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chapter xxix.
( the sea of monsters )
❝ the cyclops den! ❞
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ANNABETH WOKE US UP ALL REALLY EARLY. It must've been sunrise when she shook me out of the hammock. "Get up," she said.
"Why?"
"Because we're here. We're at Polyphemus's Island."
I could tell Annabeth was upset with me, for multiple things. One: I told her I wouldn't put myself in danger with the Sirens, I did. Two: I refused to say anything about what I saw, and then she stormed off and after that I spoke to Percy instead of her (which wasn't how I intended it to go! But it did); and finally three: we have been rather distant this week and during this quest, and I could tell it was getting to her as much as it was getting to me.
I followed Annabeth up to the top deck, coming to a stop beside Percy by the edge. In the distance I could see what must be Polyphemus' Island. It didn't look like it belonged to a menacing—practically blind—Cyclops. The pastures were a bright green, with tropical trees and white beaches. The only thing that made the place seem a bit creepy was the long rope bridge that connected across a chasm. Annabeth breathed in the sweet air. "The Fleece," she said.
I found myself nodding. I couldn't see the Fleece, but I knew it was there; I could feel it. This could save Camp, this will save Thalia.
Percy had a frown on his face. "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."
In the meadow at the base of the ravine, several dozen sheep were milling around. They looked peaceful, like most sheep, however, they were the size of hippos. Just behind them, ran a path that led up all the way into the hills, towards the top near the edge of the canyon. And there, right by the edge was a massive oak tree where something gold glittered in it's thick and twisted branches.
"This is too easy," Percy said. "We could just hike up there and take it."
Annabeth's eyes narrowed, "There's supposed to be a guardian. A dragon or ..."
A deer emerged from the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for something to eat, when all the sheep bleated at once and rushed towards it. It happened so fast that the deer stumbled and was lost in a sea of wool and trampling hooves. A few seconds passed, and the sheep all moved away. Where the deer had been was a pile of clean white bones.
Annabeth, Percy and I all exchanged looks.
"They're like piranhas," she said.
"Piranhas with wool ..." Percy crossed his arms, frowning at the sheep, but something else caught my attention. Down at the beach, just below the sheep meadow there was a small boat that had been run aground—the other lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham—
"Guys!" I grabbed Percy's arm and pointed towards it. "Look!"
Once Percy caught eye of the lifeboat, he just closed his eyes in exasperation.
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. I put my hand up and said that I could go with her, but that just aggravated Annabeth more and she snapped, "I don't need you to babysit me! I could turn invisible first!"
I frowned at her, "What do you mean?" I crossed my arms.
Annabeth's grey gaze burned. I've never seen her this angry—at least not at me. She looked like she wanted to say something, but decided against it. She turned away, "Doesn't matter."
I stepped past Percy and came to a stop in front of her, a little annoyed. "Well, obviously it does because you snapped at me—"
"Not everything's about you!" Annabeth let out.
I gaped, "What?"
Percy looked very uncomfortable. Usually it was me and him fighting, not me and Annabeth. Annabeth and I never fight. "Uh, guys—"
"Shut up!" the both of us snapped at him, and he stepped back, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.
I took a step closer to Annabeth, "What do you mean 'not everything's about me'?"
"That's what you do!" she cried. "You always make everything about you! You never let anyone get a chance at a quest, you always put yourself forward to do dangerous things when we say very well not to do them—and then you go ahead and nearly get yourself killed and complain about it, later! You always complain about your powers at the most random moments just to bring the attention to yourself! You're perfect at everything and yet you always say you're terrible—you're so selfish!"
"Since when?!" I raised my voice. I was getting angry myself.
"On the Princess Andromeda! Siren Island...!" she listed them off angrily on her fingers. "You always complain about your photokinesis but you don't realise how lucky you are! You can manipulate light, you're the best archer at camp, you can sing and draw and heal and are so goddam pretty! And yet you're never grateful for what you have!"
"You think I'm lucky?" I arched a brow. I clenched my fists. "That's what you think? I'm lucky."
"Yeah, yeah you are," Annabeth stepped closer as well. She was red in the face.
"Oh really?" I wanted to scream at her. She knew me the best, she knew everything I went through, everything I'm going through and she says this. "Who got left in an alley for dead? Me. Who was given life-draining powers. Me. Who's best friend betrayed—"
"Luke betrayed me too!" There were tears in Annabeth's eyes. I backtracked, letting out all my anger in one surprised breath through my nose. You don't see Annabeth cry—even I haven't seen her cry that much. She hated crying. The only time she'd cry was when she was really upset. "He ... he hurt me too."
I didn't realise ... I didn't—how could I not realise? How could I forget? That Annabeth ... that Annabeth's been through the same as I have. "A-Annabeth ..." I tried, but she took a deep breath, wiping away her tears and turning away.
"Come on, we should set the ship there," she pointed to a place on the shore far out of sight. Her finger trailed up to a rocky cliff that lead up to the island away from the sheep. "And climb up that cliff. Find Grover and whoever was on that raft. Let's get this over and done with."
*
WE ONLY CAME CLOSE TO DYING SIX OR SEVEN TIMES. Annabeth and I didn't talk—not once—in our short trip to the cliffs. The only time that we'd mutter barely even a word were instructions on where to go and where to put our feet. The cliffs were climbable, barely. They reminded me of the lava wall at camp, which made it seem easier, since I done that course so many times. This is just like the lava wall, I told myself, You can do this. However, I did slip every now and then. The grips were terrible, and so when I lost one--or rather my foot slipped on a lack of a foothold. I found something else to put it against, however, that happened to be Percy's face.
"Oh! Sorry!"
"S'okay," he grunted, his voice barely audible under my sneaker.
By the end, my fingers felt like molten lead and my arms and legs were shaking from exhaustion. Once we reached the top, we hauled ourselves over the top of the cliff and collapsed.
"Ugh," Percy groaned.
"Ouch," muttered Annabeth. I went to say something funny to her, but decided against it, remembering our fight and that she was really angry with me at the moment.
"Garrrr!"
If I wasn't so tired, I would've jumped and ran. I whirled around, but I couldn't see who had spoken. I went to ask the others, but Annabeth clamped her hand over my mouth. She pointed.
The ledge we were sitting on was narrower than I realised. On the opposite side, it dropped off, and that was where the voice was coming from—right below us.
Great.
"You're a feisty one!" the deep voice bellowed once again. I felt chills crawling up my spine. They way that bellow resonated in my chest like a hundred miniature drums hitting my ribcage ... I knew it was a Cyclops. I tensed, pulling my legs up closer so my feet weren't so close to the edge. I knew I was going to have to face Polyphemus, but realising that he was right down there...
"Challenge me!" cried someone else new, and I forgot about my fear for a second to realise who it was. Clarisse! She survived! "Give me back my sword and I'll fight you!"
The beast roared with laughter, and I shook.
It took a lot of energy to force myself to follow Percy and Annabeth to the ledge. We peeked down, and there he stood. Polyphemus, the ugliest Cyclops that ever lived. His hair was matted with bones and sheep wool—and he smelt like sheep and wet sheep and raw, out-of-date meat. I tried not to gag—which was hard, because I could feel my stomach churning, wanting to throw up the lack of contents in my stomach at the sight of him. He ... he was huge ... he was bigger than the Cyclops I faced as a little girl. And they had been big as well.
Clarisse was tied up, hanging upside down over a pot of boiling water. And Grover was there, in a wedding dress. I would've laughed if I wasn't so focused on how similar the situation was.
It was a terrible sense of deja vu. Here I was once again, six years later and watching in the darkness as my friends are tormented by a Cyclops. The seven-year-old girl in me quivered. Beside me, Annabeth looked very pale.
I suddenly felt very guilty.
"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?"
Annabeth muttered, "Shut up. She has to shut up."
Polyphemus glowered. "What 'Grover'?"
"The satyr!"
Annabeth looked even more furious.
"Oh!" Grover yelped. "The poor thing's brain is boiling from that hot water. Pull her down, dear!"
Polyphemus's eyelid narrowed over his baleful milk eye, as if he were trying to see Clarisse more clearly. "What satyr? Satyrs are good eating. You bring me a satyr?"
"No, you big idiot!" bellowed Clarisse. "That satyr! Grover! The one in the wedding dress!"
I wanted to wring Clarisse's neck. It was too late. Polyphemus turned and ripped off Grover's wedding veil, and his identity was revealed. His horns only just reached over his curly brown hair, and his scruffy beard quivered as his bottom lip trembled.
Polyphemus breathed heavily, trying to contain his anger. "I don't see very well," he growled. I clenched my fists. "Not since many years ago when the other hero stabbed me in the eye. But YOU'RE—NO—LADY—CYCLOPS!"
He grabbed Grover's dress and tore it away. I jumped, my heart reaching my throat as Grover's dirty jeans and t-shirt reappeared. He yelled and ducked out of the way as the monster swiped over his head.
"Stop!" cried Grover. "Don't eat me raw! I—I have a good recipe!"
Percy went to grab his sword, but Annabeth stopped him. "Wait!"
Polyphemus was hesitating. A boulder was in his hand, ready to smash Grover to a satyr patty. "Recipe?" he asked.
"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 roasted over a slow fire. With mango chutney! You could go get some mangoes right now, down there in the woods. I'll just wait here."
The Cyclops pondered, and I prayed to all the Gods that this would somehow work.
"Roasted satyr with mango chutney?" he mused. Looking back at Clarisse, still hanging over the pot, he asked. "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," the monster repeated.
"And stuff them down your throat!"
"You got spunk."
"Let me down!"
Polyphemus snatched up Grover like he was a rag doll. "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 towards the boiling pot.
Clarisse made a strangled sound. "Oh, no! You can't be series. I'm not—"
Before Percy, Annabeth or I could do anything, Polyphemus grabbed Clarisse too and tossed her and Grover deep into the cave "Make yourself comfortable! I come back at sundown for big event!"
He whistled, and a mixed flock of goats and sheep—much smaller than the ones outside—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 ...
Once the last sheep had waddled out, Polyphemus rolled a boulder in front of the doorway, shutting off the sound of Clarisse and Grover screaming inside. "Mangoes," he muttered to himself. "What are mangoes?
He strolled off down the mountain, leaving us alone with a pot of boiling water and a six-ton boulder.
We tried for what seemed like hours. This boulder wasn't budging. I tried to yell into the cracks, tapped on the rock, hoping that Grover or Clarisse could hear us, but if they did, we couldn't tell. This was hopeless, I decided. Even if we managed to defeat Polyphemus, they would die in that cave—only a Cyclops could move that boulder.
In total frustration, Percy stabbed Riptide against the stone. Sparks flew, but nothing else happened.
In the end, the three of us sat on the ridge in despair and watched the distant figure of Polyphemus move among his flock. He had smartly divided his man-eating sheep from his normal one, putting each group on either side of the huge crevice that was only connected by the rope bridge.
"Trickery," Annabeth decided finally. "We can't beat him by force, so we'll have to use trickery."
"Okay," Percy said. "What trick?"
"I haven't figured that part out yet."
"Great."
"Polyphemus will have to move the rock to let the sheep inside..." Annabeth continued her train of thought, watching the cyclops with a narrowed grey gaze.
"At sunset," I said. "Which is when he'll marry Clarisse and have Grover for dinner..."
"Not sure which one's grosser," Percy scrunched his nose when I suddenly got an idea.
I snapped my fingers, and without realising, I made the room around us slightly darker as I took someone of the light by accident. But this seemed to only validate my idea. "Annabeth and I can get inside. We can both turn invisible, sneak in."
"What about me?" Percy frowned.
I smirked slightly, watching Polyphemus feed one of his flock. I turned to him, amused, "How much do you like sheep?"
*
PERCY FIT RIGHT IN. He clung onto the bottom of one of the sheep like a baby wallaby. It was hilarious to see from where Annabeth and I stood—invisible to the eye. As we waited for Polyphemus to arrive, I gave a nervous glance towards where I knew Annabeth was.
"Hey, Annabeth..." I started, scratching my neck awkwardly. "Look, I wanted to say, I'm sorry..."
"I know," she said stiffly. "But, at the moment, we gotta focus on this, okay? Try not to get killed."
"Are you okay?" I said instead, soft and trembling. "We're ... we're fighting a Cyclops again."
I wondered how she found my hand, but she did. Annabeth gave it a squeeze. "We'll be fine. We can do it."
I hope she was right.
The sun was going down, and soon, Polyphemus returned, shouting, "Oy! Goaties! Sheepies!"
The flock dutifully began trudging back up the slopes towards the cave.
"This is it!" Annabeth whispered to Percy. "We'll be close by. Don't worry."
As the sheep plodded up the hill, Annabeth and I followed carefully. Our hands stayed tightly knitted together, not baring to let go of the other—despite what was said earlier that day. We've been through too much to hate each other. Especially when we are fighting one of our biggest fears together. We had to do this together, no matter what.
We entered the cave, and I took a deep breath. My neck craned as I watched Polyphemus pat each sheep that passed. When he reached Percy's sheep, he grinned, "Putting on some extra mutton there?"
My breath hitched. Oh gods, pease work, please work...
I thanked the gods when Polyphemus just laughed and swatted the sheep's rear end, propelling it and Percy forward. "Go on, fatty! Soon Polyphemus will eat you for breakfast!"
Annabeth's hand squeezed mine harder, so much I was sure my fingers were going purple as the last sheep entered the cave. Polyphemus was about to close the boulder when Annabeth tapped my palm—our signal—and shouted, "Hey! Ugly!"
After that, we separated. As Polyphemus stopped moving the boulder, looking back with a confused look upon his face, I hurried to the side. "Who said that?"
"Nobody!" I grinned when I got the reaction we wanted.
Polyphemus roared with rage. He spun towards my direction. "Nobody!" he shouted. "I remember you!"
"You're too stupid to remember anybody!" I teased. "Much less Nobody."
I ran out of the way when Polyphemus grabbed the nearest boulder and threw it where I had just been. The rock smashed into a thousand pieces.
Annabeth laughed on the other side of the room, "You haven't learnt to throw any better, either!"
The Cyclops bellowed, "Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!"
"You can't kill Nobody, you stupid oath!" said Annabeth. "Come and find me!"
He growled and barged towards where Annabeth's voice was. I only hoped she got away in time. Assuming she had, I called out, "I'm not that way, stupid, over here!"
It was absolutely genius, this idea. Back in the Ancient times, Odysseus used the name 'Nobody' to trick Polyphemus before he poked his eye right out of its socket. Annabeth figured he would have a grudge against the name, and—like always—she was right.
Polyphemus spun around. "GRRRRR!" he shouted, and barrelled my way. I waited last minute until I jumped out of the way. My arms and legs stung from grazing the stone, but it was worth it to watch with a smirk as Polyphemus barged right into the cavern wall.
"What was that?" Annabeth jeered. "Obviously your eyesight hasn't improved since the last time, has it?"
This really angered him. Polyphemus let out a roar of anger and grabbed another boulder. He threw it towards Annabeth. It smashed against the wall, showering the ground with rocks.
"That was pathetic," I said. "I've seen Laistrygonians who throw better than that!"
That was a low blow. And good Ol' Polyphemus agreed. I've never seen a Cyclops so angry, and it took everything for me not to tremble out of fear. He was so tall and so ugly and monstrous and ... and—
I hadn't been looking. Polyphemus ran towards me, and raised his fists above his head ready to send them right down onto me. I'm ashamed of the scream that came out of my throat. I raised my hands to protect myself when I was suddenly pushed to the ground and out of the way. I had just enough time to create a wall of light to shield Annabeth when Polyphemus brought his hands down. My arms shook from the impact, but I kept him at bay. When he pulled away, I shouted at Annabeth through my teeth. "Get out of here!"
She didn't waste any time. Pebbles around where Annabeth had been scuttled as she ran. The barrier broke and I fell back in exhaustion. That was my mistake.
I heard her scream before I could do anything. I jumped up, staring in horror as her cap fell off, and Annabeth was being hauled up from her feet into the air. "NO!" I shouted, and my cover disappeared. I ran towards Polyphemus to try and save her but he whacked me.
I hit the cavern wall. The last thing I heard was his laughter as he shook Annabeth in his grip before everything went black.
*
ITS STILL CHRISTMAAAAAASSSSSSSS