Camp Hermit-Blood - The Sea of Monsters

Zedaph

The sea spray was constantly hitting Zedaph in the face, and the salt was starting to make him itchy.

It wasn't like he had any other form of transportation, though, so he wasn't about to complain to the hippocampus.

Zedaph tried to loosen his grip so the poor fish pony could be more comfortable, but when he threatened to fall off, he tightened it again.

"Sorry," he mumbled to it.

The hippocampus whinnied, apparently unbothered.

Zedaph didn't exactly like riding on a seahorse. It probably had something to do with his mother being Athena, and her rivalry with Posideon.

No matter how much Annabeth explained that, Zedaph still didn't understand it.

Up ahead, Tyson was riding handsfree. Show-off.

Tango also had a deathgrip on the hippocampus, and it might have been tighter than Zedaph's if that was possible.

How did they get hippocampi? Well, Tango went down into the bunk room to rescue Zedaph and Gem. Gem got out. Zedaph didn't. Tyson had run up and together the two fire guys had shielded the rather useless-feeling son of Athena from the explosion. Regardless, though, it had knocked all three of them unconscious.

"Rainbow the fish pony" (as Tyson put it) had followed them to the Sea of Monsters because he "wanted treats." Rainbow saw the ship explode and decided to get a couple of his friends to help out. Apparently, Tyson could understand Rainbow, and he also said that the others had got onto rowboats.

At least they were alive.

The hippocampi were faster than any boat. Zedaph wondered why they even had a boat in the first place, until he remembered that Clarisse had led this quest. Zedaph had been a stowaway.

Right after they all woke up, they had a conversation about whether they should go back to the mainland, find an island to try and survive on, or go on to the coordinates of the Golden Fleece.

They decided to go onward. If they met up with the others again at any point, it would be at Polyphemus' island.

Zedaph didn't know what he expected on the journey there. He had no idea why he didn't process that hey, the Sea of Monsters might have monsters in it.

He found that out the hard way when the sea serpent attacked.

Tango suddenly cried, "I saw scales! Like a snake or something!"

"Go faster," Tyson ordered. "The monsters cannot catch Rainbow!"

Zedaph saw it for the first time a few minutes later. A flash of pearlescent scales and white teeth, and then it was gone again into the depths of the green sea.

"Guys," Zed said. "I think it's following us."

Tyson looked terrified. "Is it nice?"

"I don't think it's nice!" Zedaph yelped as it rose out of the ocean.

"FLEE WITH EXTRA FLEE!" Tango hollered as their hippocampi sped up even more.

Zedaph glanced back to see if it was still there. It was, and it was advancing quickly. It may have been large, but it was not slow.

The sea monster had a dragonlike head. Its body was more like a snake with shiny orange scales and rust-colored spines down its back, but they shimmered in blue and red as well. It would have been somewhat beautiful if it wasn't trying to kill them.

He expected it to roar. It didn't. It just followed them.

Zedaph squeezed his eyes shut to block out the water, but he felt his grip slipping. And just as the hippocampus felt that, it leaped out of the water like a dolphin, and when they hit the waves again and went under, Zedaph had to let go.

He swam towards the surface, only to be hit by something and sink deeper. So he desperately tried again. This time, a clawed hand - definitely another monster - grabbed his ankle and pulled him down.

A stream of bubbles escaped Zedaph's mouth as he struggled. Finally he took out his sword and stabbed at whatever was grabbing him. It let go, and Zedaph finally made it to the surface, gasping for air.

He got one deep breath before he was knocked back into the silence of the ocean by a giant orange tail.

He forced himself to keep his eyes open and slashed at the tail, but the blade glanced off the scales like steel. Not knowing what else to do, he grabbed one of the spines. It was sharp on the tip but round on the sides, like a goat horn. The tail rose out of the water and Zedaph finally got a good breath of air.

He grasped the next spine up with shaking hands, and one by one, climbed up to the head of the beast. If there was one way to kill something, it was to get the eyes.

Zedaph finally got to the head, and grabbed hold of one of its horns. His arms barely went around it enough to grasp each other.

The monster had finally noticed that he was there and was trying to shake him off. Finally, it dove underwater, apparently figuring out that Zedaph could not, in fact, breathe.

Zedaph held on as they went deeper, the pressure both of the water and lack of air increasing, but it must have been a surface-residing monster because it was only about thirty seconds before they surfaced again. And when they did, Zedaph jumped off of the snout, prayed to every god he knew that this would work, threw his sword at its eye, and hoped for the best.

He plunged into the water and glanced up, where the sea serpent was plunging toward him at an unavoidable speed. Zedaph, knowing he wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time, waited for the inevitable.

But it never came.

Instead, sea foam that quicky dispersed was the only thing visible.

Zedaph grabbed his sword as it sank through the water, as well as a few scales that had fallen with it. The only remains of the monster that had almost killed him.

He broke the surface and looked around desperately for a hippocampus, a boat, anything to be able to rest for a minute.

There was nothing.

Had the others just left him to drown?

Seeing no other choice, Zedaph started swimming despite his clothes and sword weighing him down.

Until he felt something come up under him. He thought it was a monster at first, until he saw the familiar shiny scales and fur of a hippocampus. Zedaph had never felt so happy to see a horse in his life.

He grasped it, not as tightly as before (he was tired) but it didn't let him fall off as they swam towards... well, as they swam off towards yet more danger.

~~~

Um so I'm not that good at fight scenes... yeah sorry for putting you through that

-Indigo