"Leo?" called Piper as my head emerged. "You ok?"

"I'm getting really sick of falling over deck."

Frank laughed and with a quick glance at Hazel he jumped in after me. Percy turned and kissed Annabeth quickly before following Frank. My heart ached as I though of the person who should be on deck for me to say goodbye to. But she wasn't on the ship and she was, right then, the biggest reason I had to get back to normal. I had to save her. My thoughts stopped as Percy's head came up beside me.

"When do you think you'll be back?" Hazel asked.

Percy glanced at me. "I'm not sure," I called."I really have no idea what we'll find." This was exactly why I hadn't wanted anyone else to come.

"Leo you know the ships course," Jason said. I nodded even though it wasn't a question. Annabeth caught on.

"We'll go along the set course until you find us," she finished. The blondes nodded at each other.

It wasn't a great plan. But it was better than any I could think of.

"Alright," Percy smiled, but, unintentionally, it was a bit grim. "See you later then." And with that we both dove below the surface.

When I submerged I looked down at my tail and almost grinned. Swimming felt almost more natural than walking and I took a deep breath before tearing my eyes away. In front of me was a huge fish horse creature.

"What!" I reeled back and looked at it closer. It was the front half of a white stallion and the end of a multi colored tail. "Frank?"

The creature neighed angrily. I looked at Percy who laughed. "Yea, that's Frank." He looked the half horse up and down. "A hippocampus."

"A what?"

"Hippocampus," Percy said again. "Half fish half horse."

"Whatever," I shrugged.

Frank whinnied and Percy translated. "So where are we going?"

I looked down at the dark water and took a deep breath. "That way," I turned sharply and moved toward where I knew– for some reason– the dark castle of Marina stood.

"How do you know?" Percy asked floating along next to me.

"I... I just do."

"That's comforting," Frank grumbled. It took a moment to realize that the half horse's words had clicked into English in my head. I turned to stare at him and he tilted his head.

"What is it Leo?" Percy asked.

"We need to move faster. This curse is getting worse." I told them the new development and Percy nodded.

"Race you?" Percy asked, muscles tensing, preparing for the charge.

I grinned evilly. "You are so on."

Percy jumped on Frank's back and pushed himself forward, a jet of bubbles behind them. Both the boys laughed and I tensed. With a flick of my tail I had caught up to them, gently gliding by on my back as I reached them.

"Why so slow?" I yawned.

Percy's eyes widened as I outstripped them, laughing the entire way. I looked back as their figures began to shrink. "Leo!" Frank's voice yelled. "Look out!"

"What?" I turned around and slammed directly into a giant stone wall. I managed to slow down before I hit to hard but my tail stung as I tried to keep myself floating.

"Leo!" Percy had gotten off Frank and hovered next to me. "You ok?"

"Y-yea," I shook myself out of my reverie. It was as if the wall had sent an electric shock through me. "Just caught me off guard I guess."

"Where are we?" Frank asked.

"Not sure," I swam up the stone, trying to find the top. The others followed and once at the top I felt my stomach drop. Far in the distance was the violet castle, which should have taken maybe an hour to get to at top speed but in front was a garden of seaweed and sinister rock formations.

Percy stared at the seaweed seeing the same thing I could. "There are things in there..." He said softly, leaning forward over the thick stone wall.

"Yea," I agreed. Frank looked over my shoulder and if a horse could look worried he did.

"No time to worry," Percy swam over the wall and I watched him put his hand in his pocket, gripping his pen/sword.

"There is plenty of time to worry," Frank's voice almost whimpered.

"Come on buddy," I laughed, putting my arm over his horse neck. "It's not that bad," I mused. "If you can look past the sharp rocks or the garden that looks like it could eat us alive."

"Shut up Valdez," Frank growled.

Even Percy laughed. But I couldn't shake a feeling the tugged at my gut and tickled the back of my neck. "Guys..." I paused. They turned to me as I felt all color fade from my face, "I think we're being watched."

We all glanced down to the seaweed where a pair of large glowing red eyes blinked slowly up at us. "Well," Frank whispered, "that's not good." It blinked again as we tried not to even breathe. My eyes flicked from the eyes to my hand where I could see the slowly growing golden scales, they traveled up my hands encasing my hands in a thin webbing.

Percy saw my movement and his eyes widened as my hand vanished under the new layer of skin. "What do we do?" I asked softly.

"I'm not sure," Percy's lips hardly moved.

We didn't have to decide. Before we could even think of a possible solution the monster shot from the depths, it huge jaw open wide to swallow us. We didn't even have time to pretend to react. Before I knew the sky above me was filled with razor sharp teeth and the water around me was draining.

I heard coughing and sat up trying hard to breath despite the halitosis smell. Next to me Frank had transformed back, his strong frame shook as he coughed up water. Percy sat up on his other side, eyes wide and almost in shock. "What just happened?" he asked looking around.

"I think," I gasped for air, my body trying to get used to my sudden lack of water. "I think we got eaten."

"You ok?" Percy asked.

"Bit hard to breathe," I wheezed. I waved him off. "I'll be fine, how about you?"

"Alright, Frank?" Percy turned to the bigger boy.

"I might have swallowed a bit to much sea water," Frank took a deep breath. "But I'll be ok." He glanced around. "What is this thing?"

"It's a sea serpent Zhang," I said like a mother to her child.

"No duh," Frank rolled his eyes. "I was wondering what kind of sea serpent. If we knew what kind we would know how fast we're going to get digested."

"Or," Percy stood. "How to escape." His pen was in his hand and walked around slowly inspecting every inch of the monsters mouth. For we were only in his mouth. I craned my neck to see, unable to move from my spot.

The roof of the creatures mouth was blood red and completely smooth. The bottom, which I had the misfortunate to sit on, was inwardly spongy but with a tough leather like layer. As I ran a hand across the tongue I saw my fingers, reflected through the glass like teeth above me, they were webbed. Thin golden skin stream hint between them. I felt my upper arms hardening and when I pulled down my shirt to look at them I saw the scales slow advancing up my arm. The transformation was moving faster after all my time in the water.

"Guys!" Frank called from farther down the beast, in the darker parts. "I think I found something."

Percy walked into the darkness and again I cursed my lack of legs. Turning myself as far as I could my hand touched the tongue of the monster. It felt more wet than it had before. Looking down I inhaled. It didn't smell like the normal bad breath. It was more like warm orange juice and dead fish and it stung. I pulled my hand out and the liquid hissed as it dropped back into it's source.

This wasn't spit or water it was... "Stomach acid!" Percy yelled, he and Frank returning.

"What happened?" I asked, looking between them.

"I found the gag reflex on this beast," Frank panted.

"And as soon as it gets to high..." Percy grinned.

"We're going to get thrown up."

"Exactly," they agreed.

"Gross."

thanks for the reviews. :) I hope you enjoyed the chapter becasue you're not getting another one for at least a week. Sorry :(

If I have lots of reviews when I get home then I'll give you a chapter first thing :)