Indigo Eyes

Chapter 28

It was actually a beautiful island. It had green fields and tropical fruit trees and white beaches. As we sailed towards the shore, Annabeth breathed in the sweet air. "The Fleece," she said, and they understood what she meant. They couldn't see the Fleece, but they could feel its power. If they could get the Fleece, then it might actually work. They could actually save camp.

"If we take it away, will the island die?" Percy wondered and both girls shook their heads.

"It's fade," Annabeth answered. "Go back to what it would be normally, whatever that is."

"And whatever it is, I don't want to stick around for that," Cressida commented.

As they sailed closer, the island became clearer. In the meadow at the base of the ravine, several dozen sheep were milling around. They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge – the size of hippos. Just past them was a path that led up into the hills. At the top of the path, near the edge of the canyon, was the massive oak tree where something gold glittered in its branches.

"A trap or a trick?" Cressida asked.

"Both surely," Percy agreed. "It's too easy otherwise. We could just hike up there and take it."

Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "There's supposed to be a guardian. A dragon or..."

That's when a deer emerged from the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for grass to eat, when the sheep all bleated at once and rushed the animal. It happened so fast that the deer stumbled and was lost in a sea of wool and trampling hooves. Grass and tufts of fur flew into the air. A second later the sheep all moved away, back to their regular peaceful wanderings. Where the deer had been was a pile of clean white bones.

"Oh my gods," Cressida gaped.

"They're like piranhas," Annabeth said.

"Piranhas with wool. How will we –"

Percy was cut off as Cressida grabbed Annabeth's arm and then Percy's.

"What?" the Son of Poseidon asked.

"Oh my gods," Cressida said again.

"Look!" Annabeth exclaimed as she pointed down the beach, to just below the sheep meadow, where a small boat had been run aground ... the other lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham.

However, there was no way for them to get past the man-eating sheep and towards the cave Percy had seen in his dreams, the cave where Grover and whoever was on the lifeboat should be, if those people got past the sheep themselves. Percy could tell that he and Cressida were hoping the same thing, that Tyson would be one of them.

They moored the Queen Anne's Revenge on the back side of the island where the cliffs rose straight up a good sixty metres feet, figuring that the ship would be less likely to be seen there. And Percy's brilliant idea was to climb the cliff. But to be fair it was either a sixty-metre climbing wall or man-eating sheep. And Cressida had spent almost seven years mastering the lava climbing wall for this very moment.

Annabeth went first since she was a better climber than Percy, so the two girls put him in the middle, Cressida climbing last in case anyone fell. And they only came close to dying six or seven times.

Percy lost his grip at one point and found himself dangling by one hand on a ledge about fifteen metres above a rocky surf. Cressida had saved him again, scampering up next to him as she grabbed his hand and placed it back on the cliff.

Then Annabeth's foot slipped and fortunately, she found another foothold, unfortunately, that foothold was Percy's face.

"Sorry," she murmured.