We Meet the Sheep of Doom

We Meet the Sheep of Doom is the ninety-second chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on June 21st, 2019.
==Chapter==
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Chapter
 Annabeth's POV
When you think “monster island,” you think craggy rocks and bones scattered on the beach like the island of the Sirens.
The Cyclops’s island was nothing like that. I mean, yeah, it had a rope bridge across a chasm, which was never a good sign. You would be better off putting a billboard that said, SOMETHING EVIL LIVES HERE. But except for that, the place looked like a Caribbean postcard. It had green fields and tropical fruit trees and white beaches. As we sailed toward the shore, I breathed in the sweet air. “The Fleece.”
Everyone else nodded in agreement. I couldn’t see the Fleece yet, but I could feel its power. I could believe it would heal anything, even Thalia’s poisoned tree.
“If we take it away, will the island die?” Percy asked.
“I doubt it,” Jasmine replied.
I shook my head. “It’ll fade. Go back to what it would be normally, whatever that is.”
I felt a little guilty about ruining this paradise, but I reminded myself we had no choice. Camp Half-Blood was in trouble. And Tyson . . . Tyson would still be with us if it wasn’t for this quest. I owed it to him for the way I treated him since we met.
In the meadow at the base of the ravine, several dozen sheep were milling around. They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge—about the size of hippos. Just past them was a path that led up into the hills. At the top of the path, near the edge of the canyon, was the massive oak tree Percy had shown us from his dreams. Something gold glittered in its branches.
“No way,” Will said.
“This is too easy,” Percy agreed. “We could just hike up there and take it?”
I narrowed my eyes. “There’s supposed to be a guardian. A dragon or . . .”
That’s when a deer emerged from the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for grass to eat, when the sheep all bleated at once and rushed the animal. It happened so fast that the deer stumbled and was lost in a sea of wool and trampling hooves. Grass and tufts of fur flew into the air.
A second later the sheep all moved away, back to their regular peaceful wanderings. Where the deer had been was a pile of clean white bones.
The five of us exchanged looks. Jasmine even let a tear streak down her face. She always felt bad for the prey of carnivores.
“They’re like piranhas,” I said.
“Piranhas with wool,” Percy said. “How will we—”
“Guys!” I gasped, grabbing Percy’s arm. “Look.”
I pointed down the beach, to just below the sheep meadow, where I noticed a small boat had been run aground . . . the other lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham.
----
We decided there was no way we could get past the man-eating sheep. I wanted to sneak up the path invisibly and grab the Fleece with Jasmine’s help, but in the end the guys convinced us that something would go wrong. The sheep would smell us, especially Jasmine with her aura, which they already seemed to be feeling. Another guardian would appear. Something. And if that happened, they’d be too far away to help.
Besides, our first job was to find Grover and whoever had come ashore in that lifeboat—assuming they’d gotten past the sheep.
We moored the Queen Anne’s Revenge on the back side of the island where the cliffs rose straight up a good two hundred feet. I figured the ship was less likely to be seen there.
The cliffs looked climbable, barely—about as difficult as the lava wall back at camp. At least it was free of sheep. I hoped that Polyphemus did not also keep carnivorous mountain goats.
We rowed a lifeboat to the edge of the rocks and made our way up, very slowly. I went first because I was the better climber. Jasmine turned Toothless back to his full size. He was flying below us and Jasmine climbed at the bottom so that if any of us fell they could catch us.
We only came close to dying six or seven times, which I thought was pretty good. Once, Percy lost his grip and found himself dangling by one hand from a ledge fifty feet above the rocky surf. But Toothless let him use his paw as handhold until he found another one and kept climbing. A minute later I hit a slippery patch of moss and my foot slipped. Fortunately, I found something else to put it against: Percy’s face.
“Sorry,” I murmured.
“S’okay,” he grunted.
Finally, when my fingers felt like molten lead and my arm muscles were shaking from exhaustion, we hauled ourselves over the top of the cliff and collapsed.
“Ouch,” I moaned.
“Ugh,” Percy said.
“I wish I had some lotion,” Jasmine said.
“Garrr!” bellowed another voice.
If I hadn’t been so tired, I would’ve leaped another two hundred feet. I whirled around, but I couldn’t see who’d spoken.
The ledge we were sitting on was narrower than I’d realized. It dropped off on the opposite side, and that’s where the voice was coming from—right below us.
I clamped my hand over Percy’s mouth and pointed.
“You’re a feisty one!” the deep voice bellowed.
“Challenge me!” Clarisse’s voice, no doubt about it. “Give me back my sword and I’ll fight you!”
The monster roared with laughter.
The five of us crept to the edge. We were right above the entrance of the Cyclops’s cave. Below us stood Polyphemus and Grover, still in his wedding dress. Clarisse was tied up, hanging upside down over a pot of boiling water.
“Hmm,” Polyphemus pondered. “Eat loudmouth girl now or wait for wedding feast? What does my bride think?”
“Eat her now,” Jasmine whispered.
I bumped her shoulder.
“What?”
Polyphemus turned to Grover, who backed up and almost tripped over his completed bridal train. “Oh, um, I’m not hungry right now, dear. Perhaps—”
“Did you say bride?” Clarisse demanded. “Who—Grover?”
“Shut up,” I muttered. “She has to shut up.”
“We both know she won’t,” Jasmine whispered. “Which is why he should eat her now.”
Polyphemus glowered. “What ‘Grover’?”
“The satyr!” Clarisse yelled.
“Oh!” Grover yelped. “The poor thing’s brain is boiling from that hot water. Pull her down, dear!”
“And eat her,” Jasmine added.
Polyphemus’s eyelids narrowed over his baleful milky eye, as if he were trying to see Clarisse more clearly.
The Cyclops was an even more horrible sight than he had been in Percy’s dreams. Partly because his rancid smell was now up close and personal. Partly because he was dressed in his wedding outfit—a crude kilt and shoulder-wrap, stitched together from baby-blue tuxedoes, as if he’d skinned an entire wedding party.
“What satyr?” asked Polyphemus. “Satyrs are good eating. You bring me a satyr?”
“No, you big idiot!” bellowed Clarisse. “That satyr! Grover! The one in the wedding dress!”
I wanted to wring Clarisse’s neck, but it was too late. All I could do was watch as Polyphemus turned and ripped off Grover’s wedding veil—revealing his curly hair, his scruffy adolescent beard, his tiny horns.
Polyphemus breathed heavily, trying to contain his anger. “I don’t see very well,” he growled. “Not since many years ago when the other hero stabbed me in the eye. But YOU’RE—NO—LADY—CYCLOPS!”
The Cyclops grabbed Grover’s dress and tore it away. Underneath, the old Grover reappeared in his jeans and T-shirt. He yelped and ducked as the monster swiped over his head.
“Stop!” Grover pleaded. “Don’t eat me raw! I—I have a good recipe!”
I noticed Percy and Will reach for their weapons, but I hissed, “Wait!”
Polyphemus hesitated, a boulder in his hand, ready to smash his would-be bride.
“Recipe?” he asked Grover.
“Oh y-yes! You don’t want to eat me raw. You’ll get E coli and botulism and all sorts of horrible things. I’ll taste much better grilled over a slow fire. With mango chutney! You could go get some mangos right now, down there in the woods. I’ll just wait here.”
The monster pondered this. My heart hammered against my ribs. I figured I’d die if I charged. But I couldn’t let the monster kill Grover.
“Grilled satyr with mango chutney,” Polyphemus mused. He looked back at Clarisse, still hanging over the pot of boiling water. “You a satyr, too?”
“No, you overgrown pile of dung!” she yelled. “I’m a girl! The daughter of Ares! Now untie me so I can rip your arms off!”
“Rip my arms off,” Polyphemus repeated.
“And then stuff them down your throat!”
“You got spunk.”
“Let me down!”
Polyphemus snatched up Grover as if he were a wayward puppy. “Have to graze sheep now. Wedding postponed until tonight. Then we’ll eat satyr for the main course!”
“But . . . you’re still getting married?” Grover sounded hurt. “Who’s the bride?”
Polyphemus looked toward the boiling pit.
Clarisse made a strangled sound. “Oh, no! You can’t be serious. I’m not—”
Jasmine covered her mouth with both hands to keep herself from busting up.
Before any of us could do anything, Polyphemus plucked Clarisse off the rope like she was a ripe apple, and tossed her and Grover deep into the cave. “Make yourself comfortable! I come back at sundown for big event!”
Then the Cyclops whistled, and a mixed flock of goats and sheep—smaller than the man-eaters—flooded out of the cave and past their master. As they went to pasture, Polyphemus patted some on the back and called them by name—Beltbuster, Tammany, Lockhart, etc.
When the last sheep had waddled out, Polyphemus rolled a boulder in front of the doorway as easily as I would close a refrigerator door, shutting off the sound of Clarisse and Grover screaming inside.
“Mangos,” Polyphemus grumbled to himself. “What are mangos?”
He strolled off down the mountain in his baby-blue groom’s outfit, leaving us alone with a pot of boiling water and a six-ton boulder.
----
We tried for what seemed like hours, but it was no good. The boulder wouldn’t move. Jasmine’s super strength seems to have abandoned her. We yelled into the cracks, tapped on the rock, did everything we could think of to get a signal to Grover, but if he heard us, we couldn’t tell.
Even if by some miracle we managed to kill Polyphemus, it wouldn’t do us any good. Grover and Clarisse would die inside that sealed cave. The only way to move the rock was to have the Cyclops do it.
In total frustration, Percy stabbed Riptide against the boulder. Sparks flew, but nothing else happened. A large rock is not the kind of enemy you can fight with a magic sword.
The five of us sat on the ridge in despair and watched the distant baby-blue shape of the Cyclops as he moved among his flocks. He had wisely divided his regular animals from his man-eating sheep, putting each group on either side of the huge crevice that divided the island. The only way across was the rope bridge, and the planks were much too far apart for sheep hooves.
We watched as Polyphemus visited his carnivorous flock on the far side. Unfortunately, they didn’t eat him. In fact, they didn’t seem to bother him at all. He fed them chunks of mystery meat from a great wicker basket.
“Trickery,” Annabeth decided. “We can’t beat him by force, so we’ll have to use trickery.”
“Okay,” Percy said.
“What trick?” Will asked.
“I haven’t figured that part out yet,” I replied.
“Great,” Percy sad.
“Polyphemus will have to move the rock to let the sheep inside.”
“At sunset. Which is when he’ll marry Clarisse and have Grover for dinner. I’m not sure which is grosser.”
“Oh, eating Grover, definitely,” Jasmine answered.
“I could get inside,” I said, “Jasmine and I, invisibly.”
“What about us?” Will asked.
“The sheep,” I mused. I gave them a sly look. “How much do you guys like sheep?”
----
“Just don’t let go!” I said, standing invisibly with Jasmine to the boys right.
If I didn’t know they were hanging down from the belly of the sheep, I wouldn’t be able to tell that they were even there, which gave me more hope that Polyphemus would be able to see them even less.
The sheep didn’t seem to care. Even the Cyclops’s smallest sheep were big enough to support their weight, and they had thick wool. They just twirled the stuff into handles for their hands, hooked their feet against the sheep’s thigh bones, and hung on, riding around against the sheep’s chest, trying to keep the wool out of their mouths and noses. I could only imagine how bad they smelled.
The sun was going down. Toothless perched himself at the top of the cave as a lookout, him getting harder and harder to see as it got darker.
No sooner were we in position than the Cyclops roared, “Oy! Goaties! Sheepies!”
The flock dutifully began trudging back up the slopes toward the cave.
“This is it!” I whispered to the boys. “We’ll be close by. Don’t worry.”
Jasmine and I walked alongside the sheep outside their gathering circle. I couldn’t see Jasmine, but she could see me and lets me know she was still beside me every two minutes or so.
The sheep started plodding up the hill. After a hundred yards, the sheep the boys were riding made a grumbling sound. I didn’t blame it. I wouldn’t want anybody rock climbing in my hair either. But if the boys didn’t hold on, I was sure they’d fall off right there in front of the monster.
“Hasenpfeffer!” the Cyclops said, patting one of the sheep in front of me. “Einstein! Widget—eh there, Einstein and Widget!”
Polyphemus patted Percy and Will’s sheep and nearly knocked them to the ground. “Putting on some extra mutton there?”
Uh-oh, I thought. Here it comes.
But Polyphemus just laughed and swatted the sheep’s rear end, propelling them forward. “Go on, fatties! Soon Polyphemus will eat you for breakfast!”
And just like that, the boys were in the cave.
Jasmine and I stayed outside as we watched the last of the sheep going inside.
The Cyclops was about to roll the stone back into place, when I decided to shout, “Hello, ugly!”
Polyphemus stiffened. “Who said that?”
“Nobody!” I yelled.
That got exactly the reaction I’d been hoping for. The monster’s face turned red with rage.
“Nobody!” Polyphemus yelled back. “I remember you!”
“You’re too stupid to remember anybody,” Jasmine taunted. “Much less Nobody!”
Polyphemus bellowed furiously, grabbed the nearest boulder (which happened to be his front door) and threw it toward the sound of our voices. We were already moving before the rock smashed into a thousand fragments.
Unfortunately, we should’ve moved a lot sooner. The impact knocked us both to the ground. We took a few seconds to recover before we got back up and I shouted, “You haven’t learned to throw any better, either!”
Polyphemus howled. “Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!”
“You can’t kill Nobody, you stupid oaf,” Jasmine taunted.
“Come find me!” I yelled.
Polyphemus barreled down the hill toward our voices.
Now, the “Nobody” thing wouldn’t have made sense to anybody, but luckily Jasmine caught on with me immediately while I still had to explain it to the boys that it was the name Odysseus used to trick Polyphemus centuries ago, right before he poked the Cyclops’s eye out with a large hot stick. I had figured Polyphemus would still have a grudge about that name (many monsters in Greek Mythology loved to hold grudges), and I was right. In his frenzy to find his old enemy, he forgot about resealing the cave entrance. Apparently, he didn’t even stop to consider that our voices were female and there were two of us, whereas the first Nobody had been alone and male. On the other hand, he’d wanted to marry Grover, so he couldn’t have been all that bright about the whole male/female thing.
I just hoped we could stay alive and keep distracting him long enough for the boys to find Grover and Clarisse.
Jasmine and I split up. I’m not sure what the point was since we were both invisible, but it certainly was entertaining to have us hurl insults at Polyphemus all around him and make him confused. He still didn’t seem to realize we were two separate people.
Unfortunately, it turned bad faster than expected.
Confession time: I got cocky. I was having a little bit (ok, a lot) of fun insulting Polyphemus with Jasmine that I momentarily forgot we were on a serious quest. And I only remembered too late when I got captured.
Polyphemus threw another boulder in my direction, relying on his hearing to find us. It landed a little too close to me, breaking into fragments the size of bricks, and one of them hit me hard in the head.
Pain surged through my skull and I instinctively screamed as a result of it. Bad idea. I kneeled down and felt the cut on my forehead. When I looked at my hand, there was blood on it. I started to feel woozy.
The last thing I remembered was being picked up and held upside down by the monster.
----
Too bad Polyphemus didn't eat Clarisse. I agreed with Jasmine on this one.
So I went to see Toy Story 4 last night, and I think it was great. I highly recommend you guys check it out.
Please review here.
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==Character Appearances==
===Main Characters===
*Annabeth Chase
*Jasmine Saturday
*Percy Jackson
*Will Solace
===Minor Characters===
*Clarisse
*Grover Underwood
===Pets===
*Toothless
===Enemies===
*Polyphemus
==Trivia==
Category:Chapters
Category:The Gift of a Best Friend chapters
Category:Chapters based on a chapter in the book series
Category:Chapters in Annabeth's POV