CHAPTER ELEVEN!
alternatively titled: isle of the cyclops
THE THREE OF US STILL SAT ON THE DECK, UNTIL MY EYES WIDENED AT SOMETHING IN THE DISTANCE.
"Guys," I said, pointing, "Look."
Up ahead was another blotch of land—a saddle-shaped island with forested hills and white beaches and green meadows.
We had reached the home of the Cyclops.
When you think "monster island," you think craggy rocks and bones scattered on the beach like the island of the Sirens.
The Cyclops's island was nothing like that. I mean, okay, it had a rope bridge spanning across a chasm, which was not a good sign. You might as well put up a billboard that said, SOMETHING EVIL LIVES HERE. But except for that, the place looked like a Caribbean postcard. It had green fields and tropical fruit trees and white beaches. As we sailed toward the shore, Annabeth breathed in the sweet air. "The Fleece," she said.
I lifted my head and inhaled, the air was sweet and flowery. The scent was constantly changing; fresh rain to flowers to eucalyptus leaves to some kind of tree that I couldn't put my finger on. I felt stronger, like the nature magic was radiating off of it and strengthening everything around it.
It occurred to me that's exactly what it was doing, just like i'd read about. Guilt bloomed in my chest, "If we take it away, will the island die?"
Annabeth shook her head. "It'll fade. Go back to what it would be normally, whatever that is."
I felt bad, but then i realised that we really didn't have another choice. I cared about Percy (and Annabeth, don't tell her i said that) and the camp was their home, and could be mine too, I couldn't just let it die. And Tyson ... Tyson would still be with us if it wasn't for this quest.
In the meadow at the base of the ravine, several dozen sheep were milling around. They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge—the size of hippos. Just past them was a path that led up into the hills. At the top of the path, near the edge of the canyon, was the massive oak tree Percy seen in his dreams. Something gold glittered in its branches.
"This is too easy," Percy said. "We could just hike up there and take it?"
Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "There's supposed 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 regular peaceful wanderings. Where the deer had been was a pile of clean white bones.
I frowned, "Poor deer."
Annabeth and Percy exchanged looks.
"They're like piranhas," she said.
"Piranhas with wool. How will we—"
"Percy!" Annabeth gasped, grabbing his arm. "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.
We decided there was no way we could get past the man-eating sheep. Annabeth wanted to sneak up the path invisibly and grab the Fleece, but in the end Percy convinced her that something would go wrong. The sheep would smell her. Another guardian would appear. Something. And if that happened, he and I would be too far away to help.
We moored the Queen Anne's Revenge on the back side of the island where the cliffs rose straight up a good two hundred feet. Percy figured the ship was less likely to be seen there. The cliffs looked climbable, barely, but i'd climbed my share of rock walls so I wasn't too worried. At least it was free of sheep. I hoped that Polyphemus did not also keep carnivorous mountain goats.
We rowed a lifeboat to the edge of the rocks and made our way up, very slowly. Annabeth went first because she was the better climber, me second, and Percy third incase i slipped. We only came close to dying six or seven times, which I thought was pretty good.
Once, my palm slipped on a patch of moss and i found myself dangling by one arm, but I managed to haul myself back up and keep climbing. A minute later Annabeth hit another slippery patch of moss and her foot slipped. Fortunately, she found something else to put it against.
Unfortunately, that something was my face.
"Sorry," she murmured, sounding like she meant it for once.
"It's fine," I grumbled back and brushed my now bleeding nose against my arm. I really didn't need to know what the underneath of Annabeth's shoe tasted like.
Finally, when my fingers felt like molten lead and my arm muscles were shaking from exhaustion, we hauled ourselves over the top of the cliff and collapsed.
"Ouch," Annabeth groaned.
"Ugh," Percy grunted.
I grumbled and pulled a handful of moss out of the ground to try and stem the flow of blood coming from my nose, it was very likely that Annabeth broke it, "Stupid face."
"Garrr!" bellowed another voice.
If my body didn't feel like jell-o, i probably would have jumped two feet into the air. I turned, feeling a hand slap over my face, hitting my nose first and then my mouth. The action sent shocks of pain thrumming into my temples.
"Sorry," Annabeth whispered, then clamped her mouth shut and pointed.
The ledge we were sitting on was narrower than I'd realised. It dropped off on the opposite side, and that's where the voice was coming from—right below us.
"You're a feisty one!" the deep voice bellowed.
"Challenge me!" Clarisse's voice, no doubt about it. "Give me back my sword and I'll fight you!"
The monster roared with laughter.
The three of us crept to the edge. We were right above the entrance of the Cyclops's cave. Below us stood Polyphemus and Grover, still in his wedding dress. Clarisse was tied up, hanging upside down over a pot of boiling water. I was half hoping to see Tyson down there, too. Even if he'd been in danger, at least I would've known he was alive. But there was no sign of him.
"Hmm," Polyphemus pondered. "Eat loudmouth girl now or wait for wedding feast? What does my bride think?"
He turned to Grover, who backed up and almost tripped over his completed bridal train. "Oh, um, I'm not hungry right now, dear. Perhaps—"
"Did you say bride?" Clarisse demanded. "Who— Grover?"
Next to me, Annabeth muttered, "Shut up. She has to shut up."
Polyphemus glowered. "What 'Grover'?"
"The satyr!" Clarisse yelled.
"Oh!" Grover yelped. "The poor thing's brain is boiling from that hot water. Pull her down, dear!"
Polyphemus's eyelids narrowed over his baleful milky eye, as if he were trying to see Clarisse more clearly.
"What satyr?" asked Polyphemus. "Satyrs are good eating. You bring me a satyr?"
"No, you big idiot!" bellowed Clarisse. "That satyr! Grover! The one in the wedding dress!"
Percy started forward on what seemed like instinct, but stopped when I got a hold of his arm and pulled him back. We watched with bated breath as Polyphemus turned and ripped off Grover's wedding veil—revealing his curly hair, his scruffy adolescent beard, his tiny horns.
Polyphemus breathed heavily, trying to contain his anger. "I don't see very well," he growled. "Not since many years ago when the other hero stabbed me in eye. But YOU'RE—NO—LADY—CYCLOPS!"
The Cyclops grabbed Grover's dress and tore it away. Underneath, he was in his jeans and T-shirt. He yelped and ducked as the monster swiped over his head.
"Stop!" Grover pleaded. "Don't eat me raw! I—I have a good recipe!"
I reached up and locked my fingers around my necklace, but Annabeth hissed, "Wait!"
Polyphemus was hesitating, a boulder in his hand, ready to smash his would-be bride.
"Recipe?" he asked Grover.
"Oh y-yes! You don't want to eat me raw. You'll get E coli and botulism and all sorts of horrible things. I'll taste much better grilled over a slow fire. With mango chutney! You could go get some mangos right now, down there in the woods. I'll just wait here."
"Grilled satyr with mango chutney," Polyphemus mused. He looked back at Clarisse, still hanging over the pot of boiling water. "You a satyr, too?"
"No, you overgrown pile of dung!" she yelled. "I'm a girl! The daughter of Ares! Now untie me so I can rip your arms off!"
"Rip my arms off," Polyphemus repeated.
"And stuff them down your throat!"
"You got spunk."
"Let me down!"
Polyphemus snatched up Grover as if he were a wayward puppy. "Have to graze sheep now. Wedding postponed until tonight. Then we'll eat satyr for the main course!"
"But ... you're still getting married?" Grover sounded hurt. "Who's the bride?"
Polyphemus looked toward the boiling pot.
Clarisse made a strangled sound. "Oh, no! You can't be serious. I'm not—"
Before any of us could do anything, Polyphemus plucked her off the rope like she was a ripe apple, and tossed her and Grover deep into the cave. "Make yourself comfortable! I come back at sundown for big event!"
Then the Cyclops whistled, and a mixed flock of goats and sheep—smaller than the man-eaters—flooded out of the cave and past their master. As they went to pasture, Polyphemus patted some on the back and called them by name—Beltbuster, Tammany, Lockhart, etc.
When the last sheep had waddled out, Polyphemus rolled a boulder in front of the doorway as easily as I would close a refrigerator door, shutting off the sound of Clarisse and Grover screaming inside.
"Mangos," Polyphemus grumbled to himself. "What are mangos?"
He strolled off down the mountain in his baby-blue groom's outfit, leaving us alone with a pot of boiling water and a six-ton boulder.
We tried for what seemed like hours, but it was no good. The boulder wouldn't move. We yelled into the cracks, tapped on the rock, did everything we could think of to get a signal to Grover, but if he heard us, we couldn't tell.
Even if by some miracle we managed to kill Polyphemus, it wouldn't do us any good. Grover and Clarisse would die inside that sealed cave. The only way to move the rock was to have the Cyclops do it.
In total frustration, Percy stabbed Riptide against the boulder. Sparks flew, but nothing else happened. A large rock is not the kind of enemy you can fight with a magic sword.
The three of us sat on the ridge in despair and watched the distant baby-blue shape of the Cyclops as he moved among his flocks. He had wisely divided his regular animals from his man-eating sheep, putting each group on either side of the huge crevice that divided the island. The only way across was the rope bridge, and the planks were much too far apart for sheep hooves.
We watched as Polyphemus visited his carnivorous flock on the far side. Unfortunately, they didn't eat him. In fact, they didn't seem to bother him at all. He fed them chunks of mystery meat from a great wicker basket.
"Trickery," Annabeth decided. "We can't beat him by force, so we'll have to use trickery."
"Okay," Percy asked, "What trick?"
"I haven't figured that part out yet."
"Great."
"Polyphemus will have to move the rock to let the sheep inside."
"At sunset," I nodded and pulled another clump of moss out of the ground to hold to my nose, "Which is when he'll marry Clarisse and have Grover for dinner, neither of which i'd like to see even in the brief time i've known her."
"I could get inside," she said, "Invisibly."
"What about Perce and I?"
"The sheep," Annabeth mused. She gave me a sly look that somehow managed to strike fear in my bones. "How much do the two of you like sheep?"
"Just don't let go!" She said, standing invisibly somewhere off to our right. That was easy for her to say. She wasn't hanging upside down from the belly of a sheep.
Now, I'll admit it wasn't as hard as I'd thought, although it was definitely just as gross. I had to gather up my dress and tuck it all in on itself so it wasn't hanging on the ground where Polyphemus would be able to see. The sheep didn't care. Even the Cyclops's smallest sheep were big enough to support mine and Percy's weight, and they had thick wool. I just twirled the stuff into handles for my hands, hooked my feet against the sheep's thigh bones, and presto—I felt like a baby wallaby, riding around against the sheep's chest, trying to keep the wool out of my mouth and my nose, the blood from which was painting its wool red.
In case you're wondering, the underside of a sheep doesn't smell that great. Imagine a winter sweater that's been dragged through the mud and left in the laundry hamper for a week.
Like I said, gross.
I tilted my head to the side and made eye contact with Percy, who was koala-hugging the sheep next to me. He gestured towards the sky with his head, and I saw the rays of the setting sun that were shattering the skyline into pink and gold.
The sun was going down.
Polyphemus would be back soon.
☽☾
charlie's message!
hello my dears!
surprise! another chapter since i've been writing a lot lol