CHAPTER FOURTEEN
—stupid luke castellan

🗡🗡🗡

—WELL, Judith had thought that the hard part was over, but she had conveniently forgotten the part where there was still about a couple hundred miles between where the hippocampi dropped them off and camp. Annabeth walked to a newspaper stand and plucked one up, cringing noticeably as she read out the date.

"Thalia's tree must be almost dead," Grover wailed after they all realized they'd been gone for 10 days, time moving different in the Sea of Monsters. "We have to get the Fleece back tonight."

Clarisse actually trembled, seeing her quest fall to pieces right before her eyes. She sat on a curb and put her head in her hands; her first ever quest and her dad was counting on her. Judith stared at her sister in pity and awe, having never seen the girl this worked up over anything.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Clarisse asked. "We're hundreds of miles away. No money. No ride. This is just like the Oracle said. It's your fault, Jackson! If you hadn't interfered —"

Judith let Clarisse lash out at the boy, despite feeling differently. Of course, she wasn't fond of him, but that didn't mean she blamed him for the quest going wrong.

"Clarisse," Percy spoke up for himself, "what did the Oracle tell you exactly?"

She finally looked up at all of them and recited the prophecy.

"Three shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone,

one shall be lost to the sea of unknown,

you shall find what you seek and make it your own,

but despair for your lives entombed within stone,

one fails without friends, to fly home alone."

Judith then realized why Clarisse never asked about Bryce. She had held that prophecy to herself, with no intention of ever disclosing it — and Judith couldn't help but be angry. With her sister, with the fates, with herself. She took a step away and remained silent for the rest of the discussion, fuming to herself over the fact that her sister kept such a vital piece of this quest away from her.

"Ouch," Grover mumbled.

Percy shook his head. "No, wait a minute. I've got it." He sifted through his pockets. "Does anybody have any cash?"

Everyone shook their heads. This quest was supposed to have been by water only, so Judith and Clarisse weren't given much to start with, and then the ship went down and too that small sum with it.

"Cash?" Tyson popped back to them. "Like ... green paper?"

They all stared at him, nodding quickly. He smiled and rummaged around his own pack. Summoning a large wad of bills inside a zip locked back, Tyson mentioned he was going to feed it to his Hippocampus, Rainbow. Judith was sure glad he didn't.

Percy grabbed the money and hailed a taxi down. "Clarisse," he yelled back. "Come on. You're going to the airport. Annabeth, give her the Fleece." The daughter of Athena handed it over with ease as it was now disguised as a letterman jacket.

"You'd let me —" Clarisse stuttered. "What about Jude?" Her sister looked on, knowing that she was apart of the original quest members.

"You're the leader of the quest, Risse," Judith gave a small smile. "I think that's only enough money for one flight. Go save the camp."

Clarisse exhaled with a slight smile. "You can count on me," she hopped in the cab. "I won't fail."

"Not failing would be good," Percy said sarcastically and Clarisse glared at him before the taxi peeled out onto the road.

After the girl was long gone, Judith looked over at Percy who looked pleased with himself for the bright idea. "That was nice of you," she commented, knocking him out of his thoughts.

Percy's head ducked bashfully once, "It was nothing. Let's find another way home." The group collectively agreed as they turned to walk down the street, the boy at the forefront. Their journey was cut incredibly short, however, as a sword was caught at the base of their leader's throat.

Judith's hands flew to the hilt of her sword, but a goodie caught her wrist from behind her as Luke emerged from an alleyway. "Hey, Cuz," he grinned. "Welcome back to the states."

His henchman apprehended the five campers; well, they tried their best to. They all lashed about, creating a scene in the middle of the street, but they had coincidentally chosen a vacant boulevard where no one would come to their rescue.

Judith managed to bash one in the nose with the back of her head and he cursed, threatening to crash her head against a nearby brick wall. She could already feel her brain recovering from the hit and decided she better not push a slam against a wall. The others had long since drilled within their captors' arms.

"What do you want, Luke?" Percy scowled.

Luke gestured to the end of the dock where they had come. Everyone slouched, realizing they had missed the clear sight of the Princess Andromeda. "Why, Percy, I want to extend my hospitality, of course."

They were herded all the way to the ship, thrown on deck as they were surrounded by the different goons that followed Luke's lead — great hospitality. "And so the Fleece, where is it?" He asked.

"Not here," Percy replied. Annabeth rolled her eyes as he gave away that information so willingly, but Judith was happy to see Luke's face slightly drop. "We sent it on ahead of us. You messed up."

Luke's eyes narrowed. "You're lying. You couldn't have ..." He seemed to count them in his head again, this time paying close attention to Judith this time. "Clarisse?" Judith shrugged innocently and his eye twitched. "You trusted ... you gave ...

"Agrius!" One of the henchmen flinched. "Get below and prepare my steed. Bring it to the deck. I need to fly to the Miami Airport, fast!"

The big man seemed to hesitate. "But, Boss —"

"Do it! Or I'll feed you to the Drakon!" That got the man's butt in gear. Every one of his crew turned uneasy as Luke's anger rolled off in waves.

As Judith grimaced at everyone on board, Percy was arguing with Luke, figuring out a plan of his own. She could vaguely see him throw a drachma into one of the fountains on board as he kept shouting things. Luke and his goons were the only ones to not see the picture of Dionysus appear in the mist behind him but no one went to alert them, not too keen on interfering when Luke's fuse was ready to blow.

"Who poisoned Thalia's tree, Luke?" Percy asked.

Luke looked at him like he was dumb and snarled, "I did, of course. I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus."

Annabeth seemed to catch on and started questioning him herself, "Chiron had nothing to do with it?"

"Ha! You of all people should know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn't have the guts."

Annabeth swallowed at the dig, and Judith remembered seeing the two around camp sometimes. They were close and she was probably feeling a lot of things right now, conflicted about seeing an old friend go down this road. But all Judith could feel was hatred; she didn't have any preconceived notions about the boy so she was as clear headed as they came.

Percy continued. "You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?"

Luke raised his sword at him. "You don't understand the half of it. I was going to let you take the Fleece ... once I was done with it." Judith faltered in her thoughts.

Percy also paused as he thought about it. "You were going to heal Kronos."

"Yes! The Fleece's magic would've sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven't stopped us, Percy. You've only slowed us down a little."

"And so you poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us up — all to help Kronos destroy the gods."

Luke was way more pissed now, gritting his teeth with his knuckles turning white. "You know that! Why do you keep asking me?"

"We got to give the audience what they want," Judith answered.

"What audience?" Luke became suspicious. He narrowed his eyes and turned slowly to face the fountain and gasped, stumbling back as he saw the Iris Message. Dionysus, Tantalus, and the whole camp in the dining pavilion, watching him in astonished silence.

Judith was insanely smug to see what went down next: Dionysus reinstating Chiron as activities director and banning Tantalus back to the Underworld. So long, sucker. All the campers exploded into cheering as soon as all sign of the man was gone.

Luke raged and slashed his sword through the scene, making the connection diminish, but the deed was done. Luke turned to give Percy a murderous look. "Kronos was right, Percy. You're an unreliable weapon. You need to be replaced."

Almost as if the whole ship heard his words, more monsters came flooding out onto the deck and surrounded the group completely.

"You'll never leave this boat alive."

Judith had to admit, Percy was right about people constantly giving him death threats. ( She'd have to find something scarier to taunt him with. )

Facing Luke with a challenging look, Percy shrugged, "One on one. What are you afraid of?"

Execution, brilliant — follow through, not so much. Judith could commend his ambitious approach, but Luke excelled in swordsmanship where Percy still lacked. The teacher could only teach so much.

Before Luke could give his answer, Agrius burst onto the deck out of breath, trying to control a dark black pegasus. The obsidian coat was shining in the sunlight, attracting their attention hypnotically. But Luke pulled everyone back to him.

"I told you last summer, Percy, you can't bait me into a fight."

Percy only persisted — like he was prone to doing. "And you keep avoiding one. Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?" Where Percy had learned his trash talk, Judith had no clue, but she didn't hate it.

Luke scowled, knowing he couldn't back down. "I'll kill you quickly." One of his minions threw him a leather shield and Judith wished she could supply Percy with one, but she hadn't brought one on this quest.

"Luke," Annabeth pleaded, "at least give him a shield."

"Sorry, Annabeth," he said. "You bring your own equipment to this party."

"That's a coward's move," Judith scoffed. "Only people who believe they could lose would seek an advantage like that above their opponent." She watched as all of Luke's crew looked at each other, seeing her logic.

Luke growled, not liking how he was being pushed farther and farther into their traps and not having anywhere to turn. He nodded at someone beside Percy and a shield was thrust into the son of Poseidon's hand. He didn't turn fully to nod his thanks but Judith could sense his gratitude towards her and Annabeth.

The son of Hermes didn't wait for Percy to get situated as he lunged immediately, swiping under Percy's arm to nick his side. Judith honed in on the fight, her instincts immediately pointing out the flaws of each opponent without asking. Although the use of a shield was beneficial for many, it only appeared to hinder Percy's efforts; he worked better when he was free and unrestrained, only him and his sword. She willed him to ditch it, but he held firm and used it to block a hard hit from Luke, forcing him down on a knee.

She watched as they parried and struck each other's shields repeatedly. For a moment, it was quite even, but Judith saw Percy's right foot step back into the pool behind him. This gave him an opportunity to send a hurl of water at Luke to knock him aside, but Luke just rolled and slashed at the leg that was stabilized on the edge of the deck, giving him a large gash.

Percy shouted in pain and jumped out of the pool, falling behind a deck chair, his leg no longer able to support him.

Grover wiggled around anxiously. "Perrrrcy!"

Percy ditched his shield ( finally ) in order to move back to the poolside, but he was battling unconsciousness from his blood loss. And it was a losing battle. Luke was approaching him slowly and that was when Judith wrenched her arm from the goonies' grip, unsheathing her sword.

With a distracting war cry, she swung at the first thing behind her which happened to be Oreius. He choked as the blade cut through his shoulder and tried to reach for her but she just stabbed him again, dragging Luke's attention away from the injured boy in front of him.

"No!" He shouted, alerting everyone to her sudden actions.

And then there was chaos.

Floods of arrows sailed on board the ship, hitting Luke's monsters one by one, stunning the rest into panic. Judith ducked down, not knowing of the source of the attack. But when she saw horse hooves thundering against the ship boards, she smiled.

"Centaurs!" She shouted just as Tyson cried, "Ponies!"

Judith only recognized Chiron among them. Some were decked out in battle armor, others were donning paint all over their chests with weird props. She briefly caught a glimpse of a shirt most of them were wearing. PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER.

Well, this was one of the best parties Judith was ever going to attend and she was not going to miss it. She flew after the next monster in her sight, giving him a piece of her mind. She noticed Chiron pluck Annabeth and Grover off the ground and place them on his back. She killed the monster she was with and made her way over quickly. Chiron nodded at her, one of the other centaurs picking her up in stride.

"We need to get Percy," she said, pointing towards the side of the pool. He grunted in confirmation and galloped over, scooping him up and leaning him up against Judith. She tensed as his head rolled along her shoulders, hating the fact that she was chosen as his riding companion.

The boy was dozing off swiftly, but he grumbled out a few words. "Tyson, need him."

Judith caught the sight of another party pony and gestured toward the cyclops destroying everything in his path. The female centaur was off immediately to retrieve him.

"We've got him," Judith muttered to Percy, feeling him nod.

"Withdraw, brethren!" Chiron yelled.

"You won't get away with this, horse man!" Luke shouted, raising his sword, but got knocked down by a boxing glove arrow.

Judith cackled with delight as all the party ponies jumped the railing and landed safely on the docks. They all started taunting the Princess Andromeda as they raced down the streets of Miami. The daughter of Ares felt Percy start to slip off her shoulder and reached an arm around to clutch at his shirt.

This was going to be a very long ride, she rolled her eyes.

—LUCKILY, centaurs moved at like a hundred miles an hour or something and they were at some trailer park in the middle of no where within minutes. This particular park was specially designed for the horse kind; everything was taller than normal. The centaur dropped Judith and Percy off on a picnic blanket and went to go cheer on with his brothers and sisters as they enthused over the fight.

Judith grimaced as she took Percy's coat and pressed on his leg wound, just knowing he would ignore it until he passed out. He blinked, "What are you doing?"

"Making sure you don't die," Judith droned. "Dumb way to die."

Percy's groggy face slowly split into a smile. "Right, so dumb."

Deciding she didn't want to keep pressure on his leg for longer than she had to, she tied the sleeves tightly around his thigh before moving a foot or so away, feeling she'd been too close for too long. Chiron and the centauride came over, letting Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson slide off.

Percy was in a better state to speak, but only barely. "Chiron," he said, "you saved us."

He smiled dryly. "Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you've cleared my name."

"But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.

"Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."

Judith smirked at that but Grover took it differently. "Gee, thanks," he mumbled.

"No, no," Chiron said. "I didn't mean ... Oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr. The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy's Iris-message and trace the signal."

"No one can get mad at me for being nosy now," Judith said lightly.

"Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took me no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you can see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans."

"So what now?" Percy asked Chiron. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him, anyway." Chiron sighed and kneeled down, pulling medical supplies out of a pouch on his waist to tend to Percy's leg, uncovering Judith's sloppy tourniquet.

"I'm afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw. We didn't have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organized enough to pursue us. Nobody won."

"But we got the Fleece!" Annabeth said. "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now."

Chiron nodded, still with an uneasy look. He stood back up and signaled a few of his brethren to assist in bringing the demigods, Grover, and Tyson back to camp. Judith was glad to say that she got her own seat this time around, because she did not need Percy Jackson leaning on her the rest of the way, not matter how short the trip was.

NOTES;
SMALL THINGS, SMALL THINGS. I LIKE HOW THIS CHAPTER TURNED OUT

edited : 07 / 02 / 2020