Jason's POV
"And then Frank turned into a tadpole!" Piper laughed.
Frank blushed. "I was trying to turn into a shark..." he muttered.
The five of us, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Leo, and I, were all sprawled on the couches and the ground in the lounge, munching on the cookies we had brought from the kitchen.
"So," I said, "what do you guys want to do now?"
Suddenly, Hazel stood up. "I'm going to go look for Nico. He said that he'd be back four hours ago, but he's still not here." Her voice was filled with concern.
"Okay, we'll wait here," I said, nodding. "Don't worry, he's probably fine. Maybe he just lost track of time."
Hazel ran off in search of her brother. Soon, once all the cookies were gone, everyone else started leaving. Eventually, there was only Piper and me left.
I looked down at Piper, who was curled up on the couch leaning against me. "You had fun swimming?"
"I had more fun watching you run away screaming like a little girl," she smirked.
"Hey, not my fault the sea god hates me."
Piper chuckled. She looked like she was going to say something back, but she froze. Her smile disappeared from her face and was replaced by a look of nervousness, and something I rarely saw in her eyes: fear.
"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned.
"I have something important to tell you," she whispered.
Something about her voice made me reluctant to find out what it is she needed to tell me, but I asked anyways. "What is it?"
She opened her mouth to answer, when the entire ship was pushed, as if something had run into it. The Argo II tilted dangerously to the left, but righted itself.
We looked at each other, confused. "What was that," Piper breathed.
I grabbed her hand. Hoping I sounded more brave than I felt, I said, "Let's go check."
We raced up the stairs, taking multiple steps at a time. At the top, I ran out to see what the problem was and nearly ran into Frank.
"Frank! What's happening?" I asked.
His face looked grim. "The ketea. Sea monsters, children of Keto."
Piper and I ran to the side of the ship and looked overboard. Two serpentine fish were snapping at the boat, showing rows of sharp teeth. One of them leaped out of the water and bit off a chunk of the ship.
"Hey! I just fixed that!" Leo whined.
"Just take off! Land the ship on the beach! We'll get Nico and Hazel and we can leave this place!" Piper screamed.
"I don't think we can take off," Frank said, staring above us. A loud shriek sounded from above. I looked up to see a gigantic bird soaring above the ship.
It had a long bronze beak and metallic feathers. Looking around, I realized I wasn't the only one who had no idea what this bird was.
Suddenly, with a loud shriek, the bird dove down onto the ship. We all leaped apart and drew our weapons.
"I'll take the sea monsters before they do any more damage to the ship!" Frank shouted and dove into the water, turning into a shark halfway.
That left the rest of us with the bird. I looked up just in time to see a sharp metallic feather flying straight at me. I ran off to the side just in time.
I was so caught up with dodging the bird's attacks I barely noticed when something splattered onto the deck. The smell of burning wood filled the air.
"Fire!" Leo shouted. Just then, a splash of water sprayed over the deck. I turned to see Frank wrestling one of the Keteas, spraying the ship with water. It put out the fire at least.
Leo looked down at the burnt wood. "The bird has toxic poo," he said. Any other time, I would have laughed, but now wasn't exactly the best time.
"Jason!" Piper screamed. Something ran into me, and I was knocked down, my head banging onto the floor.
Dazed, I murmured, "What…"
I heard Leo screaming. "Piper!" His voice sounded panicked.
Looking up, I saw the bird flying away. I sighed with relief. The relief didn't last very long though.
In the bird's talons was Piper, unconscious. At least I hoped she was only unconscious.
With a shock, I realized what had happened. The bird had swooped down, trying to catch me. Piper had saved my life.
I forced myself to concentrate. I began to control the air around me. I shot up into the air, when suddenly, a silver knife whizzed past, right above my head.
My head whipped around to see the bird struggling to stay in the sky, blood oozing from wear the knife had struck it. It let out a shriek of pain. And below, Piper was falling.
I dove down towards her. Please let me catch her, please… I prayed in my head.
She was right above the water. She's going to fall, I realized. I gathered all my remaining strength and forced the air to push me faster. Almost there, almost there...
I felt her fall into my arms. I sighed with relief, and swooped up, flying back to the Argo II.
I saw Frank and Leo waiting for me on the deck. Frank had a few cuts and bruises, but it looked like he easily defeated the sea monsters.
I landed on the deck, stumbling a few steps. I tried not to drop Piper, but I was exhausted after what had happened.
With a thud, her body fell from my arms, causing me to wince. The three of us bent down.
"You think she'll be okay?" I tried to contain my fear.
Frank bit his lip nervously, and said, "We'll see. I'll carry her down to the infirmary and try to do what I can."
After he left, I started pacing the deck anxiously. Leo tried to calm me down.
"Don't worry, she's going to be fine. She was still breathing, right? She's still alive. She'll be fine, don't worry."
I took a deep breath. I had to be brave about this. "You're probably right," I said, trying to sound brave. "So, which one of you threw the knife? It nearly hit me in the head."
Leo looked confused. "Neither of us threw a knife."
"Leo! Jason!" someone screamed from the beach. We looked to see Hazel, jumping up and down, waving her arms like she was trying to catch our attention.
Leo flew the ship to the beach and landed. We stepped out to see Hazel and Nico. Behind them was a girl who looked around thirteen years old.
"Nico, Hazel, which one of you guys threw the knife?" I asked.
The girl stepped forward from behind Nico. "It was me."
By the way, the bird was a stymphalian bird from Greek mythology.
REVIEW :)