The Moon and the Stars || Heroes of Olympus

Chapter 10

I woke up slowly. I shook my head and tried to brush my hair from my face, but my arms refused to move. Then I realised, my arms must be tied down. I really looked around and saw that I was first of all upside down, my hair swinging around my face. Second, that Piper was awake and hanging next to me, and Jason looked fully unconscious. He had a large red welt on his forehead. Not good.

There were three large humanoid creatures standing around a cooking fire. Cyclopes.

"Leo, help!" Piper called.

I joined in. "Leoooooooooooo!" I called. "Leooooooooo, help us!"

If Leo was anywhere nearby, he didn't let us know. In hindsight, that was pretty smart, he probably would've been killed.

Piper called out again, less certainly this time. "Leo?"

Still no reply.

"Told you it was nothing," one of the Cyclopes said.

"Leo help us!" I called out. "Help - "

I was interrupted by another Cyclops. "Bah, there's nobody out there. Nobody could be so quiet."

The first Cyclops laughed. "Probably ran away, if they know what's good for them. Or the girls were lying about a fourth demigod. Let's get cooking."

Snap!

An emergency flare sizzled to life and I was temporarily blinded.

"Can I take their gags off now? I like it when they scream." One of the Cyclopes asked the leader Cyclops. I realised it was a female Cyclops.

One of the male Cyclopes glowered at us, waiting for us to do something funny, like screaming.

When Piper eventually spoke she sounded calm and reasonable. "Oh, Mr Cyclops, you don't want to kill us. It would be much better if you let us go."

I nodded desperately. "Yes Mr Cyclops, letting us go is a great idea."

We seemed to have him for a minute. He turned to his friend. "She's kinda pretty, Torque. Maybe we should let them go."

The two Cyclopes argued over who got to set us free.

The female one brought them to they're senses. Unfortunately. "Fools!" She stomped over to Sump and pushed him aside. Torque backed up quickly. "The girl is Venus spawn, idiots." The lady Cyclops snarled. "The pretty one's charmspeaking you two fools."

I started to speak. "Please ma'am - "

The woman roared in reply. "Don't try to sweet talk me, girl! I'm Ma Gasket! I've eaten tougher heroes than you for lunch!"

I snorted, and she started yelling at Sump about how stupid he was. I could agree. They kept arguing and I kinda zoned out.

"Idiot!" Ma Gasket yelled suddenly. I realised the male Cyclopes were her sons. "I should have thrown you out on the streets when you were babies, like proper Cyclopes. You might have learned some good skills. Curse my soft heart that I kept you!"

"Soft heart?" I muttered. Ma Gasket thought it was one of her sons.

"What was that, you ingrate?" She yelled at Torque.

"Nothing Ma," He said quickly, being so stupid he thought he actually said that. "I just said you've got a soft heart. We get to work for you, feed you, file your toenails - "

"And you should be grateful!" She bellowed. "Now stoke the fire, Torque! And Sump, you idiot, my case of salsa is in the other warehouse. Don't tell me you expect me to eat these demigods without salsa!"