Sorry for the wait. It's just-family holidays. They're a mess.
So, anyway, here's chapter two. Tell me what you think.
Chapter II:
Percy
Percy bolts upright in bed, his senses tingling like crazy. His mind is still filled with the last few terrible moments of his dream, and it takes him several seconds to isolate the threat.
When he does, he jumps out of bed, jostling Annabeth, who groans groggily.
"Annabeth! Wake up! Something's going to attack the ship!" Her eyes pop open, and she starts getting up. Satisfied that she'll follow him soon enough, Percy races out of her room, his feet pounding on the stairs, yelling all the while for everyone to wake up.
As he runs, he tries to determine exactly what's happening. But as hard as he tries, he can only sense that something really big is headed straight for them.
He bursts out on deck, pulling Riptide from his pocket and uncapping it. His gleaming bronze sword appears in his hand, and he holds it out in front of him in a ready position as he races toward Festus. Briefly, he wonders why Festus didn't sound the alarm. But it isn't long before he moves on, more worried about what is presumably a monster that is swimming for the ship.
A flurry of footsteps distracts him as Annabeth, Leo, and Piper emerge onto the deck, weapons in hand.
"Where are the others?" Percy asks.
"They're coming." Annabeth answers. "What's going on? You said someone was going to attack the ship?"
"I said something, but close enough. There's something heading right for us. I don't know what it is. I can't quite get a read on it."
"Why didn't Festus sense it?" Piper asks, directing her question towards Leo. Leo opens his mouth to answer, but Percy is the one who speaks.
"Someone's hiding it from us." He tells them, knowing as he says it that it's the truth. "I can barely sense it. Normally, I'd be able to tell you what it is, how fast it's coming towards us, and how deep down it is. But something's blocking me. All I can tell is that it's coming."
Piper's face pales a bit. "Who would be powerful enough to do that?"
"I have no idea. But it would take a lot to do something like this." Percy decides not to tell them about his dream. Not yet, anyway. It'd just worry them. He also decides not to share his own suspicions about the person behind the attack. Because if he's right...the fight might be over before it's even begun.
Annabeth must see something of his thoughts in his face, because she narrows her eyes at him suspiciously and opens her mouth to ask a question. But before she has a chance to voice it, something hits the ship with enough force to knock them all off their feet.
"What was that?" Piper asks.
Percy stands and walks over to the railing, where he looks calmly down into the water. "That," he says, his voice grim, "would be our sea monster."
The water he's looking down at is deceptively calm, but just beneath the surface, Percy manages to glimpse the body of the sea monster as it snakes past. All he can tell, though, is that it's enormous.
He turns away from the railing and strides back towards the others, who are now back on their feet.
"Leo, do you have anything you'd like to try on this sea monster?" Percy asks him.
Leo gets a mischevious gleam in his eyes. A wicked grin lights up his face, and he raises his Wii remote. "Always." He answers.
As Leo starts on that, Percy turns to Annabeth and Piper.
"Do you guys have any idea what's taking the others so long?" He says.
"No." Piper tells him. "They should have been up here by now." Worry is evident in her tone.
"Why don't you go find them? Find out what's going on." Percy suggests. Piper shoots him a grateful look, then turns and heads back down the stairs.
He goes back to the railing to keep an eye on the sea monster, Annabeth a step behind him. She stands by his side, her hand on her sword, her gaze sweeping the horizon as Percy looks into the water, his eyes straining to catch another glimpse of the monster. The deck is almost completely silent, except for Leo's quiet muttering and the slap of the water against the ship. Even the wind has died down. The quiet is eerie.
"Why hasn't it attacked yet?" Percy says under his breath. Annabeth glances at him, but if she heard, she makes no comment.
His sense of the creature grows stronger. It's directly under the ship. But he can't tell what it's doing, and that bothers him to no end. He leans over the railing, peering intently into the deep water, every muscle in his body tensed. A sense of foreboding grows in the back of his mind, putting him even more on edge. His hand is still clenched tightly around the hilt of his sword, although it's lowered so the point rests on the deck by his feet.
"Maybe the monster will just pass us by." Annabeth suggests. Percy doesn't answer. He wants Annabeth to be right, but he doesn't think she is. And something about this whole thing doesn't feel right.
Suddenly, he knows what the monster is going to do. He doesn't know how he knows, but he doesn't question it. He backs away from the railing, pulling Annabeth with him, and yells, "Hit the deck!"
Almost before he's finished yelling, the sea monster lunges out of the water and across the ship, right in the place where he and Annabeth had been standing a moment before. It wraps its body around the ship three times in barely thirty seconds. Festus blows fire, but it seems to have no effect on the creature.
"How big is this thing?" Leo cries in dismay from where he's crouched. He starts crawling towards Percy and Annabeth, trying to reach them before the monster notices, but then it raises its head. Leo falls back, his mouth gaping open, and stares up at the thing in horror.
"Holy mother of Hera." He gasps. The creature's mouth is big enough that a horse and rider could ride through it completely unscathed. If they managed to avoid the teeth, that is. Rows of razor sharp serrated teeth, like a shark's, fill the monster's mouth, except that each tooth is the size of Percy's hand. Its back bristles with spikes, like a porcupine. The rest of it is covered with scales like a snake, although these look a good deal thicker. On either side of its monstrous head, a membrane-like flap of skin extends outwards, ribbed with spikes like the ones on its back. Eight beady eyes, varying in size, stare down at the deck.
The monster screams, a hoarse hissing sound, but no less terrifying for it. Its head weaves from side to side. The whole thing, not counting the weird spikes and the extra eyes, is like a giant water snake. It's even acting like one.
Percy shakes off the shock and stands, raising his sword. Annabeth does the same at his side. While the monster is focused on Leo, he walks forward and takes an experimental swing at its side. His sword skates off the scales, creating sparks. So, that's not going to work.
Percy glances back up at the monster's head. It doesn't seem to have even noticed his attack. It's still intent on Leo, who's frozen in place. Percy gets the idea that if Leo moves even an inch, the monster will attack.
"Hey, Annabeth, any ideas?" He asks.
"Other than the realization that its only weak spot is its head, and we're going to have to attack it? Not really." She admits. Percy sighs. He looks up at the creature's head, hovering far above them. The situation reminds him a bit of the Nemean lion, so long ago in the Smithsonian. Except that they don't really need the monster to open his mouth more. They just need him to move his head closer... Percy's eyes fall on Leo, still unmoving on the deck. A dangerous light comes on in his eyes that Annabeth recognizes all too well.
"Percy?" She asks. "You have an idea, don't you?"
"Something like one, yeah." He answers thoughtfully, his gaze switching back and forth from Leo to the monster's head and back again.
"I'm not going to like it, am I?" She says warily.
"Actually, Leo'll probably hate it more than you, but no, I don't think you're going to like it too much either." He tells her cheerfully. "We need the head to be closer before we can attack it, right?" He waits until she nods before continuing. "Well, if Leo moves, I have a feeling that the monster might just decide to move its head a little closer."
"Yeah, to eat him. How's that going to help anything?" Annabeth asks, not sure where he's going with this.
"If you're over there, the head will then be close enough for you to be able to attack it. And if you're close enough, you'll probably be able to stop it from eating Leo too." He adds, grinning.
Annabeth eyes him suspiciously. "And where will you be?"
Percy's grin widens. "I'll be over there." He points to the end of the nearest coil, closest to the creature's head, especially if it was to lower its head.
"And what will you be doing?"
He looks down at her, the grin vanishing. His voice is dead serious when he answers her. "I'll be waiting for the perfect oppurtunity to jump onto the back of the monster's head and kill the stupid thing."