Lost [2]

Nothing breaks like a heart

For the first time in a year Lila was happy.

She had a boyfriend she loved even if she wasn't ready to admit it, she had friends who didn't think she was insane, she had siblings who she spoke to almost everyday, for some miraculous reason Jason was still her best friend and Lila was determined to make sure she didn't lose any of it.

She sat at Lit's desk reading about kangaroo court. Lila glanced back at Lit every so often to make sure he was still asleep.

He snorted loudly after muttering something about tacos.

Lila laughed at his stupidity turning back to her book but soon she was just watching him sleep peacefully.

Something slammed against the Argo II jolting Lila forward out of her seat.

"Ow!" She groaned from the floor luckily a rug softened her fall.

"What happened?" Lit mumbled sitting up in the bed.

"No, don't worry about me, I'm fine." Lila sat up on her elbows and glared at him when he laughed.

Someone sounded the alarm bell. Lit and Lila shared a look grinning. "Let's go kill something." Lit pulled Lila off of the floor and grabbed his sword but before Lila had time to grab her map the door burst open.

Three dolphin-men things stood in the doorway weapon's in hand.

Lila was too stunned to move and it seemed like Lit had the same problem because all he did was was blink.

"Goddamn youths." He muttered as Lila laughed.

It turned out laughing was a bad idea because the dolphin-men quickly grew irritated and one began to fight Lit while the other two dragged Lila to the the deck with difficulty.

"Get off of me!" Lila struggled but for some weird reason the dolphin men were extremely strong.

Dozens of dolphins ransacked the ship, banging and crashing around belowdecks. One carried a box of ambrosia up the stairs. Another carried an armful of ballista bolts and a crate of Greek fire.

One of the dolphin warriors dragged Coach Hedge up from below.

"Let me go, you tuna fish!" Hedge bellowed. He tried to kick the warrior, but his hoof clanged off his captor's armor. Judging from the hoof-shaped prints in the dolphin's breastplate and helmet, the coach had already made several attempts.

"Ah, a satyr," the gold pirate mused. "A little old and stringy, but Cyclopes will pay well for a morsel like him. Chain him up."

"I'm nobody's goat meat!" Hedge protested.

"Gag him as well," Chrysaor decided.

"Why you gilded little—" Hedge's insult was cut short when the dolphin put a greasy wad of canvas in his mouth. Soon the coach was trussed like a rodeo calf and dumped with the other loot—crates of food, extra weapons, even the magical ice chest from the mess hall.

"You can't take Hedge! He's our chaperone, what would we ever do without him?" Lila said but she didn't sound very sincere.

"You can't do this!" Annabeth shouted.

Gold guy's laughter reverberated inside his gold face mask.

"I can do anything I want," Chrysaor said. "My warriors have been trained to perfection. They are vicious, cutthroat—"

"Dolphins," Percy noted.

Chrysaor shrugged. "Yes. So? They had some bad luck a few millennia ago, kidnapped the wrong person. Some of their crew got turned completely into dolphins. Others went mad. But these...these survived as hybrid creatures. When I found them under the sea and offered them a new life, they became my loyal crew. They fear nothing!"