Chapter 10

1.5K 54 45
                                    

Percy finally found something he was really good at. The Queen Anne's Revenge responded to his every command.

But now that they were out of danger, all he could think about was how much he missed Tyson, and how worried he was about Grover.

They sailed through the night.

Annabeth and Y/N tried to help him keep lookout, but sailing didn't agree with them. After a few hours rocking back and forth, their face turned the color of guacamole and went below to lie in a bed.

They watched the horizon. More than once they spotted monsters. A plume of water as tall as a skyscraper spewed into the moonlight. A row of green spines slithered across the waves-something maybe a hundred feet long, reptilian. Well, they didn't really want to know.

Sometime after midnight, Annabeth came up on deck. They were just passing a smoking volcano island. The sea bubbled and steamed around the shore.

"One of the forges of Hephaestus," Annabeth said. "Where he makes his metal monsters."

"Like the bronze bulls?"

She nodded. "Go around. Far around."

He didn't need to be told twice. They steered clear of the island, and soon it was just a red patch of haze behind them.

Percy looked at Y/N for a moment, maybe thinking if he should really brush on the topic. And decided to do it. He asked Annabeth, "The reason you hate Cyclopes so much ... the story about how Thalia really died. What happened?"

It was hard to see her expression in the dark.

"I guess you guys...deserve to know," she said finally, and turned to Y/N, "You more than anyone else. The night Grover was escorting us to camp, he got confused, took some wrong turns. You remember he told you that once?" She told them the whole thing.

"I stabbed him in the foot." she said finishing her story.

They stared at her. Percy broke the silence, "Are you kidding? You were seven years old and you stabbed a grown Cyclops in the foot?"

"Oh, he would've killed me. But I surprised him. It gave me just enough time to run to Thalia and cut the ropes on her hands. She took it from there."

"Yeah, but still ... that was pretty brave, Annabeth."

"Yeah, I mean seven year old me was still figuring out how to spell correctly," Y/N said and then chuckled, "I still do."

Annabeth shook her head. "We barely got out alive. I still have nightmares. The way that Cyclops talked in my father's voice. It was his fault we took so long getting to camp. All the monsters who'd been chasing us had time to catch up. That's really why Thalia died. If it hadn't been for that Cyclops, she'd still be alive today."

They sat on the deck, watching the Hercules constellation rise in the night sky.

"Go below," Annabeth told him at last. "You need some rest."

He nodded. His eyes were heavy. But when he got below and found a bed, it took him a long time to fall asleep. He kept thinking about Annabeth's story. He wondered, if he were in her place, would he have had enough courage to go on this quest, to sail straight toward the lair of another Cyclops?

He didn't dream about Grover. Instead he found himself back in Luke's stateroom aboard the Princess Andromeda. 

Y/N stayed awake with Annabeth.

"Hey..I've got to tell you something," Annabeth said sitting beside her.

"Please, if this is about Harris again-"

ʙᴏᴏᴋ ɪɪ : 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙖 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 | 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚢 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛Where stories live. Discover now