It wasn't long before the herds were called back in, so I was jostled about whilst riding upside down and thinking that I would much rather be riding Snowstorm right about now, and dreading the thought of her finding out about this. We were carried up the hill and into the cave like we wanted, though I seriously wanted to vomit because of the smell. Listening to the starting of a grinding sound signalling that Polyphemus was about to roll the giant boulder back across the doorway, Annabeth shouted out to catch his attention. "Hello ugly!" I smirked to myself but immediately regretted it because of the face full of dirty wool. Polyphemus was clearly not too bright, because he'd stopped and demanded who had spoken, lumbering like an oaf as he probably struggled to try and see. "Nobody!" Annabeth yelled again, and this time Polyphemus reacted like the explosion of a volcano, bellowing in a furious outrage.
"Nobody! I remember you!"
"You're too stupid to remember anybody. Much less Nobody!" It almost felt like cheating, the fact that we were piggybacking off an old heroes scheme to trick Polyphemus, but hey. If it works, it works. With a seething growl, I listened as Polyphemus lifted up something big and heavy to launch it at Annabeth. Whilst hoping she was not anywhere near where it landed, I also hoped it was his front door so that we couldn't get trapped inside. When I heard Percy let go of his sheep and get up, I got down too.
"Go find the others, shout if you need me. I'll listen for Annabeth and help her if she gets in any trouble." I said to Percy who grabbed my arm, gave it a squeeze then dashed off into the throng of sheep and goats. I waded through them, clicking my tongue lightly to make them move as I listened outside, but of course I couldn't see so I had to rely on my hearing. I twitched with the sound of every breaking rock, waiting for Annabeth to give me a signal that she needed help, only it came too late, because somehow Polyphemus seemed to have managed to catch her with a stray rock that had burst and splintered like wood and this was what caused her to scream as she was hit by the debris. I remained completely unaware of what actually was happening, but next thing I knew Polyphemus was crowing in victory that he'd caught Nobody. I cursed in Ancient Creek and drew Amaryllis, turning her into a sword and listening as the Cyclopes came lumbering around, whereby I'd dashed forwards to meet him. His eyesight really was terrible, and since he couldn't smell me, he actually thought I was one of his sheep. "Sheepie?" He muttered dumbly, before I rushed through his legs and sliced both left and right in quick succession, slicing through his flesh and cutting deep into his calves where I could hear the frost beginning to grow with each blow. Now he bellowed and started to hop from one foot onto the other, trying to nurse both injuries as I darted away and kept quiet.
Closing my eyes to focus my senses, I could hear Annabreath's breathing, light but raspy, high above me in Polyphemus's hand, so I concentrated on getting her down safely. I have no idea if she was still invisible, but either way, I didn't want her to become a pre-nuptial snack. "Hey! Over here!" Yelling loudly I clanged my sword against a rock to make noise before then rushing forwards as Polyphemus turned and slashed at his feet once more, feeling the rocketing vibrations through my body which told me where he was moving and how much space and time I had to move before he stomped his foot down again, all the while howling like a baby. I was glad when Percy and the others arrived, because now it meant that I had backup. Listening closely, I had Polyphemus turn around in order to face his back to them, giving them the chance to attack him from behind as I continued to taunt and whistle at him. Percy seemed to have a similar idea, calling out to Polyphemus and claiming he was Nobody, making the Cyclopes spin around again. "No, I'm Nobody! Over here you ugly brute!" I shouted back, Percy and I bouncing off one another as I heard Clarisse and Grove flank around him.
With a shout Percy told Polyphemus to drop Annabeth and come after him, however I think Polyphemus took this a bit too literally, because next thing I heard was the horrible sound of somebody hitting the ground, rock even, and then moving no more. "Annabeth!" I gasped out, eyes widening wildly before feeling a burst of anger and charging in at Polyphemus who was roaring, picking Percy as his main Nobody and trying to get at him, though Clarisse and I started to tag team him in order to continually hack and slash at his feet. I don't think we'd ever worked together before, but now that the desperation of the situation outweighed our dislike for one another, it turned out that we were a rather lethal duo. Shocking, isn't it? Hearing Percy yell for Grover to grab Annabeth, my brother also dove in close to Polyphemus to attack, sensing him near me as I rotated the band around the sword's hilt and it immediately expanded into my trident. Even Clarisse managed to say that my weapon was cool before she had to move in order to avoid becoming a squashed Clarisse rug. Whirling my trident around the whistling sound it made caused Polyphemus to wail and stagger just as I had hoped, the sound clearly being extremely disconcerting for monsters. With him off balance, I thrust upwards and pierced through the thick sole of his underfoot, tugged my trident free then leaped backwards with enough lift and height I could have sworn I was at least six feet in the air. Taking advantage of it, I struck again before twisting, casting my weight downwards as Polyphemus took a swipe at me and I narrowly missed his arm, feeling it catch on my hair as I then landed in an acrobatic roll. With each hit I made, the ice effect continued to build, slowing him down further and further. I could feel his movements growing sluggish, but they were still dangerous, and lethal if they made contact. He was just too big for me to freeze all over.
Grover bleated in admiration, watching the three of us work. Somehow we all naturally fell into a pattern, a rhythm of our own making. Clarisse would go first, then Percy, and then me, but then seemingly without even communicating with each other we would switch it up so that Polyphemus didn't catch onto where the attacks would come from next. Dare I say it? I was even beginning to have fun. Though, that quickly changed when I almost lost my head to a wild swing of his hand. Not so fun after that. "Lily! Follow Grover!" Percy yelled to me and I instantly drew back. Inwardly I wanted to stay and help, but I knew that Percy was telling me to retreat for a reason. I couldn't run on my own, not entirely, and neither Percy nor Clarisse could cover for me without risking their own skins. If I followed Grover now then I stood a better chance of getting away with the others following than if I stubbornly stayed behind. Wishing them luck, I darted after the sound of Grover's clip-clopping hooves.
"Wait for me Mr Clip-Clop!" He bleated with laughter and I beamed as I soon caught up with him, following him where he led me up to the edge of the chasm that sloped downwards and to the rope bridge. Now this is where it became tricky for me, because I could not see or sense anything. "Hurry Grover! Go!" Sheathing Amaryllis I grabbed hold of one side of the bridge and gripped onto the rope then began to slide across it, planting my feet so that I could move quicker than trying to grope and feel for each step, which were placed further apart from one another than I would have liked considering there was a pitfall below.
"Hurry Lily!" Grover squeaked fearfully as I felt the rumbling of lumbering steps come racing after Clarisse and Percy, who were now in full retreat. I moved as quickly as I could, having to move around the ropes when they crossed downward to hold the steps but somehow I made it just as the others started to cross, Percy yelling to cut the ropes with Annabeth's knife. I drew my sword once more, telling them to give me the word when to cut clean through the last one. I waited. A breath. A little longer…then finally Percy yelled a garbled mess that made no sense but I took it as the signal and gave a clean sweep that sliced through the ropes of the bridge as he and Clarisse made a final jump for it. Unfortunately, Polyphemus had jumped too, and seeing as his legs were longer than ours, he could jump further. I felt him land on our side, clear of the bridge that had been cut away.
"Failed!" Polyphemus crowed as I resumed a battle stance, breathing heavily and feeling rather exhausted but not ready to give in just yet. "Nobody failed!" Then I heard his hand swatting at the air causing the wind to whine, Clarisse and Grover grunting heavily as they were hit and I barely rolled out of the way in time, though rolling uphill was rather difficult, just so you know, and I got caught by my foot whereby I screamed. Percy yelled my name even as I managed to throw my weight up and bend over my own body in order to stab Polyphemus in the hand, though when I dropped I hit the edge of the cliff sharply, the rock digging into my side before I then slipped over. My brother bellowed my name even as I stabbed wildly with my sword and somehow, it got wedged between a crevasses of stone and supported my weight, allowing me to hang from the hilt like a handle, though for how long this would hold was indeterminable.
"Grover! Clarisse? Somebody!" I yelled, swinging up my other arm in order to grab onto the hilt with two hands and tried to balance my feet against the cliff, all too aware of the gaping drop below me. Above, I could hear Percy going completely wild. He was snarling and raging like a beast with his sword slicing into Polyphemus, his burst of rage at seeing his friends hurt and me going over the edge probably breaking the last thread of rationality he had. I felt the ground shake when Polyphemus fell upon it, but this dislodged my sword and it slipped loose and made me drop slightly. Squeaking, I was about to cry out again before large hands suddenly grabbed my wrist, and Clarisse grunted heavily as she began to haul me up despite the fact that she was taking my full weight. It was the first time I was glad she was a child of Ares and so freakishly strong. She pulled me up in a heartbeat with my sword still in my grasp, pulling me to safety before then clapping me rather painfully on the back.
"Don't die, Fish-Breath." Spinning my sword in a circle, I straightened up and grinned broadly.
"Right back at you, Pork Chop." Glad that I was still alive and not falling to my death, I raced away from the edge because I didn't fancy getting caught by it again, turning my head towards where Percy seemed to have Polyphemus in the palm of his hand, or at least, locked under sword point. All the while Polyphemus was snivelling and crying about his sheep and how they needed him, how he was only trying to protect them. "Don't be fooled Percy! Now's not the time for chivalry! He tried to eat Grover and marry Clarisse!" I reminded him as Percy didn't seem to make any movement. I winced inwardly. I knew exactly who he was thinking about whilst hearing the Cyclopes cry, because he sounded exactly like Tyson. Clarisse yelled for Percy to finish him, all of us standing on edge as Percy continued to deliberate.
"We only want the Fleece." Percy finally said and I started to move closer, worried that Percy's consciousness was going to get him killed. "Will you agree to let us take it?" Clarisse shouted again in protest, still voting that we kill Polyphemus and despite the fact that I adored Tyson, I was inclined to agree.
"My beautiful Fleece! Prize of my collection. Take it, cruel human. Take it and go in peace." For a moment even I was convinced, thinking that perhaps Polyphemus was willing to admit defeat, but when Percy had told the Cyclopes he was going to step back, I had felt Polyphemus move like lightning as Percy unwittingly dropped his guard. I cried out as I lost track of Percy and furiously slashed at the Cyclopes with all my might as Polyphemus had started to call Percy a foolish human, but before he could finish his threat I cut off one of his toes, or several, I'm not entirely sure, and Polyphemus howled in agony. All I knew was that his feet smelled like rotting mutton, and I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Something came whizzing through the air over my head, making me look up sharply as I had started to climb away from the cliff to lead Polyphemus away, and I could hear something large flying before it must have struck Polyphemus directly in his gob, because he choked and gargled on it. I turned, listening intently as rock crumbled, the Cyclopes' muffled wailing soon vanishing with him as he went over the cliff and plunged into the chasm.
My stomach did several flips before settling, but when I heard someone's voice a way's off from me, it did several backflips and summersaults as I gasped. "Bad Polyphemus. Not all Cyclopes as nice as we look."
"Tyson!" I squealed and started to race forwards however Percy yelled, telling me that there were the piranha sheep surrounding Tyson so I came to a dead halt. I was glad Percy was okay, but I was thrilled to know that Tyson was alive. Tears started to fall as I beamed at Tyson, and although I couldn't see him, I started to wave frantically. Knowing him, he was probably grinning and waving back.
"Lily! Tyson miss you!"
"I missed you too Tyson!" Staying put until the others had managed to trudge their way up, I slung my arms around whoever was beside me, which so happened to be Percy and Grover. Still beaming from ear to ear, I gave them a firm squeeze. Well, now that was over, can we go home now? "How did you get here?"
"Rainbow!" He called back, and it took me a while to remember that he'd named his hippocampi Rainbow when we'd ridden various mounts to the Andromeda. According to Tyson, Rainbow had saved him from the wreckage of Clarisse's ship because he'd been following Tyson all along. After rescuing him, they'd gone looking for us until coming here, because apparently the smell of sheep was interesting to Tyson, then he'd seen us fighting Polyphemus and thrown a rock to stop him from hurting Percy. I wanted nothing more than to run over there and hug him, but the fact that he was apparently surrounded by killer sheep put me off slightly, and Percy felt the same. Now our attention had to turn to Annabeth because she was badly hurt, and now even I could smell blood in the air so we asked Tyson to go get us the Golden Fleece, since it seemed that the sheep rather liked him. They let him grab it before he tossed it back to Percy, who hastily draped it over Annabeth and I smoothed it down over her, holding her head carefully and leaning down in order to listen closely to her breathing and feel her pulse against my fingers. At first there was no reaction, but then steadily her pulse became stronger and her breathing more even. Then I felt her shift, giving a slight moan before her head turned in my hand towards Grover.
"You're…not married?" She managed to joke, making all of us grin back at her.
"No. My friends talked me out of it." Thank gods. Somehow, we were all still alive. Percy encouraged Annabeth to lay still for a minute, clearly trying to think of what to do next. I was all for getting off this island as fast as possible, and was glad when Percy asked Tyson to lead the sheep away from us, as far as possible, so that we could get to the beach and call for our ship. My ship. I'd already called dibs on it. When Annabeth stood up she clearly did not look well because Percy noted rather bluntly that she was not fully healed, and Clarisse determined that Annabeth still had some broken ribs that were taking their time to heal. So, Clarisse carried her, and I had to laugh to myself. What an odd team we were. One Ares' kid, one Athena, two Poseidon, a satyr and a sheep herding friendly Cyclopes. This will be one for the history books. Jogging on ahead, I whistled for the ship and willed it to come to us, picturing it in my head to weigh anchor and fill the sails as Percy was no doubt doing the same. It must have sensed our urgency because it didn't take long to arrive, though Tyson could no longer keep the sheep at bay.
He shouted in warning as he came rushing back to us, the thundering hooves of meat eating sheep chasing after him and I even considered wading into the water just to escape them. With no boats to paddle out there, we would have to swim for it, to which I sheepishly reminded Percy that I couldn't swim. Clarisse rounded on me. "You're a daughter of Poseidon and you still can't swim! I thought you learned from last year!"
"I'm not the idiot who tossed someone into a lake when they couldn't swim, I almost drowned you know!" I snapped back, and our old rivalry started to blaze into life once again. Grover bleated nervously and Percy got between us, promising that it would be alright and that he wouldn't let me drown, that as long as I could float he'd pull me along whilst Clarisse managed with Annabeth and that Tyson could probably help us since he was so strong. I didn't like it, but I'd rather brave the water than face those sheep, so I grabbed Percy's hand and waded into the surf with him though not long after, I felt vibrations through the surf and sand, crying out in warning to the others just before they felt it, and we all turned as none other than Polyphemus came back with a vengeance, bellowing bloody murder. I definitely want off this island.