Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 38

As good of an actress as she was, Percy could always tell when his girlfriend lied to him. And right now as she took really long, slow blinks, he could tell that she was trying to hide the fear in her eyes at the sound that she was going to be chained and sacrificed.

He wasn't going to let anything happen to her. Never again.

So, guess he was going with a good old Positive Thinking Percy Jackson Plan.

"Fine!" Percy shouted, so loudly that he got everyone's attention. "Take us away, if our captain will let you."

Chrysaor turned his golden mask. "What captain? My men searched the ship. There is no one else."

Percy raised his hands dramatically and he knew Cressida would be proud. "You really think he'd let his only daughter on such a massively dangerous quest without his leadership? The god appears only when he wishes. He runs our camp for demigods. Doesn't he, Annabeth?"

Annabeth was quick. "Yes!" She nodded enthusiastically. "Mr. D! The great Dionysus!"

Another ripple of uneasiness passed through the dolphin men. One dropped his sword.

"Stand fast!" Chrysaor bellowed. "There is no god on this ship. They are trying to scare you again. Cressida Lynn is alone, and she is not her father!"

"That is where you'd be wrong," Percy said with a smug grin before looking at the pirate crew with sympathy. "You should be scared. Dionysus will be severely cranky with you for having delayed our voyage and putting your filthy hands on his daughter. He will punish all of us. Didn't you notice the girls falling into the wine god's madness?"

Hazel and Piper had stopped the shaking fits. They were sitting on the deck, staring at Percy, but when he glared at them pointedly, they started hamming it up again, trembling and flopping around like fish. The dolphin-men fell over themselves trying to get away from their captives.

"Fakes!" Chrysaor roared, specifically at the man that was holding Cressida, but she could feel his body trembling. "Shut up, Percy Jackson. Your camp director is not here. He was recalled to Olympus. This is common knowledge."

"So you admit Dionysus is our director!" Percy said.

"He was," Chrysaor corrected. "Everyone knows that."

Percy gestured at the golden warrior like he'd just betrayed himself. "You see? We are doomed. If you don't believe me, let's check the ice chest!"

Percy stormed over to the magical cooler. No one tried to stop him. He knocked open the lid and rummaged through the ice. It took a second before he was rewarded with a silver-and-red can of soda. He brandished it at the dolphin warriors as if spraying them with bug repellent. "Behold!" Percy shouted. "The god's chosen beverage. Tremble before the horror of Diet Coke!"

The dolphin men began to panic. They were on the edge of retreat, and everyone could feel it. But rather than call on Frank, Percy decided to earn some boyfriend brownie points and play his best card.

"And if you still don't believe me," he continued, a wicked glimmer in his eyes as he saw Cressida's grin. "Then watch as I call down the great Dionysus. Watch as he inhabits the body of his daughter to enact his rage and complete your transformation into his sacred animals or drive you insane or transform you into insane dolphins!"

More panic and more fallen weapons as Percy raised both hands into the sky, the Diet Coke can still in his hand. "Here me, O Lord Dionysus! I summon you! I call on your help! Help us! In the name of your daughter!"

And all eyes fell on Cressida who was ready to give the performance of her life.

Her eyes closed as her head seemed to shudder, her captor's body vibrating more than hers was before she changed her grip on the spear shaft, her hands crossed over in an X before her eyes snapped open and the dolphin men made scared noises at the sight of the fire that engulfed her irises. She broke the X she made with her arms, knocking the spear away as her hands exploded in purple fire that seemed to swirl all around her as she rose into the air - and Percy stared at the can in his hand, wondering if this maybe wasn't a performance after all.