Seeking Happiness

I made it to the main deck right as the ship was hit yet again by whatever ugly monster was trying to kill us... again. This whole fight for you life thing was starting to get kind of old. Or maybe it was me who was getting old. But that couldn't be I'm only eighteen, yeah I may have a wife and kids back home, but that doesn't mean I'm old.

The boat was rocking side to side, the water crashing over the side and relentlessly attempting to knock my feet out from under me. I pulled Riptide out of my back pocket and looked around for Luk and Nico. They were standing back to back looking a bit seasick.

I carefully made my way around debris and dislodged equipment. I was almost within reaching distance from them when Luke yelled at me to turn around. And that's when I saw it, the thing that was attacking our boat. The Kraken. But that doesn't make sense, Perseus, well the other Perseus killed it a long time ago. Besides I was almost positive this thing was controlled by my dad. I mean it was a creature of the sea, a huge, mean, ugly one no doubt, but it lived in the sea none the less.

One of it's tentacles came down on the side of the ship with a crunching noise that made me wince. I charged at it and stabbed the tentacle, which probably wasn't one of my best ideas. The kraken ripped its tentacle off the ship with a loud squeal like roar, taking riptide with it. Well there goes my sword. I looked around for anything else that might be helpful. If only Leo was here, he knew this ship and all its functions better than anyone. I knew Riptide would be back in my pocket anytime now, so I just needed to stay alive that long.

I looked over and saw Luke and Nico working together in loading some cannons, good that;ll keep it busy. I heard a crash behind me and I turned to see Calypso sprawled on the floor from where she tripped over a crate. I went to help her up, but a huge wave slammed between us, sweeping me overboard. I said a quick prayer to my dad. Not that I was scared to be going into the water, if anything that was probably a good thing. But I had no idea how I was going to kill this thing.

I hit the ice cold water, but it didn't bother me. I could feel riptide in back pocket, but I was going to leave it there until I needed it, right now I needed both hands to swim. The Kraken was big, but it wasn't as big as had always imagined it. It was too focused on this ship to notice me creeping up behind it. I thought back to the story, Perseus killed it by turning it to stone. Well that sucks because as it so happens I was fresh out of Medusa heads. I could feel the pressure starting to build in my chest. If I didn't figure something out quick, it was going to destroy the ship. I needed to get home, I needed to see my family. It wasn't going to end here I wasn't going to let it.

A cannon ball hissed through the water and made a direct hit in the middle of the krakens forehead. I took my chance while it was disoriented and stabbed it in the eye. Another shrill shriek that hurt my ears so bad, I was sure they were bleeding. Come on dad, help a kid out. I drug my sword all the way down through its eye and then pulled it out. I tried to swim away but it caught me in one of it's tentacles. It wrapped all the way up from my ankles to my neck. I could feel it starting to squeeze the life out of me, the air slowly leaving my lungs. My head was getting fuzzy from the lack of oxygen. I saw Annabeth, I saw Noah, I saw Gracie. No this wasn't it. I have survived much worse than this. I was not going to be killed by some stupid fish, especially being the son of a freaking sea god! I screamed and pushed with all my strength. At first it didn't seem like anything was happening, but then the tentacle started to loosen, and the eventually let go altogether. I silently thanked my dad because I was almost positive he had something to do with that. I swam to the surface as fast as possible. I hoped it would be too worried about its eye to chase me. I broke the surface and took a nice clean breath.

The ladder was already down so I climbed it all the way to the top. It was then that I realized how out of shape I was. I needed to hit the climbing wall and pronto. "Percy's back!" I recognized Nico's voice. And as I looked up to answer I saw Calypso focusing intensely at the water her hands out stretched in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut and wrinkled her nose. It almost looked like she was about to poop but then a huge light flew from her hands, slicing the water and putting a silent end to the shrieking from beneath the waves.

I was breathing hard, "Calypso did you just... Kill the Kraken?" She swung her head around to stare at me, her braid whipping to the side. "Don't be ridiculous, that's nearly impossible. I only shrunk it. I would have done it a lot sooner, but you just had to jump in and be the hero. I was scared I was going to hit you so I waited until you came back on board." Did she just accuse me of jumping into the water... of my own free will, that had a kraken in it, to be the hero? I mean granted that does sound like something I would do, but usually that's not something most people complain about. "For your information, a wave knocked me off the boat. And second of all, I'm sorry I was trying to save the ship and everyone on it. Next time I'll just go hide under my bed and twiddle my thumbs." She turned red, but it wasn't form embarrassment, it was from anger.

With a grunt she stomped her foot and marched below deck. "Next time, why don't you act like an idiot and almost get killed." The she pushed me back into the water. "While you're down there would you mind collecting the Kraken, Nico said he wanted to being it back to Camp."

Notes