Chapter 2: My Sibling Tries to Sabatoge Me

Dear Grover,

You would not believe what's happened since I last wrote to you!

It's probably best if I start from where I last left off.

After Annabeth and I defeated the Hydra, we settled into a rhythm for the next day or two of sailing. Turns out, it's easy to get a rowboat magically propelled by your father, the Sea God, to pull over for a bathroom break--you just have to ask nicely. During one of our pit stops, we swam ashore close to a seaside town, so I stocked up on snacks and sunscreen while Annabeth was in the bathroom. At night, Annabeth and I would lie on our backs and stargaze beneath the cloudless sky before we went to sleep. And all the while, the Swedish Fish surrounded the boat with their flashing scales, as if we had been assimilated into their school.

I was beginning to think that maybe we wouldn't encounter any new dangers before this quest was over. Maybe we would travel all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, wrangle a Cetus, and then speed on back in time to have a relaxing school year.

As you've probably guessed at this point, Grover, that's not quite what happened next.

On the third day, Annabeth and I were sitting in the bottom of the boat, playing some good old-fashioned Go Fish (please don't tell the Swedish Fish).

"Got any eights?" I asked.

Annabeth looked at her cards. "Nope, go fish."

I was about to lose for the fourth time in a row, so I was happy when she was distracted by something nearby.

"Percy?" she asked.

"Yeah?" I replied, pulling a card from the top of the deck.

"Are we drifting east?"

I checked the shoreline west of us for reference. Now that she mentioned it, it did look a little further away than usual. "Maybe?" I said, not very confidently.

Within a couple hours, though, it was very clear--the rowboat was cutting eastward as if pulled by an invisible string.

"This is where we leave you!" one of the Swedish Fish yelped as he flipped out of the water. "We don't go there!"

"Go where?" I yelled back. We were picking up speed, leaving the fish in our wake.

"To see her!"

"See WHO?" I shouted. But we were too far away by then to hear their replies.

Annabeth shook her head slowly. "I don't like this."

"Annabeth!" I yelped, looking in the other direction. "It's a whirlpool!"

There, dead east of us, in the middle of the ocean, the water was swirling downward in a gigantic spiral, maybe one hundred yards in diameter. It was about to swallow our rowboat up, and we had no options to steer away.

"I'm going to check it out!" I said, and before Annabeth could protest, I dove into the water, clothes and shoes and all. Being the Son of Poseidon has its perks, Grover, but the ability to breathe underwater and keep myself dry was what I was most grateful for in that moment.

Beneath the surface, the water was murky and dimly lit. I pulled my arms and kicked my legs to move towards the whirlpool, but the current was so strong that I barely needed to stroke. I wasn't quite to the center of the vortex when I could just barely make out a figure under the water. It was a girl, a teenager from the looks of her. As I got closer, the rest of her features were apparent: her hair was made of seaweed with seashells decorating it, her eyes were a murky blue-green that matched the water, and both her skin and swim suit were made of a scale-like material.

So ... it's not every day you see a girl underneath the ocean. I figured I should probably say something impressive, something to make my intentions clear.

"Uh, hi."

She narrowed her eyes at me. Okay, maybe not the best start.

"Do you know anything about this whirlpool? We'd kinda like to keep going." Her steely gaze didn't change, so I tried a new tack. "I'm Percy Jackson, and--"

"I know who you are, Percy," the girl spat.

"Who are you?" I asked in surprise.

"I'm Charybdis," the girl said sullenly. "But of course you wouldn't know that. I think Dad has completely forgotten about me--no wonder he didn't tell you about me."

"Dad?"

Charybdis snorted. "Yeah. Our dad. You know, Poseidon?"

"You're a demigod too?" I asked in disbelief.

"Do I look like a demigod? I'm a whirlpool, born of Poseidon and Gaia! You know, the one that almost trapped Odysseus?" When all I offered was a blank look, she shook her head. "No one remembers me. That's why I have to sabotage your quest. Maybe that will get Poseidon's attention."

I laughed. "Is that why you're pulling us in? To get Dad's attention?" Seeing her furious expression, I quickly changed strategies again. "Listen, there are easier ways to do that. Why don't I just promise to remind Dad about you when I see him at the end of the quest?"

"You'd do that?" Her eyes swam with tears--uhh, if that's possible to do in the ocean--and for the first time, she softened. "Tell him to visit me, maybe? I can't remember when I've seen him last."

"Yeah, of course. I can do that," I said. "But we have to finish the quest first."

Charybdis sighed. "Okay. Your boat is free now."

"Thanks," I said. "I won't forget, all right? And hey, maybe I could come visit sometime too. You know, since we're half siblings and all."

So Charybdis and I parted as tentative friends.

When I got back to the ship, Annabeth was frantic, but I didn't feel like explaining much as I got into the boat. I had a lot to think about...

Hopefully we find the Swedish Fish soon to send this letter,

Percy (and Annabeth)

Whirlpool in the ocean

(Aleks Dahlberg on Unsplash)

Author's Note: Once again, this story incorporates characters from the original Rick Riordan series such as Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. The newest addition to my story in this chapter was Charybdis, who doesn't make an appearance in the canon books at all. Like this chapter discusses briefly, she is not a creature that is particularly well-known or discussed in Greek mythology. In fact, the most certain detail I could find about her was that she is a whirlpool. As a result, I added my own details by predicting what it might look like to be a whirlpool, choosing to make her a teenager in appearance so that she might be more relatable to Percy. According to some sources, she is the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia, the Sea God and the Earth God, and I wanted to include that detail because it makes her Percy's half-sister. Percy also has a half-brother cyclops in the original series, and he is very fond of his brother, so here I explore a deepening sense of family ties with his newly-found sister. Due to word limit restrictions, I wasn't able to feature Annabeth as much as I would have liked, or to explore Percy's reaction to the news about Charybdis's relation to him.

Bibliography: Charybdis (Karybdis), Theoi. Percy Jackson and the Olympians characters belong to Rick Riordan.