OH, CHÉRIE!¹ percy jackson

009

❛009❜

"FLASK!" PERCY SCREAMED as they hurtled towards the water.

"what?" annabeth asked. she was holding on to the boat straps for dear life.

percy must've lost his mind, ivy figured. a flask wasn't her first thought while fell. she gripped at the boat with all her strength, scared of flying off like a stray napkin.

tyson seemed to understand something she didn't. he opened a duffel bag and took out hermes's magical flask without losing his grip on it or the boat.

arrows and javelins whistled past them.

percy grabbed the flask. "hang on!"

"i am hanging on!" annabeth yelled.

ivy yelled back. "we are going to die!"

"hold on tighter!"

ivy hooked her feet under the boat's inflatable bench, and, as tyson grabbed the back of her, annabeth and percy's shirt, the son of poseidon gave the flask cap a quarter turn."

instantly, a white sheet of wind jetted out of the flask and propelled them sideways, turning them downward plummet into a forty-five-degree crash landing.

the wind seemed to laugh as it shot from the flask, like it was glad to be free. as they hit the ocean, they bumped once, twice, skipping like a stone, then they were whizzing along like a speed boat, salt spray in our faces and nothing but sea ahead.

ivy heard a wail of outrage from the ship behind them, but they were already out of weapon range. the princess andromeda faded to the size of a white toy boat in the distance, and then it was gone.

as they raced over the sea, the three demigods tried to send an iris-message to chiron. figuring it was important they let somebody know what luke was doing, and they didn't know who else to trust.

the wind from the flask stirred up a nice sea spray that made a rainbow in the sunlight – perfect for an iris-message – but the connection was still poor. when annabeth threw a gold drachma into the mist and prayed for the rainbow goddess to show chiron, his face appeared all right, but there was some kind of weird strobe light flashing in the background and rock music blaring, like he was at a dance club.

they told him about sneaking away from camp, luke, the princess andromeda, and the golden box for kronos's remains, but between the noise on his end and the rushing wind and water on their end, ivy wasn't sure how much he heard.

"percy," chiron yelled, "you have to watch out for –"

his voice was drowned out by loud shouting behind him – a bunch of voices whooping it up like comanche warriors.

"what?" percy yelled.

"curse my relatives!" chiron ducked as a plate flew over his head and shattered somewhere out of sight. "annabeth, ivy, you shouldn't have let Percy leave camp! but if you do get the fleece –"

"yeah, baby!" somebody behind chiron yelled. "woo-hoooooo!"

the music got cranked up, subwoofers so loud it made our boat vibrate.

"– miami," chiron was yelling. "i'll try to keep watch –"

their misty screen smashed apart like someone on the other side had thrown a bottle at it, and chiron was gone.