Do-over (A Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

16. Pinecone Face escapes the pine tree

'Gods, that burns,' I said through gritted teeth.

Chiron put me down from his back carefully, 'Relax, Percy. I need you to stay still.'

I hissed in pain when my back hit the ground. Any sort of movement agitated the wound on my right side. Nevertheless, I complied with Chiron's orders and stayed as still as I possibly could while he treated my wound.

The past two weeks had been a joyride of pain and misery. As I expected, we had gone on a quest to find the Golden Fleece, except it was more of an illegal quest. No matter the time period or universe I was in, there was no way Clarisse would ever pick me as a quest mate.

Chiron was fired wrongfully again, and despite all protests, the Olympians would not listen to reason. I had prayed to my father begging him to reason with Zeus but to no avail. Zeus, like the thick-headed god he is, refused to look at the situation rationally. Typical.

I had told Chiron we would get him back but he had said nothing and simply smiled at me. One thing that scared me a little was what he had said. 

'You can't change what happens, Percy. Only prepare for it,' Chiron had told me. 'Some things are just meant to happen. Like Fate, if you will.'

That simple statement had made me consider Chiron's knowledge about where I came from. Did he know about my situation? What Chiron had said was so closely related to what I'm going through, I had lost some sleep. In the end, I had passed it off as his occasional words of wisdom and moved on.

The few days I had been at camp after Chiron was fired, I had to restrain myself from committing a hate crime. Tantalus was one of the most horrid people I have ever met. I hate to admit it, but he might be a more terrible person than Smelly Gabe.

The chariot races were a disaster, as expected. It was a miracle nobody had died with Tantalus as camp director. It had gotten pretty close though.

The events I remembered flew by in a flash. Clarisse accepted the quest, she got issued a prophecy and had departed to the Sea of Monsters. I was the only person who knew she had gone alone. That was one of the reasons I had been so eager to leave camp for the quest. We didn't act like it much, but Clarisse and I considered each other friends. Well, the Clarisse I knew back in my time. 

It still felt weird to say that. "Back in my time". It made me sound old.

Like before, our journey had started on the Princess Andromeda, Luke's monster-infested cruise ship. I didn't see why we couldn't have just sailed directly to Polyphemus' island but Hermes had requested us to start off the quest with a warm heart-to-heart conversation with Luke.

Luke's words still echoed in my head. Can't you imagine a world without them, Percy? The West is rotten to the core!

I had tried, really tried to talk Luke out of it. To convince him to change his mind, I really did. As hard as I tried, Luke never seemed to see what his actions had done, and what his actions would end up doing. He was blinded by vengeance for what the gods have done. What he never considered is how much worse the Titans would be if they took over. It would be Hell on earth, no matter which side of the war you were on.

Luke gave us no choice but to leave. And by leave, I meant escape while trying not to get skewered by spears and arrows. Somehow, we managed to get away from the boat unharmed and had sailed towards Chesapeake Bay in our wind-powered lifeboat where we would inevitably meet up with Clarisse and her crew of undead zombies.

One thing led to another and we finally arrived at the entrance into the Sea of Monsters. Charybdis proved to be a major problem, essentially being a big black hole of death that awaits anyone who wishes to seek entrance into the wretched place.