I finished my night's rest in my own bed after the whole farting weasel fiasco.
It was kind of difficult falling asleep on my own after having spent the last couple of nights in Leo's arms, but I managed. When I awoke, it was some time between late morning and early afternoon. After a quick shower and a new fit, I was feeling ready to kick some ass. Today I picked out a pair of high waisted shorts and a checkered bandeau top with my favorite black Doc Marten boots.
Now I stood at the helm, munching the last few bites of my bagel while surveying the Archimedes sphere. Seeing how much trouble we went through to get this stupid thing, I felt like it was important that I learned how to use it. After thirty minutes of fiddling with the damn thing, I'd managed to figure out how to open the navigation menu so that's... progress I guess.
I was so preoccupied with the bronze basketball that I didn't hear footsteps approaching behind me. All of a sudden a pair of leather bound hands covered my eyes.
"Guess who?" sang a familiar deep voice.
I laughed and pulled away Leo's hands from my eyes, spinning around to meet his bright smile. "The least you could do was take off your work gloves, Valdez!"
"Shit, you're right," he chuckled. "I made it way too easy for you. Hey, what're you doing with the Archimedes sphere?"
I grinned sheepishly. "Ah, you caught me. I was trying to learn how this stupid thing works, but it's making a fool outta me."
Leo laughed deeply, making my heart skip. "Why don't I show you how it works?"
Leo put his hands on my hips and turned me to face the Archimedes sphere. He pressed himself against my backside, holding my hands over the bronze sphere. I gasped and looked around the deck to see if anyone was watching, but luckily we were the only two in sight. Relaxing slightly, my senses picked up the sharp scent of his deodorant and the gentle way he cradled my hands in his much larger ones. Leo was telling me about the sphere, but with the way his warm breath tickled my skin and the feel of his strong chest against my back, I wasn't retaining any information at all.
My eyes were fixed on his leather bound hands guiding my own along the smooth bronze surface of the sphere. Leo's work gloves were rough, and I wondered what it would feel like if he wore them while rubbing between my legs. Subconsciously, my thighs pressed together at the lewd thoughts flooding my brain. Ever since I woke up, I couldn't stop daydreaming about the mind blowing release Leo gave me last night— and what I could possibly do to get him to do it again. My body felt hot all over again just thinking of his fingers on my—
Suddenly the boat lurched forward.
Leo and I tumbled right over the bow of the ship. Luckily, Festus was there to stop us from falling into the churning sea below, and we landed haphazardly on the figurehead's neck, scrambling for the grooves on his mechanical neck to keep from slipping off.
"What the hellhound was that?" I asked, gripping onto Festus for dear life.
"I dunno!" Leo called, already hopping back onto the ship from Festus and racing back to the controls.
Festus creaked in alarm, shooting fire wildly. I looked around to see what could have happened. We couldn't have hit an iceberg— we're in the Adriatic in the middle of the summer. I squinted into the dark waves. They seemed more wild and agitated than normal. Could there be a sea monster lurking in the depths? If that's the case, then I've gotta get to a better position so I can slay it.
Quickly but carefully, I climbed back onto the Argo. Just as I made it back to the helm, the warship rocked to port with a massive commotion, like telephone poles snapping in half. If I hadn't been gripping the rails already, I surely would've been thrown overboard again.
"Gahh!" Leo yelled. "It's eating the oars!"
"What is it?" I asked, unsheathing my Celestial Bronze sword.
"Something big and hungry," Leo responded while pushing buttons and twisting dials on the sphere that I'd never even seen before.
At that moment, I abandoned all hope of ever understanding that bronze basketball.
It was complete chaos on the deck. Frank and Hazel had fallen and gotten ensnared in a pile of loose rope. Everyone else was scrambling. Jason jumped over the tangled pair, sword drawn, and raced towards the stern. Piper was already on the quarterdeck, shooting food from her cornucopia and yelling, "Hey! HEY! Eat this, ya stupid turtle!"
Turtle?
Frank sprinted up the steps, slinging off his backpack, which instantly transformed into a bow and quiver. By the time he reached the helm, he had already fired one arrow and was nocking the second. Meanwhile I was still trying to locate the beast, but the ocean was too dark and murky for me to see through.
Leo frantically worked the ship's controls. "Oars won't retract. Get it away! Get it away!"
Up in the rigging, Nico's face was slack with shock.
"Styx—it's huge!" he yelled. "Port! Go port!"
I swung my sword to the left, willing the Argo to follow suit to avoid any more damage to the hull. Coach Hedge was the last one on deck. He compensated for that with enthusiasm. He bounded up the steps, waving his baseball bat, and without hesitation goat-galloped to the stern and leaped over the rail with a gleeful "Ha-HA!"
"Coach!" I screamed after him and ran to the side of the ship.
That's when I saw it.
The creature was easily the size of an island. When I saw the massive dome of craggy black and brown squares, the word turtle simply did not compute. Its shell was more like a landmass—hills of bone, shiny pearl valleys, kelp and moss forests, rivers of seawater trickling down the grooves of its carapace.
On the ship's starboard side, another part of the monster rose from the water like a submarine.
Gods of Olympus… was that its head?
Its gold eyes were the size of wading pools, with dark sideways slits for pupils. Its skin glistened like wet army camouflage—brown flecked with green and yellow. Its red, toothless mouth could've swallowed the Athena Parthenos in one bite.
I watched in awe as it snapped off half a dozen oars.
"Stop that!" Leo wailed.
Coach Hedge clambered around the turtle's shell, whacking at it uselessly with his baseball bat and yelling, "Take that! And that!"
Jason flew from the stern and landed on the creature's head. He stabbed his golden sword straight between its eyes, but the blade slipped sideways, as if the turtle's skin were greased steel. Frank shot arrows at the monster's eyes with no success. The turtle's filmy inner eyelids blinked with uncanny precision, deflecting each shot. Piper shot cantaloupes into the water, yelling, "Fetch, ya stupid turtle!" But the turtle seemed fixated on eating the Argo II.
"How did it get so close?" Hazel demanded.
Leo threw his hands up in exasperation. "Must be that shell. Guess it's invisible to sonar. It's a freaking stealth turtle!"
"Can the ship fly?" Piper asked.
I shook my head. "Even with my powers, the ship can't get airborne with half its oars broken off."
Leo punched some buttons and spun the Archimedes sphere. "I'll have to try something else."
"There!" Nico yelled from above. "Can you get us to those straits?"
I looked where he was pointing. About half a mile to the east, a long strip of land ran parallel to the coastal cliffs. It was hard to be sure from a distance, but the stretch of water between us looked to be only twenty or thirty yards across—possibly wide enough for the Argo II to slip through, but definitely not wide enough for the giant turtle's shell.
"Yeah. Yeah." Leo apparently understood. He turned the Archimedes sphere. "Jason, get away from that thing's head! I have an idea!"
Jason was still hacking away at the turtle's face, but when he heard Leo say I have an idea, he made the only smart choice. He flew away as fast as possible.
"Coach, come on!" Jason said.
"No, I got this!" Hedge said, but Jason grabbed him around the waist and took off. Unfortunately, the coach struggled so much that Jason's sword fell out of his hand.
"Coach!" Jason complained.
"What?" Hedge said. "I was softening him up!"
"I got it!" I called and urged the sword to fly into my hands.
Luckily, I managed to magically pull the blade to me before it splashed into the sea. Unfortunately, my urgency manifested itself as a burst of magic. As soon as the Imperial Gold sword was in my hands, it grew to a massive length, nearly poking Hazel's eye out.
"Heh, sorry," I smiled in embarrassment, willing the sword to shrink back to its normal size while avoiding some strange looks from the others.
Would it ever be the right time to tell them how much my powers have diminished?
The turtle head-butted the hull, almost tossing the whole crew off the port side. I heard a cracking sound, like the keel had splintered.
"Just another minute," Leo said, his hands flying over the console.
"We might not be here in another minute!" Frank fired his last arrow.
Piper yelled at the turtle, "Go away!"
For a moment, it actually worked. The turtle turned from the ship and dipped its head underwater. But then it came right back and rammed us even harder.
Jason and Coach Hedge landed on the deck. I tossed him his sword, and he breathed a sigh of relief when it was back in his possession.
"Thanks, Peri." Jason said as he sheathed his sword. "How'd you do that?"
I shrugged, for once not trying to bask in the spotlight. "Oh, ya know. Just little Omega-Blood tingz."
"Fire in the shell!" Leo cried suddenly, spinning his Wii controller.
I thought the stern had exploded. Jets of fire blasted out behind us, washing over the turtle's head. The ship shot forward and threw Hazel to the deck again. I helped her up and saw that the ship was bouncing over the waves at incredible speed, trailing fire like a rocket. The turtle was already a hundred yards behind us, its head charred and smoking. When I realized that Leo had just used the new feature we installed, a grin spread across my face.
The monster bellowed in frustration and started after us, its paddle feet scooping through the water with such power that it actually started to gain on us. My grin faded. The entrance to the straits was still a quarter mile ahead.
"A distraction," Leo muttered. "We'll never make it unless we get a distraction."
"A distraction," Hazel repeated beside me.
Instantly, I spotted something on the horizon—a flash of light and steam. It streaked across the surface of the Adriatic. In a heartbeat, Arion the magical horse stood on the quarterdeck.
Hazel climbed on his back. "Piper, I could use that charmspeak of yours."
"Once upon a time, I liked turtles," Piper muttered, accepting a hand up. "Not anymore!"
Hazel spurred Arion. He leaped over the side of the boat, hitting the water at a full gallop.
The turtle was a fast swimmer, but it couldn't match Arion's speed. Hazel and Piper zipped around the monster's head, Hazel slicing with her sword, Piper shouting random commands like, "Dive! Turn left! Look behind you!"
The sword did no damage. Each command only worked for a moment, but they were making the turtle very annoyed. Arion whinnied derisively as the turtle snapped at him, only to get a mouthful of horse vapor.
Soon the monster had completely forgotten the Argo II. Hazel kept stabbing at its head. Piper kept yelling commands and using her cornucopia to bounce coconuts and roasted chickens off the turtle's eyeballs.
As soon as the Argo II had passed into the straits, Arion broke off his harassment. They sped after the ship, and a moment later were back on deck.
The rocket fire had extinguished, though smoking bronze exhaust vents still jutted from the stern. The Argo II limped forward under sail power, but our plan had paid off. We were safely harbored in the narrow waters, with a long, rocky island to starboard and the sheer white cliffs of the mainland to port. The turtle stopped at the entrance to the straits and glared at us balefully, but it made no attempt to follow. Its shell was obviously much too wide. If Coach wasn't here, I'd definitely shout some colorful words at the beast.
Hazel dismounted and got a big hug from Frank. "Nice work out there!" he said.
Her face flushed. "Thanks."
Piper slid down next to her. "Leo, since when do we have jet propulsion?"
"Aw, you know…" Leo tried to look modest and failed. "Just a little something Peri and I whipped up in our spare time. Wish I could give you more than a few seconds of burn, but at least it got us out of there."
"And roasted the turtle's head," Jason said appreciatively.
"So what now?" I asked the group.
"Kill it!" Coach said. "You even have to ask? We got enough distance. We got ballistae. Lock and load, demigods!"
Jason frowned. "Coach, first of all, you made me lose my sword."
"Hey! I didn't ask for an evac!" Coach crossed his stubby arms and pouted. "And Storm got it back so what's the big deal?"
"Second, I don't think the ballistae will do any good." Jason continued, doing his best to ignore the satyr. "That shell is like Nemean Lion skin. Its head isn't any softer."
"So we chuck one right down its throat," Coach said, "like you guys did with that shrimp monster thing in the Atlantic. Light it up from the inside."
Frank scratched his head. "Might work. But then you've got a five-million-kilo turtle carcass blocking the entrance to the straits. If we can't fly with the oars broken, how do we get the ship out?"
"You wait and fix the oars!" Coach said. "Or just sail the other direction, you big galoot."
Frank looked confused. "What's a galoot?"
"Guys!" Nico called down from the mast. "About sailing the other direction? I don't think that's going to work."
He pointed past the prow.
A quarter mile ahead of us, the long rocky strip of land curved in and met the cliffs. The channel ended in a narrow V.
"We're not in a strait," I said. "We're in a dead end."
I got a cold feeling in my fingers and toes. On the port rail, Gale the weasel sat up on her haunches, staring at Hazel expectantly. Something about that weasel, man. I really wanted to stomp on it.
"This is a trap," Hazel said suddenly.
We all looked at her.
"Nah, it's fine," Leo said. "Worse that happens, we make repairs. Might take overnight, but I can get the ship flying again."
At the mouth of the inlet, the turtle roared. It didn't appear interested in leaving, and that struck me as odd. For once, I agreed with Hazel.
"Well…" Piper shrugged. "At least the turtle can't get us. We're safe here."
That was something no demigod should ever say. The words had barely left Piper's mouth when an arrow sank into the mainmast, six inches from her face. The crew scattered for cover, except for Piper, who stood frozen in place, gaping at the arrow that had almost pierced her nose the hard way.
"Piper, duck!" Jason whispered harshly.
But no other missiles rained down. Frank studied the angle of the bolt in the mast and pointed toward the top of the cliffs.
"Up there," he said. "Single shooter. See him?"
The sun was in my eyes, but I spotted a tiny figure standing at the top of the ledge. His bronze armor glinted.
"Who the heck is he?" Leo demanded. "Why is he firing at us?"
"I don't know," I said through gritted teeth, "but I'm ready to beat the bronze off of him."
"Guys?" Piper's voice was thin and watery. "There's a note."
I hadn't seen it before, but a parchment scroll was tied to the arrow shaft. To everyone's surprise, Hazel stormed over and untied it.
"Uh, Hazel?" Leo said. "You sure that's safe?"
She read the note out loud. "First line: Stand and deliver."
"What does that mean?" Coach Hedge complained. "We are standing. Well, crouching, anyway. And if that guy is expecting a pizza delivery, forget it!"
"There's more," Hazel said. "This is a robbery. Send three of your party to the top of the cliff with all your valuables. No more than three. Leave the magic horse. No flying. No tricks. Just climb."
"Climb what?" Piper asked.
Nico pointed. "There."
A narrow set of steps was carved into the cliff, leading to the top. The turtle, the dead-end channel, the cliff… I got the feeling this was not the first time the letter writer had ambushed a ship here. We fell right into his trap. And I hated being duped.
Hazel cleared her throat and kept reading aloud: "I do mean all your valuables. Otherwise my turtle and I will destroy you. You have five minutes."
"Use the catapults!" cried the coach.
"P.S.," Hazel read, "Don't even think about using your catapults."
"Curse it!" said the coach. "This guy is good."
"Is the note signed?" Nico asked.
"Yeah, I wanna know the name of the guy I'm gonna turn into sashimi," I said, gripping my sword.
Hazel shook her head, and I scowled. This guy was either a coward or an expert killer.
Leo studied the cliff top and muttered under his breath. "That's not a good trajectory. Even if I could arm the catapult before that guy pincushioned us with arrows, I don't think I could make the shot. That's hundreds of feet, almost straight up."
"Yeah," Frank grumbled. "My bow is useless too. He's got a huge advantage, being above us like that. I couldn't reach him."
"And, um…" Piper nudged the arrow that was stuck in the mast. "I have a feeling he's a good shot. I don't think he meant to hit me. But if he did…"
She didn't need to elaborate. Whoever that robber was, he could hit a target from hundreds of feet away. He could shoot us all before we could even react. My blood boiled. And I was itching to get off this boat, so it was no surprise when the words left my lips.
"I'll go." Hazel and I said in unison.
My eyebrow arched, and the two of us stared at each other. It seemed like our little rivalry would never end. Hazel was practically stepping on my toes every other day, and it was starting to tick me off.
"No way, Peri," Leo said firmly.
"Oh, please," I scoffed. "I can handle myself. You might wanna sit this one out though, Hazel."
"No, listen," she said, "this robber wants valuables. I can go up there, summon gold, jewels, whatever he wants."
Leo looked skeptical. "If we pay him off, you think he'll actually let us go?"
"We don't have much choice," Nico said. "Between that guy and the turtle…"
Jason raised his hand. The others fell silent.
"I'll go too," he said. "The letter says three people. Peri and I will take Hazel up there and watch her back. Besides, I don't like the look of those steps. If Hazel falls…well, I can use the winds to keep us from coming down the hard way."
Hazel nodded. "Then it's settled."
I smiled confidently, but Leo's worried expression caught my eyes. I sensed that he didn't want me to go, but my mind was made up. It was time for the Omega-Blood to bust some heads.
Before we left, Leo pulled me out of earshot from the others. His brown eyes glittered in the midday sunlight, brows furrowed deeply.
"There's really nothing I can say to make you change your mind?" He asked sadly.
I cupped his face in my palm. "Hey, don't worry about me. I'm a big girl."
Leo sighed, but I could tell that he accepted there was no stopping me. "Just make sure you come back to me, alright?"
My heart swelled with joy, but unfortunately with the others close by this was no place for us to kiss. Instead, I nodded. "Of course."