The Underworld's Child

29 | Nereus

Have a good Friday!

☀︎︎☽︎☾︎☀︎︎

They'd made it to the West Coast. Artemis was there somewhere. Annabeth too, she hoped. But she had no idea how to find them, and tomorrow was the winter solstice. Nor did she have any clue what monster Artemis had been hunting. It was supposed to 'show the trail,' but it never had. Now they were stuck on the ferry dock with not much money, no friends, and no luck.

After a brief discussion, they agreed that they needed to figure out just what this mystery monster was.

"But how?" Percy asked.

"Nereus," Grover said.

Percy looked at him. "What?"

"Isn't that what Apollo told you to do? Find Nereus?"

Percy nodded. 

Guess I wasn't the only one he visited.

The old man of the sea," he remembered. "I'm supposed to find him and force him to tell us what he knows. But how do I find him?"

Zoe made a face. "Old Nereus, eh?"

"You know him?" Thalia asked.

"My mother was a sea goddess. Yes, I know him. Unfortunately, he is never very hard to find. Just follow the smell."

"What do you mean?" Elora asked.

"Come," she said without enthusiasm. "I will show thee."

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Five minutes later, Zoe had Percy outfitted in a ragged flannel shirt and jeans three sizes too big, bright red sneakers, and a floppy rainbow hat.

"Oh, yeah," Grover said, trying not to bust out laughing, "you look completely inconspicuous now."

Zoe nodded with satisfaction. "A typical male vagrant."

"Thanks a lot," he grumbled. "Why am I doing this again?"

"I told thee. To blend in."

She led the way back down to the waterfront. After a long time spent searching the docks, Zoe finally stopped in her tracks. She pointed down a pier where a bunch of homeless guys were huddled together in blankets, waiting for the soup kitchen to open for lunch.

"He will be down there somewhere," Zoe said. "He never travels very far from the water. He likes to sun himself during the day."

"How do I know which one is him?"

"Sneak up," she said. "Act homeless. You will know him. He will smell... different."

"Great." I didn't want to ask for particulars. "And once I find him?"

"Grab him," she said. "And hold on. He will try anything to get rid of thee. Whatever he does, do not let go. Force him to tell thee about the monster."

"We've got your back," Thalia said. She picked something off the back of my shirt—a big clump of fuzz that came from who-knows-where. "Eww. On second thought... I don't want your back. But we'll be rooting for you."

"Semangat!" Elora said giving him a thumbs up. [Good luck!]

Grover gave him a big thumbs-up too.

Percy headed toward the dock while she and the others watched from the distance. 

"I feel so bad for him," Elora said to the group.