"Get Annabeth!" Percy yelled at Grover. The satyr tripped over the hem of his dress as he stumbled with her across the bridge.
Clarisse pulled Mari away from Polyphemus and went in for an attack. Like, she went in for an attack. She charged Polyphemus, then charged him again and again and again.
At the same time, Percy advanced, stabbing what small parts of the cyclops he could get to without being grabbed by it. Toes, feet and its last remaining hand.
Mari realised she had to do something, too. Well, something other than de-handing the crazy cannibal cyclops. She yelled and darted around him, slashing at the back of his legs. He turned to try to find her but she turned too, keeping out of his line of sight. Her arms started burning. Lactic acid, she thought. One of her nicer teachers explained that to her once.
A jolt of pain shot up Mari's leg, where the demon sheep had taken a bite. She ignored it.
She grunted and rolled out of the way, back to where Percy was still crouching in exhaustion. Clarisse charged Polyphemus again, but even she was a little slower than before. Percy exchanged a glance with Mari, and she realised what the problem was. Sooner or later, they were going to be too tired to do this. And by the looks of it it was going to be sooner. Clarisse looked strong, but she was already red in the face. How the fuck was Mari, a skinny ten-year-old with little-to-no training supposed to do it?
"Fall back!" Percy yelled.
Marion didn't need to be told twice.
Hiking up her Chiton, she sprinted as fast as her slightly injured legs could carry her, which was surprisingly fast. Maybe it was the adrenaline.
"Grind you into sheep chow!" shouted Polyphemus. "A thousand curses on Nobody, and the Marion!"
Mari had the impulse to flip him off, but she reigned it in, partly because it seemed wise not to not piss him off anymore than she already had, and partly because she was a little busy running for her life.
"Faster!" Percy yelled at both of them.
"Do you think I can run any faster?!" Mari panted. She was between him and Clarisse, and still managing to keep up. She was pretty sure Usain Bolt would be impressed. Well, probably not. She wondered if Usain Bolt was a son of Hermes. Wait, he had that lightening pose thing he did. Was he a son of Zeus? Oh, right, there was that big three planned parenthood rule.
They legged it down the hill towards the bridge, where Grover was just setting Annabeth to the ground.
"Grover! Get the knife!" Percy called.
Was he insane? Why would he want Grover to start cutting the bridge, before they were even across it? Did Percy forget his father was Poseidon or something? Last Mari checked she was pretty sure Percy couldn't fly. If she found out he could, she'd be seriously pissed he made her and Annabeth climb a cliff with no practice or harness.
They scrambled across the bridge as Grover began sawing at the ropes. The first strand was severed and she stumbled, which made her leg flare up again, but she gritted her teeth and kept going. Her heart dropped when it started swinging wildly. She didn't need to glance behind her to know Polyphemus was close behind her, and that Grover wasn't sawing fast enough.
Three steps left...
Marion dived towards the meadow with the others, as Percy swung his sword, severing the last rope.
She was lying on very soft grass, which tickled her neck. It would have been a very nice moment if not for the creepy laughter and the shaking ground as Polyphemus landed from the huge leap he must have made before the bridge fell away. Polyphemus cackled in delight as he skipped over to them. She wished she was joking, but he actually skipped.
"Failed!" he giggled and looked at Percy. "Nobody failed!" He turned towards Mari. "The Marion failed!"
She was still too shocked to move but Clarisse and Grover tried to charge him. Key word: tried. Polyphemus swatted Grover away like an annoying bleat-y bug, and stomped on the ground where Clarisse had just been a split second before, having barely rolled away on time.
Then Percy charged.
To Polyphemus, Clarisse and Grover had been child's play. Percy was a completely different story. He was like a one-man death machine. He slashed, stabbed, kicked. He even headbutted Polyphemus in the stomach. By the end of it, Polyphemus was sprawled out on his back with Percy's pen-sword pointing directly at his eye.
"Uuuuhhhhh." Polyphemus moaned.
"Percy! How did you-"
"Please, nooooo!" Polyphemus interrupted Grover. "M-m-my sheepies need me. Only trying to protect my sheepies!"
He started sobbing as he pleaded, and Mari narrowed her eyes. There was no way Percy or any of them were going to fall for that.
Percy paused.
Okay. She was wrong. Percy was going to fall for that. Well, fuck.
"Kill him! What are you waiting for?" Clarisse yelled.
"He's a cyclops! Don't trust him!" Grover added.
"He's spent the past hour trying to kill us!" Mari threw in her own two cents. If Annabeth had been conscious, she probably would have said something, too.
Maybe she even would have convinced him. They seemed to be close. Maybe if Annabeth had said something, Percy would have done something other than what he did next. But alas, Annabeth was not conscious, and the fates apparently found joy in watching them fail.
"We only want the fleece," he told the monster. "Will you let us take it?"
"No! Kill him!" Clarisse shouted.
Polyphemus sniffed like he was a little baby, but the effect was ruined by his general... Polyphemus-ness. "My beautiful Fleece. Prize of my collection. Take it, cruel human. Take it and go in peace."
Percy told Polyphemus he was going to step back, and Polyphemus nodded as if he understood.
Percy lowered his pen-sword. Percy should not have lowered his pen-sword, since Polyphemus took that as an invitation to smack him onto the ground.
Mari scrambled up, and the others (sans Annabeth) drew their weapons (Grover had a stick) ready to defend him, too.
"Foolish mortal! Take my Fleece? Ha! I eat you first!"
A huge rock soared over their heads, making a woosh noise as it went, and sailed directly into Polyphemus's mouth. He choked, his eye widening in shock as he tried to swallow the rock. Polyphemus staggered backwards, not realising where he was going in his haste to digest the rock, causing his heel to slip over the edge. He tried to shriek but the rock blocked off any sound. He tumbled over the cliff, making little flaps with his arms like a chicken as he went. With the rock still lodged firmly between his (lack of) teeth, he kind of looked like one of those chickens with and apple in its mouth that they had on TV.
Mari shuddered. That was it, forget vegetarianism. She was going vegan.
She turned around, trying to find the source of the saviour rock, and nearly cried in horror.
It was another bloody cyclops. Maybe her fear would have spiralled a little more, if not for what the Cyclops said next.
"Bad Polyphemus. Not all Cyclopes as nice as we look."
The Cyclops -Tyson- Percy corrected her, was apparently a good little brother. Mari hadn't been aware that Cyclopes viewed their demigod siblings as proper siblings, but it was a nice surprise. Anyway, he gave them a quick recap of everything that had happened since he 'died' in the boiler room of Clarisse's boat (because apparently Clarisse had had a boat).
Tyson had hitched a ride off Rainbow, a hippocampus, who had pulled him to safety from the shipwreck. Tyson and Rainbow had both been travelling around since then looking for them. Well, not Mari, but she hoped she was included in the 'them' now nonetheless. Then he'd caught the whiff of sheep (and she assumed Polyphemus's destructive breath, but that part wasn't worth mentioning) wafting from the island, and the rest was recent history.
Percy had hung onto every word, looking like Christmas had come early. "Tyson, thank the gods. Annabeth is hurt."
Tyson frowned. "You thank the gods that she is hurt?"
Mari suppressed a laugh, because it wouldn't be appropriate in that situation. But she decided in that moment that Tyson was great.
They gathered around Annabeth, who looked pretty bad. Her forehead was covered in a shiny layer of sweat and her hair was covered in sticky red liquid which definitely was not hair dye.
Percy had fought a Cyclops to the point that he could have feasibly killed him (sure, he fucked it up at the end, but he'd still won against a cyclops). He'd climbed a cliff, risking a very painful death. He'd even survived Circe. He'd looked scared then, sure. But Marion realised, at that moment, that she'd never seen him look as genuinely terrified as he did now, staring at Annabeth's unconscious form.
"Tyson. The Fleece. Can you get it?" Percy asked.
"Which one?" Tyson glanced at the various sheep surrounding them, which were glancing in their direction with partial fear and partial hunger. She hoped the fear overpowered the craving for human snacks long enough for them to hightail it out of this godsforsaken island, Fleece in tow.
"In the tree! The gold one!" Percy pointed it out.
"Oh. Pretty. Yes." Tyson carefully stepped around the sheep. They must have thought he was Polyphemus (although she was relieved to sniff that he definitely kept much better hygiene), because they left him almost entirely alone, other than a few who seemed to be hoping for treats. He wandered over to the fleece, plucking it from the tree.
The effects were immediate. The island started dying, first around the base of the tree, then spreading around the grass in a circle that kept increasing in size. The leaves around the oak tree turned yellow. The lush green grass became dark brown, and Mari was pretty sure if she tried to sit down, it wouldn't tickle her fingers anymore. It might make her bleed, though.
Tyson tossed the Fleece over to Percy, who caught it with a grunt and immediately spread it over Annabeth. He closed his eyes and mumbled something under his breath. She realised Percy was praying to the gods.
Mari followed his lead, clasping her hands under her ribs and squeezing her eyes shut.
Hi, Apollo. Uh, Dad. Do you mind if I call you Dad? Since you are, you know... My Dad.
Can you please, please heal Annabeth... crap, I can't remember her last name. Uh, I'm sure you can find her, right? Please. Think of it as my first Birthday present. And my second. And my third. And my fourth. And... you get the picture, right? Even if I don't exactly know when my birthday is, I still get presents, right? Right?
Annabeth didn't move.
She sighed.
Then the colour began to return to Annabeth's face. Her head wound started literally knitting together. It was actually kind of horrifying to watch.
And, even if she wanted to pretend, she knew it wasn't because of anything her father had done. The timing didn't match up, she didn't know how she knew, but she had a feeling Apollo's favours were supposed to be instantaneous. And, Mari just felt it, inside her. Her father hadn't been listening.
Tyson started struggling with the demon sheep. The ones who had already been sniffing him were starting to get more and more insistent. The ones who hadn't been sniffing him were starting to.
"Down!" He called. "No, sheepies!" Tyson called as they started advancing towards the others for a consolation meal. "This way, come here!"
"Tyson," Percy called. "Can you lead the flock as far away as possible?"
Tyson looked conflicted. "The sheep want food."
Percy nodded. "I know! They want people food! Just lead them far away from the path. Give us time to get to the beach. Then join us there."
Tyson nervously nodded, before turning to the sheep and whistling. "Come, sheepies! Um, people food this way!" The sheep eagerly followed him as he jogged to the meadow.
"Keep the fleece around you, just in case you're not fully healed yet. Can you stand?" Percy asked Annabeth. She tried , but her face twsited in pain and she sagged. Mari caught her before she could crumple into a heap.
"Ohh. Not fully healed," Annabeth mumbled.
Clarisse took Annabeth from Mari. "Ribs broken," Clarisse said. "They're mending, but definitely broken."
"How can you tell?" Percy asked.
Clarisse glowered. "Because I've broken a few, runt! I'll have to carry her."
"Are you okay to carry her?" Mari asked.
Percy winced, and Mari realised she'd probably said something stupid.
"Who do you think I am, smartass? Some wimp? Shut up and don't get in my way!"
Mari frowned. She hadn't meant it rudely, and she thought it was a fair question... People were pretty heavy, after all. She knew that because she had to carry Jean to the couch a crap ton of times when she got too drunk and passed out on her kitchen floor.
Clarisse lugged Annabeth down to the beach, and they followed along. Mari stopped when she got to the water.
Shit. We were swimming?!
"Incoming!" Tyson yelled. They turned around to see him sprinting towards them at top speed, being chased by a ton of very hungry and angry looking sheep. She would have laughed had she not been directly in their field of vision. It looked like something out of a Tom and Jerry special.
"They probably won't follow us into the water. All we have to do is swim for the ship," Percy said urgently.
Mari shook her head. "I can't!"
Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Now is not the time to lose your nerve, smartass. What was that talk about 'Can you carry her' earlier, if you chicken out at this?"
Mari glared at her openly. "I can't swim, idiot. And don't call me a smartass!"
Percy pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Stop, both of you! Look, Clarisse, can you please carry Annabeth and Marion to the ship?" He looked horrified to find himself as the voice of reason. Mari got the feeling he didn't take on that responsibility too often.
Clarisse scoffed indignantly. "Of course I can. I'm strong enough, unlike some people."
Mari was tempted to push her into the ocean right then and there, consequences be damned. She exorcised self-restraint.
Clarisse roughly grabbed her wrist, her muscles flexing as she did so. Mari's face went beet red. They had just got past the entrance to the ravine, when a huge angry roar caused them all to turn back.
Polyphemus was holding a rock in each hand, glaring at them as they made their great escape. Was he un-killable? How did he survive that fall? Mari really hoped neither of those rocks were the same rock that had been in his mouth.
"You'd think he'd run out of rocks," Percy muttered to himself.
"Swim for it!" Grover yelped, diving into the water.
Clarisse leapt headfirst into the ocean, dragging Mari behind her without a word, so Mari got a mouthful of saltwater before she was able to get her head above the surface.
Mari hated to admit it, but Clarisse had been right. She really was a powerhouse. Grover had gotten a slight head start, but even with two people to keep hold of, Clarisse overtook him in less than a minute. Annabeth tried to paddle weakly with one hand, and Mari kicked with her legs. The only problem was, she accidentally kicked Clarisse's ankle, causing the older girl to swear at her, so Mari stopped. She couldn't even bring herself to be angry, it was obvious Clarisse was doing all the real work anyway.
Clarisse had Annabeth climb up first, waiting to catch her if she fell. Then Mari went. Finally, Clarisse clambered onto deck, shaking her head to get the water out like a dog would. It splashed all over Mari, and she was pretty sure it was intentional.
"So, smartass." Clarisse crossed her arms. "Anything you'd like to add?"
Mari gritted her teeth. "You were right. I'm sorry," she said it in a tone she'd usually use for calling people rude names, but she didn't care.
"Damn right, you're sorry. The nerve..." Clarisse muttered the last part.
"Look!" Grover stumbled over the rope ladder onto the deck, pointing behind him.
Polyphemus was screaming from the shore as Tyson and Percy rode a wave towards the ship, unnoticed by his one eye.
Mari nearly squealed in delight. They'd done it. The fleece was around Annabeth's shoulders, and they were leaving the island. With no casualties. Now they just had to get back across the sea of monsters...
Of course, Clarisse had to go and ruin it. "Yeah, Jackson! In your face, Cyclops!"
Shutupshutthefuckupwhatareyoudoingyouidiot.
Polyphemus threw the boulder, narrowly missing Percy and Tyson. Maybe Clarisse would realise she'd caused that, and stop-
"Yeah, yeah! You throw like a wimp! Teach you to try marrying me, you idiot!"
Mari guessed not.
Polyphemus threw a boulder, this time with deadly accuracy. It smashed into the middle of the deck, completely shattering the boat.
She managed one breathe before she was submerged in saltwater. She didn't know why, but for some reason, her hand grabbed onto a coin that spilled out from an open barrel. It was like breathing. Mari wasn't even aware of what her body was doing.
Her head hit something.
I hate you, Clarisse La Rue, was Marion Carter's last thought as she lost consciousness.
Marion was dreaming again. How she knew this? Anybody's guess. Probably a demigod thing. This dream was different from the others. She was smaller, more squishy...
Mari tried to say something, but the only thing which came out was jumbled baby gibberish.
She looked down in horror, seeing herself in an ugly-looking toddler dress, covered in garish pictures of smiley-faces and suns.
A woman, in front of her, laughed.
"Can you Say Mama, Frankie?"
"No. I don't have a Mum."
Well, that was what she had tried to say. What actually came out of her mouth was: "M...Fwaaaa!"
Mari was lying in on a pillow on the ground, in a room with pretty white walls. A different laugh came from behind her.
"She called you a fake, Mom!" a little kid laughed.
The woman scowled playfully. "Young man, are you saying your sister thinks I'm a fake? Or do you still want to go get ice cream after you finish your homework?"
There was a scrambling sound, and Mari gurgled. The woman smiled and bopped her on the nose, as the boy called out. "No! You're not a fake! And I've finished my homework now, look! I even did the extra question at the end!"
There was a knock on the door, and the woman sighed. "I'll get it, put your shoes on. Look after your sister whilst I'm gone, okay? Then we'll go to Baskin-Robbins."
Mari heard her footsteps walking away, and about a minute later, a face appeared over her. "Hi, Frankie!" The boy beamed down at the pillow. "I'm going to ask Mom to get you ice cream, too. But you have to be good, okay? Mom's all about only feeding you healthy food right now, she read some baby book saying it was better for you or whatever. Mashed carrots, bleh."
He started putting even uglier shoes, vile things in a sickly shade of green, on Mari's feet. "I'm going to ask her to get you birthday cake flavour, obviously. Never listen to what Mom tells you. It's the best one."
"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
A door slammed, and Mari started crying. Well, baby Mari started crying. She didn't have a bloody clue who 'Frankie' was. But the little boy, he looked familiar, somehow... she couldn't place him, but she'd met him before. Somehow.
The boy shushed her. "Hey, don't cry! It was probably just a creepy neighbour or something. Nothing bad, I swear."
The woman walked back in, visibly shaken. Her face was pinched in anger, and she was clutching a golden letter in her hand. She strode across the room, without a word, and slammed the offending note into the paper shredder.
The boy glanced at her. "Was that..." He trailed off, and the woman plastered a smile on her face. It didn't have the same carefree feeling as it had before the visitor came and left.
"Your father? Yes. Don't worry about it, sweetie. How about we get three scoops of ice cream tonight?"
The boy cheered as he finished with the next shoe and then picked not-Mari up, spinning her around in a circle and laughing as he did so. "Yeah! And for Frankie!"
The woman frowned. "Honey, you know I'm trying to keep her on healthy food until she's old enough to ask for ice cream as much as you do."
The boy put not-Mari back onto the pillow and pouted, giving her puppy-dog eyes. Mari had to admit, they were adorable. Had she been that woman, she probably would have caved, too. She sighed, smiling down at the five-year old. She didn't know how she knew he was five .
"One scoop, okay? And then you don't complain when I serve you asparagus for dinner." She looked like she already knew it was a lost cause.
The boy grinned. "No promises!"
The woman walked over, scooping not-Mari up into her arms. She clutched not-Mari more tightly then she ever had before. "It will be okay, sweet baby. It will all be okay."
It sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince not-Mari.
Marion woke up wrapped in something warm, in a moving vehicle.
"Hey! Smartass! Get up, we'll be at the airport soon!"
She groaned, blinking as she woke up. Not from the light. That didn't effect her. But she couldn't stop thinking about that dream.
The woman was a total stranger. Mari felt nothing when she looked at her, other than a mild annoyance for putting her in such ugly clothes. But the boy... she knew him. She knew she knew him. She just had absolutely no idea how she knew she knew him.
And who the Hades was Frankie?
"Hey! Earth to Marion!" Clarisse waved a hand in front of her face, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Wait, weren't they supposed to be busy drowning? Where were Annabeth, Percy, Grover and Tyson? Were they... were they the only ones left?
"What happened?" Her voice was hoarse, either from fear or the fact that she nearly drowned in saltwater thanks to the girl in front of her.
Mari's head was pounding.
"Percy and Tyson rescued us, and their hippocampi brought us to Miami. They let me take the fleece - and you - back to camp. They're finding another way there."
Her heart stopped.
The warm blanket she was wearing? She was wearing the golden fleece, like an accessory.
They were in the mortal world? As in, away from the sea of monsters? Away from any islands with evil megalomaniac sorceresses? She was... going back to camp? Safe? Not dead?
Mari swallowed. "Thank.. thankyou." This time, nobody had swords poised at her when she tried to thank them.
"It's fine," Clarisse said. "I guess. I didn't do it for you, anyway. I did it to fulfil the prophecy."
Mari frowned. "What prophecy?"
Clarisse sighed, before reciting it.
"You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone,
You shall find what you seek and make it your own,
But despair for your life entombed within stone,
And fail without friends, to fly home to atone."
Mari nodded to herself, thinking through the prophecy line by line.
First, Clarisse apparently had her own ship. Granted, it had been destroyed but it was still hers. Mari didn't ask what the 'warriors of bone' part meant, even though she wasn't sure. But the second line was easy: Clarisse had definitely found the Fleece. For line three, Polyphemus had trapped Clarisse in his cave with the intent of forcing her into marriage. But line four? To fly home to atone? What could that possibly be referring to?
"What does that last line mean?" Mari asked.
Clarisse refused to say another word to her after that.