The Path Of Glory (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

48. Screw The Prophecy!

Time passed, and it was as if the ticking of a clock rang over the wind and the waves.

How long will I have to keep waiting? Y/N didn't have a clue about what Percy did underneath, but he was sure his top priority wasn't several feet underwater.

Suddenly Percy's head appeared over the surface, perfectly dry. "Y/N, come in the water for a sec. I think you'll be of some service."

Had Y/N been in his normal form, he would have frowned. But an eagle can't really frown just like that. Percy knew really well how good he did in water, so why call him?

Percy didn't explain, and as Y/N couldn't speak to ask why in this form, he transformed back to a human.

Almost immediately, he splashed in the ocean. For a moment that seemed to last forever, it froze him, bitting every inch of his skin. Then, suddenly, he was completely dry—skin, hair, clothes; all dry—and a bubble of air surrounded him, giving him support. It wasn't really a bubble of air. It was more as though the water just left some space for him, and allowed air from the outside to get down here.

Percy was just next to Y/N's "bubble," dry even though he touched water directly, which made his movements look weird. He pointed a finger downward, and the bubble shot down into the darkness.

Twenty, thirty, forty feet. The pressure made Y/N's ears itch. It was bearable, but he was glad they didn't dove further; he still didn't know how to swim.

As they got closer to the bottom, he saw three hippocampi—fish-tailed horses—swimming in a circle around an overturned boat. The hippocampi were beautiful to watch. Their fish tails shimmered in rainbow colors, glowing phosphorescent. Their manes were white, and they were galloping through the water the way nervous horses do in a thunderstorm. Something was upsetting them, no need to talk to them to get that.

They got closer, and Y/N saw the problem. A dark shape—some kind of animal—was wedged halfway under the boat and tangled in a fishing net, one of those big nets used on trawlers to catch everything at once. Percy had often complained about those last summer. When the nets got tangled, some lazy fishermen would just cut them loose and let the trapped animals die.

Apparently this poor creature had been mucking around on the bottom of Long Island Sound and had somehow gotten itself tangled in the net of this sunken fishing boat. It had tried to get out and managed to get even more hopelessly stuck, shifting the boat in the process. Now the wreckage of the hull, which was resting against a big rock, was teetering and threatening to collapse on top of the tangled animal.

"So, here's the rundown." Percy's voice was oddly warped; Y/N could understand it perfectly, but it was off-pitch, swinging high and deep. "I need to get close with Riptide to help, but this creature won't let me. I think I scare it, and I figured you could help."

Y/N frowned. "Uh . . . Percy, I don't talk to mythological animals."

"Aren't cows Hera's sacred animals?" Percy said.

"Well, yes, but where do you want me to find a cow underwater? Besides, I've never talked to one, so I don't know if I actually can."

"Here's your chance," Percy said.

Percy guided the bubble next to the thing, and Y/N saw that it was a cow. A cow with the back end of a serpent. The front half was a calf—a baby, with black fur and big, sad brown eyes and a white muzzle—and its back half was a black-and-brown snaky tail with fins running down the top and bottom, like an enormous eel.

"Whoa," Y/N said. "Where do you come from?"

The creature looked at him sadly. Help me, my Lord! They want to butcher me! I don't want to be eaten!