𝗚𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗘! 𝙥. 𝙟𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣 ¹

You Know This Cow?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: LYDIA

"Where you guys want to land?" Hank asked, waking Percy up from a nap.  Lydia couldn't relax enough to sleep. She tried to make out shapes in the clouds to pass the time.

Percy looked down and said, "Whoa."

"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.

"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. They freaked out a homeless guy on the ferry dock when they landed. He screamed when he saw Hank and Chuck and ran off yelling something about metal angels from Mars.

They said their good-byes to the angels, who flew off to party with their statue friends. Lydia realized they didn't have a plan. They'd made it to the West Coast. Artemis was here somewhere. Annabeth too, she hoped. But she had no idea how to find them, and tomorrow was the winter solstice.

She didn't have any clue what monster Artemis had been hunting. It was supposed to find them on the quest. 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 (not even two full sentences), they agreed that they needed to figure out just what this mystery monster was.

"But how?" Percy asked.

"Nereus," Grover said.

"Oh, yeah..." Lydia said, recognition dawning on her.

Percy looked at them. "What?"

Lydia tried to jog his memory. "That's what Apollo told us to do, remember, Percy?"

"Uh..."

Lydia sighed. She repeated the story to him as if he wasn't there about four more times before finally he got it. Jokes on Lydia, though. Percy remembered just fine. He just liked to hear her talk.

He nodded finally. "Yeah, so, I'm supposed to find him and force him to tell us what he knows. But where could he be?"

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 does that even mean?" Lydia asked.

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

They stopped at the Goodwill drop box for some reason and 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."

Lydia burst into tears from laughter. Zoe had her male hating agenda down to a T.

"Percy, you—AHAHAHAHA—so—HAAAAAAA—" she bent over to catch her breath before letting out a meek "Help."

"It's really not that funny." Percy deadpanned, grumbling. "Why am I doing this again?"

"I told thee. To blend in."