As the Queen Anne's Revenge sailed towards the shore, Mari got a better view of the island. If she held her hand over the creepy rope bridge, it was a scene right out of a catfish holiday brochure. The air even smelled sweet, like coconuts.

"The fleece." Annabeth's eyes fixated on the island.

Mari couldn't see the fleece yet, but if it made the island this beautiful... whatever state Camp was in, it had to be able to fix it, right?

"If we take it away, will the island die?" Percy asked.

Mari frowned. Why did it matter? According to what they'd told Mari, Polyphemus had been using it to lure Satyrs to their deaths. Wouldn't that be a good thing?

Annabeth shook her head. "It'll fade. Go back to what it would be normally, whatever that is."

Mari nodded to herself. She would have actually preferred the island's death, but fading seemed fair.

"Baaaaaa!"

"What was that?! Was it a monster?!" Mari put one hand over her wrist, ready to draw Drys.

"No, it's just a field of grazing... sheep..." Annabeth trailed off as her vision zeroed in on something above the abnormally large sheep in question.

Mari followed Annabeth's line of sight and stilled, her hands falling to her sides. At the top of the hill with the sheep, there was a huge Oak tree. Mari swallowed, her hand brushing against her bracelet again. But that wasn't what caught most of her attention.

Glittering between the tree's branches was the golden fleece.

"This is too easy. We could just hike up there and take it?" Percy crossed his arms with a pensive expression on his face.

"Could you make a really big wave?" Mari asked.

Percy shook his head. "No. We still need to save Grover. And Polyphemus would probably notice."

Annabeth frowned. "That, and there's supposed to be a guardian. A dragon or..."

A deer trotted into the clearing, probably looking for a drink. Mari wondered if it had any children, like Bambi! That would be adorable... Quicker than Mari could blink, the sheep surrounded the poor deer. There were several sharp screams, and little clumps of fur flew into the air. At last, the sheep retreated, leaving a pile of clean bones where the deer had been standing.

Part of Mari wanted to throw up. The other part of her kept thinking of Bambi, seeing his mother dying. Her head span.

"They're like piranhas." Annabeth looked as disgusted as Mari felt. Mari made a silent pledge that if she ever survived this without becoming sheep food, she was definitely going vegan.

"Piranhas with wool. How will we-"

"Percy, Marion, look!" Annabeth pointed out a small lifeboat bobbing up and down in the waves.

Mari frowned. "What am I looking at?" she asked. She'd figured it was just some unlucky long-dead Satyrs boat or something.

"It's Clarisse's boat. If it's here, she might still be alive!" Annabeth looked giddy as she answered.

Percy swallowed. "Do you think that could mean..." He trailed off.

Annabeth didn't answer him, and Mari didn't even know what he was asking so she wasn't much help either.

Annabeth wanted to try and sneak up in her invisibility cap (because apparently she had a baseball cap that made her invisible) but Percy convinced her not to. Mari still wanted to explore the giant wave idea, mainly because at least then they could attempt to get to Grover without worrying about the whole fleece business, but a wave that big would take up too much of Percy's energy.

Percy moored the ship and they rowed a little lifeboat to shore. It was a tight fit with three of them, and Mari nearly fell out twice but Annabeth managed to grab her in time. Then came the part Mari was dreading.

So far during the trip, Mari had been held at knifepoint twice, nearly drowned, and had been attacked by snakes in her sleep. She really had hoped that if there was going to be any other near death experience, it would be at the hands of a monster. She figured that held a higher chance of getting to Elysium than falling off a cliff. And she'd never even attempted to climb the lava wall at camp before Luke decided to go all trigger-happy with the kidnapping! She had no experience...

Annabeth was the most experienced climber, so she went first. Percy followed. Then, it was Mari's turn.

She swallowed and hiked up her chiton, tying it just above the middle of her thigh, and grabbed the same rock Annabeth and Percy had both used as a base.

It wasn't that she was scared of heights. When she was little she used to fantasise about skydiving (not that she ever would now. She didn't think she'd done anything in particular to piss off Zeus, but from what she'd heard he seemed a little temperamental). The problem was that even an experienced freestyle rock climber would probably have an existential crisis when faced with this. And Mari was a fifteen-year-old in a ten year's old's body - or, well, was she? What was she, exactly? How old, inside and out? She no longer knew. She felt like she'd both grown too much and not at all. But what she was certain of was that she wasn't a freestyle rock climber.

She finally made it to the top, after nearly using a seagull nest as a handhold. Her instincts really pulled through there. Percy had some kind of red mark on his face and his nose didn't look broken, but seemed a little squished. Mari decided not to ask.

"Grrrrrrr!" A voice bellowed from somewhere below the other side of the cliff.

"Please tell me one of you just has a really bad stomachache." Mari whispered. Both of them shook their heads. Annabeth held a hand over Percy's mouth and the three of them crouched down on the narrow ledge facing the valley.

"You're a feisty one!" the Cyclops bellowed.

Mari had never seen a Cyclops before, but she knew he was one because he only had one eye. This must have been Polyphemus. He was wearing some kind of gods-awful mix between a handful of baby-blue wedding suits and a kilt, all horribly knitted together. Mari figured he probably liked it, but all she could imagine was Drew staring at him with a look of pure horror.

"Challenge me! Give me back my sword and I'll fight you!" a girl yelled. Mari thought it was a little useless given that the girl was tied up like a piece of meat at a butchers, over a smoking pot. She shuddered.

Next to the pot was a Satyr in a wedding dress, shaking in fear. Like, visually shaking. She was surprised he could even stand.

"Hmm. Eat loudmouth girl now or wait for wedding feast? What does my bride think?" Polyphemus turned to the Satyr.

Mari remembered. Satyr in a wedding dress. This had to be Grover!

"Did you say bride? Who— Grover?" The girl over the cooking pot sounded incredulous.

Maris heart dropped. She was going to get the poor guy killed if she wasn't careful!

"Shut up. She has to shut up." Annabeth muttered.

Polyphemus growled at the girl. "What 'Grover'?"

"The satyr!" she yelled, as if it were obvious.

"This is so bad." Mari whispered.

"Oh! The poor thing's brain is boiling from all that smoke! Pull her down, dear!"

Mari had to hand it to Grover. It was a valiant effort. Had it been her, she might have just shrivelled up and died. But it was too late.

"What Satyr? Satyrs are good eating. You bring me Satyr?"

Mari buried her head in her hands as the girl replied, "No, you big idiot! That Satyr! Grover! The one in the wedding dress?"

Mari banged her head against the rock in frustration. Why?! Did that girl not possess a single, solitary brain cell?

The monster marched over to Grover and ripped off the veil, revealing him in all his Satyr-y glory. Polyphemus went a very concerning shade of red, and Mari wondered if all the people-eating had given him issues with constipation.

"I don't see very well. Not since the other hero stabbed me in eye. But YOU'RE—NO—LADY—CYCLOPS!" Each between each word, a bit of saliva flew from Polyphemus's mouth, and Mari wouldn't have blamed Grover if he threw up all over the Cyclops' wedding... thing.

"Stop! Don't eat me raw! I— I have a good recipe!" Grover was just in his jeans and orange shirt now.

Polyphemus has been about to smash Grover's brains in, but he paused mid throw, the bolder still in his hand. "Recipe?"

Grover nodded frantically. "O-Oh yes! You don't want to eat me raw. You'll get E. Coli and Botulism and all sorts of horrible things. I'll taste much better grilled over a slow fire. With mango chutney! You could go get some mangoes right now, down there in the woods. I'll just wait right here."

Mari got a horrible feeling. She didn't know why, but she had to move. She slowly inched up but was stopped by Percy, yanking her back down. "What the Hades are you doing?" he hissed.

Mari shook her head. "I don't know, it's my instincts, I have to-"

Polyphemus dropped the boulder.

It fell to the ground, making a huge crack in the mountain, all the way up. Up to where Mari was sitting.

She slipped and fell over the edge.

"Aaahhh!" she screamed.

She caught a glimpse of Percy and Annabeth staring at her in horror before they disappeared from view.

This is it, world. Not gonna lie, you really were not very fun. Please let me get Elysium, please let me get Elysium, please let me get—

Two huge, meaty hands yanked her out of thin air.

"Eef!" was her intelligent reply.

"Who is you? You a Satyr?" Polyphemus grabbed her by the scruff of her neck like she was a dog.

She gagged. His breath stank. What had he been eating? — Oh, yeah. People.

"N-no. I'm Marion."

Polyphemus frowned. "You a Marion?" he asked.

Had she not been in such a dangerous situation, she would have facepalmed. Instead, she gagged again.

Polyphemus frowned.

"What you doing?" he asked.

Mari froze and didn't say anything.

Polyphemus roared and shook her. "WHAT-YOU-DOING?!"

"I'mreallysorryyourbreathisawfulpleasedon'teatme!" she squeaked.

Polyphemus frowned. "My... breath...bad?" he asked, like he couldn't comprehend the words.

Mari nodded. "Yes! I'm sorry! It's not your fault, I mean, technically you could stop eating people but you also probably don't have a toothbrush and-"

He shook her again to get her to stop talking.

"What is this 'toothbrush'?" he asked.

Mari gagged again before answering. "It's something you use to clean your teeth, so that they don't-"

She stopped when she saw his mouth. It was completely devoid of teeth. Well, there were little stumps, where teeth had probably been... thousands of years ago.

"And this helps teeth?" Polyphemus asked.

"Y-yes?" It came out as more of a question.

"You get me toothbrush?" Polyphemus asked.

Mari decided not to breathe in the smell anymore. She just shut her mouth and nodded. He must have seen her through his one eye, since he threw her over his shoulder like a sack of eggs.

"Grilled Satyr with mango chutney." He happily tossed Grover on top of her.

"Oof!" Mari squealed at the added weight.

"Sorry..." Grover bleated above her.

"And toothbrush!" Polyphemus looked at the girl. "You a Satyr too?" he asked.

"No, you overgrown pile of dung!" she yelled.

"You a Marion?"

The girl struggled against the ropes. "I'm a girl! Clarisse La Rue, Daughter of Ares! Now untie me so I can rip your arms off!"

Ohhhhh. That was Clarisse. That explained a lot.

"Rip my arms off," Polyphemus echoed.

"And stuff them down your throat!" Clarisse added.

"You've got spunk," Polyphemus said.

"Let me down!"

Polyphemus shifted Grover to his other shoulder. "Have to graze sheep now with the Marion. Wedding postponed until tonight. Then we'll eat grilled Satyr for the main course!"

"But... You're still getting married? Who's the bride?" Did Grover sound... hurt? That was not good. Could Satyrs get Stockholm syndrome? Mari would have to look it up later.

Polyphemus looked towards the boiling pot.

Mari gagged again, this time for reasons other than the breath.

Clarisse made a sound like a dying animal. "Oh, no! You can't be serious! I'm not-"

Polyphemus plucked her off the rope and tossed her and Grover into a cave at the side of the valley, rolling a huge stone over the entrance. "Make yourself comfortable! I fetch mangoes with the Marion and come back at sundown for big event!"

Mari wanted to cry. How the fuck did she even get here?!

"Mangoes. What are Mangoes?" Polyphemus asked her.

Was he an idiot? How was she supposed to reply? She hadn't seen a single bloody mango anywhere on the damned island but he must have been thinking of Grover's recipe for mango chutney. He lifted his hand up, and if he was about to shake her, and she thought fast.

"Uh, there! Those are mangoes!" She pointed to a banana plant.

Polyphemus hummed a wedding tune as he plucked several unripe 'mangoes' from their places. Mari did not want to know where he'd had the time to memorise the tune to 'here comes the bride'. Well, he was actually very out of tune, but she wasn't about to correct him.

"These good for breath?" Polyphemus waved a banana in her face and she resisted the urge to throw it at him. How the fuck was she supposed to know?

"Uh, yes!" She stuttered a little as she answered him. He patted her head like she was a three year old, which was probably going to give her a forehead bruise at some point.

"Good! Eat grilled Satyr with mango chutney and have good breath!" Polyphemus shook as he laughed and Mari clung on for dear life.

"Now sheepies!" Polyphemus announced after he had what looked like five plants worth of Bananas on his belt.

Mari didn't want to look in that area, but silently thanked the gods that the belt stayed in place.

He fed the non-threatening sheep first. It wasn't actually that scary (other than the whole man-eating Cyclops thing), since he just used some kind of grain and the sheep were pretty cute. There was even a little baby lamb with its parents.

Mari had to bite her tongue to stop herself from screaming in fear as Polyphemus bounded over the rope bridge. For a Cyclops who had managed to invade a wedding dress store without getting caught, he was horribly uncoordinated.

Polyphemus kept the normal sheep and the people-eating sheep separated, for obvious reasons. Mari wondered if he learned that lesson from experience, since he didn't seem smart enough to think ahead. Where did Polyphemus even get the sheep in the first place?

He got to the other side of the cavern and started whistling the wedding march out of tune again. He produced a wicker basket from somewhere on his person (Mari did not ask) and pulled out little clumps of some kind of slimy mystery meat. Mari had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from puking all over the sheep because as bad as Polyphemus's breath was, this stuff was worse.

Mari swallowed and looked away.

That's it. I'm never eating another animal product again.

Then he got to the cannibal sheep.

They technically weren't even proper cannibals, since that would involve eating other sheep. But that didn't matter much to Mari, because they wanted to eat her.

Polyphemus was halfway through feeding one with particularly large teeth when it launched up on it's back legs and dug its teeth into Mari's lower calf.

"Ah!" she didn't have time to try and get it off, since Polyphemus yanked the sheep away and threw it to the ground.

"Bad Floppy! The Marion teach Polyphemus about teethbrush! No more food for you!"

Polyphemus left the cannibal-sheep meadow, bounding back over the bridge to the normal sheep and setting Mari down on a rock. She resisted the urge to bolt away immediately. He was faster than she was, and her leg was hurt. He'd just catch her and then probably get mad and eat her with Grover.

Mari glanced at her leg and saw a very big bite mark. Somehow, it was numb. She wasn't sure how much longer that would last, though. Polyphemus distracted her by patting her on the head, which surprisingly didn't give her blunt force trauma.

"Do not worry Marion. Polyphemus will get rid of leg so that you can help with teeth."

Mari nearly vaulted herself off the rock when she realised he was raising a huge club over her left calf, preparing to swing.

"No!" She held out a hand in front of her face, as if that would somehow block the club from swinging.

Polyphemus looked confused. "No?" he asked.

Mari tried to think of an excuse but couldn't come up with anything. A muffled angry yell came from the cave, loud enough that she could hear it across the field.

"...Don't you want to focus on your big day? My leg can wait, uh, you just, you have fun preparing for the wedding." Mari plastered a huge smile across her face and gave him a shaky thumbs up. Her leg was shaking now and starting to throb, and she was pretty sure she was losing blood. A lot of blood. The rock was very red. Some of it was starting to soak into her Chiton, which had been pretty clean up to that point.

Polyphemus frowned, then nodded. "The Marion is right! Polyphemus prepare for big day!" Then he noticed the sheep. "Sheepies need to stay inside for wedding!" He plucked Mari off the rock again and set her on his shoulder.

Polyphemus moved the rock out of the way of the cave and began herding the sheep inside. Mari wondered why Grover and Clarisse didn't try and escape, but then remembered that Clarisse was tied up.

"Oi! Goaties! Sheepies!" Polyphemus called, and Mari wondered if Polyphemus was just as bad as distinguishing between goats and sheep. There weren't any goats.

"Einstein!" Polyphemus patted the head of one of the sheep in the line, before moving on. "Widget-"

Polyphemus paused as he patted 'Widget'. Mari squinted down at the sheep. There was something off about it. She squinted and managed to make out a hand clamped around the fur of the sheep's shoulder...

It was Percy.

"Putting on some extra mutton there?" Polyphemus was the only one to laugh. "Go on, fatty. Soon Polyphemus will eat you for breakfast."

Mari really hoped that wasn't the case.

Polyphemus reached for the boulder that covered the cave, and Mari panicked. If he covered it, and Percy was trapped inside...

"Hey, Polyphemus, look!" Mari pointed up to the sky. Polyphemus squinted and frowned. "What?"

"The pretty cloud! It's shaped like... uh, like a sheep!" Polyphemus shook his head. "I see no sky sheepies..."

"Hello, ugly!" That was Annabeth.

In a shocking display of reflexes, Polyphemus whirled around to face... nothing.

There was nothing there.

Her baseball cap. Mari realised.

"Who said that?" Polyphemus narrowed his eyes as he searched different parts of the room, probably thinking someone was going to jump out from behind a rock or something.

"Nobody!" Annabeth yelled.

Polyphemus went still. Then he started shaking with rage. His face went red and his eye twitched.

"I remember you!" he roared.

Really? Because Mari had absolutely no idea what anyone was talking about.

"You're too stupid to remember anybody. Much less Nobody." Annabeth taunted back. Mari was even more confused. Was there an 'Anybody', too? Or was it just another dig at Polyphemus?

The ache in her leg had grown worse and Mari shuddered.

Polyphemus grabbed the nearest rock, which was the one previously covering the entrance, and threw it at the direction of Annabeth's voice. The movement caused Mari to fall off his back and he had to grab her to keep her from landing on the ground with a splat.

His fist wrapped around her entire stomach, cutting off her airways. Thank the gods her hands were free. Another problem was that he was cutting off the blood flow to her legs, too.

Mari held her breath at the silence. Had he gotten Annabeth? Please, say something... Mari thought.

"You haven't learned how to throw any better, either!"

Mari sagged in relief. Polyphemus evidently had a different opinion about that.

"Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!" He roared.

Annabeth laughed shakily. "You can't kill Nobody, you stupid oaf! Come find me!"

He tried.

Like, he seriously tried. Mari didn't think she'd ever seen anybody try so hard at anything, and she herself once spent five hours doodling a detailed illustration of Jean passed out on the couch. The drawing captured Jean just after a one-night-stand with some guy, and Mari had gleefully sent it to Jean's boyfriend Anton (Jean had put her headphones through the blender in retaliation).

Polyphemus rearranged the entire valley. He chucked boulder after boulder in his search, thinking Annabeth must be hiding behind one. All of them shattered on impact. Mari had to duck out of the way multiple times to avoid being hit on the head by boulder. At least he didn't have anything else to block off the cave...

Then Annabeth tripped.

"Ha!" Polyphemus made a grab for the sound and managed to get his hand around Annabeth's ankles, which caused the cap to fall off.

"No, wait!" Mari screamed, but Polyphemus either didn't hear her or what she said didn't register. Polyphemus shook Annabeth like a rag doll, causing her to cry out as her head nearly bashed against a rock in fear.

If somebody didn't do something, he was going to kill her...

"I got Nobody!" Polyphemus gloated as he shook his fist.

"Ha! Nasty invisible girl! Already got feisty one for wife, means you gotta be grilled with mango chutney!"

Mari had forgotten that Polyphemus was also a real creep.

Annabeth was trying to struggle, but Mari noticed a cut on her forehead. Maybe Polyphemus had banged her head on a rock after all. Her eyes were glazed over and she was sluggish as she thrashed.

Mari banged her fists on Polyphemus's arm. He may have been holding her so tightly that she was pretty sure she was going blue. No time like the present to try and make an escape, right?

Polyphemus shook Annabeth up and down and she shrieked. Mari was thankful he didn't hit Annabeth's head on another bloody (literally) rock.

"Hey, Ugly!"

Percy? Percy didn't have the cap, right? Mari looked back at the ground and it was still there.

Polyphemus whirled around to face Percy, which gave Mari whiplash. She had no idea how Annabeth must have felt... "Another one? Who are you?"

"Put down my friends. I'm the one who insulted you." Percy looked bloody terrified, though Mari probably wouldn't tell him that if they managed to somehow survive this. After all, she was kinda touched he'd included her in the 'friends' part.

"You are Nobody?" Polyphemus asked.

Percy nodded. "That's right, you smelly bucket of drool! Now, put them both down and get over here! I want to stab your eye out again." Mari was back to being confused. When had Percy ever stabbed out Polyphemus's eye?

"RAAAARR!" Polyphemus did two things.

One: He dropped Annabeth on her head. She crumpled to the ground and didn't move again. Mari didn't get to see any more of her before she was being used as a battering ram against Percy.

Mari shrieked. And shrieked. And shrieked. But he wouldn't stop. The good news was that nobody was attacking her. But the bad news was that Percy had to keep pushing her away without letting Polyphemus accidentally smash her brains against the rocks. Eventually he'd get tired, and Polyphemus would be able to kill him.

It was actually a pretty smart move. Mari hadn't realised Polyphemus had it in him. She would have been mildly impressed had she not been being used as a human weapon.

"Ow!"

Polyphemus grazed her entire shoulder on a rock, and Mari glanced down(which hurt). There were little pieces of rock in the wound which would do Mari no favours if it became infected, and it was starting to tingle, like the carpet burn to end all carpet burns. Only it was a rock burn. Mari didn't look much longer, mainly because Polyphemus had raised his fist to use her as a human club again.

Gods, what could she do? She had wriggled but Polyphemus had a really tight grip. She racked her brains but couldn't think of-

Drys.

Fuck, how had she completely forgotten about HER SWORD?!

And it was on the hand with the bad shoulder, too!

That sounded bad, but her sword would end up in the hand she used to clasp around it, so it was actually good!

Polyphemus was obviously too busy using her head to deal out some blind rage to notice her actually doing something about it. Mari managed to get her wrist around Drys, and pressed the charm.

It transformed, and Mari closed her eyes.

She was very, very out of practice. And that was if she even had any practice at all. She had been at camp for a week before Luke kidnapped her. It wasn't like she'd had extensive time to master anything. She'd considered using Drys against Circe, but she'd seen Circe turn a boy's battle-axe into a make-up brush. And it wasn't like she could have learned on Annabeth and Percy's boat. She'd been a little busy. Who even learned sword fighting on a boat, anyway? It wasn't possible.

But someone didn't need that much practice to swing, right?

Polyphemus smashed her head against Percy's forehead again, and as he was raising his hand, Mari closed her eyes.

She swung.

There was a pressure as the connection was made, but Mari kept going with the momentum from the swing. She heard a squelch sound, and then the pressure was gone. She kept going.

Then she was falling.

She hit the ground but something soft cushioned the blow.

Soft and... stinky. Like, really stinky.

She opened her eyes as a roaring sound reached her ears.

Polyphemus was clutching his arm to his chest, and golden powder dripped down his front.

Hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up. She stumbled into a standing position, and finally realised what had cushioned her fall...

She nearly threw up.

It was a hand. A freaking hand...

She'd cut off Polyphemus's hand.

I'm going on holiday, so I might not be able to update every day for the next couple of weeks. I'll still try to as often as possible :)