I Learn One Cyclops Brother is Good Enough

Tyson led us to the Forges and I now know why we were wearing flame resistant ponchos. Cyclops were born to handle the heat but I was sweating the instant I stepped into the room.

It was larger than a football stadium with very little ledges to walk on. Most of the room dropped down into a fury of red hot lava that would kill anyone who fell into it. Thalia would've hated this place, she was always scared of heights. There were twenty large grown Cyclops working in front of these furnaces that were connected to the lava.

"Tyson, what are they doing?" Annabeth asked, curious as ever. Her hand was still wrapped in mine which was really reassuring.

"Building weapons of earth's core! Strongest metal forged comes from here!" Tyson yelled over his shoulder. In comparison to the other Cyclops, Tyson was still a toddler if toddlers grew to be over six feet tall.

Sometimes, I like to think that nothing can surprise me. I had learned that the gods were real and that I was one of the Big Three's children even though it was against the rules. Yeah, after that I thought my surprise factors had been dulled. After the whole toilet experience, I thought it was would make it better.

Until, I discovered, that most Cyclops…well, they are just bigger baby versions of Tyson. My brother was waving at one of them and he looked down. "Tyson back?" The large Cyclops smiled, "New friends?"

Then, without warning us, we were picked up in his large hands. "Brother brought friends…" Then I watched as the Cyclops frowned and then sniffed us.

Yes, that's right, I got sniffed by a Cyclops.

"Or food? Did Tyson bring food?" That made me a little bit nervous. I was not ready to be Percy l'escargots for this Cyclops.

"No Grego! No, bad brother. Percy brother too! Annabeth pretty and Grover taste bad!" Tyson looked really strict as if he was the adult.

"Hey!" Grover protested, "Why do I have to taste bad? I was almost eaten by a Cyclops if you remember and he preferred goats meat over others?" I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He didn't see what I was getting at.

"Seriously, Grover? You're upset that you might taste bad? If I were you, I'd be happy. You'd be the last one eaten." I rolled my eyes as Grover pouted. I guess goats don't like being called bad meat.

Grego looked down at us, well more at me, with his large blue eyes, "Brother too? YAY!" Then he put us down and started jumping in the air clapping. I grabbed Annabeth and pulled her away from his feet, which were very close to making us pancakes. In that case, we would be food after all.

Tyson pushed Grover away and then stepped out of the way as well. "Grego! Stop right now and go back to work. Daddy says we need a lot of weapons by the end of the week."

Grego nodded but his bottom lip stuck out a bit as if he was going to cry, "All right." Then he turned towards the furnace again and stuck his hands right into the fire. It still bothers me that they could do that without getting burned.

Tyson waved his hands for us to follow him. I blushed to see I was still holding Annabeth against me. It seems I was doing a lot of that…

"Tyson," I told him, "No more introducing me to family. I think just you is find enough."

Tyson nodded his head as Grover nervously stayed beside him. Annabeth stepped away from me but kept her hand in mine. I was real thankful for that. Tyson suddenly took us to a large golden door with metal engravings of water creates. "Daddy wants to see us. We go to underwater castle now!" Tyson gave me a big wide grin.

Somehow, I knew this wasn't going to be the best family reunion but it wouldn't be as bad as the last.