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

| Chapter XIII || Argh! Get Me Celery! |

*August 27 XXXX*

***

Annabeth did not know what to expect when she dumped the bottle of multivitamins into the cage of multi-coloured furry creatures. She'd guessed that Circe had collected a variety of men throughout the years, but maybe they were lost sailors, or explorers, or old heroes that met their ends. One group she'd discounted, though, were pirates.

There was a man, whom had, only seconds before, been a scruffy black varmint. He had a beard that matched his fur - scruffy - and stood with the body and stance of a Viking, though he had trousers and a tunic and a hat that all pointed Annabeth's guess towards pirate.

A smaller twig of a man approached him. "Cap'n, what do we do?"

"Arg!" he replied. "That strumpet bewitched us! No one can do that to the great Blackbeard and get away with it! Let's get her!"

Annabeth's eyebrows began their escape off of her forehead. Blackbeard. This guy was Blackbeard. He existed? Of course, he was before her very eyes. He was Blackbeard.

Percy got to his feet near her, his hand immediately grabbing hold of her arm. "Let's go before this gets ugly," he said.

Annabeth nodded in reply. She didn't speak, her tongue seemed to have abandoned her, but she followed Percy's instruction and together, the two of them fled the lobby of the not-hotel and hassled their way through the screaming crowd of women toward the docks.

Annabeth's eyes scanned the docks. Their boat was gone - hidden or sunken or destroyed - she didn't know. Instead, she caught sight of a larger ship, perfect condition, despite how old the model. How has she not seen it before?

"Let's get on there!" Percy's voice barely registered in her ear, but as she turned to look at him, she saw that he was pointing towards the very same ship she'd just noticed.

On the side, Queen Anne's Revenge was inscribed in gold lettering. Of course, she didn't know it in that moment, and would only decipher it at a later time. Three masts stood tall and proud over the ship, weighed down by sails upon sails upon sails. He didn't even stop to question why his ship-bending skills were suddenly back. Perhaps his patron, Chaos, was giving him a boost. (The powers usually came and went at random. Probably because he used them irresponsibly for prancing people.)

The two demigods hopped aboard the vessel just in time to hear it. A cry.

"Arrgggh!"

It was Blackbeard.

"Those scallywags are a-boarding me vessel! Get 'em, lads!" He pointed his piece of celery at Percy, wringing it like a traitor's neck.

"We'll never get going in time!" Annabeth yelled. In her head, she'd made all of the calculations. There was no way other than a solid miracle that they were going to get the ship running, away from the dock, and into the Sea of Monsters before the pirates boarded the vessel and killed them.

Percy was adrenaline with legs. His head barely stayed on his shoulders as he turned to and fro, as if trying to figure out what to do on the fly. Knowing him, he was doing exactly that. He'd probably never been on a sailing ship before. So why did he choose this one? If they weren't in such trouble, Annabeth would have shaken her head at him.

She would have shaken her head if the boat hadn't decided to start sailing itself. Before her eyes, ropes moved and tied themselves down, the wheel spun and the sails twisted so that they would catch the wind.

Before she had time to react, the Queen Anne's Revenge was leaving the dock at a breakneck speed, the planks falling into the water, carrying pirates down into the - suddenly murky - depths below the barnacle-infested docks.

Leaving an island of women to the wrath of pirates hadn't been on Annabeth To-Do List or her Bucket List, but she guessed that she could check it off anyway. Turning back around to see what they were leaving behind, Annabeth sighed, her sympathies going out to those women. Those poor women who were just acting as followers of Circe, and would now suffer the consequences of their leader's choices.

"Where are we headed?" Percy asked suddenly, snapping Annabeth out of her reverie. He was at the wheel now, even though he didn't physically have to touch it to steer the ship - Annabeth assumed it was due to his father being Poseidon; naturally, the children of the sea god would be able to sail instinctually.

"Um..." Annabeth replied, trying to recall. It had been so long, and so much had happened that she was having trouble sorting through all the excess information that was rolling around in her brain like laundry on the spin cycle.

As she thought, Percy waited patiently, letting his gaze fall on the water.

"Wait!" he called, his eyes wide as he stared out at the water.

Annabeth looked up once again, following her feet up the stairs to join Percy. "What is it?" she asked, her eyes gazing out at the ocean, just like Percy's as she tried to catch a glimpse of what had made him shout. "What do you see?"

"I know you didn't believe me before," he said, "But I can see map lines. They're back. They were gone before, but I can see them again. They're right there, all across the water." With his hand, he gestured across the open ocean, his fingers splayed. Squinting as if he was reading, he said, "30...31... 75...12."

"Isn't that where we need to go?" Annabeth asked. She remembered hearing those numbers before, in that order. Where had she heard it? It was important to their quest - of that, she was certain, but how did she know?

"I remember it from somewhere," Percy explained. "Maybe we should follow it. It feels important."

His fair-haired companion nodded.

"Okay."

Percy began steering the ship, changing their course. They were headed to their destination - finally. It had been a long run, and they'd lost some friends along the way, but hopefully, once everyone got to where they were headed, they'd reunite.

"Better get some rest now," Percy said once the boat had made its turn and was sailing solidly in the direction they wanted to go. "Hopefully below deck doesn't smell too bad."

Annabeth shrugged, "I seriously doubt that. They are pirates."

***
Published: Saturday, January 6, 2018

~CSP2708~