Percy v Kym

Jason forced down the pain. He was tired of people taking care of him, whispering how worried they were. He was tired of dreaming about being a shish kebab. He’d spent enough time nursing the wound in his gut. Either it would kill him or it wouldn’t. He wasn’t going to wait around for the wound to decide. He had to help his friends.

Somehow he made it above deck.

What he saw there made him almost as nauseous as Hazel. A wave the size of a skyscraper crashed over the forward deck, washing the front crossbows and half the port railing out to sea. The sails were ripped to shreds. Lightning flashed all around, hitting the sea like spotlights. Horizontal rain blasted Jason’s face. The clouds were so dark he honestly couldn’t tell 1f it was day or night.

The crew was doing what they could ... which wasn’t much.

Leo had lashed himself to the console with a bungee cord harness. That might have seemed like a good idea when he rigged it up, but every time a wave hit he was washed away, then smacked back into his control board like a human paddleball.

Piper and Annabeth were trying to save the rigging. Since Sparta they'd become quite a team — able to work together without even talking, which was just as well, since they couldn’t have heard each other over the storm.



Frank — at least Jason assumed it was Frank — had turned into a gorilla. He was swinging upside down off the starboard rail, using his massive strength and his flexible feet to hang on while he untangled some broken oars. Apparently the crew was trying to get the ship airborne, but, even if they managed to take off, Jason wasn’t sure the sky would be any safer.

Even Festus the figurehead was trying to help. He spewed fire at the rain, though that didn’t seem to discourage the storm.

Only Percy was having any luck. He stood by the centre mast, his hands extended like he was ona tightrope. Every time the ship tilted, he pushed in the opposite direction and the hull stabilized. He summoned giant fists of water from the ocean to slam into the larger waves before they could reach the deck, so it looked like the ocean was hitting itself repeatedly in the face.

With the storm as bad as it was, Jason realized the ship would’ve already capsized or been smashed to bits if Percy wasn’t on the job.

Jason staggered towards the mast. Leo yelled something — probably Go downstairs! — but Jason only waved back. He made it to Percy’s side and grabbed his shoulder.

Percy nodded like ‘sup. He didn’t look shocked, or demand that Jason go back to sickbay, which Jason appreciated.

Percy could stay dry if he concentrated, but obviously he had bigger things to worry about right now. His dark hair was plastered to his face. His clothes were soaked and ripped.

He shouted something in Jason’s ear, but Jason could only make out a few words: ‘THING ... DOWN ... STOP IT!’

Percy pointed over the side.

‘Something is causing the storm?’ Jason asked.

Percy grinned and tapped his ears. Clearly, he couldn’t hear a word. He made a gesture with his hand like diving overboard. Then he tapped Jason on the chest.

“You want me to go?’ Jason felt kind of honoured. Everybody else had been treating him like a glass vase, but Percy ... well, he seemed to figure that if Jason was on deck he was ready for action.

‘Happy to!’ Jason shouted. ‘But I can’t breathe underwater!’

Percy shrugged. Sorry, can’t hear you.

Then Percy ran to the starboard rail, pushed another massive wave away from the ship and jumped overboard.





Standing before them was a twenty-foot-tall woman in a flowing green dress, cinched at the waist with a belt of abalone shells. Her skin was as luminous white as the fields of algae. Her hair swayed and glowed like jellyfish tendrils.

Her face was beautiful but unearthly — her eyes too bright, her features too delicate, her smile too cold, as if she’d been studying human smiles and hadn’t quite mastered the art.

Her hands rested on a disc of polished green metal about six feet in diameter, sitting on a bronze tripod. It reminded Jason of a steel drum he’d once seen a street performer play at the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

The woman turned the metal disc like a steering wheel. A shaft of green light shot upward, churning the water, shaking the walls of the old palace. Shards from the domed ceiling broke and tumbled down in slow motion.

“You’re making the storm,’ Jason said.

‘Indeed I am.’ The woman’s voice was melodic — yet it had a strange resonance, as if it extended past the human range of hearing. Pressure built between Jason’s eyes. His sinuses felt like they might explode.

‘Okay, I'll bite,’ Percy said. ‘Who are you, and what do you want?’

The woman turned towards him. ‘Why, I am your sister, Perseus Jackson. And I wanted to meet you before you die.’

JASON SAW TWO OPTIONS: FIGHT OR TALK.

Usually, when faced with a creepy twenty-foot-tall lady with jellyfish hair, he would’ve gone with fight.

But since she called Percy brother — that made him hesitate.

‘Percy, do you know this ... individual?’

Percy shook his head. ‘Doesn’t look like my mom, so I’m gonna guess we’re related on the godly side. Youa daughter of Poseidon, Miss ... uh... ?’

The pale lady raked her fingernails against the metal disc, making a screeching sound like a tortured whale. ‘No one knows me,’ she sighed. ‘Why would I assume my own brother would recognize me? I am

The Romans never worshipped me. To them, I was a nameless fear — a sign of Neptune’s greatest wrath. They never worshipped Kymopoletia, the goddess of violent sea storms!’



My father does not welcome me in his court,’ Kym said. ‘He restricts my powers. This storm above? I haven’t had this much fun in ages, yet it is only a small taste of what I can do!’

















BoO ch.25-26