Percy Jackson, the Son of Olympus: The Sea of Monsters

| Chapter VIII || Jealous Gifts |

*August 24 XXXX*

***

"Well, this seems familiar!" Luke called out.

He was standing at the foremost point of the army, directly in the center. Even to someone who'd never seen him before could easily tell that he was the leader, despite his lack of height and muscles compared to many of the others. His arms were crossed over his broad chest, legs slightly apart and an ugly expression on his face. The shadows that the dim lights cast on his face folded deeply into his scar, making it appear more sinister.

"Did you really just break out of my prison only to be captured again, cousin?" Luke asked. His tone, however, stated to Percy that the question was rhetorical.

"Nope!" he answered anyways, shoving Annabeth and Tyson over the railing of the ship.

Annabeth let out a scream as she fell, spouting a healthy stream of curses at Percy, both in English and Greek. Tyson remained silent, a perfectly frozen expression of shock on his face. He merely stared up at where Percy stood next to the railing, his brow furrowed, lip pouted, and his single brown eye wide with confusion.

Percy then went to shove Grover, but the satyr avoided his friend, shuffling skittishly across the deck. "Are you crazy, man?" he yelped, his hooves tapping against the polished wood.

"No, seriously, Grover! Go overboard! I have a plan!" Percy replied, but it was too late, for Grover's hooves had brought him within arm's reach of one of the monsters, who immediately took his chance to snatch up the satyr.

"Ahh! Let go!" Grover cried, shaking his shaggy hindquarters as he struggled to get out of the monster's grip. His hooves flailed around, uselessly hitting the belly of the monster that held him. The monster squeezed his arms tighter, and Percy winced when Grover yelped. He knew for certain that Grover's arms would soon be covered in bruises.

"What will you do now Percy? You've left half of your team in the ocean as shark bait and the other half is still trapped aboard my ship." Luke interrupted himself to chuckle. "Did you really think you could win this one?"

Percy looked between the raging ocean over the railing and Grover, who was still struggling, though it was no use. Percy couldn't decide whether to leave him and help the others escape or let the others bob in the ocean for a bit longer so that he could help Grover. He knew that Tyson would be okay as a son of Poseidon, but Annabeth was a daughter of Athena, Poseidon's sworn enemy. And on top of all that, the last watery situation she'd been in with him had been extremely traumatising.

At least this time there were no spiders.

"Grover, we'll come back for you. Luke won't hurt you because there would be no need to. If he wanted us dead he'd have killed us already. You just stay strong and know that we'll be back as soon as we can."

Before Grover or Luke had a chance to ask what he was talking about. Percy dove over the side of the ship and down into the ocean. His face smacked into the water and it was not the force - as one would expect - but the shock of the cold that awakened his senses.

He felt one with the sea.

His gut tightened and water formed up around him, solidifying into a watery boat. It was almost like half-melted glass - translucent, but still shifting and dripping. Annabeth and Tyson were carried up in the boat as well, and the three of them sped off west, where Percy's gut was telling him to go.

Percy didn't look back. He couldn't bring himself to, for fear that he could see Grover's expression. He couldn't face the betrayed look in his short-time friend's eyes as he left him behind.