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FIC: The Golden Fleece, chpt 20
Title: The Golden Fleece (Daughter of Wisdom 2)
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Tyson, Luke Castellan, Clarisse La Rue, Chiron, Thalia Grace, various others, Gen
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Summary: Annabeth Chase returns to Camp Half-Blood to find the safety of her home shattered: Thalia's tree has been poisoned, destroying the magic barriers protecting the camp, and Chiron is blamed. Only one thing can save the camp, and it's up to Annabeth and her best friend Percy to find it. The problem is, they set off with a monster in tow. Once again, the quest and the surprises it has in store is about to change everything she thinks she knows. An alternate PoV retelling of Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.
In this chapter
Chapter Title: We Crash A Wedding Party
Rating: PG
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, Clarisse La Rue, Polyphemus
Word Count: 4,272
Chapter Summary: Annabeth and Percy arrive at their destination in time to break up Polyphemus's wedding plans.
A/N: This chapter was fun because at last, Annabeth gets a scene on her own again! Also hello action sequence after a bunch of introspective chapters. :) Dialogue from the canon scenes is of course from SoM.
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As the Sirens' island faded into the distance, Percy sat next to me, cross-legged on the deck with his chin in his hands and the wax still sticking out of his ears.
'We're safe now,' I told him when he looked at me. He unplugged his ears and shook his head as though clearing it.
'You okay?' he said after a while.
I shrugged. The Sirens' song was still haunting me and I didn't think that was going to go away for a long time yet. There wasn't much I could do about it, though.
'I didn't realise,' I said, 'how powerful the temptation would be.'
Percy's face went pink. 'Um,' he said tentatively, 'I saw the way you rebuilt Manhattan. And Luke and your parents.'
'You saw that?' I looked down at my hands, embarrassed. If he'd seen that ... oh gods, had he seen the way he'd appeared to me on the island, too?
If he had, he didn't mention it. 'What Luke told you back on the Princess Andromeda,' he said, 'about starting the world from scratch ... that really got too you, huh?'
I latched gratefully onto the subject. 'My fatal flaw-that's what the Sirens showed me. My fatal flaw is hubris.'
'That brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches?'
I didn't know if he was just joking around to make me feel better, but it did lift my spirits a bit.
'No, Seaweed Brain. That's hummus. Hubris is worse.'
'What could be worse than hummus?'
I explained the meaning of hubris. 'It's thinking you can do things better than anyone else …' I swallowed, hearing Luke's voice again: you're better than the gods, better than the Titans.
'You feel that way?' He sounded so surprised. I had thought most demigods would understand. I mean, wasn't a bit of that arrogance common to all heroes? Luke had it, Clarisse had it … wasn't it what pushed him to take on this quest?
'Don't you ever feel like, what if the world really is messed up? What if we could do it all over again from scratch?' You're an architect of peace and prosperity, I heard Thalia saying.
I swallowed against the lump in my throat.
Percy's eyes glazed over a little when I tried to describe the bigger world issues I could think of to change, so I cast around for something smaller, something closer to home that I would make better. 'No more summer reading homework,' I said pointedly.
He sat up a little straighter. 'I'm listening.'
I smiled. 'I mean, the West represents a lot of the best things mankind ever did.' It had managed to go on for three thousand years after all, carrying the torch of Olympus all this time. But the bad stuff that came together with our civilisation … that was the problem. There was always enough of it, so much of it that you could point to it and say, I could do it better.
I guess that was what Luke meant when he'd talked about building a new age. Only he was going about it the wrong way, siding with Kronos. Still, the place where it all came from … the Sirens had shown me that it lived in me, too. Even thinking that I would go about it better than Luke-was that also my hubris talking? Or did everyone just feel like that when they noticed something wrong with the world?
'Don't you ever feel that way? Like you could do a better job if you ran the world?'
'Um … no,' Percy declared. 'Me running the world would kind of be a nightmare.'
I didn't know if he really believed that. I decided to take his word for it. It was true that Percy never did seem to suffer from an excess of pride. He didn't take himself seriously enough for it.
'You're lucky,' I told him. 'Hubris isn't your fatal flaw.'
'What is?'
I considered this, but I couldn't really put my finger on it. He was reckless and impulsive, and those could be detrimental. They were obvious flaws, though. I felt like his real fatal flaw, like mine, was probably something more insidious.
'I don't know, Percy,' I said at last. 'But every hero has one. If you don't find it and learn to control it … well, they don't call it "fatal" for nothing.'
That made me think of the heroes I knew of who had hubris as their fatal flaw: Atalanta, believing her speed was unmatched and could not be overcome by anyone … or anything. Bellerophon, who thought he could fly Pegasus straight to Olympus to a welcome from the gods. Had they known about their fatal flaw and tried to guard against it, or had it taken them unawares when it proved to be their downfall?
'So,' Percy said, 'was it worth it? Do you feel … wiser?'
Lost in thought about fatal flaws, it took me a second to realise he was asking about the Sirens.
'I'm not sure,' I said. Yes, it was helpful to know what I had to guard against, but what if the result was just doubting myself at every step, wondering if I was falling prey to hubris? The real problem was, pride in itself wasn't always a bad thing. It gave me confidence, it helped me tackle problems that might otherwise seem insurmountable. How was I supposed to know when my pride in my abilities was an overextension? What could I be sure of?
I tried to think of something I could feel sure about. Saving the camp, I thought. Stopping Luke.
As if to say, yes, let's get on with that, land appeared on the horizon.
When I pointed this out, Percy murmured the co-ordinates from the Grey Sisters. My heart started to race. At last, we were here. The home of the most bloodthirsty Cyclops in history. I had to dig deep for my courage, wishing that I hadn't just been warned against pride right before arriving. I could do with some of my confidence before heading into battle with a Cyclops.
Maybe I should have considered this before throwing myself into a tumultuous encounter with the Sirens-again, courtesy of my fatal flaw, believing I could handle anything, no problem.
I was starting to see how this fatal flaw business could be a real double-edged sword.
Polyphemus's island was different from the others we'd seen. If we'd been in the mortal world, I'd have been amazed at how all these islands within the same geographical area could vary so much in their landscape, but within magical places, natural rules didn't really apply.
The beaches were as beautiful and clean as those on Circe's island, but they led up to hills with thick tropical forest. Not a single dwelling was in sight. The dominating feature of the island was a chasm in the centre that split it in two, as though a giant deer had formed the island by leaving its cloven footprint in the sea. On the far side, it formed a steep drop-off into the water, but the near side sloped more gently and a path led up from the meadows at the base, just beyond the beach.
Fresh air blew towards us, clean and sweet-smelling. It smelt like fresh nectar, or maybe ambrosia brought to life: a healing scent that engulfed the entire island and its surrounding waters. Just taking it into my lungs made me feel invigorated.
I knew immediately that we had found the right place.
The Fleece hung on the biggest oak tree at the edge of our side of the canyon. From this distance, it was nothing but a small speck of gold, but I knew that had to be it. The tree itself was larger than life, with leaves so green they were almost painful to look at, and golden acorns the size of coconuts. Sheep dotted the hill and lower meadows, fat and plump and so well-fed on Fleece-enhanced grass that they'd grown to the size of rhinoceroses.
There was no other living creature in sight.
Percy said, 'This is too easy. We could just hike up there and take it.'
It couldn't be that easy. There was something we were missing, something I thought I knew, only I couldn't put a finger on it just now. 'There's supposed to be a guardian,' I said dubiously. Jason had had to battle the Colchian dragon when he retrieved the Fleece.
Just then, a deer came cantering out into the meadow. It had barely poked its head out from the bushes when the peacefully grazing sheep swarmed it. The deer disappeared in a cloud of fluffy wool, and when the sheep scattered mere seconds later, there was nothing but a gleaming cervine skeleton.
Man-eating sheep, I thought, feeling stupid for not putting it together sooner. Ethel's delivery. He'd said they were going to a Cyclops down south.
I shuddered as I remembered the metallic tearing noises they'd made in the truck to Wilmington. Never mind man-eating. These were crazed, flesh-eating piranhas of sheep.
'Piranhas with wool,' Percy agreed. 'How will we-'
It was then that I spotted the lifeboat. Tucked in a little cove at the base of the meadow, the other rubber dinghy from Clarisse's battleship was moored in a patch of sand.
'Percy, look!' I said. 'Someone else is here.'
If it was Clarisse, she clearly hadn't gotten the Fleece yet. It was still sparkling in the sun at the top of the meadow. I hoped the sheep hadn't eaten her. There was no tell-tale pile of human bones, so I didn't think they had, but then where was she?
I turned my attention back to the Fleece. 'I could sneak up,' I mused. 'I have the invisibility cap.' There didn't seem to be any other way to get through the sheep, not if they attacked anything that moved.
'No,' Percy said. 'That could go waaaay wrong. What if they smell you? Or if they aren't the only thing-we don't know what's in that ravine. And if you get attacked in the middle of piranha sheep I won't be able to help.'
I raised my eyebrows and tapped my dagger. 'What makes you think I'll need you to help?'
He blushed a little, but kept looking obstinately at me. 'It's too dangerous.'
I sighed and reminded myself that believing I could do it on my own was probably an example of hubris. 'Fine, what's your plan, then?'
'We go round the other side. Maybe we can find a way up from there that doesn't go through sheep.'
I looked dubiously at the cleft in the island. A rickety-looking rope bridge was the only thing that connected the two ridges of the ravine.
'Besides, we need to find Grover and … whoever was in the lifeboat.' His voice took on a hopeful note, and I wondered who he expected to see. I didn't think he was that fond of Clarisse that he'd be this happy to find her. 'We can't see them from here, so they're probably on the other side.'
He steered us around the back of the island, where the cliff face ran vertically down to the narrow, rocky beach. It looked to be about sixty feet high, with mossy crags that would make barely decent handholds.
'You want us to climb that?' I said. The climbing wall was probably my least favourite training activity at camp. I could do it well, of course; I'd made certain to excel at all the training stations, even ones I hated, but some activities were just more torturous than others. The cliff face looked as treacherous as the camp wall, only much higher.
At least this one probably didn't have lava chasing us up if we didn't climb fast enough.
Percy looked as though he was close to reconsidering his idea, but he just said, 'Well, it's sheep-free.'
I sighed. 'All right, Seaweed Brain. Let's get climbing.'
Our progress was slow. My arms were aching from the strain before we even got halfway, but by that time we were so high, there wasn't much of a choice. Letting go wasn't an option, and climbing back down would hurt just as much. I gritted my teeth and kept going, thinking again how much I hated climbing. Whenever I'd complained about the lava climbing wall, wondering what use it was in fighting monsters, Chiron had smiled like he knew better. Scaling the cliff now, I guess he'd been right.
Once again, I missed him terribly. My mind wandered back to what he meant to tell us when we'd last spoke, about what to do when we found the Golden Fleece.
My foot slipped, finding Percy's face. He gave a startled grunt, but fortunately kept his handholds.
'Sorry!' I said, and forced myself to concentrate better. We had to first get to the top of this infernal cliff. Then we could get the Fleece, reverse the damage to Thalia's tree and with luck, get Chiron pardoned, too.
Or maybe that's your hubris talking, thinking you can solve it all, a small, sinister voice in my mind said.
Shut up, I told it.
We reached the top and found ourselves on a narrow strip of rock overlooking the entrance to a cave. The scene before me was strikingly familiar: a girl trussed up in rope hanging upside down over a large pot of boiling water while an enormous Cyclops looked on in amusement.
Polyphemus hadn't gagged Clarisse, though, and she was yelling at the top of her voice. 'I'll fight you!'
Tied up and weaponless, I didn't see how she stood a chance, but that was Clarisse for you.
Polyphemus laughed at her. He was the biggest Cyclops I'd ever seen, taller than his son in Brooklyn and at least twice as wide. Around his waist was a horrible pastel-blue kilt which rose up to cover his protruding gut and draped around one beefy shoulder. I wondered if it was the Fleece's magic that had helped him grow so big.
'Hmm, eat loudmouth girl now or wait for wedding feast?' he said.
Wedding feast?
'What does my bride think?' He turned to a short, veiled figure next to him, clad in a voluminous bridal gown with an extended golden train. I realised with a jolt that it was Grover, looking just as Percy had described from his dreams-disguised as a lady Cyclops bride. He would have made a comical sight if he hadn't been backing away from the gaze of Polyphemus's gigantic eye. It was scarred and milky with cataracts, but it glistened with evil malice. The sight of it struck fear deep into my heart.
Grover stammered something in high-pitch falsetto. Clarisse twisted around in her bonds and stared at him.
'Did you say bride? Who-Grover?'
I nearly slapped my forehead in frustration. 'Shut up,' I whispered, though she'd never hear me. 'She has to shut up!' But it was probably impossible for a daughter of Ares to understand deceptive strategy. In a few quick and thoughtless words, she gave Grover away completely.
Polyphemus tore away the wedding veil. Beneath it, Grover looked so pale, I thought he was going to faint.
Polyphemus glared at Grover. 'I don't see very well-not since many years ago when the other hero stabbed me in the eye. But …' he squinted and then roared, 'you're no lady Cyclops!'
The other hero … Odysseus! I thought. The strategist who had fought Polyphemus and tricked him into believing 'Nobody' did it.
Polyphemus grabbed a boulder like he was going to knock Grover out, but Grover yelled, 'Stop! Don't eat me raw! I-I have a good recipe!'
Next to me, I felt Percy rummage for his pen-sword. I put my hand on his arm.
'Wait,' I told him. Grover was spinning some story about the dangers of raw meat and the deliciousness of mango chutney. It was a good delaying tactic, which I approved of. With a monster like Polyphemus, brute force wasn't going to work. That was probably what had gotten Clarisse in trouble. We had to be like Odysseus: sneaky and clever. Polyphemus might be powerful, but it was clear intelligence was not one of his strengths.
Polyphemus considered Grover's proposition and finally came to the conclusion that he'd eat him later. After marrying Clarisse.
Which kind of just proved my point about him not being very bright.
Then again, given how indiscreet she'd been about Grover's identity, neither was Clarisse, really. All the same, we had to rescue them.
Polyphemus picked both of them up by the scruffs of their shirts and tossed them like rag dolls into his cave. He whistled and a whole flock of sheep and goats came trotting out of the cave mouth. These were more normal-sized than the man-eating sheep out in the meadow, but they looked plump and well-fed nonetheless. Polyphemus rolled a boulder over the cave entrance, sealing Grover and Clarisse inside, and waddled off to graze his herd.
Percy and I rushed for the boulder. It was enormous, at least ten feet in diameter, and try as we might, we couldn't budge it. I thought regretfully of Tyson, for whom it probably wouldn't have been a challenge, but of course he was long gone. I guess it was a little ironic that I would miss a Cyclops while facing another one-and I certainly never thought I'd see the day I'd wish for a Cyclops's help-but I found that I didn't really think 'Cyclops' any more when I thought of him … just 'Tyson'.
We tried for maybe fifteen minutes before we had to concede defeat. Polyphemus would return any time now; he was on the far side of the island, across the rope bridge connecting the two sides of the central chasm, feeding his piranha sheep. He'd be back once he finished with them. We needed a strategy.
'We can't beat him by force,' I said, 'so we'll have to use trickery.'
'Okay,' Percy said. He looked a little green as he watched Polyphemus weave through the man-eating sheep, throwing them bloody meat to tear into. 'What trick?'
'Um.' That was the challenge, wasn't it? 'I haven't figured that part out yet.'
'Great.'
'Well … Polyphemus will have to move the rock to let the sheep inside,' I reasoned. That would be our only chance to get Grover and Clarisse out.
'At sunset. Which is when he'll marry Clarisse and have Grover for dinner. I'm not sure which is grosser.'
I rolled my eyes. He was missing the point. 'I could get inside invisibly.'
'What about me?'
I frowned. That was the flaw in the plan-unless Percy could keep Polyphemus occupied outside, I wasn't going to have much luck getting Grover and Clarisse out past him. But sending Percy to distract Polyphemus was likely to get him killed.
It had to be the other way round. I needed to stay outside, invisible, to distract Polyphemus. How would we get Percy inside unnoticed, though?
I cast around for inspiration and my eyes landed on the normal flock, grazing on the cave side of the rope bridge, safely away from the carnivorous bunch. An idea started to form.
'How much do you like sheep?'
Percy looked at me warily. 'Depends on what you're planning with them.'
My first idea was to disguise Percy as one of the sheep. I'd sort of been inspired by Circe turning people into animals and Grover masquerading as a lady Cyclops. Unfortunately, as much loose wool as I managed to drape over him, he still looked distinctly like a boy crawling on his hands and legs. Seeing him crouched next to the sheep gave me another idea, though.
'Get down underneath one,' I told him.
'What?'
'Crawl under its belly and then hook yourself in. You've got wool all over you already, if you just hang on to the underside of a sheep, you can ride it inside. Get to Grover and Clarisse. I'll stay out, invisible, and distract him, keep him from closing the door.' I explained the rest of my plan.
'You've got to be kidding,' Percy muttered, but he wedged himself under the sheep's belly and grabbed hold. He rose off the ground and clung to its wool the way I'd once seen a baby sloth hanging upside down from its mother's hair on National Geographic.
'Perfect,' I said. 'Just don't let go!'
I put my Yankees cap on and waited. The sun was hanging low in the sky now.
'Oy!' Polyphemus cried. The rope bridge swung as he made his way back to our side. 'Goaties! Sheepies!'
At the sound of his voice, the entire flock started to head back towards the cave. Percy's sheep disappeared into the fold. I couldn't see any sign of him, which was a good thing. I waited until every sheep had entered the cave, to make sure he'd definitely gotten in, before stepping out and shouting at Polyphemus.
'Hello, ugly!' I'd decided to pull a Percy and go for insulting him. I'd seen Percy do it many times-it always got the monsters' attention. And if Odysseus had tricked Polyphemus by pretending to be Nobody, well, then I would see if I could play on that, too.
The plan worked even better than I hoped. Polyphemus glared around as soon as I spoke, his attention diverted from the open cave entrance. When I claimed to be Nobody, he turned livid.
'Nobody! I remember you!'
'You're too stupid to remember anybody, much less Nobody!' I yelled.
He howled and flung the boulder that had blocked the cave towards me, navigating by the sound of my voice. The rock sailed over my head and hit the side of the cliff and shattered, to my delight. He'd have to find himself another boulder to shut the cave back up. All I had to do now was lead Polyphemus himself away from the entrance so Percy could get Clarisse and Grover out of there.
I moved towards the meadow. 'You haven't learned to throw any better, either!' I called back.
Polyphemus took a few steps forward. 'Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!'
'You can't kill Nobody, you stupid oaf! Come find me!'
He made a grab in front of him, but he was too far away. Growling, he stumbled after me.
I led him all the way to the rope bridge, thinking frantically of taunts to use. I was mostly repeating them after the first couple-honestly, Percy was the one who could think up the really good insults, not me-but it didn't seem to matter. Polyphemus raged and chased after my voice, coming dangerously close sometimes, but I managed to stay out of his reach.
I backed up against the bridge, the sudden brilliant idea coming to me that maybe I could trick Polyphemus into retrieving the Fleece for us. If he could just bring it back through the man-eating sheep, I might be able to snatch it up. It'd be dangerous, but if it worked …
'You're too stupid to even know how to work that Fleece on the trees properly!' I shouted. 'And that's the only thing that can kill Nobody!'
'I will kill Nobody!' Polyphemus declared.
I shouted across the ravine, trying to make my voice sound like it was carrying from over the bridge, 'Oh yeah? Come and get me, then! I'm on the other side of the bridge, stupid!'
Polyphemus charged up to the bridge and I had to skip backwards to avoid his flailing arms.
'Nobody is here!' he snarled. 'Nobody is not on the other side.'
His hearing was really a lot sharper than I had given him credit for. His horrible eyesight must have meant he had plenty of experience navigating using the sound of things. I was just thinking that I had to be careful with that when I tripped over a loose rock. For one terrifying moment, I thought I might plunge over the side of the ravine, but I caught my balance and fell back on the meadow side.
Quick as a whip, Polyphemus's arm swiped through the air and snatched me up by the ankle. My head scraped across the rock that had tripped me, so hard that my vision blurred.
I should have remembered that being invisible wasn't that much of an advantage when dealing with an enemy that was already nearly blind.
'I got Nobody!' Polyphemus crowed. I hung upside down from his hand as he walked back up to his cave, which didn't help with the dizziness. He flicked me several times and my cap came flying off. 'Hah! Nasty invisible girl. Already got feisty one for wife. Means you gotta be roasted with mango chutney!'
I almost couldn't make sense of this. My forehead felt moist and sticky. I thought I was about to throw up. The swaying as Polyphemus moved was making me see double: two cave entrances, two pots of boiling water.
Then I heard Percy cry out: 'Hey, Ugly!'
Polyphemus spun so fast, I got whiplash. 'Another one? Who are you?'
'Put down my friend,' Percy yelled. 'I'm the one who insulted you.'
Oh no, I thought, this isn't how it's supposed to go.
Polyphemus released my ankle and for a second I was falling through the air. Then my head hit something solid. I felt a sharp burst of pain, my vision exploded into stars, and then the world went black.
Chapter 21
Author: shiiki
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Tyson, Luke Castellan, Clarisse La Rue, Chiron, Thalia Grace, various others, Gen
Fandom: Percy Jackson
Summary: Annabeth Chase returns to Camp Half-Blood to find the safety of her home shattered: Thalia's tree has been poisoned, destroying the magic barriers protecting the camp, and Chiron is blamed. Only one thing can save the camp, and it's up to Annabeth and her best friend Percy to find it. The problem is, they set off with a monster in tow. Once again, the quest and the surprises it has in store is about to change everything she thinks she knows. An alternate PoV retelling of Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.
In this chapter
Chapter Title: We Crash A Wedding Party
Rating: PG
Characters: Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, Clarisse La Rue, Polyphemus
Word Count: 4,272
Chapter Summary: Annabeth and Percy arrive at their destination in time to break up Polyphemus's wedding plans.
A/N: This chapter was fun because at last, Annabeth gets a scene on her own again! Also hello action sequence after a bunch of introspective chapters. :) Dialogue from the canon scenes is of course from SoM.
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As the Sirens' island faded into the distance, Percy sat next to me, cross-legged on the deck with his chin in his hands and the wax still sticking out of his ears.
'We're safe now,' I told him when he looked at me. He unplugged his ears and shook his head as though clearing it.
'You okay?' he said after a while.
I shrugged. The Sirens' song was still haunting me and I didn't think that was going to go away for a long time yet. There wasn't much I could do about it, though.
'I didn't realise,' I said, 'how powerful the temptation would be.'
Percy's face went pink. 'Um,' he said tentatively, 'I saw the way you rebuilt Manhattan. And Luke and your parents.'
'You saw that?' I looked down at my hands, embarrassed. If he'd seen that ... oh gods, had he seen the way he'd appeared to me on the island, too?
If he had, he didn't mention it. 'What Luke told you back on the Princess Andromeda,' he said, 'about starting the world from scratch ... that really got too you, huh?'
I latched gratefully onto the subject. 'My fatal flaw-that's what the Sirens showed me. My fatal flaw is hubris.'
'That brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches?'
I didn't know if he was just joking around to make me feel better, but it did lift my spirits a bit.
'No, Seaweed Brain. That's hummus. Hubris is worse.'
'What could be worse than hummus?'
I explained the meaning of hubris. 'It's thinking you can do things better than anyone else …' I swallowed, hearing Luke's voice again: you're better than the gods, better than the Titans.
'You feel that way?' He sounded so surprised. I had thought most demigods would understand. I mean, wasn't a bit of that arrogance common to all heroes? Luke had it, Clarisse had it … wasn't it what pushed him to take on this quest?
'Don't you ever feel like, what if the world really is messed up? What if we could do it all over again from scratch?' You're an architect of peace and prosperity, I heard Thalia saying.
I swallowed against the lump in my throat.
Percy's eyes glazed over a little when I tried to describe the bigger world issues I could think of to change, so I cast around for something smaller, something closer to home that I would make better. 'No more summer reading homework,' I said pointedly.
He sat up a little straighter. 'I'm listening.'
I smiled. 'I mean, the West represents a lot of the best things mankind ever did.' It had managed to go on for three thousand years after all, carrying the torch of Olympus all this time. But the bad stuff that came together with our civilisation … that was the problem. There was always enough of it, so much of it that you could point to it and say, I could do it better.
I guess that was what Luke meant when he'd talked about building a new age. Only he was going about it the wrong way, siding with Kronos. Still, the place where it all came from … the Sirens had shown me that it lived in me, too. Even thinking that I would go about it better than Luke-was that also my hubris talking? Or did everyone just feel like that when they noticed something wrong with the world?
'Don't you ever feel that way? Like you could do a better job if you ran the world?'
'Um … no,' Percy declared. 'Me running the world would kind of be a nightmare.'
I didn't know if he really believed that. I decided to take his word for it. It was true that Percy never did seem to suffer from an excess of pride. He didn't take himself seriously enough for it.
'You're lucky,' I told him. 'Hubris isn't your fatal flaw.'
'What is?'
I considered this, but I couldn't really put my finger on it. He was reckless and impulsive, and those could be detrimental. They were obvious flaws, though. I felt like his real fatal flaw, like mine, was probably something more insidious.
'I don't know, Percy,' I said at last. 'But every hero has one. If you don't find it and learn to control it … well, they don't call it "fatal" for nothing.'
That made me think of the heroes I knew of who had hubris as their fatal flaw: Atalanta, believing her speed was unmatched and could not be overcome by anyone … or anything. Bellerophon, who thought he could fly Pegasus straight to Olympus to a welcome from the gods. Had they known about their fatal flaw and tried to guard against it, or had it taken them unawares when it proved to be their downfall?
'So,' Percy said, 'was it worth it? Do you feel … wiser?'
Lost in thought about fatal flaws, it took me a second to realise he was asking about the Sirens.
'I'm not sure,' I said. Yes, it was helpful to know what I had to guard against, but what if the result was just doubting myself at every step, wondering if I was falling prey to hubris? The real problem was, pride in itself wasn't always a bad thing. It gave me confidence, it helped me tackle problems that might otherwise seem insurmountable. How was I supposed to know when my pride in my abilities was an overextension? What could I be sure of?
I tried to think of something I could feel sure about. Saving the camp, I thought. Stopping Luke.
As if to say, yes, let's get on with that, land appeared on the horizon.
When I pointed this out, Percy murmured the co-ordinates from the Grey Sisters. My heart started to race. At last, we were here. The home of the most bloodthirsty Cyclops in history. I had to dig deep for my courage, wishing that I hadn't just been warned against pride right before arriving. I could do with some of my confidence before heading into battle with a Cyclops.
Maybe I should have considered this before throwing myself into a tumultuous encounter with the Sirens-again, courtesy of my fatal flaw, believing I could handle anything, no problem.
I was starting to see how this fatal flaw business could be a real double-edged sword.
Polyphemus's island was different from the others we'd seen. If we'd been in the mortal world, I'd have been amazed at how all these islands within the same geographical area could vary so much in their landscape, but within magical places, natural rules didn't really apply.
The beaches were as beautiful and clean as those on Circe's island, but they led up to hills with thick tropical forest. Not a single dwelling was in sight. The dominating feature of the island was a chasm in the centre that split it in two, as though a giant deer had formed the island by leaving its cloven footprint in the sea. On the far side, it formed a steep drop-off into the water, but the near side sloped more gently and a path led up from the meadows at the base, just beyond the beach.
Fresh air blew towards us, clean and sweet-smelling. It smelt like fresh nectar, or maybe ambrosia brought to life: a healing scent that engulfed the entire island and its surrounding waters. Just taking it into my lungs made me feel invigorated.
I knew immediately that we had found the right place.
The Fleece hung on the biggest oak tree at the edge of our side of the canyon. From this distance, it was nothing but a small speck of gold, but I knew that had to be it. The tree itself was larger than life, with leaves so green they were almost painful to look at, and golden acorns the size of coconuts. Sheep dotted the hill and lower meadows, fat and plump and so well-fed on Fleece-enhanced grass that they'd grown to the size of rhinoceroses.
There was no other living creature in sight.
Percy said, 'This is too easy. We could just hike up there and take it.'
It couldn't be that easy. There was something we were missing, something I thought I knew, only I couldn't put a finger on it just now. 'There's supposed to be a guardian,' I said dubiously. Jason had had to battle the Colchian dragon when he retrieved the Fleece.
Just then, a deer came cantering out into the meadow. It had barely poked its head out from the bushes when the peacefully grazing sheep swarmed it. The deer disappeared in a cloud of fluffy wool, and when the sheep scattered mere seconds later, there was nothing but a gleaming cervine skeleton.
Man-eating sheep, I thought, feeling stupid for not putting it together sooner. Ethel's delivery. He'd said they were going to a Cyclops down south.
I shuddered as I remembered the metallic tearing noises they'd made in the truck to Wilmington. Never mind man-eating. These were crazed, flesh-eating piranhas of sheep.
'Piranhas with wool,' Percy agreed. 'How will we-'
It was then that I spotted the lifeboat. Tucked in a little cove at the base of the meadow, the other rubber dinghy from Clarisse's battleship was moored in a patch of sand.
'Percy, look!' I said. 'Someone else is here.'
If it was Clarisse, she clearly hadn't gotten the Fleece yet. It was still sparkling in the sun at the top of the meadow. I hoped the sheep hadn't eaten her. There was no tell-tale pile of human bones, so I didn't think they had, but then where was she?
I turned my attention back to the Fleece. 'I could sneak up,' I mused. 'I have the invisibility cap.' There didn't seem to be any other way to get through the sheep, not if they attacked anything that moved.
'No,' Percy said. 'That could go waaaay wrong. What if they smell you? Or if they aren't the only thing-we don't know what's in that ravine. And if you get attacked in the middle of piranha sheep I won't be able to help.'
I raised my eyebrows and tapped my dagger. 'What makes you think I'll need you to help?'
He blushed a little, but kept looking obstinately at me. 'It's too dangerous.'
I sighed and reminded myself that believing I could do it on my own was probably an example of hubris. 'Fine, what's your plan, then?'
'We go round the other side. Maybe we can find a way up from there that doesn't go through sheep.'
I looked dubiously at the cleft in the island. A rickety-looking rope bridge was the only thing that connected the two ridges of the ravine.
'Besides, we need to find Grover and … whoever was in the lifeboat.' His voice took on a hopeful note, and I wondered who he expected to see. I didn't think he was that fond of Clarisse that he'd be this happy to find her. 'We can't see them from here, so they're probably on the other side.'
He steered us around the back of the island, where the cliff face ran vertically down to the narrow, rocky beach. It looked to be about sixty feet high, with mossy crags that would make barely decent handholds.
'You want us to climb that?' I said. The climbing wall was probably my least favourite training activity at camp. I could do it well, of course; I'd made certain to excel at all the training stations, even ones I hated, but some activities were just more torturous than others. The cliff face looked as treacherous as the camp wall, only much higher.
At least this one probably didn't have lava chasing us up if we didn't climb fast enough.
Percy looked as though he was close to reconsidering his idea, but he just said, 'Well, it's sheep-free.'
I sighed. 'All right, Seaweed Brain. Let's get climbing.'
Our progress was slow. My arms were aching from the strain before we even got halfway, but by that time we were so high, there wasn't much of a choice. Letting go wasn't an option, and climbing back down would hurt just as much. I gritted my teeth and kept going, thinking again how much I hated climbing. Whenever I'd complained about the lava climbing wall, wondering what use it was in fighting monsters, Chiron had smiled like he knew better. Scaling the cliff now, I guess he'd been right.
Once again, I missed him terribly. My mind wandered back to what he meant to tell us when we'd last spoke, about what to do when we found the Golden Fleece.
My foot slipped, finding Percy's face. He gave a startled grunt, but fortunately kept his handholds.
'Sorry!' I said, and forced myself to concentrate better. We had to first get to the top of this infernal cliff. Then we could get the Fleece, reverse the damage to Thalia's tree and with luck, get Chiron pardoned, too.
Or maybe that's your hubris talking, thinking you can solve it all, a small, sinister voice in my mind said.
Shut up, I told it.
We reached the top and found ourselves on a narrow strip of rock overlooking the entrance to a cave. The scene before me was strikingly familiar: a girl trussed up in rope hanging upside down over a large pot of boiling water while an enormous Cyclops looked on in amusement.
Polyphemus hadn't gagged Clarisse, though, and she was yelling at the top of her voice. 'I'll fight you!'
Tied up and weaponless, I didn't see how she stood a chance, but that was Clarisse for you.
Polyphemus laughed at her. He was the biggest Cyclops I'd ever seen, taller than his son in Brooklyn and at least twice as wide. Around his waist was a horrible pastel-blue kilt which rose up to cover his protruding gut and draped around one beefy shoulder. I wondered if it was the Fleece's magic that had helped him grow so big.
'Hmm, eat loudmouth girl now or wait for wedding feast?' he said.
Wedding feast?
'What does my bride think?' He turned to a short, veiled figure next to him, clad in a voluminous bridal gown with an extended golden train. I realised with a jolt that it was Grover, looking just as Percy had described from his dreams-disguised as a lady Cyclops bride. He would have made a comical sight if he hadn't been backing away from the gaze of Polyphemus's gigantic eye. It was scarred and milky with cataracts, but it glistened with evil malice. The sight of it struck fear deep into my heart.
Grover stammered something in high-pitch falsetto. Clarisse twisted around in her bonds and stared at him.
'Did you say bride? Who-Grover?'
I nearly slapped my forehead in frustration. 'Shut up,' I whispered, though she'd never hear me. 'She has to shut up!' But it was probably impossible for a daughter of Ares to understand deceptive strategy. In a few quick and thoughtless words, she gave Grover away completely.
Polyphemus tore away the wedding veil. Beneath it, Grover looked so pale, I thought he was going to faint.
Polyphemus glared at Grover. 'I don't see very well-not since many years ago when the other hero stabbed me in the eye. But …' he squinted and then roared, 'you're no lady Cyclops!'
The other hero … Odysseus! I thought. The strategist who had fought Polyphemus and tricked him into believing 'Nobody' did it.
Polyphemus grabbed a boulder like he was going to knock Grover out, but Grover yelled, 'Stop! Don't eat me raw! I-I have a good recipe!'
Next to me, I felt Percy rummage for his pen-sword. I put my hand on his arm.
'Wait,' I told him. Grover was spinning some story about the dangers of raw meat and the deliciousness of mango chutney. It was a good delaying tactic, which I approved of. With a monster like Polyphemus, brute force wasn't going to work. That was probably what had gotten Clarisse in trouble. We had to be like Odysseus: sneaky and clever. Polyphemus might be powerful, but it was clear intelligence was not one of his strengths.
Polyphemus considered Grover's proposition and finally came to the conclusion that he'd eat him later. After marrying Clarisse.
Which kind of just proved my point about him not being very bright.
Then again, given how indiscreet she'd been about Grover's identity, neither was Clarisse, really. All the same, we had to rescue them.
Polyphemus picked both of them up by the scruffs of their shirts and tossed them like rag dolls into his cave. He whistled and a whole flock of sheep and goats came trotting out of the cave mouth. These were more normal-sized than the man-eating sheep out in the meadow, but they looked plump and well-fed nonetheless. Polyphemus rolled a boulder over the cave entrance, sealing Grover and Clarisse inside, and waddled off to graze his herd.
Percy and I rushed for the boulder. It was enormous, at least ten feet in diameter, and try as we might, we couldn't budge it. I thought regretfully of Tyson, for whom it probably wouldn't have been a challenge, but of course he was long gone. I guess it was a little ironic that I would miss a Cyclops while facing another one-and I certainly never thought I'd see the day I'd wish for a Cyclops's help-but I found that I didn't really think 'Cyclops' any more when I thought of him … just 'Tyson'.
We tried for maybe fifteen minutes before we had to concede defeat. Polyphemus would return any time now; he was on the far side of the island, across the rope bridge connecting the two sides of the central chasm, feeding his piranha sheep. He'd be back once he finished with them. We needed a strategy.
'We can't beat him by force,' I said, 'so we'll have to use trickery.'
'Okay,' Percy said. He looked a little green as he watched Polyphemus weave through the man-eating sheep, throwing them bloody meat to tear into. 'What trick?'
'Um.' That was the challenge, wasn't it? 'I haven't figured that part out yet.'
'Great.'
'Well … Polyphemus will have to move the rock to let the sheep inside,' I reasoned. That would be our only chance to get Grover and Clarisse out.
'At sunset. Which is when he'll marry Clarisse and have Grover for dinner. I'm not sure which is grosser.'
I rolled my eyes. He was missing the point. 'I could get inside invisibly.'
'What about me?'
I frowned. That was the flaw in the plan-unless Percy could keep Polyphemus occupied outside, I wasn't going to have much luck getting Grover and Clarisse out past him. But sending Percy to distract Polyphemus was likely to get him killed.
It had to be the other way round. I needed to stay outside, invisible, to distract Polyphemus. How would we get Percy inside unnoticed, though?
I cast around for inspiration and my eyes landed on the normal flock, grazing on the cave side of the rope bridge, safely away from the carnivorous bunch. An idea started to form.
'How much do you like sheep?'
Percy looked at me warily. 'Depends on what you're planning with them.'
My first idea was to disguise Percy as one of the sheep. I'd sort of been inspired by Circe turning people into animals and Grover masquerading as a lady Cyclops. Unfortunately, as much loose wool as I managed to drape over him, he still looked distinctly like a boy crawling on his hands and legs. Seeing him crouched next to the sheep gave me another idea, though.
'Get down underneath one,' I told him.
'What?'
'Crawl under its belly and then hook yourself in. You've got wool all over you already, if you just hang on to the underside of a sheep, you can ride it inside. Get to Grover and Clarisse. I'll stay out, invisible, and distract him, keep him from closing the door.' I explained the rest of my plan.
'You've got to be kidding,' Percy muttered, but he wedged himself under the sheep's belly and grabbed hold. He rose off the ground and clung to its wool the way I'd once seen a baby sloth hanging upside down from its mother's hair on National Geographic.
'Perfect,' I said. 'Just don't let go!'
I put my Yankees cap on and waited. The sun was hanging low in the sky now.
'Oy!' Polyphemus cried. The rope bridge swung as he made his way back to our side. 'Goaties! Sheepies!'
At the sound of his voice, the entire flock started to head back towards the cave. Percy's sheep disappeared into the fold. I couldn't see any sign of him, which was a good thing. I waited until every sheep had entered the cave, to make sure he'd definitely gotten in, before stepping out and shouting at Polyphemus.
'Hello, ugly!' I'd decided to pull a Percy and go for insulting him. I'd seen Percy do it many times-it always got the monsters' attention. And if Odysseus had tricked Polyphemus by pretending to be Nobody, well, then I would see if I could play on that, too.
The plan worked even better than I hoped. Polyphemus glared around as soon as I spoke, his attention diverted from the open cave entrance. When I claimed to be Nobody, he turned livid.
'Nobody! I remember you!'
'You're too stupid to remember anybody, much less Nobody!' I yelled.
He howled and flung the boulder that had blocked the cave towards me, navigating by the sound of my voice. The rock sailed over my head and hit the side of the cliff and shattered, to my delight. He'd have to find himself another boulder to shut the cave back up. All I had to do now was lead Polyphemus himself away from the entrance so Percy could get Clarisse and Grover out of there.
I moved towards the meadow. 'You haven't learned to throw any better, either!' I called back.
Polyphemus took a few steps forward. 'Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!'
'You can't kill Nobody, you stupid oaf! Come find me!'
He made a grab in front of him, but he was too far away. Growling, he stumbled after me.
I led him all the way to the rope bridge, thinking frantically of taunts to use. I was mostly repeating them after the first couple-honestly, Percy was the one who could think up the really good insults, not me-but it didn't seem to matter. Polyphemus raged and chased after my voice, coming dangerously close sometimes, but I managed to stay out of his reach.
I backed up against the bridge, the sudden brilliant idea coming to me that maybe I could trick Polyphemus into retrieving the Fleece for us. If he could just bring it back through the man-eating sheep, I might be able to snatch it up. It'd be dangerous, but if it worked …
'You're too stupid to even know how to work that Fleece on the trees properly!' I shouted. 'And that's the only thing that can kill Nobody!'
'I will kill Nobody!' Polyphemus declared.
I shouted across the ravine, trying to make my voice sound like it was carrying from over the bridge, 'Oh yeah? Come and get me, then! I'm on the other side of the bridge, stupid!'
Polyphemus charged up to the bridge and I had to skip backwards to avoid his flailing arms.
'Nobody is here!' he snarled. 'Nobody is not on the other side.'
His hearing was really a lot sharper than I had given him credit for. His horrible eyesight must have meant he had plenty of experience navigating using the sound of things. I was just thinking that I had to be careful with that when I tripped over a loose rock. For one terrifying moment, I thought I might plunge over the side of the ravine, but I caught my balance and fell back on the meadow side.
Quick as a whip, Polyphemus's arm swiped through the air and snatched me up by the ankle. My head scraped across the rock that had tripped me, so hard that my vision blurred.
I should have remembered that being invisible wasn't that much of an advantage when dealing with an enemy that was already nearly blind.
'I got Nobody!' Polyphemus crowed. I hung upside down from his hand as he walked back up to his cave, which didn't help with the dizziness. He flicked me several times and my cap came flying off. 'Hah! Nasty invisible girl. Already got feisty one for wife. Means you gotta be roasted with mango chutney!'
I almost couldn't make sense of this. My forehead felt moist and sticky. I thought I was about to throw up. The swaying as Polyphemus moved was making me see double: two cave entrances, two pots of boiling water.
Then I heard Percy cry out: 'Hey, Ugly!'
Polyphemus spun so fast, I got whiplash. 'Another one? Who are you?'
'Put down my friend,' Percy yelled. 'I'm the one who insulted you.'
Oh no, I thought, this isn't how it's supposed to go.
Polyphemus released my ankle and for a second I was falling through the air. Then my head hit something solid. I felt a sharp burst of pain, my vision exploded into stars, and then the world went black.
Chapter 21