Chapter 23

The hill they had to climb was less like a hill and more like a cliff. It was rocky, steep, and everything that could describe what a cliff was. Annabeth and Percy were not too concerned for Kayla; they knew she could deal with herself. She lacked behind while they helped pull eachother to the top.

Each one of them only died around six or seven times. When Kayla arrived at the top, Percy and Annabeth were already too involved in what was happening on the other side of the hill-cliff. Kayla couldn’t hear the bellowing voice until she got up to very top. “What is-“

Just below where they teetered was Polythemus’ cave, with his two guests sat outside.

“Eat loudmouth girl now or wait for wedding feast? What does my bride think?” Polythemus yelled unnecessarily. He had Clarisse tied up outside his cave over a boiling pot of water, upside-down. Okay, atleast she wasn’t dead, Kayla figured. Then her eyes widened at an oddly shaped bride. “I-is that Grover? Did I miss a chapter?”

“He’s been trapped on the island, Percy said it. So yes, you did.”

“Oh,” Kayla mumbled, wiping her nose.

“Did you say bride?” Clarisse yelled from below after something Grover had said. “Who, Grover?!”

Kayla let out a defeated, sarcastic blow of air. Annabeth seemed much more annoyed. “Shut up, she had to shut up.” She whispered.

“She has to what?“

Annabeth turned to Kayla in utter confusion. “I said she has to shut up. What?”

“Shut- oh. My hearing, I lost my…” Kayla trailed off  sheepishly as she tapped at her ear, waving a hand in dismissal and clearing her throat. Annabeth rolled her eyes to turn hack to the problem.

“What ‘Grover’?” Polythemus asked Clarisse, eyeing her up steadily as if he wanted to see her more clearly. “The satyr!” She yelled. Percy face palmed.

“Satyrs are good for eating. You bring me satyr?” Polythemus asked, to which Clarisse yelled with all her rage- “No, you big idiot! That satyr! The one in the wedding dress!”

Polythemus’ head snapped towards Grover, his squinting eye now inspecting the wedding garment as he stalked closer. He ripped off his wedding veil with one single tug. Polythemus breathed heavily to contain his anger. That was short lived. The cliff they were sat on rumbled slightly at the sheer volume of his next words. “YOU’RE NO LADY-CYCLOPS!” He ripped away the wedding dress, where Grover stood in a dirty orange camp shirt and some blue jorts.

Grover pleaded with the cyclops about some sauce recipe to eat him with so that Grover meat would taste much better.

“I’m going to ring her neck,” Percy mumbled in annoyance, biting his lip.

“You a satyr, too?” Polythemus asked Clarisse, huffing.

“No, you oversized pile of dung! Im a girl! Daughter of Ares! Now untie me so I can rip off your arms!” She screamed. Clarisse sounded feral. Much like she did qhen she was twelve years old, unaware on how to control her anger and letting it all flow out. Kayla remembered those scenes when first coming to camp- they were quite eventful.

Except now, Clarisse was fifteen going on sixteen, and had a very valid reason to be crashing out.

“You got spunk,” Is all Polythemus replied with bluntly. “Have to graze sheep now. Wedding postponed until tonight, then we eat grilled satyr for main course!” He applauded to himself, smiling.

“But… you’re still getting married,” Grover cleared his throat. “Who’s the bride?”

Polythemus’ eye came to a slow stop on Clarisse. “Oh, no! You can’t be serious! I’m not!”

Kayla covered her mouth with a shocked scoff. Clarisse and Polythemus were loud enough for Kayla to hear. It echoed from here, and they spoke loudly. “Oh, Clarisse is way too gay for that!”

Percy and Annabeth turned to her with a confused look and a silent stare.

“Clarisse is–” Annabeth elbowed Percy in the stomach. She knew he was about to ask a stupid question.

“Come on, look at her,” Kayla motioned back down to the boiling pot- except now, Clarisse nor Grover were there, instead wriggling around in Polythemus ‘ grip before he threw them into his cave, shutting them in. “Well- uh, my point still stands, but maybe we should go and-“

“Rescue them, come on.” Annabeth cut her off with a quick nod, already using some sort of mountain-goat technique once Polythemus was gone with his sheep to get down the cliff.

They tried for what seemed like hoirs to budge the boulder infront of the entrance. It didn’t budge.

Percy sounded like a whiny baby trying to have the boulder get his way. Kayla had given up after ten minutes, so she sat to the side, watching the movie play out.

“Trickery,” Annabeth decided. “We can’t take him by force, so we’ll have to use trickery.”

Percy pushed his sword Riptide into the crevice of the boiler one last time before groaning and giving up. “Okay, you got a plan?”

“Not yet.” She replied.

“Well,” Kayla started. “At sunset, he’s gonna have to move the rock to let the sheep inside or whatever, and also to get Clarisse out and eat Grover, so-“

“I could use invisibility.”

Percy went silent as he mulled it over, nodding. “What about us?”

“Do you like sheep?” Annabeth asked. Percy hummed, indecisive. “Probably not after today.”

…

Annabeth had just helped Percy secure himself to the underbelly of a normal, none meat-eating sheep that Polythemus had sectored to one side away from the bad sheep. They were peacefully grazing the grass. “Just don’t let go!” She ordered, before spinning to Kayla. “Do you think you can hold on? Your ribs and that shoulder cut, if you fall, you’re dead.”

“Well it was your idea, not mine. What else am I supposed to do?” Kayla rolled her eyes. “I’ll just like, overdose on ambrosia or something when we’re done.”

Annabeth clicked her tongue in dissaproval, but with no time to waste, she helped Kayla get into place. “There, okay. I’ll be close, so if you do fall, we’ll… have to figure out something else. Bit don’t worry. Just- don’t fall.” She nodded at her own words. Kayla sighed, turning her head to the sheep besides her, where Percy was also cuddling a sheep’s underbelly. “It. Stinks.” Kayla closed her eyes. This time, she couldn’t tell if it was the sheep fur, or an imminent scent of death. Or both. Probably both.

Their sheep taxi started to plod up the hill. After a few hundred yards, Kayla could see Percy start to make a disgruntled face like he was constipated. For once, Kayla could agree with him. That was a reasonable face to make. Her own hands were shaking alot worse than Percy’s, the pain in her shoulder starting to build up again.
Percy was looking at her rather concerned. Especially when her sheep stumbled and Kayla had started to slow her breathing like she was concentrating.

He counted his sheep into the cave, one by one, and just like that- they were in.

Annabeth started her distraction just as Polythemus was about to roll the boulder back into place. They both fell off the back of their sheep with a pained grunt. Percy seemed to stay to watch for the first few minutes of Annabeth’s play in worry. Kayla clicked her tongue, mumbled something about hopeless romantic, and strolled off with a slightly hunched back.

Inside the cave was as close to a mansion you would imagine a Cyclops cave to look like. Many, many rooms. Most full of animal bones and sheepskin blankets. Even some cement sheep that were most definitely Medusa’s work.

“It’s no good, this rope is like iron!” Clarisse whined from a room up ahead.

“Just a few more minutes!” Grover argued.

“It’s been hours!”

Then, Clarisse saw her. Then Grover. “Kayla?” Clarisse’s voice lowered. “You’re not deep fried yet.”

Kayla snickered. Half because she found them, and half because she was most definitely rubbing off on Clarisse if she was starting to joke like that. “Hello to you too, now let me-“

Kayla’s shoulder was bombarded by a sprinting Grover that rushed past her, bleating and cheering “Percy!” Who must now be behind her. Kayla grunted, shook it off with a death glare to the sheep bones in the corner, and leaned down with her dagger to start cutting at the ropes. They were infact not like iron, but perhaps trying to cut at them with blunt scissors might have been a big contribution as to why it felt like that.

The ropes loosened and freed Clarisse’s wrists. She stood up quickly and twisted her wrists about.  “…Thanks.” She mumbled.

“Clarisse, Kayla, so no one else was aboard your life boat? Maybe on this island?”

“No, just us,” Clarisse answered. “We- I didn’t even know you made it out.”

Kayla nodded, tapping the top of Clarisse’s back. “Okay, come on, we need to help-“

A scream echoed through the cave followed by a rumbling explosion. Welp, that was Annabeth done for.

“I’ll rush him,” Percy whispered to them all. “Our ship is around the front, you two go and get-“

“No way!” Grover and Clarisse said in harmony.

Kayla thought that would have been a pretty chill plan.

…”I will.” She mumbled. “Queen Anne’s is too far away if we rescue Annabeth, I’ll… steer her around. It can’t be that hard.”

Percy swallowed. Clarisse raised an eyebrow, and Grover shrugged in agreement. “I got experience from the Ironclad,” she persuaded. “I can do it.”

“Okay,” Percy finally agreed. Kayla hummed, glancing to Clarisse, who looked at her… what was that look? Kayla nodded in reassurance to her, nodded to the others, then waited for her que.

“Alright,” Percy refocused. “Attack plan Macedonia.”

With that, the three of them charged after surrounding him. Kayla sprinted out of the cave, past the fight, prayed to her father to not come and collect her soul, and took a leap of faith off the edge of the cave cliff.

None of them had been expecting that, and it was rather funny to hear Grover and Clarisse gasp in unity behind her.

Extending her wings, she could have screamed. That hurt everything. Everywhere. Her ribs, her shoulder, her back. Everything hurt. Yet, hallelujah, cause it worked. Kayla was not yet a splatted pancake on Polyphemus’ island. Instead, she was soaring through the sky with immense thrust and drag. It was the highest she had flown, and the quickest. She could already see Queen Anne’s Revenge, floating on the shore where the beach was.

She pointed her wings further back, making a slight dive-bimb to go downwards. When she reached closer to the ship, she evened out her wings again and pulled herself up, stumbling onto the deck. She almost landed, but thankfully her stumbling took her right to the anchor anyway. Time to become a one woman army, she figured.

She grasped the windlass to pull the anchor up, most definitely ending up with another broken rib that was probably much worse than any of the others. She only made sure to pull it out just enough so it didn’t reach the waves. She stopped the windlass, then got to steering.

From what she could remember, Clarisse often let the waves do most of the work. If they were heavy, she never ever made big steering movements, only ever touching it when most needed.

In this case, there were heavy waves crashing into a cliff. So Kayla got it away from the cliffs, then only moved the wheel to one side whenever it started to get too close. The more she thought about it, the less it made sense, so she went with whatever seemed natural.

Eventually, she had the anchor down once again just below the island, infront of the cliffs that they had climbed over earlier. The only problem was Annabeth- trying to haul her over these cliffs, cause Kayla was pretty sure she had seen her knocked out before this. Kayla once again prayed that her wings or her own body wouldn’t give out on her, before shooting up into the air to go back to the fight. She landed quietly atop the cave, watching the chaos from below. And… boy, chaos was an understatement. She was sure that Goddess was watching with the time of her life right now.

Annabeth was passed out and pushed to the side, while she had just watched Tyson come out of nowhere and choke Polythemus with his own bouler rocks, making him fall over the side of his own cave-cliff edge. Killer sheep were coming to- well , kill, and Percy was having a great reunion with Tyson, then- “What are you doing up there?” Clarisse’s voice rung through, half annoyed and half exhausted.

Kayla froze, peering down the cave top from watching the scene. “I- uhm- the ship is behind me,” She pointed with her thumb. “Down those cliffs.”

“Tyson, grab that fleece!” Percy yelled amidst it all. “In the tree!”

“Pretty fleece,” Tyson smiled, grabbing it down effortlessly and handing it over. Percy… seemed to be worried sick. His face was pale as he rushed over to Annabeth, laying it down on her gently.

“Get down, we need your help.” Clarisse ordered. Kayla simply watched as Annabeth’s colour returned to her face. “You’re not… married?” Annabeth asked Grover, who shook his head with a smile.

“Tyson, lead the sheep away, they’re coming… to kill us.” Percy mumbled quickly. The killer sheep were half way up the rock ramp that led to the cave. Behind them was… a well-recovered Polythemus.

Tyson asked a few dumb questions, then raced towards the flock that included Polythemus to distract them. “She needs to keep the fleece around her, if she’s not fully healed.” Percy rambled, standing back up. Annabeth tried to sit, but immeidately shook her head in agreement.

Clarisse knelt down, put a hand to her chest, felt around a little, then stood back up. “Broken ribs. Healing, but broken. I can carry her.”

“How do you know they’re broken?” Asked Percy.

“Cause I’ve broken some, idiot!”

“Guys!” Kayla yelled from above. “I’ll carry Annabeth. Fly her, down. And you lot climb your way down. Job is good, right?”

“Kayla, you have broken ribs too, and your bad ear, and your shoulder now? You can’t-” Kayla cut Clarisse off, hushing her.

“It’s a small journey. I don’t feel dead yet, I think i can make one more air travel.” She finally hopped down with a wince from the cave top, quickly gathering Annabeth up. How she managed, she had no clue, but she had half a mind that the Golden Fleece now brushing against her was really helping. Percy was swatching with a worried look as Kayla flew them slowly over the cliff and down towards the ship. But in all honesty, it did look like Kayla had just enough strength.

“Clarisse, Grover, you guys head on up. I’m gonna wait for Tyson. We’re finished here.”

They didn’t need to be told twice.

However, Tyson had just doubled back from making the sheep chase him and putting Polythemus off-track. So, he was rushing towards Percy and telling him to go.

Percy climbed over the cliffs with Tyson just behind him. The cliffs worked like this: at the bottom was a tiny, two person beach that waves crashed against every few seconds. There was the first set of cliffs, easy to climb, a flat surface, another small cliff to climb, and so on. So it was a race for Tyson and Percy down to the bottom as Polythemus tried to catch their tails. By the time they got to the flat surface, Kayla, Clarisse, Grover and Annabeth could see them from the dock. Annabeth was sat against the railing, shivering. Kayla stood at the windlass, and Clarisse was cheering.

“Yeah, yeah! Get him, Percy! He deserves it!”

Kayla had already told her to shut up two times, each time recieving a hand to the mouth.

“Rahh! You cyclops traitor!” Polythemus screamed, just missing Tyson’s head with a boulder as it crashed into the sea. “Not my kind of cyclops!” Tyson yelled, swatting another boulder to the side. Polythemus gasped, then tripped on his wounded foot. Kayla bit the inside of her cheek. But then he got up and kept chasing the two boys. She groaned, starting to move the windlass once again. They would have to start moving.

“Percy! Come on, you idiot!” Clarisse yelled.

It was an entire play. A theatre play. Eventually, Percy and Tyson made it to the shallow water. The ship was just about picking up with the waves. Polythemus was stood on the flat rock land that was above the first set of cliffs. It was almost even with the crowsnest of the ship.

Percy and Tyson had started to follow the ship while in the water, to keep Polythemus from hitting the boat with his boulders. When the boys were confident they might have been far enough away since he was getting much less confident throwing boulders, they had started to make their way to the ladder of the ship.

That’s when Clarisse started to shout again. “Get up! Yeah, you stuoid Cyclops! Suck on that!”

Percy yelled at her like a fed up mom. Yet it was too late- Polythemus had already thrown a giant boulder that smashed into the stern of the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

Percy had tried to make the ship go fast as it started to sink, but it was already starting to lift up lile a playground slide, sending everyone down it. Clarisse first, then Kayla, then Grover and Annabeth. She wasn’t in any condition to use her wings again. Kayla was happy she had been passed out when the Ironclad incident happened. Because from what she could gather this time; a sinking ship liked to act like a whirlpool. It was very hard to swim, to keep afloat even.

All Kayla registered was Clarisse swimming close to her- telling her to not inhale sea water, and picking her up. It was all a blur after that. Some whine of a horse, a rainbow? Her eyelids closed to rest at last.

…

Please vote<33

long chapter, lots of chaos.

Mwahahahaha this was very fun to write so much Clarissa mwahahahaha