Chapter 24

3.3K 159 24
                                    

"Smells like sheep," Tyson said as began walking onto the shore.

Personally, I didn't smell anything, but Cyclopes had as enhanced sense of smell, so I didn't doubt him. That and also I knew that there were flesh eating sheep because of Polyphemus.

I looked around, trying to find where our friends would be. According to the books, when Tyson arrived, Percy was getting pushed to the edge of a cliff by Polyphemus. I glanced upward, catching glimpses of the ugly baby blue tuxedo that the Cyclops had donned to get married to Grover and then to Clarisse.

"Tyson," I whispered, tapping his arm. "Up there."

He frowned, his eye widening when he realized that Percy was in real danger of being eaten by Polyphemus. Tyson then ran over to a pile of rocks and picked up a boulder that was the size of an overinflated basketball, hefting it over his head before shooting it up the hundred-foot precipice.

Moments later I heard a gagging noise and the sound of something large hitting the ground with a large thud. Tyson began charging up the path that connected the beach to the cliffside, completely unharmed by the man-eating sheep.

As for me, I mist-traveled myself up. I didn't smell like a Cyclops, so I would've been attacked by the sheep, unlike Tyson.

Once both Tyson and I had reunited with our friends, we gave them the short story of our journey, both of us omitting the fight with the skolopendra. I knew Percy had been worried enough as it was about whether we made it out alive or not from the explosion; I didn't want to worry him more by telling him we'd been separated at one point.

"Tyson, Andy, thank the gods," Percy said. "Annabeth is hurt!"

"You thank the gods she is hurt?" Tyson asked, puzzled.

"No!" Percy knelt beside Annabeth, his face full of worry. Annabeth had a large gash on her forehead, similar to the one Tyson had sported when I found him sinking below the wreckage. But hers was much deeper, blood staining her hairline. Her skin was pale and clammy.

Percy exchanged a look with Grover, who was no longer wearing a wedding dress. "Tyson, the Fleece. Can you get it for me?"

I walked towards Annabeth and summoned my bag, pulling out my flask of nectar and beginning to dribble it into Annabeth's mouth. It'd help with the pain and speed up her healing, but it wouldn't be enough to heal her ribs.

"Which one?" Tyson asked, looking around at the hundreds of sheep.

"In the tree! The gold one!"

"Oh. Pretty. Yes."

I tore my eyes away from Tyson, risking a few more drops of nectar before capping the flask, not wanting Annabeth to spontaneously combust because of me. I pulled out a gauze pad and pressed it against the gash on Annabeth's head. It was deep enough that I should've given her stitches right then and there, but I knew that the Golden Fleece's power would be strong enough to heal the cut completely.

Percy grunted behind me as he caught the Fleece, which weighed about sixty or seventy pounds. He set the Fleece over Annabeth's chest, his eyes closed and his mouth moving in a silent prayer.

The color returned to Annabeth's face. Her eyelids fluttered open. The gash on her forehead began to close. She saw Grover and said weakly, "You're not...married?"

Grover grinned. "No. My friends talked me out of it."

"Annabeth, just lay still," Percy said, concern flooding his voice. Oh, he was so whipped, and he didn't even know it yet.

"At least let me wrap your chest first," I protested, but the stubborn daughter of Athena sat up anyways. Albeit, she looked much better, her skin shimmering like a bucket of glitter had been dumped over her head.

Changing the FutureWhere stories live. Discover now