect the camp. "
"You mean even the people in your own cabin wouldn't help you?"
They all shot Clarisse looks of Pity. She glared at them in response.
"Shut up, Prissy! I don't need them! Or you!"
"Clarisse, " I said, "Tantalus is using you. He doesn't care about the camp. He'd love to see it destroyed. He's setting you up to fail. "
"No! I don't care what the Oracle-" She stopped herself.
"What?" I said. "What did the Oracle tell you?"
They leaned forward in interest.
"Nothing. " Clarisse's ears turned pink. "All you need to know is that I'm finishing this quest and you're not helping. On the other hand, I can't let you go ..."
"So we're prisoners?" Annabeth asked.
"Guests. For now. " Clarisse propped her feet up on the white linen tablecloth and opened another Dr Pepper. "Captain, take them below. Assign them hammocks on the berth deck. If they don't mind their manners, show them how we deal with enemy spies. "
The other demigods glared at Clarisse in response to what she said in the book.
The dream came as soon as I fell asleep.
Grover was sitting at his loom, desperately unraveling his wedding train, when the boulder door rolled aside and the Cyclops bellowed, "Aha!"
Grover yelped. "Dear! I didn't-you were so quiet!"
"Unraveling!" Polyphemus roared. "So that's the problem!"
"Oh, no. I-I wasn't-"
"I said it before, I'll say it again. 'Grover, you're a terrible liar." Percy told his friend.
"I know." the satyr grumbled.
"After the books and the war." Leo told the satyr. "You, me lying lessons. Pronto."
They all looked at Leo curiously. Why would Leo want to give Grover lying lessons himself personally? "Leo, why do you want to give Grover lying lessons?" Annabeth asked the question that was on everyone's minds.
"I thought the answer was obvious." Leo said giving them a look as if to say 'Are you serious?' "He's awful at lying! Horrendous!"
"But why would you want to give him lying lessons." Piper said. "You yourself personally."
Leo looked like a deer in the headlights. He stayed silent.
"Leo?" Jason prompted his friend.
"Let's just keep reading okay." He said with a pleading note in his voice.
"We need to talk about whatever's bothering you." Percy told him. "You can't just keep running away." The son of Poseidon seemed to be not only talking to Leo but Nico as well. Nico glared at him in response. Percy looked at him trying to discern what was going on with the Son of Hades. He then proceeded to do the same to the fire-user.
Percy's comment seemed to tick off the Son of Hephaestus. "It's none of your business what I do or don't do. So just leave me alone alright?!" Leo's hands burst into flames.
"It's okay Leo. I understand." Reyna glanced at Nico. "We understand." Leo let his flames die down. Looking into the Praetor's eyes and then Nico's he could tell that they really did understand. They knew how he felt... How he was feeling.
(To be clear this is only friendship. Reyna/Nico and/or Leo/Reyna will not happen. I'm sticking to the books pairings. Including Percy/Annabeth, Frank/Hazel, Jason/Piper, Leo/Calypso, and possibly mentions of Will/Nico when they read the last book)
She gave him a kind look. "Why don't you sit between Nico and I?" She glanced at Nico to make sure he was okay with that. The son of Hades just shrugged in response. But gave Leo an understanding look when he thought no one else was looking. Leo sat between them and Reyna asked Thalia to keep reading.
Chiron studied the three demigods before him. He didn't know what was going on but once they took a break he was going to talk to the demigods. He would make sure that they knew they could come to him for anything. It hurt him to see them in pain and not being able to do anything about it. They were all like children to him.
The daughter of Zeus did so glancing at Leo, Reyna, and Nico in utter confusion. She wondered what exactly was going on here and why they were hiding something(s).
The Cyclops pulled him into a warehouse-size cavern decorated with sheep junk. There was a wool-covered La-Z-Boy recliner and a wool-covered television set, crude bookshelves loaded with sheep collectibles-coffee mugs shaped like sheep faces, plaster figurines of sheep, sheep board games, and picture books and action figures. The floor was littered with piles of sheep bones, and other bones that didn't look exactly like sheep-the bones of satyrs who'd come to the island looking for Pan.
Polyphemus set Grover down only long enough to move another huge boulder. Daylight streamed into the cave, and Grover whimpered with longing. Fresh air!
They all looked like they pitied the young satyr.
The Cyclops dragged him outside to a hilltop overlooking the most beautiful island I'd ever seen.
It was shaped kind of like a saddle cut in half by an ax. There were lush green hills on either side and a wide valley in the middle, split by a deep chasm that was spanned by a rope bridge.
Beautiful streams rolled to the edge of the canyon and dropped off in rainbow-colored waterfalls. Parrots fluttered in the trees. Pink and purple flowers bloomed on the bushes.
"For an Island where a Cyclops lived, It was a beautiful place." Grover told them.
Hundreds of sheep grazed in the meadows, their wool glinting strangely like copper and silver coins.
And at the center of the island, right next to the rope bridge, was an enormous twisted oak treewith something glittering in its lowest bough.
The Golden Fleece.
They all caught their breath.
Even in a dream, I could feel its power radiating across the island, making the grass greener, the flowers more beautiful. I could almost smell the nature magic at work. I could only imagine how powerful the scent would be for a satyr.
Grover whimpered.
"Yes, " Polyphemus said proudly. "See over there? Fleece is the prize of my collection! Stole it from heroes long ago, and ever since-free food! Satyrs come from all over the world, like moths to flame. Satyrs good eating! And now-"
"Why that little-!" Coach Hedge began angrily.
Polyphemus scooped up a wicked set of bronze shears.
Grover yelped, but Polyphemus just picked up the near-est sheep like it was a stuffed animal and shaved off its wool. He handed a fluffy mass of it to Grover.
"Put that on the spinning wheel!" he said proudly. "Magic. Cannot be unraveled. "
"Great!" Leo said sarcasm present.
"Oh ... Well ... "
"Poor Honeypie!" Polyphemus grinned. "Bad weaver. Ha-ha! Not to worry. That thread will
solve problem. Finish wedding train by tomorrow!"
"Isn't that ... Thoughtful of you!"
"Yep, it's great isn't it?" Leo said sarcastically once more.
"Hehe. "
"But-but, dear, " Grover gulped, "what if someone were to rescue-I mean attack this island?" Grover looked straight at me, and I knew he was asking for my benefit. "What would keep them from marching right up here to your cave?"
"Wifey scared! So cute! Not to worry. Polyphemus has state-of-the-art security system. Have to get through my pets. "
"Pets?" Piper asked uncertainly.
"Pets?"
"Oh no!" Leo said dramatically. "Now Piper has Groveritis! THE HORROR!" He gasped and pretended to die.
He then got up from the floor half a minute later and sat back in his seat. "You can continue now."
Thalia rolled her eyes and continued to read.
Grover looked across the island, but there was nothing to see except sheep grazing peacefully in the meadows.
"And then, " Polyphemus growled, "they would have to get through me!"
He pounded his fist against the nearest rock, which cracked and split in half. "Now, come!" he shouted. "Back to the cave. "
They looked at Grover with sympathy. Nico especially knew how he felt. He shivered remembering his time trapped in that jar by Gaea and her giants. Jason glance at Nico worriedly. Nico gave him a half smile and turned back to the book.
Grover looked about ready to cry-so close to freedom, but so hopelessly far. Tears welled in his eyes as the boulder door rolled shut, sealing him once again in the stinky torch-lit dankness of the Cyclops's cave.
I woke to alarm bells ringing throughout the ship.
The captain's gravelly voice: "All hands on deck! Find Lady Clarisse! Where is that girl?"
They all glanced at Clarisse wondering where she had gotten too.
She just ignored their gazes remembering exactly where she had been.
Then his ghostly face appeared above me. "Get up, Yankee. Your friends are already above. We are approaching the entrance. "
"The entrance to what?"
He gave me a skeletal smile. "The Sea of Monsters, of course. "
"Awesome!" Leo said with fake enthusiasm. Judging by his friends looks he was not fooling any of them. They knew he was no where close to being alright.
I stuffed my few belongings that had survived the Hydra into a sailor's canvas knapsack and slung it over my shoulder. I had a sneaking suspicion that one way or another I would not be spending another night aboard the CSS Birmingham.
I was on my way upstairs when something made me freeze. A presence nearby-something familiar and unpleasant. For no particular reason, I felt like picking a fight. I wanted to punch a dead Confederate. The last time I'd felt like that kind of anger ...
"It's my dad again, isn't it?" Frank sighed.
"Yep." Percy said. "It's him alright."
They all noticed that Clarisse looked slightly panicked. They couldn't help but wonder why that was.
Instead of going up, I crept to the edge of the ventilation grate and peered down into the boiler deck.
Clarisse was standing right below me, talking to an image that shimmered in the steam from the boilers-a muscular man in black leather biker clothes, with a military haircut, red-tinted sunglasses, and a knife strapped to his side.
My fists clenched. It was my least favorite Olympian: Ares, the god of war.
"Hey, you were right Frank. It is your dad." Leo said with false cheerfulness.
"Yippee," Frank said glumly.
"I don't want excuses, little girl!" he growled.
"Y-yes, father, " Clarisse mumbled.
"You don't want to see me mad, do you?"
"No, father. "
"No, father, " Ares mimicked. "You're pathetic. I should've let one of my sons take this quest. "
Frank clenched his fists. He didn't care that Clarisse wasn't exactly a nice person. She was still his Greek half-sister. Their father had no right to treat her like that.
Clarisse noticed Frank's reaction and was surprised. Why would he care how Ares treated her?
Thalia continued to read before anyone could interrupt her.
"I'll succeed!" Clarisse promised, her voice trembling. "I'll make you proud. "
"You'd better, " he warned. "You asked me for this quest, girl. If you let that slimeball Jackson kid steal it from you-"
"But the Oracle said-"
"I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAID!" Ares bellowed with such force that his image shimmered. "You will succeed. And if you don't ... "
He raised his fist. Even though he was only a figure in the steam, Clarisse flinched.
Frank looked about ready to pummel something. "Did he ever hurt you?"
"What?" Clarisse said bewildered.
"Did...he...ever...hurt...you?" Frank said trying to control his anger."
"No, he just threatened me a lot." Clarisse looked down ant the floor avoiding their gazes.
"That still doesn't make it right." Piper spoke up.
The others agreed. "I knew Ares was a jerk." Annabeth said. "But I didn't know he was that bad."
Clarisse shot them quick glares when she saw their looks of pity. Thalia turned back to the book.
"Do we understand each other?" Ares growled.
The alarm bells rang again. I heard voices coming toward me, officers yelling orders to ready the cannons.
I crept back from the ventilation grate and made my way upstairs to join Annabeth and Tyson on the spar deck.
"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked me. "Another dream?"
"I wish it had been a dream." Percy said. "Actually since Demigod dreams tend to tell the future... You know what never mind."
"Percy, be quiet." Annabeth said good naturedly. He stuck his tongue out in response. Annabeth hesitated before continuing. "Can we talk after this chapter Percy?" When he gave her a look of total confusion she quickly explained. "To talk about...earlier?"
"Oh, Okay," Percy said though he didn't look happy about it.
The daughter of Zeus read on.
I nodded, but I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to think about what I'd seen downstairs. It bothered me almost as much as the dream about Grover.
Clarisse looked surprised at that sentence.
Clarisse came up the stairs right after me. I tried not to look at her.
She grabbed a pair of binoculars from a zombie officer and peered toward the horizon. "At last. Captain, full steam ahead!"
I looked in the same direction as she was, but I couldn't see much. The sky was overcast. The air was hazy and humid, like steam from an iron. If I squinted real hard, I could just make out a couple of dark fuzzy splotches in the distance.
My nautical senses told me we were somewhere off the coast of northern Florida, so we'd come a long way overnight, farther than any mortal ship should've been able to travel.
"That's good..." Hazel said a bit hesitantly. "Isn't it?"
"I'm not so sure about that." Nico muttered. 'If they could travel that fast... how fast would Luke's cruise ship full of monsters be able to travel?'
The engine groaned as we increased speed.
Tyson muttered nervously, "Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water. "
Leo winced. "That's not good at all."
The other demigods looked more worried at Leo's comment.
I wasn't sure how he knew that, but it made me nervous.
After a few more minutes, the dark splotches ahead of us came into focus. To the north, a huge mass of rock rose out of the sea-an island with cliffs at least a hundred feet tall. About half a mile south of that, the other patch of darkness was a storm brewing. The sky and sea boiled together in a roaring mass.
"Hurricane?" Annabeth asked.
"No, " Clarisse said. "Charybdis. "
They looked alarmed at the statement.
Annabeth paled. "Are you crazy?"
"Yes, she is." Leo told them in a serious tone.
Clarisse gave him a death glare.
Leo wisely went back to what he was doing before.
"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla. "
Clarisse pointed to the top of the cliffs, and I got the feeling something lived up there that I did not want to meet.
"What do you mean the only way?" I asked. "The sea is wide open! Just sail around them. "
"That won't work." Piper commented sympathetically.
Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Don't you know anything? If I tried to sail around them, they would just appear in my path again. If you want to get into the Sea of Monsters, you have to sail through them. "
"Lovely." Frank said sarcastically.
"What about the Clashing Rocks?" Annabeth said. "That's another gateway. Jason used it. "
"I can't blow apart rocks with my cannons, " Clarisse said. "Monsters, on the other hand ... "
"You are crazy, " Annabeth decided.
"Didn't we already establish this?" Leo said out loud.
"Watch and learn, Wise Girl. " Clarisse turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!"
"Aye, m'lady. "
The engine groaned, the iron plating rattled, and the ship began to pick up speed.
The demigods glanced at each other worriedly as Thalia continued to read.
"Clarisse, " I said, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"
"And spits it back out again, yeah. "
Nice." Nico commented dryly.
"What about Scylla?"
"What about her?" Leo asked.
Piper smacked him upside the head. It wasn't enough to seriously hurt him, but enough that he got the point. "Stop interrupting Repair Boy."
Leo rubbed the place on his head where she hit him grumbling something indiscernible.
"She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship. "
"Choose Scylla then, " I said. "Everybody goes below deck and we chug right past. "
"No!" Clarisse insisted. "If Scylla doesn't get her easy meat, she might pick up the whole ship. Besides, she's too high to make a good target. My cannons can't shoot straight up. Charybdis just sits there at the center of her whirlwind. We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"
She said it with such relish I almost wanted to believe her.
"Me too, Percy." Leo said sadly. "Me too."
The other gave the fire-user weird looks.
The engine hummed. The boilers were heating up so much I could feel the deck getting warm beneath my feet. The smokestacks billowed. The red Ares flag whipped in the wind.
As we got closer to the monsters, the sound of Charybdis got louder and louder-a horrible wet roar like the galaxy's biggest toilet being flushed. Every time Charybdis inhaled, the ship shuddered and lurched forward. Every time she exhaled, we rose in the water and were buffeted by ten-foot waves.
I tried to time the whirlpool. As near as I could figure, it took Charybdis about three minutes to suck up and destroy everything within a half-mile radius. To avoid her, we would have to skirt right next to Scylla's cliffs. And as bad as Scylla might be, those cliffs were looking awfully good to me.
The other demigods couldn't help but agree with Percy at this point.
Undead sailors calmly went about their business on the spar deck. I guess they'd fought a losing cause before, so this didn't bother them. Or maybe they didn't care about getting destroyed because they were already deceased. Neither thought made me feel any better.
Annabeth stood next to me, gripping the rail. "You still have your thermos full of wind?"
I nodded. "But it's too dangerous to use with a whirl-pool like that. More wind might just make things worse. "
They all looked at Percy in disbelief.
"What?!" He demanded.
"When did you become the smart one Percy?!" Thalia said in bewilderment.
"Hey!"
"What about controlling the water?" she asked. "You're Poseidon's son. You've done it before. "
She was right. I closed my eyes and tried to calm the sea, but I couldn't concentrate.
Charybdis was too loud and powerful. The waves wouldn't respond.
"That sucks." Jason said.
"I-I can't, " I said miserably.
"We need a backup plan, " Annabeth said. "This isn't going to work. "
"Annabeth is right, " Tyson said. "Engine's no good. "
Leo winced at the reminder. "Something bad is going to happen because of it. I just know it."
"How can you tell?" Frank asked curiously.
"Call it a sixth sense."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Pressure. Pistons need fixing. "
Before he could explain, the cosmic toilet flushed with a mighty roaaar!
They all burst into laughter. "The- the w-what?!" Leo said between laughs. "Th-the Cos-m-mic toi-let!" The Fire-user cracked up again. Even Nico laughed little bit at that.
The ship lurched forward and I was thrown to the deck. We were in the whirlpool.
The tension was back now full force. Chiron looked troubled to hear about what they had to go though as heroes.
"Full reverse!" Clarisse screamed above the noise. The sea churned around us, waves crashing over the deck. The iron plating was now so hot it steamed. "Get us within firing range! Make ready starboard cannons!"
Dead Confederates rushed back and forth. The pro-peller grinded into reverse, trying to slow the ship, but we kept sliding toward the center of the vortex.
A zombie sailor burst out of the hold and ran to Clarisse. His gray uniform was smoking. His beard was on fire. "Boiler room overheating, ma'am! She's going to blow!"
"Well, get down there and fix it!"
"Exactly!" Leo threw his hands up in exasperation.
"Can't!" the sailor yelled. "We're vaporizing in the heat. "
Clarisse pounded the side of the casemate. "All I need is a few more minutes! Just enough to get in range!"
"We're going in too fast, " the captain said grimly. "Prepare yourself for death. "
"How very nice." Annabeth deadpanned.
"No!" Tyson bellowed. "I can fix it. "
Clarisse looked at him incredulously. "You?"
"He's a Cyclops, " Annabeth said. "He's immune to fire. And he knows mechanics. "
The others nodded in agreement catching onto Annabeth's idea.
"Go!" yelled Clarisse.
"Tyson, no!" I grabbed his arm. "It's too dangerous!"
He patted my hand. "Only way, brother. " His expression was determined-confident, even.
I'd never seen him look like this before. "I will fix it. Be right back. "
They all had bad feelings about that last line.
As I watched him follow the smoldering sailor down the hatch, I had a terrible feeling. I wanted to run after him, but the ship lurched again-and then I saw Charybdis.
She appeared only a few hundred yards away, through a swirl of mist and smoke and water.
The first thing I noticed was the reef-a black crag of coral with a fig tree clinging to the top, an oddly peaceful thing in the middle of a mael-strom. All around it, water curved into a funnel, like light around a black hole. Then I saw the horrible thing anchored to the reef just below the waterline-an enormous mouth with slimy lips and mossy teeth the size of rowboats. And worse, the teeth had braces, bands of corroded scummy metal with pieces of fish and driftwood and floating garbage stuck between them.
"Ew! Gross." Piper said making a face. The others had to agree with her there.
Charybdis was an orthodontist's nightmare.
They all snorted. "Understatement." Nico replied.
She was nothing but a huge black maw with bad teeth alignment and a serious overbite, and she'd done nothing for centuries but eat without brushing after meals. As I watched, the entire sea around her was sucked into the void-sharks, schools of fish, a giant squid. And I realized that in a few seconds, the CSS Birmingham would be next.
"Why do have to think like that Percy?" Grover whimpered.
"Sorry G-man." He said running a hand through his hair. He looked sheepish. "I can't control my thoughts."
"Lady Clarisse, " the captain shouted. "Starboard and forward guns are in range!"
"Fire!" Clarisse ordered.
"That's more like it!" Coach Hedge yelled.
Clarisse grinned at the old satyr.
Three rounds were blasted into the monster's maw. One blew off the edge of an incisor.
Another disappeared into her gullet. The third hit one of Charybdis's retaining bands and shot back at us, snapping the Ares flag off its pole.
"You have some of the worst luck I've ever seen Percy." Jason told him.
"Yeah, he does." Leo said darkly, thinking of his own bad luck.
They all noticed the drastic change in the fire-user's attitude.
"Leo?" Hazel said hesitantly.
"What?!" He snapped. They all looked surprised at his reaction. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Sorry Hazel. I didn't mean to snap at you."
"It's okay Leo." She told him. "How are you?"
"Fine." he replied quickly. "Let's keep reading."
Thalia gave him a concerned once over look and then returned to the book. She knew that they were not going to get anywhere with Leo right now.
"Again!" Clarisse ordered. The gunners reloaded, but I knew it was hopeless. We would have to pound the monster a hundred more times to do any real damage, and we didn't have that long. We were being sucked in too fast.
Then the vibrations in the deck changed. The hum of the engine got stronger and steadier. The ship shuddered and we started pulling away from the mouth.
"Tyson did it!" Annabeth said.
"Yea Tyson!" Leo said trying to fake enthusiasm. But they all saw right through the façade.
"Wait!" Clarisse said. "We need to stay close!"
"We'll die!" I said. "We have to move away. "
I gripped the rail as the ship fought against the suction. The broken Ares flag raced past us and lodged in Charybdis's braces. We weren't making much progress, but at least we were holding our own. Tyson had somehow given us just enough juice to keep the ship from being sucked in.
Suddenly, the mouth snapped shut. The sea died to absolute calm. Water washed over Charybdis.
Then, just as quickly as it had closed, the mouth exploded open, spitting out a wall of water, ejecting every-thing inedible, including our cannonballs, one of which slammed into the side of the CSS Birmingham with a ding like the bell on a carnival game.
They all tensed wondering how their friends got out of that predicament.
We were thrown backward on a wave that must've been forty feet high. I used all of my willpower to keep the ship from capsizing, but we were still spinning out of control, hurtling toward the cliffs on the opposite side of the strait.
Another smoldering sailor burst out of the hold. He stumbled into Clarisse, almost knocking them both over-board. "The engine is about to blow!"
"Where's Tyson?" I demanded.
"Still down there, " the sailor said. "Holding it together somehow, though I don't know for how much longer. "
The captain said, "We have to abandon ship. "
"That might be a good idea right about now." Nico commented.
Reyna nodded in agreement with the Son of Hades.
"No!" Clarisse yelled.
"We have no choice, m'lady. The hull is already crack-ing apart! She can't-"
He never finished his sentence. Quick as lightning, something brown and green shot from the sky, snatched up the captain, and lifted him away. All that was left were his leather boots.
"Scylla!" a sailor yelled, as another column of reptilian flesh shot from the cliffs and snapped him up. It happened so fast it was like watching a laser beam rather than a monster. I couldn't even make out the thing's face, just a flash of teeth and scales.
I uncapped Riptide and tried to swipe at the monster as it carried off another deckhand, but I was way too slow.
"Well, at least they're all ghosts." Leo said cheerfully.
"Everyone get below!" I yelled.
"We can't!" Clarisse drew her own sword. "Below deck is in flames. "
"That is a good point." Jason replied.
"Lifeboats!" Annabeth said. "Quick!"
"They'll never get clear of the cliffs, " Clarisse said. "We'll all be eaten. "
"We have to try. Percy, the thermos. "
"I can't leave Tyson!"
"Your fatal fault at work again." Annabeth sighed.
"We have to get the boats ready!"
"That would be a wise choice." Reyna agreed.
Clarisse took Annabeth's command. She and a few of her undead sailors uncovered one of the two emergency rowboats while Scylla's heads rained from the sky like a meteor shower with teeth, picking off Confederate sailors one after another.
"Get the other boat. " I threw Annabeth the thermos. "I'll get Tyson. "
"You can't!" she said. "The heat will kill you!"
"You didn't listen though did you?" Reyna guessed.
I didn't listen. I ran for the boiler room hatch, when suddenly my feet weren't touching the deck anymore. I was flying straight up, the wind whistling in my ears, the side of the cliff only inches from my face.
Scylla had somehow caught me by the knapsack, and was lifting me up toward her lair.
They exchanged worried glances with each other.
Without thinking, I swung my sword behind me and managed to jab the thing in her beady yellow eye. She grunted and dropped me.
The fall would've been bad enough, considering I was a hundred feet in the air. But as I fell, the CSS Birmingham exploded below me.
KAROOM!
They gestured for Thalia to keep reading. Thalia took a deep breath and continued to read on.
The engine room blew, sending chunks of ironclad flying in either direction like a fiery set of wings.
"Tyson!" I yelled.
The lifeboats had managed to get away from the ship, but not very far. Flaming wreckage was raining down. Clarisse and Annabeth would either be smashed or burned or pulled to the bottom by the force of the sinking hull, and that was thinking optimistically, assuming they got away from Scylla.
Then I heard a different kind of explosion-the sound of Hermes's magic thermos being opened a little too far. White sheets of wind blasted in every direction, scattering the lifeboats, lifting me out of my free fall and propelling me across the ocean.
I couldn't see anything. I spun in the air, got clonked on the head by something hard, and hit the water with a crash that would've broken every bone in my body if I hadn't been the son of the Sea God.
They all winced at the thought.
The last thing I remembered was sinking in a burning sea, knowing that Tyson was gone forever, and wishing I were able to drown.
They all looked shocked at the sudden suicidal thought coming from the then thirteen year old son of Poseidon.
"That was the end of that chapter." Thalia broke the silence.
Chiron was looking at Percy with extreme concern. "Percy, look at me." He reluctantly met the centaur's gaze. "You don't still feel that way now do you?" He stayed silent. "Percy?" he prompted.
"Sometimes." He admitted.
Annabeth looked alarmed at the revelation. "Why didn't you say anything before?"
"I didn't want to be a bother." He admitted. "Besides there were more important things going on at the time and there still are right now."
"Percy we still need to talk about what we read earlier. And don't you dare think I'm going to let what we just found out now slide either."
Annabeth dragged Percy off towards his bedroom to talk.
"I think now would be a good time for us to take a break while Percy and Annabeth are talking." Chiron announced.
The other demigods went off respectively.
Leo quickly walked towards the engine room but was blocked in an instant by Jason and Piper.
"Leo, we need to talk." Jason said firmly.
"No, we don't." Leo responded. He tried to push past them but to no avail.
"Leo, please." Piper practically begged. "Talk to us. We're your friends."
Leo looked like he was having an internal battle with himself over whether to talk to them about it. "Later, okay?" Leo pushed past both of them and went to work. He had an island to find and an immortal girl to spring from it. That was his first priority.
"Percy, please talk to me." Annabeth said sitting next to him on his bed. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"Tell you what?" He said.
"Don't play dumb with me Seaweed Brain. Not now." She told him. "This is serious."
He sighed. "I just didn't think it was important, okay?"
"No," She shook her head. "It's not okay." She took his hand. "We're a team Seaweed Brain remember? We have to be open and honest with each other."
"Alright. From now on, I'll tell you about stuff like this in the future." Percy promised. He gave her a quick kiss on her forehead.
"You don't have to be jealous you know." Annabeth told him. "Of my adventures with Thalia and ... Luke."
"Well, I was. You shared so much with them, so many stuff. And I just wish I had been able to share those things with you." The Son of Poseidon admitted.
"Well, we shared many adventures together too. Remember the Quest for Zeus's Master Bolt?"
"How could I forget that?" He asked. "It was our first quest. Plus we just read about it."
"And the Sea of Monsters?"
"Well, we're reading about it right now, aren't we?" He grinned.
Annabeth returned the gesture." We'd better get back to the others so that we can continue reading."
"Oh goody!" He said sarcastically. "We get to read more of my thoughts."
She laughed. "You're not very happy about that are you?"
"Nope, but If it somehow helps us all work better as a team and helps us stop Gaea... then I can deal with it."
Author's notes: I have resolved to try to start typing a chapter and updating at least once a week, every couple of days when possible.