WPB4L: HEY GUYS! LONG TIME NO SEE!
FFS: ABOUT TIME!
PSDW: YEAH YOU SAID IT! SO SORRY THAT WE COULDN'T UPDATE SOONER, GUYS. WE WERE REALLY BUSY WITH AP CLASSES, HOMEWORK AND OTHER SHENANIGANS
WPB4L: WE DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT YOU GUYS, WE PROMISE!
FFS: ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?
WPB4L: …
PSDW:...
FFS:...
WPB4L: WE REALLY WERE VERY BUSY! ANYWAY, ENJOY MY CHAPTER!
PSDW: NOW WAIT JUST A SECOND THERE!
WPB4L: !?
FFS: YEAH DO YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK?
WPB4L: OH GOD
PSDW: HOW ABOUT...THE DARK BOX?
WPB4L: OH MY GOD REALLY I-
FFS: *TIES HER UP AND PUTS HER IN BOX* MWAHAHAHA
PSDW: NOPE NOPE NOPE DON'T MIND US HERE, CARRY ON, NOTHING EVER HAPPENED HERE, ENJOY HER CHAPTER! *(muffled) seriously, FFS, where is that duct tape?*
Chapter 14
Rebecca's POV
So, after we said our goodbyes and headed off into the danger-filled sunset, we could hear Vanna and Cameron bickering behind us, and after hearing Jaclyn mutter some choice curse words under her breath, (something about stuffing something up a place where even Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who would deem vulgar), my hippocampi decided to show off his amazing acrobatic skills, promptly dousing us with a torrent of seawater. More choice swear words were exchanged, water was splashed.
So we rode in silence, the v-shaped waves cutting through the salt water the only sound.
Well, for Jaclyn at least. The Hippocampi were particular chatty today.
Hey! Becky! Heey! My hippocampi whispered excitedly after great length. Hey! Heeeey!
Whaaaaat? I replied, exasperatedly.
What do you think salt comes from? He wondered.
I sat there for about 30 seconds. What? I repeated, unable to think of anything else to reply with.
Well, if you think about it, the ocean is soo big, and full of this…this…this…salty STUFF, which is really weird because is it my sweat? I don't sweat that much! Is it everyone's sweat? Do sea creatures sweat? How do I know that I sweat? How-
OH MY COOOD FRANK WILL YOU CLAM UP DOOFISH? The other hippocampi moaned. YOU NEED KELP!
Frank seemed perplexed. Hey, my kelp intake is fine!
NO. YOU SEA, IT'S A FISH PUN. HELP, KELP, DON'T YOU GET IT?
But sea puns are so stupid!
HOW CAN YOU GLUBBING SAY THAT? WE ARE HIPPOCAMPI! WE ARE HALF FISH! WATER YOU, A BOTTOM FEEDER?
Neiiigghhh…
Jaclyn's hippocampi stiffened, angrily tossing his head back, almost hitting Jaclyn's face in the process.
WAS THAT A HORSE PUN? OH COD, I DON'T BEREEF THIS-
But we are part horse! Frank protested. We-
NO. OH SHELL NO. DON'T BE OUTCRAYGEOUS. YOU BETA STOP -
But Haaaank… My hippocampi pleaded.
GAHH DON'T MAKE ME SWIM OVER THERE. IMMA KRILL YOU.
There was a long silence. I began to pray to my dad that they were done. I was ignored.
But why is there salt in the ocean? Frank started up again.
I DON'T FLIPPING KNOW! Hank snapped.
Hank let out a indignant, hurt, gasp. You're lying!
THIS ISN'T A FLIPPING DEBAIT! I DON'T WANT TO BE HERRING ANEMORE OF THIS LUNASEA!
Haaaaaaankk…
FRAAAANK!
Haaaaaaaaankk….
FRAAAAAAAANK!
Haaaaaaaankk…
FRAAAAANK!
Haaa-
"OH MY GODS WILL YOU ALL SHUUUTT UUUPP?" I exploded.
Jaclyn started, almost falling off of Hank. "Dude! I-!"
"NOT YOU!" I rubbed my temples, a headache forming somewhere behind my eyes. "Frank, please, I can't tell you right now why there is salt in the ocean, and Hank, please, you are not making this any better!"
ACTSHOALLY, HE STARTED-
"'I DON'T CARE WHO STARTED IT! I'M ENDING IT! RIGHT NOW!"
Jaclyn just sat there in silence, probably thinking Wow, what's with this meltdown, drama queen?
"Wow, what's with this meltdown, drama queen?" She said wryly, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
…Am I psychic? Oh dear gods I hope not.
I tried for calm, soothing breaths. 1…2…3…
We are on a mission I said, quieter this time. Our friend is captured, and now, we are embarking on a dangerous mission. And for that, we need to be focused. Can we do that?
There was a lengthy silence. Ok! Frank cheerily replied. I can do that!
HULL, YOU GOTTA BE KRILLING ME, Hank groaned.
PROMISE ME! I insisted.
FIIINNNN He relented, snorting a fountain of water of his nose, and neighing angrily, uttering a few more phrases that were definitely not family friendly.
Frank, the night blogger, Hank, the drama queen.
"Dude, you wanna fill me in here?" Jaclyn pleaded, looking wide eyed and hopelessly lost amidst the telekinetic conversation she was out of the loop on.
I gave her the gist of what happened, and her vacant expression cleared. "Right," she said, nodding. "Got it."
There was a pregnant pause. "So what now," I asked. "We just head to the Bermuda Triangle? Snatch the shield? Leave?"
Jaclyn chewed her lip. "Well, no, It's gonna be more difficult than that, obviously! We-" She stopped. "We're gonna…"
"Yes?" I persisted, leaning forward.
She waved me off. "I have a plan. Just trust me on this."
"Soo…you don't know?"
Jaclyn made a pshhh sound with her lips. "All will be clear later."
I decided not to push the issue any longer. Right now, we had other, more preoccupying issues to deal with.
I closed my eyes. I knew our exact locations, all of the water currents, every fish and piece of coral that darted beneath us as we rode the hippocampi like bizarre speedboats toward our destination. Something seemed strangely off, like the ocean was holding its breath. Something's coming, it seems to be whispering. And soon. I didn't know what was more terrifying, knowing or not knowing what was coming, but I had a sinking suspicion that I would find out. And soon.
I glanced over at Jaclyn. I was exhausted, but I couldn't take a break now, lest something happens while I'm out.
Frank nuzzled my hand. Hey! Don't worry about it! We will keep an eye on her! Why don't you sleep?
I hadn't even realized that I was telekinetically talking to him. "Yes, sleep…" I mused, eyelids growing heavier than a bunch of bowling balls.
"Hmm?"
"I'm going to sleep, ok? Don't worry, Hank and Frank will keep a good eye on you."
Jaclyn spluttered, flabbergasted. "Their names are Hank and Frank? What-?! How?! I-!"
But I didn't hear the rest of her sentence. The sound of the waves, the lull of the tide, and despite how water keeps me alert, the action of everything that happened slowly dragged me off to sleep.
And boy, was I in for a doozy.
All I knew, it was dark. Very dark.
I was alone, surrounded by a thick, heavy darkness that made me uncertain if my eyes were open or closed. Off in the distance, a scuttling noise could be heard, like a rodent scurrying over stone. That alone was enough to make me shudder with revulsion. Rodents in the pet store? Cute! Rodents that may have rabies skulking in the dark ready to pounce on unsuspecting demigods? Eeep.
You aren't scared of the dark, are you?
The hairs on the back of my neck pricked, coldness flooding my head until I felt like I was going to pass out with fear.
The voice chuckled. Of course not. The dark itself isn't scary, but its the little things, the little, tiny things that go bump in the night that make you scared…
I tried to move, but my legs seemed to be buried knee high in something, preventing me from moving.
Help me fight the Olympians. The voice cooed hypnotically. Don't become a plaything of the gods, who fight their battles for them. Who force them to bring kill others in their games of chess and bring about their destruction.
I tried to move, harder this time. But, whatever it was, the level was getting higher and higher, now reaching my waist.
"Never!" I shouted, squirming frantically. "I won't fight them!"
Suddenly, the lights turned on. I was standing in an expansive cavern, an ominous red light the only light source. But that wasn't the worst part.
I was surrounded by bones. The voice began to laugh harder. Then you will drown in the bones of your friends! The ones you failed to save!
The bone pile grew higher, submersing my arms and torso. A skull, still attached to a skeleton wielding a weapon that looked suspiciously like Jaclyn's, opened its mouth just as the mountains of bones poured over my neck, my ears, my nose.
Wake up! It shouted in Jaclyn's voice. WAKE UP!
"Dude, seriously, wake up sleeping beauty! I'm not gonna kiss you, but accept this instead!"
A handful of cold seawater splashed my face, yanking me back to reality.
"What the-" I spluttered, spitting out the seawater that escaped into my mouth. Blehh.
Jaclyn looked grim. "Are you ok? You were tossing and turning so much, I thought you were going to fall off. You woke me up!"
I glanced over at her. "You were asleep, too?"
She snorted derisively. "Yes, Kelp Queen, I decided to sleep as well. Our hippocampi insisted, more like."
I paused. "Oh gods, what did they do?"
She raised an eyebrow, as if to say Oh really? You really want to know?, then leaned in, looking to be in the mood to whisper. I leaned in to catch her response.
"THEY DECIDED TO HUM ITS A SMALL WORLD UNTIL I WENT TO SLEEP!" She shrieked into my eardrums.
I lurched back, wincing. Gods, why did the sun have to be so bright? Why did the water have to be so cold? Why did she have to be so loud? "How could-?"
"Don't…you…ask!" She hissed.
"Sorry for asking!" I let out a sigh, feeling the water doing its healing magic thing, starting to feel rejuvenated and ready to fight. My stomach growled. How long has it been since I had eaten?
Jaclyn was rifling through her bag for supplies, so I decided to do the same.
Thank the gods I still had the bag Janus gave me last year, stocked full of supplies, so I made a quick breakfast of a granola bar and a juice box.
Once done, I looked around me.
We were getting close. I could feel the power of the Mist around this area so strongly. To hide an entire area off the coast of Florida, concealing a cast number of monsters…the whole place reeked with magical energy.
"Becky," Jaclyn said, after great length. "what are we going to do now? In order to enter the Sea of Monsters, we can either enter it via Charybdis, or-"
"The Clashing Rocks," I finished. "But we can't go now. Frank and Hank need a break."
I felt guilty for making them work this hard, they had taken us hundreds of miles only to be pushed to the brink through an extremely dangerous passageway.
I looked around frantically, trying to see if I could locate a place for them to rest and found it: Up ahead a vast coastline, with a wide gap in the middle, like a young child's mouth after losing a tooth.
"There!" I shouted, pointing at the coastline. Jaclyn squinted. "Isn't that The Clashing Rocks?"
I nodded. Hey guys, I told the hippocampi. You can rest over there now.
They were too tired to even respond. We swam over and we let them doze off by the shore while Jaclyn and I stretched our legs.
I hadn't even realized how sore and stiff my legs were from that long ride. They creaked and cracked like a senior citizen's.
"Ohhh young whippersnappers! Don't sit still for too long, or you can end up like me!" Jaclyn said in an elderly person's voice, stretching her back, her spine making a pop-pop-pop sound.
I laughed, walking around a bit to regain the feeling from my legs, relishing the feeling of being on solid ground.
"We should camp here for awhile," I said. "They need to rest. From what I hear of the clashing rocks, they are going to need all the rest they can get."
Jaclyn nodded, although she looked uncertain. "I don't think we should stay here very long, though," she answered. "This whole place doesn't feel right."
I nodded. That I definitely agreed with, no question about it.
Using some supplies that we both found in our bags, we decided to build a fire to warm up a bit. After building the fire, we huddled around it, roasting small hot dogs that I found in my bag on sticks of wood that were littered around the area. From the looks of it, dozens of different era ships had tried to sail here, and failed. From what Jaclyn and I had seen, there were at least 3 antique ships, 2 submarines with soviet flags and a small rowboat with the words washed out over time. At any rate, there was a lot of firewood to use.
"So, this way into the Sea of Monsters," I said, sucking in air to cool my burning tongue. Do you have any ideas?"
Jaclyn glumly looked down at her hot dog. The light had gone down, and the only lights were from the stars, the moon, and the campfire we were huddled around.
"Remember our greek mythology project back at home? The Clashing Rocks were those 2 cliff faces that, when ships tried to get by, crushed them. When Jason and the Argonauts got into the Sea of Monsters,
Jason released a bird which flew between them first, causing them to spring together, hitting it's tail feathers. As the rocks separated to the process, the Argonauts shot the gap."
I frowned. "Wasn't that the Wandering Rocks?"
She shook her head. "No, the Wandering Rocks was where there were a bunch of rocks that Ulysses had to navigate, which wasn't easy because of the violent waves."
I stared into the fire. "So, we are going to do the same thing, spring a distraction, then run through it? It doesn't seem very safe."
She nodded. "Exactly. But I have a feeling we can't go around it, either. The only way is through it." She frowned. "But according to mythology, the rocks stopped doing that after Jason made it through."
I shrugged. "I guess they started up again when the gods moved to America? They start back up again whenever they move, like a giant reset button?"
Jaclyn nodded, the firelight making patterns on the rocky wall behind her.
I stared into the fire, thinking about our journey up to this point, From here on out, we had a whip and Jaclyn's sword, 2 hippocampi, 2 bags full of supplies and the grim notion of what was to come. I wish I could say that our odds were good, but I wouldn't hold out on too much.
"So!" I said, throwing myself out of my own pity party. "If we are going to go into there, we need a plan."
She nodded, scooting backwards and using her stick as a stylus in the sand in front of her. "Right, now, here what I was thinking…"
When the sun came up, we gave Frank and Hank some food and told them the plan, me relaying their responses for Jaclyn.
Ok! Frank said, after a long pause. It sounds dangerous, and we could die, but lets do this!
OH TIDALLY! OF COURSE WHALE DIE! I HAKE THIS PLAN! Hank stubbornly insisted.
I sighed. "Can you at least try to be a little more optimistic?"
I THINK THAT WHALE DIE REEL QUICKLY!
I grimaced. "Aaand that's about as optimistic as he will get," I muttered.
Jaclyn and I got got back on our respective hippocampi, grabbed everything we will need, and continued on our way.
According to legend, the rocks move very quickly, so we would have to time it, or else we would die. But hey! No pressure!
I picked up a rock, testing its weight. "Are you ready?" I asked turning my head to see her response. She had picked a spot near the entrance of the crags of rock, Hank treading water nervously, snorting a slew of fish pun curses that, if understood by anyone else, would cause a nun to keel over on the spot.
"One…two…three!"
I got myself in a good position, and on three, I threw the rock in as straight a line as I could though the gap between the two cliff faces. Like I expected, nothing happened. The rocks seemed to know that a living thing needed to move in between the two rocks in order to work. Jaclyn and I exchanged nervous looks.
"Plan B," she mouthed.
I nodded. I hated this plan, but if it worked, we would be able to get through. If not, we would get crushed by the rock faces. Gulp.
I slipped off of Frank, using my daughter-of-Poseidon powers to propel myself through the water to Jaclyn's location. I got onto Hank's back and turned to look at Frank one last time before we started the plan.
Are you ready? I asked him nervously. You can back out right now if you want to.
No. The adamant tone of his voice stunned me. This night-blogger type, cheerful hippocampi looked steady as steel. Tell me when to go.
I nodded, swallowing anxiously. I paused for a minute, then…
Now!
Frank, faster than thought darted through the pass. The pass itself had to be about 30 feet in length, and 15 feet wide, big enough for a ship to get through and get stuck into.
When he was about halfway though, the 2 giant rocks began to close. Hank began whinnying angrily, cursing us, the gods, the ocean, the crashed boats, the fish, pretty much everything if we didn't make it out alive.
3 seconds later, the rocks closed with a loud, sickening CRUNCH. I didn't want to think about what might have happened to Frank, but I prayed that he was alright.
There wasn't a moment to lose. According to legend, when the rocks closed, they would have some time before they closed again, but that gave them only a few seconds. The moment the rocks opened again, Hank poured all of his energy into rushing into the passage.
Going in between 2 rock faces that throated to close at any second wasn't just scary…it was terrifying. It was like walking into a midfield and hoping that you didn't step on a bomb right away.
The inside of the walls…well…it wasn't hard to imagine how many people had tried to get through, and failed. I tried hard not to think of the grease spots of all the people who got smushed into pancakes and then dropped into the ocean below. Or how some items got imprinted into the rocks. Or how-
Stop it, I scolded myself. Right now, we needed to focus. And that was on staying alive.
When we were about 3 quarters of the way into the passage, the rocks were back to their original positions, and began to move again, ready to crush us.
Faster, Hank, FASTER! I yelped, doing my best ot not imagine myself, Jaclyn and Hank as new additions on the rocks.
Hank snorted and pushed forward, going so fast that Jaclyn and I clung even tighter to his neck, for fear of falling off.
When we were just slipping out of the passage, the rocks closed with a final CRUNCH.
We looked around, praying to all the gods that we made it out ok.
"Frank?!" I shouted, craning my neck frantically about, praying that he didn't get crushed.
For a terrifying 5 seconds, there was a deadly silence. Then we heard a splashing, then a tired whinny.
Hey guys… Frank said tiredly, swimming over hurriedly to us.
FRANK! OH MY COD YOU GLUBBING BUOY I THOUGHT YOU GLUBBING DIED YOU GLUBBING HADDOCK TO SCARE THE-
It's ok, Frank reassured him.
Jaclyn and I let them have their own reunion while we decided to talk about what to do from here.
"So now what?" I pondered, squinting at the rock passage behind us. It had opened back up again, mockingly so, and I had a strange urge to throttle it. You know you hit a new low when you want to take out your anger on a rock formation.
"Circe's Island." She replied, looking at me. She got back onto Hank and urged him forward.
I smiled. "Let's go find ourselves a witch."
PSDW: Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review!
WPB4L: *(muffled) hey let me out!*
FFS: HEHEHE