LUNACY; percy jackson

02.14

[act two; chapter fourteen     -     sinking]

"You'd think he'd run out of rocks," Percy muttered.

"Swim for it!" Grover said.

He, Annabeth, and Clarisse plunged into the surf. Annabeth hung on to Grover's neck and tried to paddle with one hand, the girl still recovering from being dropped on her head.

Percy on the other hand was left with a very stubborn and delirious daughter of Dionysus. She kept poking the center of his back every time he pushed her farther behind him, like an insencent child, the Fleece weighing her shoulders down.

But the monster's attention wasn't on the Fleece.

"You, young Cyclops!" Polyphemus roared. "Traitor to your kind!"

Tyson froze.

"Don't listen to him!" Percy pleaded. "Come on."

The green eyed boy pulled Tyson's arm, but he might as well have been pulling a mountain. He turned and faced the older Cyclops. "I am not a traitor."

"You serve mortals!" Polyphemus shouted. "Thieving humans!" Polyphemus threw his first boulder. Tyson swatted it aside with his fist. "Not a traitor," Tyson said. "And you are not my kind."

"Death or victory!" Polyphemus charged into the surf, but his foot was still wounded. He immediately stumbled and fell on his face. That would've been funny, except he started to get up again, spitting salt water and growling. But of course, only naturally in Percy's mind, Andromeda found it funny, a small laugh escaping her lips.

"Percy!" Clarisse yelled. "Come on!"

They were almost to the ship with the Fleece. If he could just keep the monster distracted a little longer...

"Go," Tyson told Percy. "I will hold Big Ugly."

"No! He'll kill you." Percy put up a fight, "We'll fight him together."

"Together," Tyson agreed.

Percy drew his sword and Andromeda backed away. She shook her head, turning towards her other friends, "I'm good. I wanna live to fight another day."