This Dark Night ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase¹

―xi. sheep taxi into the home of a cyclops

THEY REACHED POLYPHEMUS'S ISLAND faster than Naomi was expecting.

Barely half an hour after her first meeting with her mother and Annabeth's impulsive dip into the sea, they spotted the home of the Cyclops, the land covered in forested hills and white beaches and green meadows.

It wasn't as scary as Naomi expected it to be. Sure, there was a rope bridge that went over a chasm, but other than that, it was almost... beautiful. There were green fields and tropical fruit trees and white beaches all around.

As they sailed toward the shore, Annabeth breathed in the sweet air. "The Fleece," she said.

Naomi nodded. She couldn't see the Fleece yet, but she could feel its power. It wasn't hard to believe it could heal anything, even Thalia's poisoned tree.

"If we take it away, will the island die?" Percy asked.

Annabeth shook her head. "It'll fade. Go back to what it would be normally—whatever that is."

Several dozen sheep milled about in one of the many meadows, and just past them was a path that led up into the hills. At the top of the path, near the edge of the canyon, stood a massive oak tree, something gold glittering in the branches.

"This is too easy," Percy said. "We could just hike up there and take it."

Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "There's supposed to be a guardian. A dragon or..."

That's when a deer emerged from the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for grass to eat, when the sheep all bleated at once and rushed the animal. It happened so fast that the deer stumbled and was lost in a sea of wool and trampling hooves.

Grass and tufts of fur flew into the air.

A second later, the sheep all moved away, back to their peaceful wandering. Where the deer had been was a pile of clean white bones.

"I... I think I'd prefer a dragon," Naomi admitted in shock.

"They're like piranhas," Annabeth said.

"Piranhas with wool," Percy said. "How will we—?"

Annabeth gasped. "Look!"

She pointed down the beach, to just below the sheep meadow, where a small boat had been run aground... the other lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham.

❊

They decided there was no way to get past the piranha-sheep. Annabeth wanted to sneak up the path invisibly and grab the Fleece, but in the end Naomi and Percy convinced her that something would go wrong. The sheep would smell her, or another guardian would appear, or something. And if that happened, Naomi and Percy would be too far away to help.

Besides, their first job was to find Grover and whoever had come ashore in that lifeboat—assuming they'd gotten past the sheep.

They moored the Queen Anne's Revenge on the back side of the island where the cliffs rose straight up a good two hundred feet to hopefully give their ship a bit of cover.

The cliffs looked about as climbable as the lava wall back at camp—not easy, but not impossible. And there were no terrifying sheep, which was the biggest draw.

They rowed a lifeboat to the edge of the rocks and made their way up, very slowly.

They only came close to dying six or seven times. Once, Percy lost his grip and found himself dangling by one hand from a ledge fifty feet above the rocky surf, but he found another handhold and kept climbing. A minute later, Annabeth hit a slippery patch of moss and her foot slipped. Fortunately, she found something else to put it against. Unfortunately, that something was Percy's face.