The Nature of a Demigod

Madness

I'd seen San Francisco in pictures before, but never in real life. It was probably the most beautiful city I'd ever seen: kind of like a smaller, cleaner Manhattan, if Manhattan had been surrounded by green hills and fog.

There was a huge bay and ships, islands and sailboats, and the Golden Gate Bridge sticking up out of the fog. I felt like I should take a picture or something. 'Greetings from Frisco. Haven't Died Yet. Wish You Were Here.' and send it to my mom.

"There," Zoe suggested. "By the Embarcadero Building."

"Good thinking," Chuck said. "Me and Hank can blend in with the pigeons." We all looked at him.

"Kidding," he said. "Sheesh, can't statues have a sense of humor?" As it turned out, there wasn't much need to blend in. It was early morning and not many people were around. We freaked out a homeless guy on the ferry dock when we landed. He screamed when he saw Hank and Chuck and ran off yelling something about metal angels from Mars.

We said our good-byes to the angels, who flew off to party with their statue friends. That's when I realized I had no idea what we were going to do next. We'd made it to the West Coast. Artemis was here somewhere. Annabeth too, hopefully.

But I had no idea how to find them, and tomorrow was the winter solstice. Nor did I have any clue what monster Artemis had been hunting. It was supposed to find us on the quest. It was supposed to "show the trail," but it never had. Now we were stuck on the ferry dock with not much money, no friends, and no luck.

After a brief discussion, we agreed that we needed to figure out just what this mystery monster was. "But how?" I asked. Y/N's head darted up. "Nereus." he said, barely above a whisper. "What?" I asked. Grover looked at us in realization. "Didn't Apollo tell you about him?" Y/N nodded, and that reminded me.

"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?" I asked.

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

***

I knew I was in trouble when we stopped at the Goodwill drop box. Five minutes later, Zoe had me 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 burst out laughing, "you look completely inconspicuous now."

Zoe nodded with satisfaction. "A typical male vagrant." Y/N chuckled. "Alright, you're getting better at being more modern with your words. But vagrant is still a bit too far out." Zoe smirked. "Perhaps bum would be better?" Y/N nodded. "Now that's more like it. You're welcome, Percy." he flashed me a thumbs up.

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

"I told thee. To blend in."

"Just pure regression with this, every sentence. A step forward. And seven back." Y/N shook his head. Zoe punched him in the shoulder.

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?"