The Huntress and her Lion

Twelve

The flight towards San Francisco was in essence very boring but helpful. While flying Percy informed the group about how he ran into a clear-sighted mortal, one Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She was able to help Percy escape safely away from the zombie warriors.
Skye had never seen San Francisco, not even in any pictures but seeing this now from above, it was one of the most beautiful cities she had ever seen. The city was smaller than Manhattan and surrounded by green hills and fog. There was a huge bay and ships, islands, and sailboats as well as the Golden Bridge-Gate that was sticking up out of the fog.

It was early in the morning when the group landed under a bridge. They ended up shocking and freaking out the homeless man who ran off screaming. It was not long after they landed that the two angels who they called Hank and Chuck took off stating that they are going to find some friends.

Once the angles were gone the group decided to have a brief discussion on what to do after all they made it to the West Coast and Skye could feel that Artemis was here somewhere, but they were stuck on how to find her before it is too late as tomorrow would be the winter solstice and they still did not have a clue on what the monster Artemis was after is. This monster was supposed to show us the trail, yet it did not appear to them. They were now stuck at a ferry dock with no money, and no way to find her Lady.

After the discussion, they all agreed that they needed to find out what the mystery monster was, that would be the key to the quest.

"But how are we going to find the monster?" Percy asked.

"Nereus," Annabeth said.

Percy looked at Annabeth with so much confusion. "What?"

"Apollo told you to find Nereus, is it not?" Annabeth said.

"Yeah, thanks. I completely forgot about my conversation with the Sun god." Percy said before looking at his quest companions.

"If I remember correctly, he is the old man of the sea. We were supposed to find him and force him to tell us what he knows." Percy said.

"Yes, and how are we going to do that?" Thalia asked.

"Old Nereus, eh?" Zoe said with disgust.

"You know him?" Bianca asked.

"My mother was a sea goddess. So yes, I know him and Thalia, Nereus is never hard to find, you just have to follow the smell." Zoe answered both Thalia and Bianca.

"Smell?" Lyra asked. "Oh, this will not be good for Skye and me, after all, we both have heightened senses," Lyra said worriedly.

"Don't worry Lyra. You and Skye will be fine for a few moments, also I have a plan." Zoe said happily.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked Zoe.

"Come," Zoe said with a spark of mischief. "I will show you."

Skye never knew that Zoe had this mischievous streak within her, but she also knew that Percy was in trouble the moment the group arrived at the Goodwill dropbox. Convincing Percy to dress up in an outfitted ragged closet that consisted of a flannel shirt and jeans that were three sizes too big, bright red sneakers and a floppy rainbow hat took longer than what Skye thought, but they eventually got there.

"Oh, yeah," Thalia snickered, "you look completely inconspicuous now."

Nodding with satisfaction Zoe said. "A typical male vagrant."

"Thank you so very much," Percy said sarcastically. "Can you please explain to me again why I am the one doing this?"

Skye rolled her eyes but answered Percy before Zoe could. "You are doing this because you will blend into the crowd the best."