22. I'm a Sheep, and No, I'm Not in Denial

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1st Person
Adira

Then the Cyclops whistled, and a mixed flock of goats and sheep—smaller than the man-eaters—flooded out of the cave and past their master

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Then the Cyclops whistled, and a mixed flock of goats and sheep—smaller than the man-eaters—flooded out of the cave and past their master. As they went to pasture, Polyphemus patted some on the back and called them by name—Beltbuster, Tammany, Lockhart, etc. When the last sheep had waddled out, Polyphemus rolled a boulder in front of the doorway as easily as I would close a refrigerator door, shutting off the sound of Clarisse and Grover screaming inside.

"Mangos," Polyphemus grumbled to himself. "What are mangos?"

He strolled off down the mountain in his baby-blue groom's outfit, leaving us alone with a pot of boiling water and a six-ton boulder.

We tried for what seemed like hours, but it was no good. The boulder wouldn't move. We yelled into the cracks, tapped on the rock, did everything we could think of to get a signal to Grover, but if he heard us, we couldn't tell.

Even if by some miracle we managed to kill m Polyphemus, it wouldn't do us any good. Grover and Clarisse would die inside that sealed cave. The only way to move the rock was to have the Cyclops do it.

In total frustration, I stabbed Alcaeus against the boulder. Sparks flew, but nothing else happened. A large rock is not the kind of enemy you can fight with a magic sword. Percy, Annabeth and I sat on the ridge in despair and watched the distant baby-blue shape of the Cyclops as he moved among his flocks.

He had wisely divided his regular animals from his man-eating sheep, putting each group on either side of the huge crevice that divided the island. The only way across was the rope bridge, and the planks were much too far apart for sheep hooves.

We watched as Polyphemus visited his carnivorous flock on the far side. Unfortunately, they didn't eat him. In fact, they didn't seem to bother him at all.

"Trickery," Annabeth decided. "We can't beat him by force, so we'll have to use trickery."

"Okay," I said. "What trick?"

"I haven't figured that part out yet."

"Great."

"Polyphemus will have to move the rock to let the sheep inside."

"At sunset," Percy said. "Which is when he'll marry Clarisse and have Grover for dinner. I'm not sure which is grosser."

"I could get inside," she said, "invisibly."

"What about me?"

"The sheep," I mused. I gave Percy one of those sly looks that always made my brothers wary. "How much do you like sheep?"

🌙

"Just don't let go!" Annabeth said. Annabeth was somewhere invisible to my right. Percy was dangling from a sheep. Meanwhile, I was a sheep. Annabeth pet my fleece.

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