Children of The Big Three Book 2: The Sea of Monsters

Chapter Seventeen: What Now?

Percy woke up tied to a piece of wood.

He was just kinda there, attached to some rope, and was being tugged along by a makeshift raft of wood and vine. He could hear the sounds of a female struggling; and the sound of a paddle splashing against water. When the Son of Poseidon gathered the strength to look up, the first thing he noticed was Thalia's Spear, and how it glimmered in the harsh sunlight. Naturally, that got Percy just the smallest bit excited, and without warning, he hoisted himself up onto the small raft, barely his length laterally. As soon as he left the water, however, his chest began to hurt like Hades. It seemed that the time he had spent in the water water was not enough to mend whatever damage he had taken. The pain was so intense, he could feel himself begin to black out again, which he was getting real tired of doing. Percy opened his mouth, he wanted to tell her he was sorry. Sorry for being so useless, sorry for not being able to save their friends, sorry for suggesting going back to his mom. He wanted to tell her that if she needed him here he would be here, and he wanted to let her know that they'd get the Fleece, that this would all mean something, that their friends and family didn't die for no reason. To say that if they needed to, they'd go down to Hades himself and get them back! All that he managed was:

"Thals, I-"

Before darkness claimed him again. The next he woke he was in a slightly different predicament. He wasn't sure how long he'd been out, but his chest felt a lot better. Percy still wasn't wearing a shirt, because Scylla, but there were bandages around his chest at least. Which struck him as a little odd, he didn't remember bringing any with them; but now really wasn't the time for that kind of questioning. The next thing he noticed was that he was being nursed. His chest, every so often, was given a handful of seawater, and the process did seem to be helping, though the mending of whatever he had totally messed up would take a bit of time. His hair; and this part surprised him, was being pet. A gentle hand caressed and fluffed his hair, which he had to admit felt rather nice. After a second, however, a realization came to him. In order for this position to be possible, he'd have to be.. It was then that Percy realized that his head, was in fact; on the woman's lap. Percy tried to open his eyes, but the glare from the sun was to much at the moment. So he merely chuckled with his eyes closed.

"This is a little out of character, don't ya think?"

A voice, much to soft and kind to be Thalia, answered him.

"Really? I know I'm not a registered nurse or anything, but I thought I was doing a pretty good job."

Percy forced his eyes open, even though sunlight heavily blocked his vision. The woman saw him struggle, and moved her head to block the sun from his line of sight. It was then that Percy finally got a good look at her face.

"Silena?"

Silena Beauregard nodded, "The one and only."

The Son of Poseidon couldn't help but let out a sigh, whether of relief or disappointment, he couldn't tell. Maybe both. "I'm glad you're safe, Silena." His voice implies that there was a 'but' that he wanted to add, but he wasn't selfish enough to say something like that.

"But you were hoping for Thalia, am I right?"

Percy hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Are they..?"

It was Silena's turn to sigh, "I don't know, Percy. While you were fighting Scylla, things got nuts on the ship. Engines were over worked, started bursting into flames. Tyson said he'd do his best to keep it running; but Thalia got impatient after she saw you hit the water. She demanded that we make it over to you to help. Beckendorf told her it wasn't possible, that they had to focus on getting away from Charybodis, or we'd all die. Well, let's just say Thalia was less then pleased with that, Charlie and her got into a pretty bad argument; then the engine blew. Nico told her that we didn't have a choice, and she had to use: Hermes' gift."