Percy Jackson and the Triwizard Tournament [Book 4]

94) Readers, Do You Prefer Legless Lizard or Glorified Worm?

"We should get going," I looked back at Harry, then started swimming in the direction Myrtle had pointed us in.

Harry didn't say a word as we swam, but I could tell he was jumpy. I would be jumpy, too, if a massive green sea snake had just threatened to kill my best friend.

I wasn't a big fan of sea serpents. They took ages to kill, simply because of the fact that water was also their element. Some of them liked me enough because of who my father was, but some preferred Oceanus, so they'd seek me out on repeat just to bug me. It also bugged me that I couldn't hear this snake. Normally I could understand sea serpents, but some of the powerful ones eluded me.

"Harry," I said after a moment. "I've got a feeling I won't be receiving help from you on this one. If the snake comes, keep swimming towards our people. I'll meet up with you if I have to."

Harry looked down, then nodded slowly. We started swimming off again, this time both of us wary of what could be around. We swam for about twenty minutes in silence, which made my ADHD run rampant. At some point I'd started thinking of Plato's Allegory of the Caves. I didn't even know I knew that thing. It seemed more like something Draco would reference when insulting someone or something like that. Quickly my brain changed the topic to cave art.

Before I could start thinking of Brother Bear, a smooth, siren-like voice filled the water.

"An hour long you'll have to look, and to recover what we took..."

Harry and eye shared a look, then shot off towards where the song was coming from. After a few moments, a large rock appeared in the muddy water, paintings of merpeople and the giant squid on it.

Harry and I moved to keep swimming, since we knew we were at least heading in the right place, but something shot passed the rock, disappearing into the void of muddy water.

"Was that the thing you saw earlier?" I questioned. I sure hoped not. This snake was larger and faster than I figured I could handle.

"Yeah," Harry said breathlessly, and I grimaced.

"Well," I sighed, "this is going to be fun."

It was not fun. Harry swam off like I'd told him to, looking back at me over his shoulder with a pained expression.

"Hey, come fight me you glorified worm!"  I spoke into the water, tensing for battle. "Show yourself. You can't be that ugly."

It was that ugly. My glorified worm comment must have pissed it off, because out of nowhere, it shot towards me. It's mouth opened, and I cursed. This things mouth was large enough to park a small car into. Definitely big enough to eat a small fourteen year old in Nemo pajamas. As I forced the water to push me downwards, I got a whiff of its horrid breath. It smelled worse than my old step-dad, which was a sentence I never thought I'd be able to say.

I tried to stab it, but my blade clanged against the serrated side of the snake. I cursed under my breath. Swimming farther down in the hopes of escaping from it. If it weren't for Zoë, I wouldn't have managed to kill the the Newman Lion. Now, I didn't have Zoë, and this snake was considerably larger than the lion was. I also didn't have space ice-cream.

The snake shot towards me again, somehow angrier than before. I pushed myself upwards, doing a sort of midair splits, the snake flying beneath my legs. Before I could react, the snake whipped its tail to the side, knocking into my leg. The sheer strength behind the hit had my crying out in pain, and I slammed into the ground, mud flying up around me. I sat there for a long moment, trying to catch my breath. Behind the sharp ache in my leg, I could barely feel a Grindylow tangling it's fingers in my hair.

I forced myself to focus, focusing on the sight in front of me just in time to see the snake's glowing orange eyes focus on me. It moved as if to strike, and I closed my eyes, preparing for the worst.

"Hey, look over here, you legless lizard!"

The snake and I looked over, and I cursed under my breath. I'd told Harry to leave. He hasn't listened.

The snake shot towards Harry, and I nearly screamed. Thankfully, my friend ducked down in a little air pocket that must have been under the painted rock we'd seen earlier. The snake couldn't fit in the hole, but the way it was bashing its head into the ground, it wouldn't take long for him to get to my friend.

I forced myself into a sitting position, struggling to remember anything I could about this particular monster. I was fairly certain this one was actually apart of my pantheon, considering he'd apparently addressed me as the son of Poseidon earlier, so that narrowed it down greatly. Then, it was invulnerable. My blade couldn't hurt it. And it had dorsal fins, so it was very powerful (everything that has dorsal fins also has great power).

It hit me, and I grimaced, but at least I knew how to kill it. It wouldn't be easy. I was fighting the Carthaginian Serpent.

I was tempted to use myself as a distraction for Harry to escape before I carried out the better part of my very dangerous plan, but I wasn't in any shape to dodge more attacks from the snake. There was a dull ache in my leg, and Harry had a much better chance of surviving the snake than I did.

I swam a large lap around the snake, forcing myself to the other side of the rock. I just had to hope it wouldn't see me. Finally, I stopped behind the rock, taking a deep breath as I tried to remember the spell Flitwick had taught us.

"Harry, use Protego!" I shouted, whipping out my wand, hoping Harry could hear me. "Depulso!" The Banishing Charm worked well enough. The massive rock shot forwards, slamming into the snake. It crumpled into dozens of smaller pieces, each the side of a boulder. It crushed the Carthaginian Serpent. The snake screeched and writhed, but I knew it would die under the rocks, just as it had thousands of years ago, when faced with a Roman legion.

"Harry?" I called, straining to see through the muddy water. Finally, after what seemed like ages, but was probably only a few moments, Harry swam through the water, appearing in front of me. He had a few nasty scrapes and growing bruises, but it looked like the Protego charm had done its job.

"Are you okay?" Harry demanded, looking over me with worry. "I watched you get hit by that thing's tail. You didn't get up."

"I'm fine, just a little shaken, that's all," I told Harry. "Why didn't you listen to me? I told you to run, you could've gotten hurt."

"Well if I didn't do that you would've gotten killed," Harry countered.

"Death is only temporary," I pouted.

"So is pain," Harry said, probably — definitely— used to my shit. "Are you sure you're fine? You look pale."

"Yeah, just, uh, my leg hurts a bit, not a big deal," I shrugged it off, casually wrapping my arm around his shoulders. "Now, because you didn't follow my directions, you get to pull me to our people." Harry's eyes softened, seemingly understanding that I needed a little assistance getting to wherever it was we were heading. He didn't say a word as we started moving again.

Kadee prefers glorified worm. So yesterday, my phone got the loading screen of death. For a day, it didn't do anything but sit and show the loading screen it shows just before you turn it off. So phone was brokey. I told my parents, they were all excited cause they paid insurance for it, and now I have a new phone. While I waited for it, my step mom let me use her old one. Then my broken phone died and turned back on. This is the story of how I currently own three phones. I'll have to turn the old fake broken one in soon though so it'll just be two. The old step mom one will probably go back in a drawer somewhere. Today we also went to the river, and watched a bunch of people jump off of a cliff. Anyway, I've got to go, Kadee and I are playing a game.

I hope you guys have had a fantastical Friday, and I'll see you on Sunday. Love ya!

PS. I leave for Universal on Monday, so there won't be any updates for a bit after that.