°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ ENDGAME} act ii. . .
. . .as deep as the seafloor
CHAPTER FIVE°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
— 'unexpected cruise trip"
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Percy°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
We had to scrub plates for hours since Tantalus decided to hold a three course meal for Clarisse's victory.
We were able to talk about my dreams of Grover.
"If he's really found it," Rayn murmured, "and if we could retrieve it-"
"Hold on." I said. "You act like this... whatever-it-is Grover found is the only thing in the world that could save camp. What is it?"
Rayn looked at me. "I'll give you a hint. What do you get when you skin a ram?"
"Messy?"
She sighed. "A fleece. The coat of a ram is called a fleece. And if that ram happens to had golden wool—"
"The Golden Fleece. Are you serious?"
Annabeth scarped a plateful of dead bird bones into the lava. "Percy, remember the Gray Sisters? They said they knew the location of the thing you seek. And they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told him how to find the Golden Fleece. You do know the story of Jason and the Argonauts?"
"Yeah," I said. "That old movie with the clay skeletons."
Rayn rolled her eyes. "Oh my gods, Percy! You are so hopeless."
"What?"
"Just listen. The real story of the Fleece: there were these two children of Zeus, Cadmus and Europa, okay? They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices, when they prayed to Zeus to save them. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor. Well, actually it carried Cadmus. Europa fell off and died along the way, but that's not important."
"It was probably important to her."
"The point is, when Cadmus got to Colchis, he sacrificed the golden ram to the gods and hung the Fleece in a tree in the middle of the kingdom. The Fleece brought prosperity to the land. Animals stopped getting sick. Plants grew better. Farmers had bumper crops. Plagues never visited. That's why Jason wanted the Fleece. It can revitalise any land where it's placed. It cures sickness, strengthens nature, cleans up pollution—"
"It could cure Thalia's tree."
Rayn nodded. "And it would totally strengthen the borders of Camp Half-Blood. But Percy, the fleece has been missing for centuries. Tons of heroes have searched for it with no luck."
"But Grover found it," I said. "He went looking for Pan and he found the Fleece instead because they both radiate nature magic. It makes sense, Rayn. We can rescue him and save the camp at the same time. It's perfect!"
Annabeth hesitated. "A little too perfect, don't you think? What if it's a trap?"
I remembered last summer, how Kronos had manipulated our quest. He had almost fooled us into helping him to start a wad that would've destroyed Western Civilisation.
"What choice do we have?" I asked. "Are you going to help me rescue Grover or not?"
Rayn and Annabeth looked at each other, then Tyson. He was making toy boats out of cups and spoons in the lava.
"Percy," Rayn said under her breath, "we'll have to fight a Cyclops. Polyphemus, the worst of the Cyclopes. And there's only one place his island could be. The Sea of Monsters."
"Where's that?" She stared at me like I was playing dumb.
"The Sea of Monsters. The same sea Odysseus sailed through, and Jason, and Aeneas, and all the others."
"You mean the Mediterranean?"
"No. Well, yes... but no."
"Another straight answer. Thanks."
"Look, Percy, the Sea of Monsters is the sea all heroes sail through on their adventures. It shifts locations like Olympus."
"But a whole sea of monsters- how could you hide something like that? Wouldn't mortals notice weird things happening... like, ships getting eaten and stuff?"
"Of course they notice. They don't understand, but they know something is strange about that part of the ocean. The Sea of Monsters is off the east coast of the U.S. now, just northeast of Florida. The mortals have a name for it."
"The Bermuda Triangle?"
"Exactly."
I let that sink in. I guess it wasn't as strange as some of the other stuff I had learnt since coming to camp.
"Okay... so at least we know where to look."
"It's still a huge area, Percy. Searching for one tiny island in monster-infested waters—"
"Hey, I'm the son of the sea god. This is my home turf. How hard can it be?"
Annabeth looked at us. "We'll have to talk to Tantalus, get approval for a quest. He'll say no."
"Not if we tell him tonight at the campfire in front of everybody. The whole camp will hear. They'll pressure him. He can't refuse then." I looked at the others for approval.
"Not bad seaweed brain." Rayn smiled at me.
"Maybe." Hope crept into Annabeth's voice. "We'd better get these dishes done. Hand me the lava spray gun, will you?"
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Rayn °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
At the campfire, the Apollo kids led the sing along.
Ryder was singing in my direction and I have to say, he's not the best singer. He sort of sounded like the kid that made it into the choir because everyone felt bad for him.
After the race, we hadn't talked since the chariot race.
Dionysus had left early after listening to a few songs. He muttered something about pinochle with Chiron would be more exciting than this.
When the last song was over, Tantalus said, "well, that was lovely!"
He tried to eat a marshmallow but like usual it flew away from him and committed suicide in the flames.
Tantalus turned towards everyone, smiling coldly. "Now then! Some announcements about tomorrow's schedule."
"Sir," Percy said.
Tantalus's eye twitched, "kitchen boy has something to say?"
Some of the Ares kids beside me snickered, I shushed them so they wouldn't embarrass Percy.
Percy looked in my direction so I stood up with him, then Annabeth followed.
"We have an idea to save the camp," he said.
Everyone was silent, the flames turned yellow so I knew everyone was interested.
"Indeed," Tantalus said blandly. "Well, if it has anything to do with chariots—"
"The Golden Fleece." Percy said. "We know where it is."
The flames burned orange. Before Tantalus could cut Percy off he told everyone about his dreams.
"The Fleece can save the camp," I said. "I'm certain of it."
"Nonsense," Tantalus raised his voice. "We don't need saving."
"Then why have we been attacked over and over again? Why aren't you stepping in if you're so great? Why are the campers responsible for the camps safety while you're sitting safe and sound doing nothing!?" I yelled at Tantalus, he jumped back and everyone stared at him.
"The Sea of Monsters? That's hardly an exact location. You wouldn't even know where to look." He added quickly.
"Yes, I would." Percy said.
I leaned over to Percy and whispered, "you would?"
He nodded in response. "30, 31, 75, 12."
"Ooo-Kay," Tantalus said. "Thanks for sharing those meaningless numbers."
"They're sailing coordinates," he said. "Latitude and longitude. I, uh, learned about it in social studies."
"30 degrees, 31 minutes north, 75 degrees, 12 minutes west." Annabeth seemed impressed. "He's right! The Gray sisters gave us those coordinates. That'd be somewhere in the Atlantic, off coast of Florida. The Sea of Monsters. We need a quest!"
"Wait just a minute." Tantalus said.
The campers started to chant and the flames rose higher. "We need a quest! We need a quest!"
"It isn't necessary!" Tantalus insisted.
"WE NEED A QUEST! WE NEED A QUEST!"
"Fine!" Tantalus shouted, "you brats want me to assign a quest?"
"YES!"
"Very well," he agreed. "I shall authorise a champion to undertake this perilous journey, to retrieve the Golden Fleece and bring it back to camp. Or die trying."
I was excited for the quest. I hadn't seen Grover in ages and I wanted to save Thalia. I would die trying if I had to.
"The champion should be the one who has earned the camp's respect, who has proven resourceful in the chariot races and courageous in the defence of the camp. You shall lead this quest... Clarisse!"
The flames flickered a million different colours, one of the Apollo kids even spat her drink out.
The Ares kids jumped up and down, chanting: "CLARISSE! CLARISSE!"
"Wait!" Percy shouted. "Grover is my friend. The dream came to me."
"Sit down, question hog!" One of the Ares campers yelled. "He just wants the spotlight again!"
Clarisse glared at us. "I, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, will save the camp!"
Annabeth protested and the other Athena campers joined in.
Everyone else started to take sides. A food fight with marshmallows broke out.
"Silence you brats!" Tantalus shouted.
Everyone sat down and listened as he told some boring story that was probably about him. The weirdo cooked his kid and fed him to the gods and now he's cursed to never eat.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
I heard Percy screaming for help. I guess Annabeth and Tyson did too because I met them outside and we all ran towards his voice.
"What's going on?" I asked him. "We heard you calling for help!"
"I didn't call you guys." He said. "I'm fine."
"But then who..." I looked down and saw for yellow duffel bags, and a thermos Percy was holding. "What—"
"Just listen," he said. "We don't have much time."
He told us about his conversation with Hermes. In the distance I heard screeching, patrol harpies.
"Percy." Annabeth said. "We have to do the quest."
"We'll get expelled, you know. Trust me, I'm an expert at getting expelled."
"If we fail there won't be any camp to come back to. I promised your—" I stopped myself before telling Percy about the deal I had made with Poseidon to keep him safe.
He gave me a strange look. "My what?"
"What will we do with Tyson?"
He thought about it for a second. "We can't just leave him here."
"Percy." I said, trying to keep my cool. "We're going to Polyphemus's island! Polyphemus is an S-I-K ... a C-Y-K ..." I stomped my foot on frustration. "You know what I mean."
"Tyson can go." He insisted. "If he wants to."
Tyson clapped his hands. "Want to!"
I gave Percy a dirty look. There was no time to argue though.
"Alright." I said. "How do we get to that ship?"
"Hermes said my father would help."
"Well then, Seaweed Brain? What are you waiting for?"
Percy stepped into the waves.
"Um, dad?" He called out into the sea. "How's it going?"
"Percy!" I whispered. "We're in a hurry!"
"We need your help," he yelled out louder. "We need to get to that ship, like, before we get eaten and stuff, so..."
Nothung happened at first and I thought we would have to swim from the harpies. They sounded like they were right behind the sand dunes. Then in the distance, four white lines appeared on the surface. They moved quickly over to us.
As the wave crashed against the shore, for white stallions emerged from the water.
Tyson gasped. "Fish ponies!"
The horses back halves were silvery fish bodies with rainbow tail fins.
"Hippocampi!" Annabeth said. "They're beautiful."
One of them nuzzled Annabeth in appreciation.
"We'll appreciate them later," Percy said. "Let's go!"
"There!" A voice screeched behind us. "Bad children out of cabins! Snack time for lucky harpies!"
I grabbed a duffel bag and was about to get on the hippocampi but Tyson hadn't moved.
"Tyson!" I yelled. "Grab a duffel bag!"
He was staring at the hippocampi in shock.
"Tyson!"
"Uh?"
"Come on!"
I got him onto the horse with a duffel bag but the harpies were so close to me so I had to rush over to my hippocampi.
"Giddyup!" Percy said and the rest of the fish horses followed.
The harpies cursed at us, too lazy to try catch their snack.
I looked back at the camp I had spent years at. Wondering if I would ever see it again.
We got closer to the cruise ship and it was a lot bigger than I thought. There was writing on the side of the ship but I couldn't read it.
"What does that say?" I whispered to the others.
"I think prince andy," Annabeth murmured.
"It says princess andromeda." Percy said after a few seconds.
"That seems more like it." Annabeth responded. "How do we get aboard?"
The hippocampi seemed to understand what we needed. They rose up with a huge wave.
"You first." Percy told Annabeth.
Finally, it was just Tyson in the water. His hippocampi was doing aerials and he was laughing hysterically.
"Tyson shh!" I said.
"Come on, big guy." Percy reached his hand out to him.
"Cant we take rainbow?" He asked, looking sad now.
"Rainbow?" Percy stared at him.
The horse whinnied as if it liked his new name.
"Uh, we have to go," Percy said. "Rainbow... well, he can't climb ladders."
Tyson sniffled and I thought he would cry. "I will miss you, Rainbow!"
The horse made a neighing sound that I swore was crying.
"Maybe we'll see him again sometime!" I suggested.
"Oh, please!" Tyson said sitting up immediately. "Tomorrow!"
Nobody said anything, we just helped him up on the deck.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Percy °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
The ladder led to a maintenance deck. There was a double door that Annabeth was able to pry open with a lot of cursing in Ancient Greek.
I thought we would've had to sneak around, but every corner we turned was empty.
"It's a ghost ship," I murmured.
"No," Tyson said. "Bad smell."
"I don't smell anything," Annabeth frowned.
"Cyclops are like satyrs," I told her. "They can smell monsters. Isn't that right, Tyson?"
He nodded quickly. The Mist had made his face look normal again.
"Okay," Annabeth said. "So what exactly do you smell?"
"Something bad," Tyson answered.
"Great," Rayn grumbled. "That clears it up."
We came onto the swimming pool level. There were empty chairs and a closed bar.
We walked around and found a climbing wall, golf course and a revolving restaurant but no sign of life.
I felt a weird sense of danger. If I weren't so exhausted I could've put a name on what I felt.
"We need a hiding place," I said. "Somewhere safe to sleep."
"Sleep," Annabeth agreed wearily.
We walked through a few more corridors until we found an empty suite on the ninth level.
The door was open, weird. On the table there was a basket of chocolate, sparkling cider and a mint on the pillow with a hand written note that said: Enjoy your cruise!
We opened the duffel bags and found that Hermes really had thought of everything. He had packed, extra clothes, toiletries, camp rations, a ziplock bag of cash and a leather pouch full of drachmas.
He had also managed to pack Tysons oilcloth with his tools and metal bits, and Annabeth's invisibly cap.
"We will be next door," Annabeth said and pulled Rayn with her. "Don't drink or eat anything."
"You think this place is enchanted?" I asked her.
She frowned. "I don't know. Something isn't right. Just... be careful."
We locked our doors.
Tyson crashed into the couch. He tinkered for a while on his metalworking project. He yawned and fell asleep.
I lay on the bed and stared out the porthole. I thought I heard whispering in the hallway but it couldn't be. The voices kept me awake. It reminded me of my trip to the underworld.
The weariness got the best of me and I fell asleep, having the worse dream yet...
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
The ships whistle woke me up. There was an Australian voice on the intercom.
"Good morning, passengers! We'll be at sea all day today. Excellent weather for the poolside mambo party! Don't forget million-dollar bingo in the Kraken Lounge at one o'clock, and for our special guests, disemboweling practice on the Promenade!"
I shot up in the bed. "What did he say?"
Tyson groaned as he was still half asleep. He was facedown on the couch. "Happy man said... bowling practice?"
There was a vicious knocking on the door. Annabeth stuck her head in the door, "disemboweling practice?"
We all got dressed and ventured out into the ship. I was surprised to see other people.
There was around a dozen wrinkly people heading to breakfast. I wasn't sure if they were old or some type of monster.
There was a dad taking his kids for a morning swim.
Crew members strolled around, tipping their hats at the passengers.
Nobody asked who we were. Nobody really acknowledged us. There was something off.
The family of swimmers passed us and the dad told his kids, "we are on a cruise. We are having fun."
"Yes," the kids said in unison, their expressions didn't change at all. "We are having a blast. We will swim in the pool."
"Good morning," a crew member told us, his eyes glazed. "We are all enjoying ourselves aboard the Princess Andromeda. Have a nice day." He drifted away.
"Percy, this is weird." Annabeth whispered. "They're all in some type of trance."
"I want whatever they're on." Rayn muttered quietly.
We passed the cafe and saw a hellhound. My blood turned cold.
There was a middle-aged couple standing behind the devil dog, not noticing anything out of the ordinary.
"Not hungry anymore," Tyson murmured.
Before any of us could reply, a reptilian voice came from down the corridor, "ssssix more joined yesssterday."
Annabeth gestured toward the nearest hiding place, the women's room. All of us ducked inside, I was so terrified it never occurred to me to be embarrassed.
Two things slithered past the bathroom door, making sounds like sandpaper against the carpet.
"Yesss," a second reptilian voice said. "He drawssss them. Ssssoon we will be sssstrong."
The things slithered into the cafeteria with a weird snake laugh.
Rayn looked at me. "We have to get out of here."
"You think I want to be in the girls' restroom?"
"I meant the ship, Percy! We have to get off the ship!"
"Smells bad," Tyson agreed. "And dogs eat all the eggs. Pretty girl is right. We must leave the restroom and ship."
I shuddered. If they were actually agreeing on something , I figured I'd better listen.
"—only a matter of time. Don't push me, Agrius!"
It was Luke, no doubt. I could never forget his voice.
"I'm not pushing you!" Another voice growled. His voice was deeper and angrier than Luke's. "I'm just saying. If this gamble doesn't pay off—"
"It'll pay off," Luke snapped. "They'll take the bait. Now, come, we've got to get to the admiralty suite and check on the casket.
Their voices faded down the corridor.
I turned over to Rayn, she looked like she had seen a ghost.
Tyson whimpered, "leave now?"
Annabeth and I exchanged looks and came to a silent agreement.
"We can't," I told Tyson.
"We have to find out what Luke is up to." Annabeth agreed. "And if possible, we're going to beat him up, bind him in chains, and drag him to Mount Olympus."
I looked at Rayn who hadn't moved at all, "you agree?"
She jumped a bit, "yeah, yeah, let's... do it."
I thought it would be a good idea to merge two of the book chapters together but now this is 3.2K words...
Idk what else to say but, tysm for reading <3
@gracexeo, 2024