𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲.

Fish on Fish fight

"Not long. If we're lucky he'll think he has an advantage in the water, and then Percy will have no trouble." Zoë said.

Lilia huffed, it felt like a long time. They heard a bunch of splashes and ran down the pier steps.

Percy had Nereus in a head-lock.

"You got him!" Grover said.

"No need to sound so amazed." Percy replied.

Nereus moaned. "Oh, wonderful. An audience for my humiliation! The normal deal, I suppose? You'll let me go if I answer your question?"

"I've got more than one question," he said.

"Only one question per capture! That's the rule."
Percy looked at his friends.

This wasn't good. They needed to find Artemis, and they needed to figure out what the doomsday creature was.

He sighed. "All right, Nereus. Tell me where to find this terrible monster that could bring an end to the gods. The one Artemis was hunting."

The Old Man of the Sea smiled, showing off his mossy green teeth.

"Oh, that's too easy," he said evilly. "He's right there."

Nereus pointed to the water at my feet.

"Where?" Percy said.

"The deal is complete!" Nereus gloated. With a pop, he turned into a goldfish and did a backflip into the sea.

"You tricked me!" He yelled.

"Wait." Thalia's eyes widened. "What is that?"

"Moooooo!"

Lilia looked down, to see a cow serpent, swimming next to the dock.

She nudged Percy's shoe and gave him sad brown eyes.

"Ah, Bessie," he said. "Not now."

"You know this cow?" Lilia gave him a weird look.

"Mooo!"

Grover gasped. "He says his name isn't Bessie."

"You can understand her... er, him?"

Grover nodded. "It's a very old form of animal speech. But he says his name is the Ophiotaurus."

"The Ophi-what?"

"It means serpent bull in Greek," Lilia said.

"But what's it doing here?" Thalia asked.

"He says Percy is his protector," Grover announced.

"And he's running from the bad people. He says they are close." Lilia wondered how he got all that out of a single moooooo.

"Repeating myself a bit here. You know this cow?" She said a bit annoyed she got ignored.

He told them the story.

Thalia shook her head in disbelief. "And you just forgot to mention this before?"

"Well... yeah."

"I am a fool," Zoe said suddenly. "I know this story!"

"What story?"

"From the War of the Titans," she said. "My... my father told me this tale, thousands of years ago. This is the beast we are looking for."

"Bessie?" Percy looked down at the bull serpent. "But.. he's too cute. He couldn't destroy the world."

"That is how we were wrong," Zoe said. "We've been anticipating a huge dangerous monster, but the Ophiotaurus does not bring down the gods that way. He must be sacrificed."