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Camp Half-Blood taught Percy that he wasn't good at a lot of things. Archery? Terrible. Sparring? Clarisse pulverized him every time.
The only thing Percy had gotten good at was wielding a sword. Many would say that he was one of the best swordsman camp had seen in a long time.
There was something else Percy had just learned he was really good at. The Queen Anne's Revenge responded to his every command. He knew which ropes to hoist, which sails to raise, which direction to steer. They plowed through the waves at what Percy figured was about ten knots. He even understood how fast that was. For a sailing ship, pretty damn fast.
Bronte sat at the edge of the boat, her legs hanging off the edge. It all felt perfect–the wind in her face, her body swaying with the waves.
Annabeth walked over and sat on her left, Percy on her right.
"Hey, how did you know the vitamins would work?" Annabeth asked Bronte, turning to look at her.
Percy and Bronte said they would explain what happened along the way, and now that they had time to relax, it was all that Annabeth could think about.
Bronte's mouth opened to form a 'o'. "Oh, uh, about that..." she chuckled awkwardly. "I didn't."
"What?" Percy exclaimed. He sat up quickly, his eyes wide.
"What?" Bronte smiled. "It worked out in the end, didn't it?"
Annabeth couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You mean–"
"Look, I didn't know what would happen. I remember Hermes saying something about taking them when you needed them. I honestly had no idea what he meant by that, but I trusted my instincts and took one."
"You could have killed me!" Percy said, his voice rising. He was still shocked.
"I didn't though," Bronte said, pointing at him. "We're fine, see!"
Percy looked down at his body. "Ugh, I feel like I'm still that stupid rodent."
"You were a cute rodent," the blonde commented, nudging his shoulder.
The three sailed across the sea at a rapid pace. Bronte went back to staring out at the water, the breeze calming her nerves. The sky turned dark and stars came out, twinkling in the night sky.
Annabeth stood further back, in the center of the ship. She kept rocking back and forth, and after a while, went below to lay down.
Now that they were out of danger, all Percy could think about was how much he missed Tyson, and how worried he was about Grover and Cooper.
He couldn't get over how badly he'd messed up on Circe's Island. If it hadn't been for Bronte and her trusting her random instincts, he'd still be a rodent, hiding in a hutch with a bunch of cute furry pirates.
