New about the poll: You can't just review who you want Gwen to be with. You have to vote. Normally, I would accept it if you did that and keep a tally of votes and reviews on a piece of paper or something, but the results sometimes update themselves late and your vote would be counted for twice, which isn't fair. The poll is up on my author page thingymajig. Just click on "Nomisaur" and you'll see it above my bio. Vote if you haven't already voted!
And to our story: Our dear friends are about to run into something giant. And another something giant. Oh, this is going to be fun!
To Black and White, no, no. No-no, no no. NO. NO NONONO!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything! Got it?
Chapter 20:
BOBBY
Oh my gods, that thing is huge.
"An Indus Worm." Reyna said as she sharply sucked in a breath.
If you don't already know; an Indus Worm is a worm. It used to live on the riverbanks of the Indus River in India, but when Olympus moved, I guess they did too. It was pale white and slimy. Its mouth hung open, showing the bits of food were suck in between its teeth. Well, food may not be the right word to describe it. Indus Worms pretty much ate everything that wouldn't eat it. Another weird thing about this worm; it was huge, as I said before. Normal Indus Worms were wide enough around for me to wrap my arms around it. This thing was as wide around as a school bus. Terra must've given this thing steroids or something. No wonder Bellerphoron let us outside. We would be easy, unsuspecting prey.
Its beady black eyes were nearly lost in its huge face. The Worm roared and snuffled around, occasionally snapping up some tasty tidbits. Thankfully, all mortal and mythical worms alike are blind. It didn't see us, but it wouldn't take long for it to smell us or hear us.
Percy moved to draw his sword, but I whispered as loud as I dared "Don't! Maybe we could go around it."
However, while I was concentrated on Idiot Number Uno, Idiot Number Dos slipped by.
Dakota unsheathed his sword as charged the Worm, yelling like a total Idiot Number Dos.
"You... you… plennus ferox nimis stultum!" Reyna sputtered, insulting Dakota in Latin.
Dakota, on the other hand, was practically giddy. The Worm had roared and stuck the ground where Dakota had been a few seconds ago with chilling accuracy. Idiot Number Dos rolled away swiftly, and then launched himself onto the side of the Worm, the monster being too big for him to jump right on top. Dakota started slipping on its slick, slimy sides, so he stabbed is sword into the Worm and used that to haul himself up on top of the monster. The Worm screamed in pain and writhed around, nearly knocking him off. Dakota laughed joyfully and stabbed and slashed at every inch of monster he could reach, but the thing was so huge it just made it really mad instead of doing much damage. Unable to shake him off, the Indus Worm rolled over, squashing Dakota underneath. Can worms even roll? This thing is gifted.
"The backyard is quite nice, isn't it? It has such a beautiful view, but I'd rather enjoy it from over here." Bellerphoron called, his head sticking out of the window, smirking nastily.
Reyna muttered some curses that Lupa would've banned her from the Academy for even uttering and angrily shot an arrow at Bellerphoron. If he hadn't jerked away so quickly, he would've taken an arrow to the face, something I wouldn't really mind too much. He swore loudly and backed up a safe distance but still observed us from the comfort of the house.
Reyna sighed and said "Just wasted a perfectly good arrow. I only have two left." She stopped to look at us expectantly. "Get going! I can watch over Gwen. Shouldn't you be helping Dakota?" she prompted when we just stood there, watching, fascinated, as the worm repeatedly rolled over Dakota.
"Hey, guys—" Rolled over. "could really—" Worm to the face. "use some—" Buried under blubbery monster. "help!" Dakota finally finished.
The pure ridiculousness of this situation almost incapacitated me with laughter from aiding him. That worm comes up with some weird but effective solutions.
"How the Hades does he manage to get himself in these situations?" Percy half-muttered, more-than-half-laughed.
"I have no idea," I sighed. There was this one time a Laistrygonian sat on him without realizing, another where he tried to blend in with a group of dracaenae by putting on a wig and taping green swimming noodles on his legs (amazingly, it worked), and that one time… you get the point.
I started yelling at the monster, trying to distract it long enough for Dakota to escape pancakehood. The Indus Worm stopped rolling over and reared up and struck at me in seconds. In the corner of my eye, I saw Dakota scramble away, searching for his sword. ADHD and the instincts Academy training had drilled into me saved my life. I dove to the side, quickly leaping onto its head before it could raise it again. I winced as my chest slammed into the Worm, making the gashes Kelli had so kindly given to me ache. I raised my sword to stab its eyes out but the Worm started shaking its head side to side like a wet dog.
Hmm… maybe jumping on it wasn't the smartest idea… I thought as I sailed over the yard, getting caught in the branches of a pine tree. A sharp branch stabbed through the back of my shirt, hanging me there like those movies where the nerd gets hung up on a flagpole or something unoriginal like that. After a moment or two, the limb gave way, sending me tumbling towards the ground.
I stood woozily, a little disoriented from the impact. I staggered over to my sword, which lay gleaming a few feet away, but I underestimated how unsteady I was. I fell over and had to crawl to my sword. Amazingly, my pack was still on my back, so I opened it and got some ambrosia that had been smashed to an extreme and nibbled on it. Feeling better, I stood up and realized I had no idea which direction the Worm was. Guessing from the sounds of defiant yelling from Percy and Dakota, it was to my left.
I burst through the line of shrubbery and viewed the grim situation. Percy and Dakota were trying to fight together, but they had no fighting experience with each other besides attackingeach other. Obviously, they were struggling to work together. Reyna was looking torn between helping them or staying to guard Gwen. Her bow had one of her last arrows nocked on it, but if I was Reyna, I would be hesitant to use it. The Worm was keeping my friends at bay by striking at them every time they moved towards it or whenever it felt like it. Things weren't going so good in other words.
Well… maybe if we…
"Guys!" I yelled. That got their attention a little too well. Idiot Number Uno and Dos turned around, thinking I was another threat. The Indus Worm snapped at Percy's leg. Thank the gods for his invulnerability. He yelped as the Worm took his leg in its mouth, tossed him up in the air, and opened its mouth as if it was going to devour him. Not if, actually. It would do that without a second thought. Percy grabbed the Worm's lower lip rather ungracefully and quickly tried to haul himself out but the Worm clamped its mouth around his midsection.
"Sorry!" I yelled apologetically. "Totally my fault! Uh… this might sound random, but can you get it to open its mouth?"
"Well, I was thinking of doing that already so that it won't freaking eat me!" Percy grouchily responded.
"So touchy." Dakota sighed, rolling his eyes.
Thankfully, Percy still had his bronze sword in hand and began hacking at the Worm's face, causing it to howl in pain, opening its mouth, just as I wanted.
"Reyna, shoot down its throat!" I hollered while she still had the opportunity.
She nodded and raised her bow with a look of pure concentration on her face and then smoothly released the arrow down the monster's throat, just skimming by Percy and directly down the dead center of its mouth. The Worm roared, spitting up blood, spattering Percy. At this point, he was nearly covered head to toe in it, but he still mercilessly slashed at the monster's face. Reyna automatically drew her last arrow with the smoothness of someone who had the skill and experience of years. The arrow soared through the air, but the Worm was smart enough to quickly shut its mouth and try to dodge it. Instead of slicing through the Worm's organs and ending its life, the arrow impaled itself in the monster's eye. It snarled but shook off the pain.
"Got any other ideas?" Percy asked while struggling with the Worm. Now it was solely concentrating on its feisty meal.
"Um… wait for it to bleed out and die?"
Bellerphoron smugly laughed while hiding like a coward in the house. "I wouldn't count on that." He cackled.
"Oh, screw it." Percy growled. He arched his back and shoved the Worm's other lip forward, making its mouth open just a little bit and threw his blade down the Indus Worm's throat. (I hope their stomach acids aren't strong enough to dissolve his sword.) Arrows aren't puny, but comparing an arrow down the throat to a sword down the throat… you get the point. Amazingly, Percy was quite skilled at this particular activity. The blade went straight down its esophagus and severed through tissues, organs, and veins. The monster didn't even cry out, it just disintegrated into nothingness, leaving Percy midair without anything to hold on to. He fell onto the ground with a loud thump and his sword clattered to the floor, completely unharmed.
Stunned silence.
"You… killed it?" Bellerphoron said in shock. He turned to his army that was stupidly standing there. "Well? GO GET THEM!" They started scrambling out the window, down the hall, presumably to find the stairs, everywhere as long as it led to us.
"Um…" Dakota said. "Should we—"
Reyna cut him off. "Run!"
Percy swept Gwen up in his arms, obviously not bothered by his fall, and we dashed over to the front yard, fleetly jumping fences and bushes, trying to get out of here as fast as possible. We sprinted down the long road that led to the evil house in the first place. Thanks to the Academy, every demigod that attended could run miles and miles on end (well, except for the Somnus cabin). Our feet pounded on the concrete, urged on by the guttural noises the monsters hunting us produced.
"Head back for Neah Bay and then we'll… do something." Percy said uncertainly eyes trained ahead of him, searching for any signs of the small town.
"Could you propel us through the water?" I asked, an idea suddenly popping up.
"Yes, but…" Percy hesitated. "I'm not sure what would happen with Gwen if I did that. Plus, I don't know how long I could keep that up. Drowning isn't very attractive after all that stuff we survived through in just that one house." He joked weakly at the end. "But I'll try. We don't have any other option, do we?"
Finally, we reached Neah Bay. I was slightly out of shape and my legs were cramping up after all those days we sat idly in a bus getting here. My muscles burned and each breath set my throat and lungs on fire. Thankfully, we began passing houses and buildings, encouraging me that we were in Neah Bay, meaning we were close to the sea. You could definitely feel it in the air, all the humidity and the salty smell.
I wonder how the mortals will react when they see all those monsters racing down the streets. I wouldn't be surprised if they thought it was some sort of parade. Ignorance is bliss… I would've faded off into daydreams of how being a mortal would be like, but something was bothering me. Yes, the Worm was difficult to kill, but a monster army would be more effective to capture us. So why did they let us go?
Percy cocked his head to one side, slowing down as if he was listening to something. "Do you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" questioned Reyna, obviously itching to get out of this town.
"What are you talking about?" Dakota asked, looking around for whatever might be making that noise. It was past midnight here and no one was up.
"Are you talking about the monsters?" I asked. If you listened closely, you could hear the snuffling, grunting, and the metallic sound of armor and weapons. Fortunately, we had the head start.
"No, it was like a voice…" At this point, Percy had completely stopped moving, carefully listening. Reyna tried to get him to start moving again, but he just waved her off. Suddenly, he broke out into a grin. "Come on, let's get going." Percy said in a slightly annoyed voice, as if it were us slowing down.
"Where are we going?" Reyna tried to get some answers out of him, but Percy just responded "Never mind that, let's go!"
He guided us through the town, obviously intent on something. Percy finally stopped at the docks, peering in the water as if he was expecting someone.
"What are you waiting for?" Dakota complained. "You said it yourself; let's go!"
Percy irritably responded "Hold on for a second. Do you have any patien—"
He was cut off by a joyful "Neigh!" And a white, iridescent figure leapt out of the sea and gracefully landed back in without so much of a splash.
Percy laughed happily. "Rainbow!"
"I think I saw one of their tails on the boat ride to Neah Bay!" I exclaimed. But I had also seen a face in the water. Was it a friendly mermaid or something? Somehow, I doubted it was going to be as harmless as Ariel.
"Oh my gods, is that a hippocampi?" Reyna gasped at the same time. She was right, never mind how improbable that was. They were white stallions in the front and had muscular, white scaled tails replacing their back legs. "It's beautiful!" The horse-pony whinnied bashfully in response. "How did it know to find us here?"
"Well, I just asked my dad for some help…"
Ask your parent… for help? Our parents either didn't have the time, didn't want to be bothered, or thought we were being whiney if we asked them for anything. They only gave when they felt like it, and when they did, you have to be super-grateful or you'll offend them. Unless Percy's dad is different. Maybe Percy himself is different, just like Kelli said. Maybe my theory could be correct…
"That's… convenient." Reyna struggled to get out, snapping me out of my musings. I could see why she had a problem with that. How come this new guy (no offense to Percy) got free stuff from his immortal parent? We could've used that when we were fighting the Titans. I understand if they were busy fighting Typhon, but come on. They can be in multiple places at once. Couldn't they send a thunderbolt to stun Krios for a second so we could defeat him? Just a teensy zap?
Percy suddenly looked concerned. "Rainbow says there's other fish out there. Not the helpful kind my dad sent me."
"Look, if they're just fish, I think we can handle them. The monsters are getting close and we need to leave now!" Dakota impatiently said.
"Okay, hop on one of them." Percy didn't look as comfortable brushing pass Rainbow's warning as Dakota did, but got on the hippocampi. Three of Rainbow's friends presented themselves and we mounted. Percy shared a hippocampi with Gwen, making sure she didn't roll off the horse. I noticed how as soon as Gwen touched the water, a shudder passed through her frail frame. I winced as the salty water stung my shoulder wound and the cuts on my chest.
"Where are we going?" Reyna asked.
"Take us to Alaska." Percy told Rainbow and our steeds surged forward, right as Bellerphoron and his minions stampeded onto the dock. He gaped in wonder at the sight of the hippocampi. Once a horse fanatic, always a horse fanatic. The monsters moved to throw javelins and shoot arrows, but Bellerphoron held them back saying "You might harm the hippocampi! If you hurt them, you will DIE!" Hm… the hippocampi have more uses than one. But when I looked back, his eyes were glowing sinisterly.
"Can you make them go faster? Something's not right here." I asked Percy. He shook his head.
"If we want to make it to Alaska with a minimum amount of breaks, we're going to have to pace them." Percy responded, though he looked like he agreed with me.
I felt a tug at my pant leg. Thinking it was a playful hippocampi or one of my friends, I stupidly turned around and got punched in the face.
"Dakota, what the heck was that for?" I yelled, assuming it was my idiotic friend.
"What did I do?" his voice came somewhere ahead and to the left of me, definitely not a position to punch me in the face.
"Never mind." I muttered, scanning the horizon. A little gurgle came from the water directly in front of me. What the…?
"Guys." I said, trying to keep calm. "I think we're surrounded."
"What are you talking about?" Reyna asked.
Percy stared into the water. "No, he's right. They're underneath us, but yeah, we're surrounded." I guess being a son of a sea god, he could see into the depths.
"By what?" Reyna asked, automatically going for her bow, but placed it back on the hippocami when she remembered she had no more arrows.
"Well…" he hesitated, squinting into the water. "I can't see the exact details. I have a sort of heat vision in the water, so I can see all the heat and cold. Their shapes are strange. They have fish tails, but the other half is pretty much anything. Dog, ram, monkey…"
Everyone besides Percy had to do many monster identification classes in our time at the Academy, but I didn't remember and Dakota never paid any attention, so I had no clue what they were.
Of course, Reyna knew. "Ketea Idikoi. They're usually friendly."
"Not friendly enough to restrain themselves from punching me in the face." I muttered. I always get the bad luck.
One of the Ketea surface in front of us, spooking out the hippocampi. They whinnied and reared up, their front legs waving around.
This Ketea was half woman, but instead of hair, she had spines and her skin was pale, like she never saw the light of day. So that's the face I saw. Definitely not Ariel.
"We come under the command of Gaea." She whispered in a gurgle-y, wet-sounding voice. "Submit now if you wish to live."
"Why would we submit to some herbivore mermaids?" Dakota sneered. He knew they're herbivores? Maybe he did listen in class.
The Ketea hissed, her violet-blue eyes narrowing. "We are hungry, demigod. Humans have taken away most of our grazing land, and we are open to new foods." She left that threat hanging in the air and stared at us like we were a buffet. "We may lack in power, but we do not come alone. I will give you one more chance to submit or perish."
"Well, neither of those are appealing." Percy stated. "I think I'll give you two choices. Let us go or die. We have two children of Pos- Neptune and we're in the middle of the ocean. Hm… which one would I choose?" he wondered sarcastically.
The Ketea laughed. "If I'm not mistaken, one of them is insane. But you choose to be stubborn and fight for your lost cause. You will perish."
Percy urged Rainbow forward, brandishing his sword, but the Ketea submerged and popped up several feet to the left. "Very well, son of Poseidon." She narrowed her eyes distastefully. "There is Perseus, the hero that caused you so much pain. He's all yours."
"Who is she talking to?" Reyna asked, looking around.
She didn't have to wait long for her answer. A huge head as big as a car lifted itself out of the water and towered over us. It had a greenish tint to its splotchy, muddy brown. Seaweed and kelp hung off its jagged scales. It positively stank of rotting flesh and that nauseating fish smell and pretty much everything about that sea that reeked horribly. And right now, with its eyes as black as the bottom of the ocean, it was glaring at us with pure hate. Well, not us, more specifically, Percy.
Even Dakota knew what this monster was. "Keto." He stuttered as he looked up at it. That thing was huge, and so far, all it had shown us was its head. "The one that the original Perseus slew when he saved Andromeda."
I laughed shrilly and asked "But didn't he turn it to stone using Medusa's severed head? Anyone have a spare Medusa around?"
I thought I heard Percy mutter that she wasn't that hard to get, but he was probably saying something else.
The monster roared when he heard me say 'Medusa.' The thing probably had to have therapy to get through that… bad experience. Do monsters get therapy? They really could use a way to get all that anger out.
Focus, Bobby. That's just your ADHD talking. Ignore it. Concentrate on the huge dragon trying to kill you.
You're the one talking to yourself because of ADHD. So should I ignore you?
Ignore me? I am you.
Well, you're really annoying.
You just insulted yourself.
You get my point!
While I was arguing away with myself, the dragon roared and reared up, boasting how huge it was, way bigger than the Indus Worm. No wonder Bellerphoron let us go when he had this in his arsenal. It opened its mouth, revealing the rows of wickedly sharp teeth and lunged for Percy, obviously intent on a meal. Man, these monsters really must like the taste of Percy.
Clearly, one sword wouldn't do much to it. Percy raised his arms up and a huge wall of water rose up to repel Keto. It crashed into it, backed up, shook its head side to side, flicking us with water and growled. Gwen shivered and the water that waves that rippled away from her were larger than they should be.
"Percy! How are we going to kill it without Gwen… destroying everything?" I yelled over the deep snarl from the dragon. It examined Percy with intelligent eyes, reconsidering its chances when its enemy had an irritating way to keep it at a distance.
"Uh… guys, can you keep the Ketea at bay while I try to kill Keto." He said unsurely. "Bobby, guard Gwen. Try not to drown!" he added unhelpfully at the end.
He got off Rainbow and propelled himself forward using current. The dragon's eyes glinted when it saw it did not have to lure its prey to itself. It lunged forward, but Percy shot to the side. However, the dragon was expecting that. It tail, which had been swishing around in the deep depths shot forward and hit him full on with so much force that Percy flew out of the water towards the dragon. Keto lunged forward to devour him, but Percy grabbed one of its teeth and used his momentum to swing on it like a monkey bar and do a backflip and land on the dragon's neck. At first he struggled to find a handhold, but soon he grabbed one of Keto's scales. If Keto ate Percy, the biting and things like that wouldn't harm him, but if he ended up in its belly, he would be completely encased in stomach acid, burning his whole body, including his mortal point, wherever that is.
Dakota yelled in the background, jolting me back to my current situation. The Ketea had swarmed around us. A half-leopard leapt out of the water, snarling. Dakota raised his sword and gored it through the neck and then lunged forward to evaporate the front row of monsters. I chopped off the tail of a half-baboon, killing it. The half-woman one that had spoken to us was wrestling with Reyna, trying to choke her to death. Reyna had to fight with only one hand because the hippocampi, the only thing that was keeping her from drowning, was skittish and trying to swim away. Reyna had to grab onto it like it was a lifesaver, which it is. I urged my steed forward and tried to slash off its head, but it dove under the water surface.
"Take me underwater to the Ketea." I murmured into the hippocampi's ear. It compliantly dove into the depths, guiding me to the darting figure of the half-woman. The salt stung my open eyes, but I shrugged it off. At first, it looked shocked that I would dare fight her in her own domain. I grinned wolfishly at that. Dakota had kind of rubbed off on me, him being very spontaneous and ignores all odds. The Ketea darted towards me, eyes narrowed. She came five feet in front of me before suddenly going under me, grabbed my foot and started dragging me down. I kick and the hippocampi reared, trying to swim towards the surface, but the half-woman was slowly dragging us down. My foot finally made contact with her face, stunning her just long enough to rent her from shoulder to hip. Black spots started dancing in my vision and my lungs burned for air. The hippocampi sensed my panic and quickly surfaced. I gasped for breath, glad for the blessing of sweet, sweet oxygen. Then I realized what my surroundings were.
It was hard to see in the murky ocean at night, but now I realized we were in the middle of Percy's and Keto's battle. They hadn't noticed me yet, but it would only be a matter of time before they did. Purple, sticky blood oozed off of the sea monster. Percy was nimbly scrambling around on Keto, finding a chink in the monster's armor and quickly stabbing it before it shook him off. Keto thrashed around, trying to devour Percy. It snarled and roared wildly, but Percy just wouldn't let go. However, there was no way Keto would bleed to death before it ate him. Percy needed some help, and fast. Reyna and Bobby were repelling the Ketea well. The Ketea aren't much of fighters. Now I understand their only purpose was to pen my friends there, keeping them from aiding Percy. I had escaped, and now I have to help him.
"Take me over to Percy." I murmured to the hippocampi. It whinnied as if saying "Are you serious? You're going to take on Keto?"
"Yes, yes, I know it's practically suicide, but that's not your problem." I muttered.
It hesitantly whisked me over to Keto dodging its thrashing tail and flashing fangs. The sea monster's tail flew towards us and I reached up and grabbed it as it swung by.
"Thanks for the ride!" I yelled to my helpful steed before trying to scramble onto a thicker part of its tail.
Keto turned around and looked straight at me. Well, now I have its attention. Slowly, its lip curled in disdain before shaking its tail side to side.
I desperately clamped onto its tail. Hm… now that I'm in this situation, I don't seem so heroic, do I?
"Bobby, what are you doing? I told you to stay with Gwen!" Percy yelled. I would've responded if it wasn't for the fact if I open my mouth, my tongue would be bitten off.
He tried to get Keto's attention to save me and began hacking at the serpent, even though most of it bounced off the monster's scales. Keto snarled (but more in annoyance, really) and snapped at Percy, giving me time to climb onto a part of the serpent that couldn't fling me far off into the sea and spatter at impact. Ah, good times. I cut off a couple of feet of tail for good measure. The serpent hissed wriggled around, but not in pain.
Keto began to rear up and point its head down.
Percy warned "Quick, grab onto one of its scale—"
And then we plunged under water, Keto furiously shooting downwards. I was almost knocked off by the impact of the water, so I had to scramble for a handhold. Percy grimaced and built an air bubble around me.
"Thanks," I gasped. Ugh, seaweed got in my shirt. Icky.
"Keto's moving too fast; it's pulling the bubble apart." He responded grimly, totally ruining my gratitude. The least he could do would be to say "You're welcome!" and not depressing, you-might-drown talk.
The deeper we went, the smaller the bubble became. Little air bubbles detached themselves from the whole and floated to the surface. I could feel the pressure building behind my ears.
"Come on, you're going to drown if we don't get off." Percy said, his voice strained with the effort of keeping me alive. "We're going to have to go up."
It took a second for that to register in my head. "Wait, what—" And then the little air bubble rocketed toward the surface. Well, at least I didn't have to hold on to Percy. That would've been awkward.
Keto saw us float away and sharply changed directions, charging at us with its mouth wide open to eat us, faster than the bubble could move.
I made an unintentional, very manly whimper and prayed to Pluto for mercy. Percy grunted and I heard a watery hiss/growl. I didn't die yet! Keto had encountered a water wall thingymajig Percy conjured. He used his water powers once more to heave the bubble to the surface. We exploded into the air, and then splashed back down. Percy was panting loudly from the effort of using his powers so many times in such a short amount of time. Okay, we were alive, but what about the others? I looked over at them. They were still on their hippocampi, but now most of the Ketea had been exterminated. They saw us and began swimming over.
And then Keto just had to ruin my rejoicing for life. The sea serpent shot completely out of the water, twisted its body and was directly over us, mouth open, and plummeting towards us, straight as an arrow. Oh. My. Gods.
Percy groaned and lifted a huge watery arc over our heads, and just as he completed it, Keto collided into it, skidding off it and slinking back into the sea to gather some time before retaliating.
"Too… much…" Percy wheezed. Apparently, someone agreed with us. It wasn't just Percy who thought it was too much. The others, who had been skimming over the water to meet us, were now ten feet away. And because of Percy's feats, something was about to happen.
Gwen woke up.
Ooooh, dramatic! This is a really long chapter. Took me forever to write. How'd you like it? And what did you think of the Worm rolling over Dakota? In my defense, I had woken up super early for cross country, ran cross country and it was really late when I wrote that. I think I might've been half-delirious, and I didn't have the heart to edit it out. Did you recognize the tactic of killing the Indus Worm? Percy's done something like that before…
When Reyna yells at Dakota, she's saying "idiotic over aggressive fool!" I used Google Translate, so it's probably not accurate.
I mention Somnus in this chapter, so this is who he is; Somnus is the Roman god of sleep and rest, Roman counterpart of Hypnos. Clovis is a son of Hypnos (the dude Butch was shoving pencils up his nose while he slept).