Camp Hermit-Blood - The Sea of Monsters

Percy

You'd think he'd run out of rocks was Percy's first thought.

Grover yelped and jumped into the surf. Bdubs screamed like a little girl. Clarisse gave Annabeth a piggyback ride and started swimming as well. She was a lot slower under the weight of both the daughter of Athena and the Fleece, but she still made progress. Annabeth tried to paddle as well. Zedaph and Tango, all conflict forgotten, were going as well. Ren was riding on Zedaph's head, squeaking in an authoritative voice like the captain of a ship.

"Tyson, come on," Percy said, grabbing his brother's arm and tugging him toward the ship. Tyson didn't budge. It was like trying to pull a mountain.

"You!" Polyphemus roared. "Young Cyclops! Traitor to your kind!"

If Tyson wasn't paralyzed already, he was now.

"Don't listen to him!" Percy pleaded. "Come on!" He pulled again.

"I am not a traitor," Tyson said.

"You serve mortals!" Polyphemus yelled, in contrast to Tyson's calmness. "Thieving humans!" He threw a boulder.

Tyson swatted it aside like a fly. "Not a traitor," he said. "And you are not my kind."

"DEATH OR VICTORY!" Polyphemus yelled, charging into the surf. Unfortunately for him, Percy had stabbed him in the foot many times. He immediately face-planted and got a mouthful of salt.

"HA!" Someone, probably Bdubs, taunted.

Polyphemus got up and threw a boulder at him. Bdubs screamed something inaudible at the Cyclops. Frankly, Percy didn't want to know what he said.

"Percy, come on!" Zedaph yelled.

They were almost to the ship. Just a little longer to distract Polyphemus, and then-

"Go," Tyson said bravely. "I will hold Big Ugly."

"No! He'll kill you! We'll fight him together."

Percy wasn't going to lose Tyson again.

Tyson hesitated, then nodded. "Together."

Percy drew his sword.

Polyphemus approached with a tree. Where had he gotten a tree? "THIEVES!" he boomed.

"The Golden Fleece shouldn't belong to you," Percy accused, rising to the Cyclops' eye level on a wave. "You're using it to lure satyrs to their deaths!"

"So? Satyrs good eating."

"The Fleece should be used to heal," Percy said. "It should belong to children of the gods."

"I am children of the gods!" the Cyclops protested. "Father Posideon, curse this thief!"

Oh, that was right. This monster was Percy's half brother. Oh, joy.

Percy let out his anger by rising up on the waves and kicking Polyphemus in the eye. Leaping over the Cyclops' head, he landed back in the water as it blasted Polyphemus onto the sand.

"I'm his son too, idiot," Percy said. "He's not going to pick favorites." He sidestepped a swipe that probably would have killed him.

Polyphemus roared and smashed his tree right where Percy had been about two seconds before. "Humans not the same! Nasty, tricky, lying!"

He was blinking uncontrollably. Percy realized he was probably attacking by sound.

Tango, Zedaph, and Clarisse were waving frantically from the ship, telling Percy to hurry up.

Tyson crept behind the larger Cyclops, but froze as the latter spoke.

"Young one!" Polyphemus yelled. "Where are you? Help me!"

There was a brief silence. Percy couldn't answer for Tyson.

"You weren't raised right!" Polyphemus cried. "Poor orphaned brother! Help me!"

There was no sound but the waves and Percy's own racing heartbeat.

Tyson stepped forward. "Don't fight, Cyclops brother. Put down the-"

He was immediately smacked with an olive tree. The blow had enough force that it would have killed a normal person. Percy cried out in anger and lunged after the monster, hoping to get him in the back of his thigh, but instead going just a little bit higher than he anticipated.

Polyphemus made the exact sound his sheep made and swung his tree. Percy dove out of the way, but was raked in the back by a bunch of branches. The guinea pig in him wanted to run. Percy swallowed his fear and ignored the guinea pig.

When Polyphemus swung again, Percy was ready.

He grabbed the first branch he could get his hands on and let it pull him into the air, trying desperately to tune out the pain in his hands. At the top of the arc, he let go, and fell, landing with both feet directly into the Cyclops' already-damaged eye.

Polyphemus yowled. Tyson tackled him. Percy landed next to them, within striking distance of the monster's heart, but in one glance with his half brother, he knew he couldn't do it.

"Let him go," he told Tyson. "Run."

As the younger Cyclops pushed him away and ran, Polyphemus roared, got up, and chased them with his tree. He threw his tree. It splashed off somewhere to Percy's right. Percy urged the current to make them go faster.

"HA!" Clarisse yelled. "TAKE THAT, CYCLOPS!"

NO! CLARISSE, SHUT UP!

"YEAH!" Bdubs agreed. "IN YOUR FACE!"

NOT YOU TOO!

They were almost to the ship. Just a few more seconds, and-

A boulder slammed into the side of the ship.

"NO!"

It was amazing and quite terrifying how fast a ship could sink. And it acted like a sinkhole, bringing everything down with it.

Percy and Tyson plunged underwater. Clarisse, Bdubs, Tango, Zedaph, and Grover were kicking frantically, but it wasn't making any difference. A couple of bubbles came out of Zedaph's pocket. Annabeth had given up already and was sinking through the water, the Golden Fleece like a sheet of glitter in her clutch.

There was no way Percy could save them all.

He grabbed Tyson anyway and pulled him towards the surface. The water resisted him. It wanted to go down. But Percy refused to let it have its way.

There was a gentle movement and a shimmer of scales below them, and Tyson beamed and let out a stream of bubbles. Hippocampi.

They seemed to have come from nowhere, but there were enough to carry everyone. They broke the surface, everyone else gasping and spitting salt water. Annabeth was unconscious. But they were alive.

Ren poked out of Zedaph's pocket and squeaked indignantly.

"We need to go back to Circe's island," Clarisse said.

Percy nodded. "Let's go rescue Gem."