daughter of heaven || percy jackson

3.10

⎯⎯ ୨ 3.10: some nights i wish i could just press reset ୧ ⎯⎯

MELANIE FELT LIKE SHE WAS ON TOP OF THE WORLD.

of course, she was. nestled within the firm yet reassuring embrace of these surreal bronze statues, she yearned to absorb all of the beauty of the surrounding scenery that her eyes could possibly handle.

unfortunately for the daughter of hera, the diminished oxygen levels exacerbated her already sleep-deprived condition, causing her to drift in and out of consciousness. somewhere over the rockies, she could no longer resist, and finally succumbed to the embrace of slumber.

"where do you guys want to land?" hank asked, waking her up from her nap.

she looked down. "woah."

san francisco appeared truly mesmerizing, as annabeth had told her long ago. it was akin to a smaller, much more pristine manhattan, but it was embraced by verdant hills and veiled by fog. its vast bay stretched out, dotted with ships, islands, and sailboats, while the iconic golden gate bridge rose majestically through the mist.

"there," zoe suggested. "by the embarcadero building."

"good thinking," chuck said. "me and hank can blend in with the pigeons.

they all looked at him with flummoxed expressions.

"kidding," he said sheepishly. "sheesh, can't statues have a sense of humor?"

no, melanie thought, though she was hesitant to say it aloud. she had some bad experiences with angering metal statues.

as it turned out, there was no need to blend in. the early morning tranquility left the area relatively deserted, except for a lone homeless man dozing on a ferry dock railing upon their landing. he shrieked when he saw hank and chuck and ran off yelling something about metal angels from mars.

they said their goodbyes to the angels, who flew off to party with their statue friends. melanie glanced at her friends, and she realized that they had no idea what to do next.

they made it to the west coast. artemis was here somewhere. annabeth too, hopefully. and most likely meghan and luke ready to entrap them. but she had no clue how to locate any of them, and the next day was the winter solstice. they didn't even know what monster artemis was hunting. it was supposed to find them and 'show the trail,' but it never had. now they were stuck on the ferry dock with dwindling supplies and morale.

after a brief discussion, they agreed they had to figure out just what the mystery monster was.

"but how?" percy asked, his eyebrows furrowing.

"nereus," grover said.

"what?"

"isn't that what apollo told you to do? find nereus?"

"apollo?" melanie asked, raising her eyebrow, her mind shifting to meghan. "when did he talk to you guys?"

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