Half-Blood Means Two Things || Marauders Era | Percy Jackson ||

|| 2 - I Quote The Coke Of Curling ||

Okay, for you to understand why I nearly peed my pants, I'm going to need you to imagine the tallest guy you've ever heard of and make him ten feet taller, add about 800 pounds of sheer muscle, a large club about the size of my body, a loincloth, and one, massive, green eye right in the middle of his forehead. Give him breath that could knock a person sideways if they inhaled it and make him bellow louder than a ferry horn.

Now you know what a Cyclops looks like. Oh, and then triple it.

"AURELIA MYERS!" The three Cyclopes hollered in unison.

Well, Styx.

"H-hey, guys," I stumbled backward, horrified. "Uh, what're you doin' here? Can I help you with something?" I flashed them a charming smile, hoping I didn't look as terrified as I was. Three massive Cyclopes versus one girl with a knife... not good odds.

I'd fought Cyclopes before but never on my own. And never in the middle of the forest at night.

They growled, leaning down, sniffing loudly.

"Can we kill it yet?" The one on the left asked.

I swallowed, desperately trying to come up with a plan, but failing. I'd fought a few good-sized monsters -- but I'd always had help. I was alone in the woods three Cyclopes trying to kill me.

"No," The middle once said gruffly. "We must wait for big death dogs,"

"Hellhounds?" I suggested. The middle Cyclops looked at me as if surprised that I knew what he meant. My voice was quieter than I wanted it to be when I said, "Um, why, uh, why are hellhounds coming?"

The Cyclopes shared a look like, get a load of this idiot.

I raised my eyebrow, a plan forming in my mind. I was lucky that Cyclopes weren't the brightest swords in the armor shed.

"Well, 'cause Hades wants to kill you, too!" The Cyclops -- which was considerably shorter than the other two -- chirped. He was so short it was almost adorable. Almost.

"Ah, of course," I said calmly, although I wanted to scream. Why did Hades want to kill me? But I couldn't think about that. I opened my mouth and said the first thing that popped into my mind. "But you just missed them," I said convincingly, looking anywhere but the Cyclopes as I came up with a convincing lie

"Missed them?" The one on the left repeated looking like it caused a lot of work to think.

I sheathed my knife -- no, I'm not an idiot -- I'm just overly confident in my plans. I smiled and sat down on the rock, hoping the hellhounds wouldn't just appear in the middle of my lie. "Oh, yeah, see I'm assuming you're here to kill me, too?"

They nodded, looking sickeningly excited.

I forced a laugh, but it came out as more of a nervous squeal. "Yeah, well, Hades decided that he couldn't kill me today. My birthday's in a week, and it's against the -- uh -- Code of Killing to kill a girl before her eleventh birthday," The lie rolled off my tongue with more ease than I thought I could muster.

"Code of Killing?" The middle one repeated, his one large, bushy eyebrow furrowed in confusion.

I swallowed. "Yeah. Remember?" I put a hand over my heart in mock surprise. "Don't tell me you haven't read the Code of Killing?" I gasped, looking around. How could I signal the other campers without the Cyclopes noticing? "It's, like, the most important monster guide in the world. You wouldn't be here now if you hadn't read it. They don't let monsters out to kill demigods without reading it," I lied. Maybe I could climb a tree and scream -- but then what? "Remember it now?" I asked.