RED ¹ / Percy Jackson !

50

EVERYTHING WAS A BLUR TO VIVIENE Once, she was on the ship listening to Grover's worried mama speech and watching Clarisse yell something to Percy, and then their boat was sinking.

Somehow, Viviene ended up on a hippocampi, sharing it with Percy just like at the start of the trip.

They broke the surface of the water and raced away from Polyphemus's island. Behind them, Percy could hear the Cyclops roaring in triumph, "I did it! I finally sank Nobody!"

Percy hoped he never found out he was wrong.

They skimmed across the sea as the island shrank to a dot and then disappeared.

"Did it," Viviene muttered in exhaustion. "We ..."

She slumped against the neck of the hippocampus and instantly fell asleep.

Percy didn't know how far the hippocampi could take them. he didn't know where they were going. he just propped up Viviene so she wouldn't fall off, covered her in the Golden Fleece that they'd been through so much to get, and said a silent prayer of thanks.

Which reminded him ... he still owed the gods a debt.

"You're a genius,red" he told Viviene quietly.

Then he put his head against the Fleece, and before he knew it, he was asleep, too.

***

"Percy, wake up!" Viviene grumbled, splashing water onto his face. Percy's eyes opened and he rubbed his eyes.

In the distance, the sun was setting behind a city skyline. They could see a beachside highway lined with palm trees, storefronts glowing with red and blue neon, a harbor filled with sailboats and cruise ships.

"Miami, I think,"  Viviene said. "But the hippocampi are acting funny."

Sure enough, their fishy friends had slowed down and were whinnying and swimming in circles,sniffing the water. They didn't look happy. One of them sneezed. Percy could tell what they were thinking.

"This is as far as they'll take us," Percy said. "Too many humans. Too much pollution. We'll have to swim to shore on our own."

None of us them very psyched about that, but they thanked Rainbow and his friends for the ride.Tyson cried a little. He unfastened the makeshift saddle pack he'd made, which contained his tool kit and a couple of other things he'd salvaged from the Birmingham wreck. He hugged Rainbow around the neck, gave him a soggy mango he'd picked up on the island, and said good-bye.

Once the hippocampi's white manes disappeared into the sea, they swam for shore. The wavespushed them forward, and in no time they were back in the mortal world. They wandered along the cruise line docks, pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Porters bustled around with carts of luggage. Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish and tried to cut in line for customers.

 If anybody noticed them- six kids dripping wet and looking like they'd just had a fight with a monster-they didn't let on.

Now that they were back among mortals, Tyson's single eye had blurred from the Mist. Grover had put on his cap and sneakers. Even the Fleece had transformed from a sheepskin to a red-and-gold high school letter jacket with a large glittery Omega on the pocket.