By the time Percy had come up from our sleeping quarters, the skies were dark and the oceans were unsteady. He tripped on a patch of ice and just as he tried getting up, the ship lurched forward and knocked him back down again. I refrained from laughing and helped him up.
Tyson looked worried. He kept muttering things that I couldn't quite understand. "Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water."
We were somewhere off the coast of Florida. A storm was forming ahead and it looked like the sky and see had merged into a mess of nature. To the left stood an ominous looking cliff. Annabeth asked, to no one in particular, "Hurricane?"
"No," Clarisse said. "Charybdis."
Annabeth looked nauseas. "Are you crazy?"
"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla." Clarisse pointed to the top of the cliffs, and I felt my face turn the same shade of green as Annabeth. Whatever was up there, I did not want to meet.
"What do you mean the only way?" Percy asked. "The sea is wide open! Just sail around them."
Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Don't you know anything? If I tried to sail around them, they would just appear in my path again. If you want to get into the Sea of Monsters, you have to sail through them."
"What about the Clashing Rocks?" Annabeth suggested. "That's another gateway. Jason used it."
"I can't blow apart rocks with my cannons," Clarisse said. "Monsters, on the other hand ..."
"She's insane," Annabeth decided.
"Watch and learn, Wise Girl." Clarisse turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!"
"Aye, m'lady."
The ship began to speed up as the engines roared. I was finally starting to understand what Tyson was going on about. The ship was definitely making noises it shouldn't be making.
"Clarisse," Percy said, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"
"And spits it back out again, yeah."
"What about Scylla?" I asked.
"She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship."
"Choose Scylla then," Percy said. "Everybody goes below deck and we chug right past."
"That won't work," I shook my head. "It's too easy."
"Your sister's not wrong," it pained her to say I was right. "She'd just pick up the whole ship and eat us anyway. This is the only way. Charybdis just sits there at the center of her whirlwind. We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"
Her enthusiasm and confidence made me want to believe her. The logic, however, begged to differ.
As we got closer, Charybdis' roars got louder. It was like the whole ocean was being flushed. Every three minutes she would suck in all the water in about a mile radius, pulling us towards her. Then she would spit it out, pushing us back.
All the soldiers on board were going about their business, oblivious to the fact we were about to be face to face with death. Of course, they had already gone through that so I assumed they didn't care.
Annabeth was still desperately trying to find a plan B. "You still have the thermos, don't you?"
Percy nodded. "But it's too dangerous, it would probably just make the whirlpool stronger, I'd rather not risk it."
I knelt and put my hands on the boat, trying to make the waves bend to my will. There were too many distractions, the ocean too reckless for me to control. Percy saw me struggling and knelt next to me, trying for himself.
I opened my eyes and nothing had changed. "It's useless," I said. "It's not going to work, not in these waters."
"We need a backup plan," Annabeth said. "This isn't going to work."
"Annabeth's right," Tyson said. "Engine's no good."
"What do you mean?"
"Pressure. Pistons need fixing."
Suddenly, the boat flung us all forward and we hit the deck. There was no time for a backup plan. We had officially entered the whirlpool.