There were legends told, stories, of great children of gods doing wonderful things, of beating terrible monsters in their quests home or for greatness. Kassandra would like to say that this was one of those quests wherein they beat Polyphemus outright and they get to keep his eyeball as a trophy, but she knew that she would never even be able to take in a breath to speak such an outrageous lie. 

She furrowed her brows, forcing her brain to work properly when it felt more like moving on auto-pilot as she dragged herself to her feet, and notched an arrow again. There was a sharp throbbing behind her eyes, a pounding that made it difficult to focus. Her hand shook slightly before she forced it to steady, and let the arrow sail toward his head. 

"Put. Her. Down!" Kassandra screamed, voice rough as she forced herself to stand strong. 

Polyphemus growled as the arrow tip scathed a deep cut through his cheek. "Nasty girl! I will eat you too." 

She sneers and readies another arrow, taking aim at his face once more. "Put my friend down!" 

He laughs at her, taking a step forward. Annabeth swings in his grip weakly hitting his meaty hand. Jaw clenched, she glances around for something that might hurt him a little better than an arrow in the face.

(If she could ram the arrow into his eye directly, could cut through with a vicious swipe that would mar the pupil and permanently blind, then she would. If she could, she would steal the thing and feed it to his carnivorous sheep.) 

"Hey, Ugly!" Percy calls from somewhere behind the cyclops. 

The giant whirled toward him. "Another one? Who are you?"

"Put down my friend. I'm the one who insulted you," Percy continues to insult the monster, and she could see him now on the path that they had tread away from the cave, his sword held out defensively before him. 

"You are Nobody?"

"That's right, you smelly bucket of nose drool! I'm Nobody and I'm proud of it! Now, put her down and get over here. I want to stab your eye out again."

He bellowed a roar, the sound shaking the trees as he staggered with his rage. 

The good news: he dropped Annabeth. The bad news: he dropped her headfirst onto the rocks, where she lay motionless as a rag doll.

"For Pan!" Grover called, rushing forward behind his friend with a large bone wielded as a club. 

Close behind, Clarisse moved in on the opposite flank, spear held out just in time for the cyclops to step down on. Polyphemus cried out, but he only raised his foot and plucked it out like it was as bothersome as a splinter. 

He continued to advance on Percy. 

With a battle cry of her own, she let loose her arrow into the back of his knee. She took a great deal of pleasure in seeing him trip a little, knee bending with a grunt as he leans down to pluck it out. 

Kassandra reaches for another arrow, wincing when she sees how many have yet to come to her, and picks up a rock instead. She was thankful for her god-like aim as she reared back and launched it as if it was a shock-put, throwing the entirety of her weight behind it so that it would reach the back of his head. 

"Get Annabeth!" Percy shouted at Grover, the satyr jumping into action as he grabbed the girl's baseball cap and swept her limp into his arms. 

Taking a moment to assess the situation, she cast a glance to the top bridge. "Grover!" She shouted. "Over here!" 

He balked at her, taking in her appearance in a way that made her frown. "What happened to you?" he asks as he makes his way over. 

"There were flying rocks and then I got smacked," she deadpans, flinging her bag off her back and maneuvering it over his shoulders. "Take the bridge and go for the boat. I have Nectar and Ambrosia, make her take some." 

"You should be coming with me," he tells her. 

She nods because she knows it's true. "I'll cover you. Go." 

He makes his way across the rope bridge, Kassandra still shooting arrows until it begins to grow difficult to aim properly with the distance. 

She focused on Annabeth instead, digging through her bag until she finds the small jar, and she tips a sip down the girl's throat, wait another moment, and give her more. 

Percy and Clarisse were just behind them, tearing their way across the rope bridge with the cyclops not that far behind them. 

"Cut the rope!" he screamed. 

Ripping her dagger from her side, she began to saw at the bridge, Grover right behind her with Annabeth's knife. They were halfway through each side of the bridge when Clarisse and Percy came sliding by, his sword making a wild slash at the ropes. The bridge well away with a snap. 

The cyclops howled with delight as he stood right next to them. 

Clarisse and Grover tried to charge but they were swatted away like flies. 

"Failed!" he yelled gleefully. "Nobody failed!"

She flipped her dagger in her hand, weighing the balance, and launched it with a flick of her wrist. Her aim holds true as it goes for his face only for him to catch the sharpness of the blade in his hand. 

Polyphemus cried out, dropping the weapon as Percy swooped in like a whirl of metal and destruction. 

He was a hurricane, his anger shining in glowing eyes, electric as they sprinkled with blue, drowning out the brightness of his usual happy expression, and she gathered Clarisse and Grover up, shoving them in the direction of Annabeth. 

Grover seemed to understand at least as he took up the girl in his arms once more. 

Then the cyclops fell, the point of Percy's blade hovering above his one eyes. 

"Uhhhhhhhh," Polyphemus moaned.

"Percy!" Grover gasped. "How did you-"

"Please no!' he moaned, begging as his nose bled and a tear welled in the corner of his one-eye. "Please, no, my sheepies need me."

He began to sob. 

"Kill him!" Clarisse yelled. "What are you waiting for?" 

"Percy," she says in disbelief, reaching for her bow already. "This isn't the time for forgiveness. He tried to eat us!" 

The boy ignores them, pressing his sword in closer to the cyclops eye. 

"He's a Cyclops!" Grover warned. "Don't trust him!"

"No!" Clarisse shouted. "Kill him!"

The monster sniffed. "My beautiful Fleece. Prize of my collection. Take it, cruel human. Take it and go in peace." 

"I'm going to step back slowly," Percy told the monster. "One false move ..."

The son of Poseidon stepped back and Kassandra had her bow raised, an arrow trained on the monster. "Don't move," she warned darkly. 

Her heart pounded in her ears, the rush of blood making her head pound, as she dizzily held the boy steady. She took a long, heavy blink. 

"No," the cyclops whined, and she took a step forward until the tip was inches away from his eye. He twitched on the ground. 

"You'll be dead before you even have the chance to lift a finger," she says. 

"Kassandra, what the Hades are you doing?" Percy demands. The heat of him radiates at her side. 

"You can't trust him," she mutters to him. "I know you want to, but you literally can't." 

"You can't just kill him," the boy insists. 

"You can!" the cyclops whines. 

"Shut up!" They snap. 

Clarisse raises a fist, cracking her knuckles. "Kill it, Kass." 

Percy jumps, spinning around to glare at the daughter of Ares. "Please, Kass, just don't kill him." 

It was then that she remembered that all cyclopses were the children of Poseidon and that this was Percy's half-brother, as terrible as it was. With what he had shared with her on the boat, all the things left unsaid, she figured that this was a strange attempt to make up for Tyson. 

She frowns at the cyclops, taking in his pitiful expression. He was nowhere near as handsome as Percy was. It was as if Poseidon had scraped the bottom of the seafloor and bunched it together and presented it as a child. 

A very ugly child. 

"Is the issue that you don't want to kill him yourself or that you just don't want him dead?" she asks, not daring to turn away from the cyclops at her feet. 

(If it was up to her, he would already be dead, an arrow through his eye and hopefully some sort of spoil of war, but he looked so distraught under that mean expression.) 

(But this wasn't Tyson. This wasn't his family.) 

She sighs heavily, an idea coming to her as she glances at the chasm. "Do you trust me?" 

Percy looks at her, really looks at her, and she allows herself to meet his eyes this time. They were so shockingly clear as the sea, so green. His jaw clenches once and he nods. "I trust you." 

The truth rings clear. "Then remember what I told you last night," Kassandra says, lifting her foot and kicking Polyphemus into the chasm below. 

It's silent for a moment, no one daring to make a sound as the cyclops flaps his arms as if it would help him fly. He disappears completely. 

Then Clarisse is laughing so hard that she's bent over, panting as she clutches at her stomach bringing her to quirk her lips in a half-grin as she listens carefully. The splash on the bottom draws the tension from her shoulders and she relaxed, slumping forward as the last of her energy leaves her. 

"Let's get the hell out of here," she grumbles.

"Not all Cyclopes as nice as we look," a voice calls from behind them. 

Percy whips around, a breathtakingly joyful expression blooming onto his face as he sees his brother alive and well and entirely surrounded by man-eating sheep. 

Tyson gave them the short version: Rainbow the hippocampus-who'd apparently been following them ever since the Long Island Sound, waiting for Tyson to play with him-had found Tyson sinking beneath the wreckage of the CSS Birmingham and pulled him to safety. He and Tyson had been searching the Sea of Monsters ever since, trying to find them, until Tyson caught the scent of sheep and found this island.

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

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

"No!" he exclaimed, looking at his friend worriedly. Kassandra could see Grover looking at her as if he was about to ask if she was able to do anything (which she couldn't) but seemed to decide against it when he saw that she was just about drained of energy. "Tyson, the Fleece. Can you get it for me?"

"Which one?" he asked, looking around the various sheep. 

"The gold one," she told him gently. "In the tree. The sheep will leat us if we try."

"Gold? Pretty. Yes," he said, wading through the trees to get to it. He picked it from the branch, beginning to make his way back when Percy shouted for him to just throw it, his impatience starting to show. 

The fleece was laid over Annabeth, everywhere except for her head. Percy bent over her, whispering to himself as he prayed, begging the gods -- and somehow, despite every instinct of self-preservation that she had, she leaned down and hovered her forehead over the blondes.

The words were softly spoken, so soft that she barely heard them herself, as she breathed a quiet hymn of healing over the girl with no real energy to fuel it but enough to make her intentions clear and hope that it took. 

She could hear Clarisse's gasp from behind her, a hand landing heavily on her shoulder to pull her away gently. 

Grey eyes blinked open just in time for her to meet Annabeth's glazed squint. 

She saw Grover and said weakly, "You're not... married?"

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

"Annabeth," Percy said, "just lay still."

But despite protests, she sat up, the cut on her face was almost completely healed. She looked a lot better. In fact, she shimmered with health, as if someone had injected her with glitter.

She turned to Kass. "You sang a hymn for me," she muttered as if she was in awe that it had even occurred. To be honest, she was in awe that it occurred as well. 

"I- don't go around telling anyone that," she grumbles, cheeks burning with embarrassment. 

At the same moment, Tyson was having trouble with the sheep as they gathered around him, jumping for treats or food from the poor boy that didn't seem to be able to quiet them down so much now. 

"We have to go," Percy said. "Our ship is..." 

She pales at the thought, the faster way back to the ship was at the other side of the chasm. With an almighty sigh, she drags her bag closer to herself and begins her digging once more. She takes out her Tupperware of ambrosia. 

"Anyone need a bite?" she offers, holding it out. Only Percy takes from her as she shares a square with Annabeth again, giving the girl a small bite with the warning of already having given her nectar. 

(She makes a promise to herself to revise with her siblings how much food of the gods they could consume before they find themselves burning up from the inside, smouldering on the taste of exquisite delicacies that they would only ever be permitted to consume in small morcels like the desperate half-beings that they were.) 

Percy gets his brother to lead the sheep away, telling the boy to meet them back at the beach as they work to get Annabeth to her feet. 

Kassandra flutters her hands around her, feeling at her ribs when she winces, face draining of colour as she sits up fully. 

"Can you carry her, Clarisse?" she asks, helping Grover get the girl up enough to climb onto Clarisse's back with the fleece tucked around her the best that they can manage. 

They get to the beach easily with the sheep gone and Pecy goes to kneel next to the water. From what she understood, he was calling the Queen Anne's Revenge the same he commanded it to sail before. 

"Incoming!" yelled Tyson as he sprinted toward them, the sheep trailing behind like excited puppies. It would have been cute if those puppies weren't actually sheep that wanted to eat them. 

"They probably won't follow us to the water," Percy mentions, already wadding into the ravine. "We just have to get to the ship." 

"With Annabeth like this?" Clarisse demands. 

Kassandra shrugs, walking into the water. "He's the son of Poseidon. I saw him do something cool like that on the way here." 

"We can do it," Percy insisted. "Once we get to the ship, we're home free."

They passed the entrance of the ravine when they heard a tremendous roar and saw Polyphemus, scraped up and bruised but still very much alive, his baby-blue wedding outfit in tatters, splashing toward them with a boulder in each hand.

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unedited

written: 2021-01-25

posted: 2021-03-01