Chapter 23
MEG POV
(A/N You know it, Rick owns it. We're past 4000 views, guys and girls, thank you!)
Meg could feel a hand on her shoulder, shaking her. Turning round, she could see it was Clarisse. "Kid, we gotta go, come on." Uttering no words, Meg followed Clarisse onto a ship, presumably what she had been summoning during the fight. A plaque was welded on the waterline, reading CSS Baltic. The hull it was attached to was gunmetal grey, and had a worn appearance, as if it had seen considerable action. There seemed to be skeletons manning the decks, in the light-grey and blue of Confederacy colours. As Clarisse led her towards an indoors area, and presumably cabins, she saw the skeletons saluting to Clarisse. However, the daughter of war didn't relish in the fact that she had control of an undead army, as would be thought of a demigod of Ares. Instead, she winced every time one saluted, or bowed, or made any sign of deference, and it seemed to happen a lot more than Clarisse was comfy with. Arriving at a bunk room, Meg turned to Clarisse, the older woman rubbing her shoulders as if she was troubled, presumably by the skeletons. Meg didn't want to talk; she was afraid she would break down about the dryads in the plants. But, she had to know what had happened to her friends.
"Clarisse…" The woman started, caught off guard, but motioned for Meg to continue. "What happened to the others?" Clarisse looked at her, then sighed.
"They're fine. Robin needs to calm down a bit, after seeing you collapse, but you can see him in the morning. Honestly, we all want to know what happened."
"So I bet you guys all think I'm delicate, right? I need protecting, I can't fight on my own?"
"No, I didn't mean that, I-" Clarisse paused in her sentence to facepalm.
"You're an incredible combateer, Meg, and I don't know what powers of Demeter you were exerting, but you summoned those vines, and then Robin set them on fire, but then you dispelled them completely, and put yourself at risk. And also collapsed. You don't have to tell me now, you should get some rest." Meg glanced up; even though Clarisse's expression was sincere, Meg still wanted to make sure of something.
"You don't think I'm delicate?" Clarisse clapped Meg's shoulder.
"'Course not. You're tough as nails." She grinned, and Meg got the feeling she had made a mistake. "I'm betting Robin doesn't think that either." Meg blushed, but quickly scrunched up her face into a confused look to try and hide it.
"Why would he- what reason would you- OI!" Clarisse had left mid-conversation, her laugh drifting down the hallway. Meg shook her head; Clarisse had somewhat lifted her spirits. But as she got changed for bed, and started drifting off on the narrow bunk, the doubts came crawling back. Images of a burning house in her mind, and then the vines criss-crossing over the Amphisbaena. How is this any different? As Meg drifted off, all she could hear were the sounds of crackling fire eating up vegetation, and a maniacal laugh.
"Meg, my dear, sit up."
As Meg opened her eyes, she noticed she was not in her bunk on the Baltic, and was instead in a forest. Soft grass tickled the nape of her neck between her hair, and occasionally streams of sunlight would penetrate the forest canopy, highlighting random patches of bark and grass.
"Come, my dear, we must move quickly!" Meg recognized the voice from her dream vision at camp, and sure enough, Demeter stood before her, long hair now tied in a bun, maybe a little more agitated, but still fundamentally her mum. Meg reluctantly moved towards the goddess, still wary of Demeter, however much she used the powers given to her. Of course, thinking about that brought her back to the chain of doubting thoughts, and whether it showed on her face (Meg really needed to work on her poker face) or Demeter simply plucked the thoughts out of her head, the goddess was aware of it and her expression softened somewhat. "Margaret, I know you doubt yourself and your worth, but I assure you it will be alright. I must show you this, Polyphemus grows ever more impatient." Without waiting for an approval, Demeter strode forward and touched her forefinger to Meg's forehead. The world around her froze, and Meg couldn't look anywhere else, or move her line of sight. The frozen image shattered like a pane of glass, leaving only one spec of light from the cross-hatching, a spec that was growing fast, until it covered Meg's entire vision. In it was a similarly frozen picture, which as suddenly as it appeared, leapt to life, and it was like Meg was there. Meg guessed she was actually there, albeit as a spectator, and her mortal brain was still comprehending the switch. A crash drew her attention back to the vision, an crash made by a giant fist punching a stalagmite clean off it's base. A normal human hand would have shattered if it punched something that dense and hard, but drawing backwards, Meg could see that the hand connected to an equally large arm and torso, belonging a cyclops Meg now knew the identity of.
"Polyphemus is tired of waiting! When will Zeus approve!" A laugh, but one with no humour in it, came from another corner of the large cave.
"That's because my father has more sense than to let an overgrown, bumbling idiot like you marry his youngest daughter! We'll just have to sit here, won't we, until some brave band of heroes comes and…" Eileithyia trailed off, and Meg got a jarring feeling that the goddess's eyes were trained on her, even though Meg couldn't actually see Eileithyia. The goddess quickly regained her train of thought though, and carried on. "Well, hopefully not die in the rescue attempt." Polyphemus snorted.
"Ha. They wouldn't get through me, I would snap them like sheep spines."
"That's because they have spines themselves, you twit. But you wouldn't get the chance to do that, because they would get in and out without you even noticing, you great blind oaf." Meg got the sense she was being watched again, this time stronger. Turning around, she seemed to travel several feet in seconds, and was face to face with a woman manacled to another stalagmite. Meg didn't have to be a child of Athena to realise this was Eileithyia. "Thank Dad you're here. Listen, even blinded, Polyphemus is too strong for you, so just get in here, find me, and get me back to whatever transport you're on. Then-
"Aren't you a goddess?" Eileithyia's one-breath-per-paragraph way of talking was momentarily broken by Meg's question.
"What? Oh, I see. You mean 'he's not an immortal, you can fight him without breaking ancient laws'. Does it look like I'm a combat oriented goddess? Even if you tried breaking my chains before getting me out of here, he'd hear it and come running." Meg blinked, the goddess had just answered two questions without them needing to be answered, in only one breath.
"Okay, but still you could just teleport us away-"
"We can discuss that later! Important information: he's blind, but strong-"
"And I am right behind you. Who is future wife talking to?" Meg gulped, standing behind the goddess's stalagmite was Polyphemus himself, as gross and ugly looking up close as he was in Meg's previous visions. Quick as a flash, Eileithyia turned and fired off a sentence at the giant, while simultaneously flashing a 'get out of here' glance at Meg.
"Just preparing more insults, manure-for-brains, we're going to be stuck here for a while." Polyphemus grumbled and moved off. Eileithyia muttered 'see ya' out the corner of her mouth, still focusing on the cyclops walking away. Before Meg could reply, she blinked and found herself facing Demeter in the forest again. The goddess looked at Meg inquisitively.
"Well? Did you find my neice?" Meg did a double take, but registering that both Polyphemus and Eileithyia were her cousins by godly parentage made her brain hurt, so she concentrated on the other part of the question.
"Eileithyia's tied up with chains, but otherwise she's fine. She said if we try to break the chains, Polyphemus would hear it though."
"Aha!" Demeter pointed a finger at Meg. "You can free her by barely making a sound though. Your companion, the boy."
"Robin." Suddenly Meg realised how they were meant to free Eileithyia. Robin would use his flames to melt the manacles, then Eileithyia could teleport them away by god power. Realising this gave Meg another question, and she frowned. "But he wasn't part of the prophecy. We weren't supposed to take him, he was a random find, a chance encounter." Demeter's eyes sparkled.
"Ah, but is that not the true power of the fates? To weave destiny so there are only so many outcomes? I ask you this: If you had not found the child of fire, would you have somehow picked up a flamethrower instead?" Meg couldn't answer, and her mother chuckled.
"I must send you back now, dear Margaret. And do not worry about yourself, and your morals. I can assure you this, you have much more goodness in you than Caligula ever had." With that final statement, Demeter stretched out two fingers, and closed Meg's eyelids, sending her into a dreamless sleep.
(A/N Decently long chapter, nice. Again, I'm actually doing my research on historical stuff, the CSS Baltic was an actual ship used by the Confederates. Another point for me there, woo. No spoilers for next chapter, but a related phrase is this: Guinea Pigs. Honestly it might not even be next, it might be the one after, depending on how long a fight scene I have planned out goes on for. Another thing I was thinking about; I've seen a lot of writers do a one-shot series after they finish a nice long story (o-Mischief-Managed, looking at you) so I was wondering if I should do the same. Robin's backstory, Clarisse checking in with her siblings, etc. Lemme know in reviews, and I'll probably talk about it a bit more once I'm finished. Demeter is a bit too Dumbledore-y already for my liking, so I tried to refrain from the 'choices matter more' speech. I reckon we're around the two-thirds to three fourths mark, so not that long till we actually finish. It might drag into September, but I doubt that. However long it takes, remember to always
Vaya con Queso,
DamaSENDhimafriend
