XLVI

Percy

(A/N: This chapter could be better, but I got 3 more chapters to write. Read. Review. Enjoy.)

Percy was going to take a nice long nap. Then he heard the earth-splitting roar. Literally.

They had landed in a nice, open field filled with grass. In the distance, he could see bison. The weather was much cooler than in Greece.

The roar split open the earth in front of them, creating a tiny crack which reminded Percy of Nico's powers, where he had broken open the earth.

Percy immediately jumped away from the crack, in case it widened. He had to cover his ears as well, just so that it sounded as loud as a plane engine, instead of sounding as loud as five.

The crack kept widening. Percy had to keep backing off. That was when he realized that there were more cracks. They all emanated from the same point- a few hundred meters away.

Percy began to run towards it. "Annabeth!" he yelled. "Come on! We need to kill that thing!"

"Are you crazy?" she yelled, but ran towards it as well. Percy could now see that 'it' was actually a herd of giant shadows. As they go closer, Percy could see that each of the monsters looked like giant dinosaurs. They all walked on four feet, but their front claws- or at least, what would have been their front claws- were on the ground. Some stood on four even legs, while others' hind legs were slightly higher than usual, but they all had one thing in common- the giant air sac in front of their throat, no doubt used to amplify their screeches.

Apparently those were Neades. They would occasionally let out a small grunt (it sounded quieter at a distance), which was no doubt just tiny grunts to them, like how people hum music while walking on the street.

Suddenly, a member of the herd let out a deafening screech. It nearly shattered Percy's ears. He had to cover them up to block out a little of the noise.

As it had turned out, a herd of bison had decided to come into the Neades' feeding ground. They had simply screeched loudly, and the bison had been completely confused. Some of them had apparently gone deaf, because the rest of the herd was bellowing for them to follow, but they were still trotting around in the same spot, completely dazed.

"Well, we're so gonna win." Percy said.

"No, wait!" Annabeth said. "If they can screech that loud and not become deaf, that would mean that their hearing isn't very good! So they would have to rely on their sense of sight to locate predators." she pointed at one of them, which had started to spin around. "They have to constantly rotate their bodies to give themselves a 360-degree view of the surroundings. If we can blend into the environment, we can make as much noise as possible! They don't how noisy we are- they'll never catch us. Of course, there is the problem of their exceptional eyesight. They'll spot us instantly. And both you and I know that any screech of theirs will deafen us and possibly kill us as well."

"Well," Percy said. "That seems like fun. Lead the way, Annabeth-Senpai."

He was expecting her to come up with a breakthrough idea. He was not expecting her to cover them with grass, crouch down, and crawl over the ground like lizards.

"Seriously?" he asked, his mouth full of grass. He was trying not to puke, it tasted so bad. "Was this really necessary?"

"Well, I don't exactly have my cap of invisibility, so this is kind of our only option." she said indignantly. "Don't complain, unless you would rather charge at the head on."

Percy immediately shut up, because his inferior brain could not, for the life of him, figure out a way to rebuke her. He kept his growing displease to himself.

Defeating one of these Neades was going to be easy, but defeating all of them were going to be hard, because they were going to see it die. It was at this point that he wished he had some wax to plug his ears.

As Percy and Annabeth slowly shifted forward. Even though Annabeth had apparently proven that their hearing sucked, they still tried to make no sound.

Percy didn't dare peer over the tall grass. If the monsters saw them... well, it was not going to be pleasant, that was for sure.

Finally, Percy saw a giant shadow, shining on them in the moonlight. He looked up and saw a giant grey belly.

Stab it and get it over with, Annabeth mouthed.

Percy took a deep breath and pulled out his pen, careful to let it turn into Riptide in the safety of the grass. He slowly raised the tip of it, preparing to strike.

Suddenly, Percy heard a loud screech. His blood turned to ice. He immediately dropped his sword and covered his ears. The sound kept going, with more and more of them joining in. The Neades on top of them bounded off, hearing them. Unfortunately, that wasn't all of it.

Finally, Percy raised his head slightly above the grass, and he wished he hadn't. The entire herd was charging towards their location. He couldn't understand exactly what they were saying, but the gist was obvious: get out of our territory.

Unfortunately, Percy had to kill these monsters.

"Run!" he yelled to Annabeth, "They're charging!"

They sprinted out of the bushes, trying to get away from them. Unfortunately, the Neades started to screech. They ground shook and split apart at their feet, threatening to swallow them. As the screeched got louder, the cracks deepened. Hot air burst out of them. Suddenly, the ground in front of them cracked into giant squares like jigsaw pieces, then turned uneven. Some sunk while others rose. Percy jumped into one of the sinking ones, then climbed back out. Luckily, they were only a few feet deep, which made it pretty easy to get out of. Annabeth was doing pretty alright; she was getting through it easily.

Unfortunately, Percy realized that they had journeyed too deep into the Neades' territory, and they were going to take forever to get out. It had already taken forever to get in.

Suddenly, Percy screeched to a halt. The ground in front of him had turned into a deep canyon. The bottom was dry, but even Percy could feel the heat radiating from it.

Percy felt something ram into his back. He turned around and saw Annabeth. He tried to grab on to her, but that did nothing to help. He only succeeded in pulling her with him. Losing his balance, they both fell into the canyon.