Percy Jackson x Reader-The Titan's Curse

Chapter 22

Percy's POV
"Sorry." I said to the girl.

She didn't respond, but I knew she was staring at me from under her hoodie. I could of swore that the color of her eyes were gold. She then kept on walking with the other guy.

I just stood there before I went back to my search for Nereus. I turned a corner and the alley led towards the end of the pier.

There I saw a really really old homeless fat guy sleeping against the wall. He wore a dirty bathrobe and dirty fuzzy slippers. His beard which I guess what was once white was a yellow color. He reminded me of Santa Claus...if Santa had a disgusting twin brother. And his smell? Once I got closer to him, I froze. He smelled bad but like ocean bad. This guy is Nereus all right.

I tried not to gag as I sat down near him to make it look as if I'm tired, which wasn't too hard to do since I was really was tired. In the corner of my eye, Nereus opened his eye. I felt Santa Claus staring at me but I didn't look.

"Stupid school. Stupid parents." I mumbled loud enough for him to hear so it would avoid any suspicion. It worked. He went back to sleep.

So I did what I had to do. I jumped Santa Claus.

"Ahhhh!" He yelled.

I was supposed to grab him, but he grabbed me instead as if he never really was asleep in the first place. And man, did he had a freakin grip.

"Help me!" He yelled out to no one in particular as he squeezed me to death.

I heard a homeless guy yelled out that it was a crime. But I didn't care. We rolled straight down the pier. My head slammed into a post making me loosen my grip and Nereus made his escape. I quickly regained my senses and tackled Nereus from behind. My arms locked around his chest. His smell was awful that I wanted to puke but I still held on.

"I don't got money!" Nereus cried out, making a scene.

"I don't want money. I'm a half-blood and I need information!" I said as he kept on struggling against my grip.

"Twice in one day! Why do you heroes always pick on me?" He asked.

"Because you know everything!" I retorted.

He only growled in response as he tried to shake me off his back. He kept thrashing around making it impossible for me to keep my feet on the ground. But I was determined to get answers, so I made my grip tighter. I noticed how we were at the edge of the pier. An idea came to mind.

"Oh no." I said in a fake distress. "Not the water. Anything but water!"

And just as I planned, Nereus yelled in triumph and jumped off the pier and into the San Francisco Bay. As soon as we dived into the ocean, I felt myself getting stronger. This surprised Nereus, but it still didn't stop him from making more attempts to escape. He started to change form until I was holding onto a sleek black seal.

I still held onto him. He kept changing forms. First the seal, then a huge killer whale (giving some tourists a good show), then a slippery eel. I was tying the eel Nereus into a knot. He saw what I was doing, and then changed back to his human form.

"Why won't you drown?" He asked, clearly frustrated as he tried to hit me with his fists.

"Poseidon's son." I answered.