Am I the cow whisperer? (Hanora pov)
"Tell me when it's over," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to us so we couldn't fall, but still Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world. She at least had her own statue arm, Percy and I were smushed together, so personal space had gone out the window.
"Everything's fine," Percy promised.
"Are… are we very high?"
I looked down. Below us, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. Percy stretched out his foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks.
"Nah," he said. "Not that high."
I huffed a laugh at him as I watched the landscape below us.
"We are in the Sierras.'" Zoë yelled. She and Grover were hanging from the arms of the other statue. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."
"Hey, hey, Frisco!" our angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"
"Oh, man," the other angel said. "I am so there!"
"You guys have visited San Francisco?" Percy asked.
"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And—"
"Hank!" the other statue Chuck cut in. "They're kids, man."
"Oh, right." If bronze statues could blush, I swear Hank did. "Back to flying."
We sped up, so I could tell the angels were excited. The mountains fell away into hills, and then we were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways.
Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoë got bored and started shooting arrows at random
billboards as we flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store—and we passed dozens of them—she would peg the store's sign with a few bullseyes at a hundred miles an hour. I found it much more entertaining to ask the automatons about how they were created and their time with others like them and the forges. I am sure that I annoyed everyone present, but what can I say you can take the girl out of the forge, but you can't take the forge out of the girl.
Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot, like she was praying.
"You did good back there," Percy told her. "Zeus listened."
"Maybe," she said. "How did you get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway? You said they cornered you."
He told us about a mortal girl he met, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who seemed to be able to see right through the Mist.
"Some mortals are like that," Thalia said. "Nobody knows why."
“Well, there are some theories but nothing concrete,” I added.
My whole family had been able to see through the mist pretty well, my father especially. Perhaps that was how he had met my mother, after some vicious battle with monsters not many could see. He was the commander of our city’s army, protecting us all was his job, I guess monsters just came with the gig. But back then seeing through the mist was more common, heck Luke had told me a couple of times that I was strangely good at seeing through it myself, kind of like when I first met Tyson. I saw that he was a cyclops right away, but Percy needed to be told to look at him closer before he saw it.
"Well, the girl was annoying," Percy said after a moment. "But I'm glad I didn't vaporize her. That would've been bad."
Thalia nodded. "Must be nice to be a regular mortal." She said that as if she'd given it a lot of thought, and honestly, I couldn't agree more.
"Where you guys want to land?" Hank asked, waking me up from a nap.
I looked down and saw San Francisco sprawled out beneath us. I had never been able to travel much in the United States, everything I saw was from a quest I had hidden away on or a camp field trip (Which had been to Olympus every time, so I barely saw anything aside from the empire state building.) Oh, and I guess there was that month-long period of time that I was running away from monsters on the east coast trying to make it to camp half blood, but it's not like I really noticed anything except for my constant monster problem, not a fun experience by the way.
So, seeing the city from the air was awe inspiring, Percy’s mouth nearly fell open as he said, "Whoa,” While looking below us.
The city was beautiful: it was smaller than Manhattan and cleaner too. But San Francisco was surrounded by green hills and fog, which was very not New York of it. There was a huge bay and ships, islands and sailboats, and the Golden Gate Bridge sticking up out of the fog.
"There," Zoë 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. Part of me wished I could go with them to pick their metal brains about how to fix up my little bronze me that lived in the ring I had packed, but we had a job to do. We'd finally made it to the West Coast. Annabeth and Artemis were here somewhere, and tomorrow was the winter solstice. I just wish I knew 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 or at least I didn’t think it had. Now we were stuck on the ferry dock with not much money, no friends, and a whole lot of questions.
After a brief discussion, we agreed that we needed to figure out just what this mystery monster was.
"But how?" Percy asked.
"Nereus," Grover said.
Percy looked at him in classic Jackson confusion. "What?"
"Isn't that what Apollo told you to do? Find Nereus?"
I nodded along with Percy, after all of that business with the dream prophecy I had gotten I nearly forgot about Apollo’s conversation with us.
“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?"
Zoë 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?" Percy asked.
“Well, when someone says follow the smell it is rarely a good one,” I said scrunching up my nose in disgust.
"Come," Zoë said without enthusiasm. "I will show thee."
We stopped at the Goodwill drop box which just confirmed my suspicions that things were about to get weird again. Five minutes later, Zoë 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."
“You’re really working it, Sea,” I giggled,” It might be the best you’ve ever looked.”
Zoë nodded with satisfaction. "A typical male vagrant."
"Thanks a lot," Percy grumbled. "Why am I doing this again?"
"I told thee. To blend in."
She led the way back down to the waterfront. After a long time spent searching the docks, Zoë 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," Zoë 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?" Percy asked.
"Sneak up," she said. "Act homeless. You will know him. He will smell… different."
"Great." He shuddered. "And once I find him?"
"Grab him," she said. "And hold on. He will try anything to get rid of thee. Whatever he does, do not let go. Force him to tell thee about the monster."
"We've got your back," Thalia said. She picked a large clump of fuzz off the back of his shirt. "Eww. On second thought… I don't want your back. But we'll be rooting for you."
Grover gave him a big thumbs-up.
I grabbed his hand as he grumbled about how nice it was to have super-powerful friends. “I believe in you, Sea and if you need help, I’ll definitely be there. Just be careful.” I sent him some extra strength through our joined hands.
He smiled and squeezed back, “Thanks Specs, I’ll do my best.” And then he headed toward the dock.
To say I was nervous would be an understatement. Every time Percy goes off on his own, he faces some of the craziest dam things I had ever seen, and a lot of the time nearly dies in the process. I just kept pacing back and forth from our group’s position on the pier as I tried to keep eyes on Percy as he searched the homeless population for the stinkiest among them.
“Nora, he will be fine,” Thalia tried to placate me. “He’s done crazier things before, right?”
I nodded, “Yeah well usually when he did Annabeth was like two paces behind him or Grover was attached to his hip, or he had Tyson-”
“Ugh, thy boyfriend will be fine,” Zoë cut in.
If I could have, I might have burst into a biblical pillar of fire as my face heated up so fast, I stopped moving and turned to face her. “My what?!”
Just then we heard a lot of screaming from the dock, we all turned to see that Percy had jumped one of the homeless men. Who for some reason kind of looked like a dirty Santa Claus.
We watched as he wrestled with this man, rolling around and getting knocked silly against a post on the pier. I could feel that one, no powers required. Ouch.
They struggled for a bit longer until the man jumped into the water with Percy still leached on to him. I felt a spike of pride realizing that he had finessed this mortal being to throw himself into his domain.
I felt a smile spread across my face, my worry almost completely forgotten. Percy held on as Nereus changed into a sleek black seal and then plunged straight down, wriggling and thrashing and spiraling through the dark water. When he came back up, he had expanded into a killer whale, but Percy had grabbed his dorsal fin and waved at the crowd that had gathered on the pier to watch.
Finally, Nereus collapsed on the edge of the boat dock. As soon as I saw that he was done trying to fight Percy off I bolted down to meet them, with the other three hot on my heels.
"You got him!" Zoë said to Percy
"You don't have to sound so amazed," he said.
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," Percy said.
"Only one question per capture! That's the rule."
He looked to us probably to get a read on the best question to ask.
It was his question to ask, but I was dam sure that he wanted to ask about Annabeth just as badly as I wanted to. She’d probably judo flip the both of us if we did that instead of gaining more useful information, like Artemis’s location (Though they are both probably in the same place) or the doomsday beast everyone is so obsessed with. I got the nagging feeling that I already knew the answers to all of the above, but my brain was still so scrambled from that weird thread connection with Annabeth and the constant adrenaline rushes from almost dying. I was having trouble focusing on the task at hand, well even more than usual cause you know ADHD is a real train of thought killer.
Percy sighed clearly, having made up his mind, and he was not happy about his choice. "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 their 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!" Percy yelled.
"Wait." Thalia's eyes widened. "What is that?"
Child of the Sea I am here!
I looked down, and there was Percy’s friend the cow serpent, swimming next to the dock. They nudged his shoe and gave him the saddest looking brown eyes.
"Ah, Bessie," he said. "Not now."
My name is not Bessie! It is Ophiotaurus child, why can you not remember such a simple name?!
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," Thalia said. "But what's it doing here?"
That was a good question, but I was more concerned with the fact that I could understand ancient animal speak. Or maybe it was just a cow thing. Either way Ophiotaurus kept switching between eyeing Grover and I as he conversed with us.
I have chosen this child as my protector, there are many people after me, so I have kept close to him in case trouble befell me.
"He says Percy is his protector," Grover announced.
"And he's running from the bad people. He says they are close."
"Wait," Zoë said, looking at Percy. "You know this cow?"
Percy looked like he was about to blow a gasket, so I moved closer into the surf with him as he explained how he had met our lovely new sea cow friend. He did leave out the fact that I could understand cow, which I was ever so grateful for.
Thalia shook her head in disbelief. "And you just forgot to mention this before?"
"Well… yeah." Percy stammered shifting on his feet between me and the cow.
"I am a fool," Zoë said suddenly. "I know this story!"
"What story?" Percy perked up.
"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 asked. "But… he's too cute. He couldn't destroy the world."
"That is how we were wrong," Zoë said. "We've been anticipating a huge dangerous monster, but the Ophiotaurus does not bring down the gods that way. He must be sacrificed."
No! There will be no sacrificing! My chosen shall protect me! My Lady, please tell them!
"I don't think he likes the S-word," Grover said, though he looked extremely confused at the last part since he kept sending me sideways glances.
Percy patted Ophi on the head, trying to calm him down. He let him scratch his ear, but he was trembling. I resisted the urge to interact with either of them, I still did not know what to make of Ophi nor did I know what to do about what Zoë had said earlier.
"How could anyone hurt him?" Percy said. "He's harmless."
Zoë nodded. "But there is power in killing innocence. Terrible power. The Fates ordained a prophecy eons ago, when this creature was born. They said that whoever killed the Ophiotaurus and sacrificed its entrails to fire would have the power to destroy the gods."
“Yep, evil loves to kill the innocent, it's like their Olympic sport.” I mumbled giving into temptation and scratching behind Ophi’s ears. He perked up clearly upset but not moving away from my hand yet.
Speak not of my entrails child! How dare you!?! My lady shall set fire to your entrails before mine!
"Um," Grover said. "Maybe we could avoid talking about entrails, too."
Thalia stared at the cow serpent with wonder. "The power to destroy the gods… how? I mean, what would happen?"
"No one knows," Zoë said. "The first time, during the Titan war, the Ophiotaurus was in fact slain by a giant ally of the Titans, but thy father, Zeus, sent an eagle to snatch the entrails away before they could be tossed into the fire. It was a close call. Now, after three thousand years, the Ophiotaurus is reborn."
Thalia sat down on the dock. She stretched out her hand. Bessie went right to her. Thalia placed her hand on his head. Bessie shivered.
Thalia's expression bothered me. She almost looked… hungry, it reminded me of that day almost a lifetime ago. Sat at the edge of the water again. I started to walk over to her, but Percy grabbed my hand keeping me in place. I looked back to see that he had the same concerns. I nodded and settled back at his side.
"We have to protect him," Percy told her. "If Luke gets hold of him—"
"Luke wouldn't hesitate," Thalia muttered. "The power to overthrow Olympus. That's… that's huge."
"Yes, it is, my dear," said a man's voice in a heavy French accent. "And it is a power you shall unleash."
Ophi made a whimpering sound and bopped my hand before he submerged.
Be careful my lady.
I looked up. We'd been so busy talking, we'd allowed ourselves to be ambushed.
Standing behind us, his two-color eyes gleaming wickedly, was Dr. Thorn, the manticore himself.
"This is just pairrr-fect," the manticore gloated.
He was wearing a ratty black trench coat over his Westover Hall uniform, which was torn and stained. His military haircut had grown out spiky and greasy. He hadn't shaved recently, so his face was covered in silver stubble. Basically, he didn't look much better than the guys down at the soup kitchen. Actually, that is disrespectful to the soup kitchen guys.
"Long ago, the gods banished me to Persia," the manticore said. "I was forced to scrounge for food on the edges of the world, hiding in forests, devouring insignificant human farmers for my meals. I never got to fight any great heroes. I was not feared and admired in the old stories! But now that will change. The Titans shall honor me, and I shall feast on the flesh of half-bloods!"
On either side of him stood two-armed security guys, some of the mortal mercenaries I'd seen in D.C. Two more stood on the next boat dock over, just in case we tried to escape that way. There were tourists all around—walking down the waterfront, shopping at the pier above us—but I knew that wouldn't stop the manticore from acting.
"Where… where are the skeletons?" Percy asked the manticore.
He sneered. "I do not need those foolish undead! The General thinks I am worthless? He will change his mind when I defeat you myself! Then even that brooding Titaness will have to acknowledge my prowess!"
"We beat you once before," Percy said, stalling to come up with a plan.
"Ha! You could barely fight me with a goddess on your side. And alas… that goddess is preoccupied at the moment. There will be no help for you now."
Zoë notched an arrow and aimed it straight at the manticore's head. The guards on either side of us raised their guns.
"Wait!" Percy said. "Zoë, don't!"
The manticore smiled. "The boy is right, Zoë Nightshade. Put away your bow. It would be a shame to kill you before you witnessed Thalia's great victory."
"What are you talking about?" Thalia growled. She had her shield and spear ready.
"Surely it is clear," the manticore said. "This is your moment. This is why Lord Kronos brought you back to life. You will sacrifice the Ophiotaurus. You will bring its entrails to the sacred fire on the mountain. You will gain unlimited power. And for your sixteenth birthday, you will overthrow Olympus."
No one spoke. It made terrible sense. Thalia was only two days away from turning sixteen. She was a child of the Big Three. And here was a choice, a terrible choice that could mean the end of the gods. It was just like the prophecy said, though it did not feel right, something was off. I shifted closer to Percy and readied to activate my blade.
Thalia looked completely stunned, all of her fight draining out of her.
"You know it is the right choice," the manticore told her. "Your friend Luke recognized it. You shall be reunited with him. You shall rule this world together under the auspices of the Titans. Your father abandoned you, Thalia. He cares nothing for you. And now you shall gain power over him. Crush the Olympians underfoot, as they deserve. Call the beast! It will come to you. Use your spear."
"Thalia," Percy said, "snap out of it!"
She looked at him the same way she had the morning she woke up on Half-Blood Hill, dazed and uncertain. It was almost like she didn't know me. "I… I don't—"
"Your father helped you," Percy continued. "He sent the metal angels. He turned you into a tree to preserve you."
Her hand tightened on the shaft of her spear.
I saw her thread, glittering silver with sparks of white lightning flying off of it. It wavered but then steadied. I focused on it and Percy’s hand in mine sending out as much alertness and confidence as I could. This bastard could not have either of them.
Over my dead body.
Grover took the opportunity in the tense standoff to put his pipes to his lips and played a quick riff.
The manticore yelled, "Stop him!"
The guards had been targeting Zoë, and before they could figure out that the kid with the pipes was the bigger problem, the wooden planks at their feet sprouted new branches and tangled their legs. Zoë let loose two quick arrows that exploded at their feet in clouds of sulfurous yellow smoke. Fart arrows! I would have mimed wiping a proud tear out of my eyes, but it was not the time for theatrics.
The guards started coughing. The manticore shot spines in our direction, but they ricocheted off Percy lion's coat which he had pulled over the both of us.
“Can you tell Bessie to dive deep and out of sight?” Percy asked as we were both crowded under his coat. He smelt of the ocean breeze which nearly distracted me entirely from what he had asked.
“I think so,” I turned in Ophi’s direction,” You must find a place to hide. Dive deep, we shall see you again soon.”
I could feel him deeper in the water do a little spin before disappearing in the depths.
"The cow…" Thalia muttered, still in a daze.
"Come on!" Percy pulled her along as we ran up the stairs to the shopping center on the pier. We dashed around the corner of the nearest store. I heard the manticore shouting at his minions, "Get them!" Tourists screamed as the guards shot blindly into the air.
We scrambled to the end of the pier. We hid behind a little kiosk filled with souvenir crystals—wind chimes and dream catchers and stuff like that, glittering in the sunlight. There was a water fountain next to us. Down below, a bunch of sea lions were sunning themselves on the rocks. The whole of San Francisco Bay spread out before us: the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, and the green hills and fog beyond that to the north. A picture-perfect moment, except for the fact that we were about to die and the world was going to end. You know, normal everyday problems.
"Go over the side!" Zoë yelled to Percy. "You can escape in the sea, Percy. Call on thy father for help. Maybe you can save the Ophiotaurus."
"I won't leave you guys," Percy said. "We fight together."
"You have to get word to camp!" Grover said. "At least let them know what's going on!"
Then I noticed the crystals making rainbows in the sunlight. There was a drinking fountain next to me…
“Sea, look.” I said, nodding my head toward the fountain.
"Get word to camp," he muttered, smiling as he looked between me and the rainbow. "Good idea."
He uncapped Riptide and slashed off the top of the water fountain. Water burst out of the busted pipe and sprayed all over us.
Thalia gasped as the water hit her. The fog seemed to clear from her eyes. "Are you crazy?" she asked.
But Grover understood. He was already fishing around in his pockets for a coin. He threw a golden drachma into the rainbows created by the mist and yelled, "O goddess, accept my offering!"
The mist rippled.
"Camp Half-Blood!" I yelled.
And there, shimmering in the Mist right next to us, was Mr. D, wearing his leopard-skin jogging suit and rummaging through the refrigerator.
He looked up lazily. "Do you mind?"
"Where's Chiron!" Percy shouted.
"How rude." Mr. D took a swig from a jug of grape juice. "Is that how you say hello?"
"Hello," Percy amended. "We're about to die! Where's Chiron?"
Mr. D considered that. And honestly, he probably would love it if we perished so speed was not high up on his priorities list. Behind us, footsteps and shouting—the manticore's troops were closing in.
"About to die," Mr. D mused. "How exciting. I'm afraid Chiron isn't here. Would you like me to take a message?"
Percy looked back at us. "We're dead."
Thalia gripped her spear. She looked like her old angry self again. "Then we'll die fighting."
"How noble," Mr. D said, stifling a yawn. "So, what is the problem, exactly?"
Percy begrudgingly told him about Ophiotaurus while the rest of us readied our weapons for what could have been our final battle.
"Mmm." He studied the contents of the fridge. "So that's it. I see."
"You don't even care!" Percy screamed. "You'd just as soon watch us die!"
"Let's see. I think I'm in the mood for pizza tonight."
The manticore screamed, "There!" And we were surrounded. Two of the guards stood behind him. The other two appeared on the roofs of the pier shops above us. The manticore threw off his coat and transformed into his true self, his lion claws extended and his spiky tail bristling with poison barbs.
"Excellent," he said. He glanced at the apparition in the mist and snorted. "Alone, without any real help. Wonderful."
"You could ask for help," Mr. D murmured to Percy, as if this were an amusing thought. "You could say please."
I activated Aigéan and fell into a defensive stance. Zoë readied her arrows. Grover lifted his pipes. Thalia raised her shield, and I noticed a tear running down her cheek. Suddenly it occurred to me: this had happened to her before. She had been cornered on Half-Blood Hill. She'd willingly given her life for her friends. But this time, she couldn't save us.
I threw a glance back at Percy who seemed to be conflicted,” Percy.” I said trying to convey my thoughts on the absolutely terrible situation we were in, but also maybe something else that I am still not ready to deal with. I had the strangest thought that I had become concerningly fond of sea green tones.
"Please, Mr. D," He muttered with slumped shoulders. "Help."
Nothing happened.
The manticore grinned. "Spare the daughter of Zeus. She will join us soon enough.” He turned his grin to me,” And apprehend the unclaimed, her ladyship has plans for her. Kill the others."
The men raised their guns, and something strange happened. You know how you feel when all the blood rushes to your head, like if you hang upside down and turn right-side up too quickly? There was a rush like that all around me, and a sound like a huge sigh. The sunlight tinged with purple. I smelled grapes and something more sour wine.
SNAP!
It was the sound of many minds breaking at the same time. The sound of madness. One guard put his pistol between his teeth like it was a bone and ran around on all fours. Two others dropped their guns and started waltzing with each other. The fourth began doing what looked like an Irish clogging dance. It would have been funny if it hadn't been so terrifying.
"No!" screamed the manticore. "I will deal with you myself!"
His tail bristled, but the planks under his paws erupted into grape vines, which immediately began wrapping around the monster's body, sprouting new leaves and clusters of green baby grapes that ripened in seconds as the manticore shrieked, until he was engulfed in a huge mass of vines, leaves, and full clusters of purple grapes. Finally, the grapes stopped shivering, and I had a feeling that somewhere inside there, the manticore was no more.
"Well," said Dionysus, closing his refrigerator. "That was fun."
I stared at him, strangely impressed. I had gained a bit of respect for him in that moment.
Percy however was horrified. "How could you… How did you—"
"Such gratitude," he muttered. "The mortals will come out of it. Too much explaining to do if I made their condition permanent. I hate writing reports to Father."
He stared resentfully at Thalia. "I hope you learned your lesson, girl. It isn't easy to resist power, is it?"
Thalia blushed as if she were ashamed.
"Mr. D," Grover said in amazement. "You… you saved us.”
"Mmm. Don't make me regret it, satyr. Now get going, Percy Jackson. I've bought you a few hours at most."
I smiled, “thanks Mr. D that was actually really bad ass.”
He smirked and waved me off,” All in a day's work for a god.”
"The Ophiotaurus," Percy said. "Can you get it to camp?"
Mr. D sniffed. "I do not transport livestock. That's your problem."
"But where do we go?"
Dionysus looked at Zoë. "Oh, I think the huntress knows. You must enter at sunset today, you know, or all is lost. Now good-bye. My pizza is waiting."
"Mr. D," I said.
He raised his eyebrow.
"You called me by my right name," He said. "You called me Percy Jackson."
"I most certainly did not, Peter Johnson. Now off with you!"
He waved his hand, and his image disappeared in the mist.
All around us, the manticore's minions were still acting completely nuts. One of them had found our friend the homeless guy, and they were having a serious conversation about metal angels from Mars. Several other guards were harassing the tourists, making animal noises and trying to steal their shoes.
Percy looked at Zoë. "What did he mean …'You know where to go'?"
Her face was the color of the fog. She pointed across the bay, past the Golden Gate. In the distance, a single mountain rose up above the cloud layer.
"The garden of my sisters," she said. "I must go home."