Buried Treasure

Chapter Six

She's going to fall. Straight into the sea. She needs to stop standing there. In those boots too. Oh gods Annabeth get off the bloody mast! Percy's mind couldn't hence these thoughts as he looked upon the captain, who was standing on the helm with a handheld telescope in her glove hands looking out along the crystal clean blue mass.

"Lad Percy rig the sails to the starboard side!" Jason commands from the upper deck. "Aye! Aye!" Was Percy's response before he began his journey up the mast to the sails. His hands flew over the ropes as the cream colored sails whipped around him. With one final pull the sail springs into position. A grin of pride spreads across Percy's tanned face. It soon vanished when the ship jerked violently to one side.

"Kraken!" Annabeth screamed as her body hurled against the deck. Again another jerk of the ship and a slimy tentacle shot into the air. Sea water oozed down its suction cupped sea weed colored flesh. Crew members hurried about with weapons from cannons to muskets to swords. The kraken attacked the ship again and it's tentacles hit the deck with a rubbery thud. Wood cracked as one leg wrapped around the mast. "Fire!" Annabeth called as she saw a figure fall from the riggings. Percy. The cannons went off as did the guns in one loud Boom! All aimed at the sea creature, that all men feared.

As tentacles flew by, Percy and Leo stabbed and slashed left and right spilling black tinted blood. Cannon fire and gun shots went off but the roar of the beast was enough for the men to cover their ears in pain. It sounded as if their ear drums were being slammed with cannon balls and then shot with muskets. A cry from a kraken was enough to make any sailor faint.

"Arm the cannons! Aim for the mouth!" Percy looked to see Annabeth stabbing in every direction with impossible speed. Percy was sure he was staring. Her movements were graceful and somehow angelic, but sided with a fierce frightfulness. More of the ship cracked under the weight of the monster, snapping Percy out of his thoughts. As each cannon went off the beast thrust his tentacles on the ship searching for a victim to embark to Davy jones locker.

Things happened so fast Percy could only see blurs. A tentacle wrapped around his leg and yanked him down. His head hit the deck with a bone cracking thud, which left him seeing stars. "Percy!" Jason called as the monster dragged him across the blood stained deck to the starboard side. His sword was somewhere amide the chaos as more parts of the ship. All Percy could do was smell the saltiness of the sea and the iron of the blood.

In an arc of a silver, Annabeth brought down her blade in a blinding speed. Slicing the tentacle tip, which was attached Percys ankle, clean in half. Blood spurts out and a howl of pain erupted from the sea demon. All Percy saw was a concerned pair of grey eyes and a whip of vomit colored flesh. Before she could dodge, Annabeth was sent flying  and crashing through the wooden grate, disappearing below deck.

With another cannon fire, the kraken howled and slipped back into the sea leaving a coat of stench upon the Argo ll. They had lost two crew members, Thomas and Xander. But Percy wasn't focused on that, or the destruction of the Argo ll. He was focused on the black blood spattered broken grate which Annabeth had been sucked down into.

"Did we kill it?" Frank asked wiping the blood from his face. The entire crew looked upon the damage to their once beautiful ship. Repairs would need to be in order for their voyage to continue. The crew was filthy but standing together.

"No, we only made it mad.." All heads turned to Annabeth, who was hatless and her blonde hair was damp with blood. Her blood. Percys body seemed to react before his mind, for when Annabeth paled and her knees gave out, Percy was there to catch her. She was lighter than expected in his arms.