Chapter Text
“If nobody hurts you, be silent.”
“Don’t go!” the cyclops cried out as his brethren took off with an irritated grunt.
Odysseus almost felt sorry for the monster when he heard a silent sob. But he had friends he can’t neglect and a home to go back to. So he kept silent along with his crew and waited behind a few of the huge stone structures scattered throughout the whole cave.
When all he could hear was the moaning of a pained cyclops, Odysseus gestured to his men. “Let’s grab the sheep and away we go.” he whispered as he went for one of the animals.
But before he could even reach for it, a voice came from the entrance.
“Polyphemus?”
Shit .
Odysseus quickly returned to where he was hiding and crouched down once more. He had heard the group of cyclops leave, he was sure of it, and he was definitely sure that he would’ve heard another one if it had approached.
But the thing that confused him the most was how the voice sounded as if it was coming from a young man.
“Little one?” the Cyclops replied.
“Yeah, man. I heard you screaming and I came as fast as I could.” the new voice said. Odysseus could see a small shadow growing bigger as the ‘little one’ entered the cave.
“Gods, what happened here? What’s up with all these bodies and- woah, what happened to your eye?”
An angry thump rang out. “It was nobody!”
A brief pause, then-
“Nobody?” the voice echoed back.
“Yes! Nobody and his band of little humans came here to steal my sheep!” the monster went on angrily.
Oddyseus heard Eurylochus curse under his breath. They both knew that the more the cyclops explained the situation, the more their presence would be apparent. And all they could do was to pray to the gods while the cyclops continued on.
“I was in the woods to get some fruits and when I got back, my sheep, including my sweet, sweet Lily, was butchered by these wretched intruders!”
“No!” the other one gasped. “Not Lily! She was your favourite!”
“She was!” bellowed the monster. “Then when I asked them what in father’s name they were doing, this little man came forward and introduced himself as ‘Nobody’,and then offered me some wine as compensation for my sheep.”
“Did you take it?”
“Well, yes.” the cyclops replied. “It was actually a fairly well-brewed one at that, but I think that Nobody did something to it because the next thing I knew, I lost consciousness, then woke up with a spike sticking out of my eye!”
“Oof- man, that sounds rough. Is that barrel over there the one you drank out of?” The voice asked as the sound of feet against the cave floor echoed.
“Uhh… yes, yes, the one in my… left, yes.”
“Hmm… yep, I can smell the lotus, alright.” the little one announced. “No wonder you were knocked out cold. I can even see the seeds floating around.”
The cyclops groaned. “Lotus! They poisoned me with Lotus?”
“Yeah, it seems like it. So, anyways, you’re saying that this ‘Nobody’ is an actual man that intruded your cave and blinded your eye, correct?”
“That’s right.”
Odysseus clenched his teeth at the revelation. He needed to cook up another plan to escape this mess as fast as he could.
“Well then, that explains the confusion.” The voice continued. “So, you would like to have these trespassers hiding around to be dealt with, right?”
The cyclops roared in response. “Yes! I shall have my revenge! They’ve slaughtered my sheep and dared to blind me in our own father’s domain! They will pay for their insolence!”
“ Captain! ” Eurylochus hissed. Odysseus looked towards him to see half a dozen of his men staring at him with pleading eyes. “What do we do?”
Odysseus could feel his head racing as he tried to figure a way out. But how? The blind cyclops now has someone to point out where to strike and not to mention that he had no idea what this new comer was or what he is capable of.
As he was about to open his mouth to answer his men, the little one spoke.“Oh, but Polyphemus, you must be so fatigued right now.”
“Huh?” the monster let out sound at the sudden comment.
“I mean, you know how strong lotus can be, no?” the voice went on. “And to be dosed enough to be knocked out so quickly, it must’ve put quite a strain on your body. You should rest.”
“But I don’t-”
“You don’t have to be so hard on yourself, brother. I can see you swaying slightly.”
“I… am?”
“Yeah.” the voice assured. “I bet your eye isn’t helping with your overall condition either. You should rest. Maybe a quick nap.”
“But- the intruders-”
“Don’t worry about it. I can take care of them for you.” the little one offered. “You know I’m completely capable of handling a few rogue humans. You can leave them to me while you relax and get those nasty lotus poison out of your system.”
“I…” the cyclops hesitated, but after a sudden yawn came out of its mouth, it agreed. “Well, I suppose you’re right, brother. I guess I do need to get some rest after all.” A sound of a huge body shifting on its seat, then a loud boom of something heavy hitting the floor resonated throughout the cave. “Hmph! I give you my thanks, brother. Compared to the rest of my brethren, I suppose you aren’t half bad for a little one.”
“Don’t I know it.” the voice chuckled.
Odysseus kept silent as the two continued to converse until Eurylochus sneaked up next to him.“Do you think we might have a chance of escaping, captain?” he said in a hushed tone.
Odysseus let out a sigh at the question. “Well, by the looks of it, the Cyclops will not be actively trying to hunt us down, so, yeah.”
Eurylochus nodded. “Could the ‘little one’ be a young cyclops? If so, we might have an easier time fighting it off than the other one.”
Odysseus shook his head. “No, it’s still dangerous.” he whispered back. “You saw how the other cyclops came for the first one’s aid. If this one cries out, the others might get way more agitated for hurting their young.”
And not to mention the fact that the cyclops ‘Polyphemus’ was so ready to trust this little one to handle a party of men who succeeded in rendering him incapacitated.
Odysseus wasn’t exactly informed of how cyclopses operate as a society, but entrusting a task as crucial as tracking down a group of intruders to someone who sounds so young didn’t seem right. But despite the uneasiness that settled at the back of his mind, he didn’t sound his concerns and continued to debrief his observation to his men.
“By the sound of the light footsteps and the volume of its voice, it is likely that the little one is approximately the same size as us humans. So, even if the thing suspects that the intruders are still in the cave and starts its search here, it would still take some time to get a full sweep of the place.” he began as he checked that the mystery being was still chatting with the drowsy Cyclops. “Since the little one does not know how many of us have arrived and how many have died, we could act dead when the little one comes to check behind these boulders where we are currently hiding.”
“There is enough blood splashed around here for us to fake a fatal injury. We could pretend we are corpses that had been flung away.” Odysseus clenched his jaws at the nauseous look on his crew at the mention of using their friends’ remains as disguise. But this was all he had. They had no choice.
“I know that the sole reason we had come here was for the food, but our first priority at the moment is getting out of here alive. Grab a few sheep on your way out if you can, but if it's too loud for you to travel all the way to the ship safely, leave it.” Odysseus said. “I am not keen on losing more men, understood?”
His crew nodded.
“Good.” Odysseus started to rise from his spot. “Now, let us-”
-before the little one called out.
From somewhere above him, right behind his back .
“Hello.”
Odysseus whipped his head towards where the voice came from as sounds of swords unsheathing quickly followed. By the time he himself had reached for his own weapon as well to level it towards the assailant, he noticed that a boy- no, a young man was poking out from behind the stone barricade, looking down at him.
The man had a pair of bluish green eyes instead of one, with a mop of disheveled, inky black hair just barely half an inch away from covering up the eyes entirely. He looked a bit startled with his eyes blown wide and his hands showing his palm towards the crew in what seemed like an effort to calm them down.
Overall, Odysseus thought that the man, well, looked normal.
“Woah- sorry, sorry, was my voice a bit loud?” the man apologized as the crew kept their eyes on him without answering. “I was just, uh, trying to say ‘hi’- well I guess that’s obvious. Um-”
The man paused for a second before slowly scanning the not so friendly expressions on the men he had just startled.
“If you’re worried about Polyphemus, it’s okay. He’s asleep now” the man said. “So… could you guys could, I dunno, lower your swords down or-”
“What are you?” Odysseus heard Eurylochus bark out.
The young man blinked at the sudden question. “Come again?”
This time, Odysseus asked. “Are you one of them? The cyclops, I mean.”
“Uh… oh- oh ! The cyclops, right, yeah- oh, wait , no no I mean-” the man stuttered. “Well, you see, I’m uh- not really, like, in a manner of speaking-” The man continued on with his choppy explanation before he stopped, then let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m not- technically one of them if you are asking if I'm a man eating, one-eyed monster, but they are my half brothers so…”
“…That cyclops is your brother?”
“ I mean, yeah. He is my brother on my dad's side but we have known each other for only a few weeks.”
“I… see.”
As Odysseus felt his hand on his sword lax from the suspicious yet anticlimactic reveal, the man perked up with a question of his own.
“But that’s enough about me,” he said. “I was meaning to ask you this since I saw you but, are you Odysseus?”
Odysseus felt a chill crawl up his spine at the nonchalant mention of his name. He forced himself to keep his face from revealing his panic and gripped his sword with the strength enough to pale his hand. He could see his men slowly closing up to the young man with their swords as well.
“Who’s asking?” Odysseus said as he glared at the man. But this time, the young man didn’t seem so intimidated than he was before, not even at the half a dozen swords that were aiming towards his throat. Instead, his lips formed an easy-going smile.
“Are you kidding? You’ve fought in the Trojan War!” he laughed. “I bet anyone with a reputation as remarkable as yours will hardly go unnoticed.”
Odysseus raised an eyebrow. “Even in the middle of the sea on a remote island?”
The man shrugged. “Words travel fast.”
“...sure.” Odysseus eyed the man with equal amounts of wariness and curiosity before he finally voiced out his main question. “So what do you want, little one? You said that you aren’t ‘technically’ one of the cyclops but that they are still your half brothers. What’s stopping you from killing us? What do you want from us?”
“I want to join your crew.” it answered back without hesitation. “Not permanently, mind you, just long enough to reach land.”
“Why?” Odysseus narrowed his eyes.
“Because I don’t want to be stuck in this monster riddled, godsforsaken island forever.” he replied with distaste clear in his tone. “I want to get out.”
“We can’t let you travel back with us if you are a potential threat to us.” Eurylochus jumped in. “You said that you’re related to the cyclops on your father’s side. Who’s your father?”
The man considered him for a moment, then shook his head. “It would be best for you all if I don’t speak of my father’s name.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” the young man replied. “You’ve just poisoned and blinded one of his sons in his territory. I doubt that he would be pleasant if he took notice of you.”
“What’s up with that anyway.” Odysseus questioned. “You said ‘ in his territory ’. The cyclops- Polyphemus said something about that as well. What is his territory ?”
At that, the young man simply stared at Odysseus, then pointed towards the outside of the cave without saying a word.
He and his crew followed to where he was pointing to the quiet scenery of the whole island. Thanks to the hill the cave was on top of, Odysseus could even catch a glimpse of the beach where the rest of his crew was not so far off from. But the two main elements that had taken most of the view was none other than the clear, blue sky and the other being…
The sea.
Odysseus blanched along with his crew, who seemed to have reached the same conclusion.
The sea.
The wild, vast ocean where he had been traveling through for years, the one he had been relying on to take him back home. One of the most crucial parts of the whole world where it is told that the oldest of life have been born, died and reside in. The place where none but one could dare claim as their own territory .
Odysseus turned towards the young man before him once more, unable to avert his gaze from the man’s piercing sea green eyes that seemed to swirl like waves during a storm, and his teeth that seemed to sharpen the longer he looked.
“Lord P-”
“Don’t.” The young man spoke before one of crew mates could say the sea god’s name.
Odysseus slowly lowered his sword as he eyed the others to do as well, hoping that his action wouldn’t agitate the sea god more than he already did. “So, you’re… his son?”
“His half, bastard son.” the young man added. “My mom’s mortal.”
“Right, and you want to travel with us to reach land?”
“Yeah, somewhere with a temple of Delphi or the sun god would be nice, but honestly you could drop me off anywhere you’re comfortable with.” The young man said. “And, I’m a great sailor, y’know because of my dad. I could lighten your weight during my stay.
Odysseus glanced at his crew for any other opinion on the matter, but it was clear that the situation at hand was way out of their depths for them to actually voice out their concerns or doubts.
So, with the silence as a sign of approval, Odysseus looked towards the young man once more. “It seems that we all are in agreement,” he announced. “We welcome you aboard… little one ?”
“Oh, right.” The man jumped off from where he was poking out from and walked around the boulder to properly stand face to face. He flashed a grin as he introduced himself.
“Name’s Percy Jackson. Thank you for letting me join.”
BONUS
“Thank you for the sheep by the way.” Odysseus said as he trudged through the woods with a pair of dead sheep held on both of his sides. “We were scared for a moment that we wouldn’t be able to get any food.”
“No problem.” little one- no, Percy replied with his own pair of sheep meat bundled in his arms. “They weren’t mine anyways. I should thank you for letting Polyphemus keep a few of his favorites. I know how foods are a crucial necessity to you guys at the moment.”
Odysseus let out a mirthless laugh at that. “Anything to lessen your father’s rage. Even if it’s just a few sheep’s worth.”
Eurylochus, who was trailing beside him joined in with a question.“By the way, do you think that your message will be enough to convince the cyclops that you’ve finished your job and had just left the island with the ship we had arrived here in?”
“Yeah, it’ll be enough, trust me. When Polyphemus wakes, his eyes would be healed enough to read it and as for me, I have been practically singing about how once a mortal shows up, I will snatch their boat away and sail across the sea.” he assured. “They won’t be surprised by my disappearance.”
“Right… about that, though.” Odysseus said. “You’re father’s the sea god, no? Why can’t you just, you know, swim away from the island and never come back. Why do you need a ship?”
Percy made a face at that comment. “Well, I tried that the moment I arrived here, but it seemed like my dad put a curse on this island to prevent his children from escaping.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, I tried swimming away but I couldn’t go pass the reefs, I tried controlling the currents, but that didn’t work either, I once made this little raft to sail on but it stopped midway, and I once tried to use a boat that another mortal made but that was just the same with my raft. Oh, and to be clear,” Percy added. “-the boat that another mortal made, I didn’t kill the owner for it or anything if you’re wondering. The guy was a bit weird and was this close to killing me before I ducked out of his way. The guy tumbled off the cliff right then and there so I guess he died but never mind that.”
“Anyway, I figured that the main factor of the curse is that it prevents me from escaping via the sea if I am actively participating. Like swimming by my own will or steering a boat with my own hands.” Percy concluded. “So that’s why I’m asking you guys to ship me away instead.”
“So you’re not sure?”
“Frankly, no. But I have a good feeling about this one. I think I might be able to escape this time.” he smiled. “Because if I don’t, I swear to gods that I’m going to crash the fuck out.”
Odysseus and Eurylochus glanced at each other. They didn’t know what ‘crashing the fuck out’ meant, but it didn’t sound so good to hear. So for the rest of their trip back to their ship, they prayed for the curse to be blindsided this time.