Chapter 15: Escape

Chapter 14

Max

With all the Greek stuff going on, the last thing I expected to see were seals with dogs heads wearing pirates hats. I mean seriously? Pirates?

Duke was taking them to town, swinging his shiny new axe like he had been using it all his life. He cut down three with his first swing, then dove into the rest. I moved to get up, but the ropes would not let me, and when I heard a tear in the sails I looked up. With my focus distracted the lightning wall above us had weakened and some tentacles had gotten through.

“Focus dammit!” Duke yelled, more than half the pirates were downed. I closed my eyes and refocused the wall, keeping Scylla out. She screamed again, and continued to beat against the protection.

“Another minute,” Julie said in a strained voice. There was a splash, which Duke quickly identified as the last of the pirates being defeated.

“We are through!” Julie exclaimed tiredly, then she collapsed on the deck breathing like she had just run a marathon. The ropes loosened and fell off of me and onto the deck. I got up groggily and let the electric barrier dissipate, then started staggering over to Julie.

Apparently, the ‘we are through’ only referred to us getting out of Charbdis’s range as Scylla managed to finally get through and rip through one of the sails. The ship jerked and stopped moving forward, throwing Duke and I do the deck. I looked up and saw that the mountain was getting closer, but we weren’t heading towards it, we had been caught in the outer edges of Charbdis’ whirlpool!

A wave of nausea hit me as I got up too quickly, my body insisting that it was time for a nap, my mind screaming to run away. Duke was looking around for something, and so I took stock of the situation. One of our three sails was out of commission, without Julie at the helm our ship was being dragged into the vortex created by the monster, and I was far too tired to do anything more than find the closest pillow and pass out. Great, we are so screwed.

“Duke, what the hell are you looking for?” I yelled as I started to move towards Julie again, weaving far more than a ship at sea would cause.

“Some sort of cannon or something, we need to keep Scylla at bay until Julie can get us out of here,” He moved to the side of the ship and found a ballista, of all things, and started to prepare it to fire. I reached Julie, who was curled up into a ball at this point. “Dammit girl, this is no time to be sleeping on the job!” I yelled when I saw that. She barely flinched. I looked around for something to wake her up with, but all I saw was ropes, winches, brooms, mops, and buckets.

I had an idea.

By the time I had finished setting up the system to wake up sleeping beauty, we were reaching the edge of the Charbdis’ vortex. I quickly tossed the bucket overboard and when I heard a splash, counted to two, then pulled it up. It reached the deck filled with water, which I splashed on to Julies face. I learned the error of my ways rather quickly when she sat up faster than I had ever seen her move before and the sun was blotted out by, as I quickly discovered, a giant wave that pushed the boat a few leagues away from danger and slammed into Duke and I, and only Duke and I, throwing us to the deck. Once the torrent ceased, we picked ourselves up...or at least Duke did. I just continued to lie there, far too tired to move. Julie blinked the sleep out of her eyes and looked around.

“What happened?” She asked. Duke looked over the railings and into the ocean.

“I hope you like shark kids, because that’s what’s for dinner.” I just passed out.

Chapter 16