CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

₊˚࿐࿔ 𖥧‧₊⚘ ❀༉. 𓏲｡

The statues were holding on to them so they couldn't fall, but Sylvie was still Sylvie. She was sort of clutching Zoë like it was the most important thing in the world—much to the Hunter's demise.

"Thee does not need to hold on so tight, Sylvie," Zoë grumbled.

Sylvie would beg to differ. She looked down. Below them, a range of snow mountains zipped by. One slip and she would go from child of grain to child of broken bones and snowballs really quick.

"I'm not taking my chances," she squeezed Zoë harder.

Zoë sighed, but she didn't stop Sylvie from holding on. She just yelled to the group, "We are in the Sierras! I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."

"Hey, hey, Frisco!" Percy and Thalia's angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"

"Oh, man," Sylvie's 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?" the other statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And—"

"Hank!" Chuck cut in. "They're kids, man."

"Oh, right." If bronze statues could blush, Sylvie swore Hank did. "Back to flying."

They sped up, so Sylvie could tell the angels were excited. The mountains fell away into hills, and then they were zipping along over farmland (three cheers!) and towns and highways.

Grover played his pipes to pass time. Zoë got bored, shifted around Sylvie's grip, and started shooting arrows at random billboards as they flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store—and they passed dozens of them—she would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour.

Eventually, the question came.

"Where you guys want to land?" Hank asked.

Sylvie looked down and said, "Woah."

She'd seen San Francisco in pictures before, but never in real life. It was like a smaller, cleaner New York, if New York 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. Sylvie felt like she should take a picture or something. Greetings from Frisco. Haven't Died Yet. Wish You Were Here.

"There," Zoë 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. That's when Sylvie realized she had no idea what they were going to do next.

They'd made it to the West Coast. Artemis was here somewhere. Annabeth too, Sylvie hoped. But she had no idea how to find them, and tomorrow was the winter solstice. Nor did Sylvie 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. The story of Sylvie's life, really.

After a brief discussion, they agreed that they needed to figure out just what this mystery monster was.

"But how?" Sylvie asked.

"Nereus," Grover said.

She looked at him. "What?"

"Isn't that what Apollo told you and Percy to do? Find Nereus?"

Sylvie nodded. She'd completely forgotten their last conversation with the sun god.

"The Old Man of the Sea," Percy remembered. "We're supposed to find him and force him to tell us what he knows. But how do we 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?" Sylvie asked.

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

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Sylvie couldn't stop laughing.

Five minutes later, Zoë had Percy in a ragged flannel shirt, jeans three sizes too big, bright red sneakers, and a floppy rainbow hat.

So, yeah. Sylvie couldn't stop laughing at him.

"It's not that funny," he mumbled, face flaming.

But Sylvie was clutching onto Grover, trying to stay upright, and pointing a finger at Percy. She couldn't even get words out because she was giggling so much, and Percy's face only got more red.

"Oh, yeah," Grover snorted, holding Sylvie up from collapsing. "You look completely inconspicuous now."

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 homeless people 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."

Percy asked, "How do I know which—Sylvie, stop laughing!"

Sylvie had to suck in a heaving breath to stop. Her arms were wrapped over her stomach, which was aching from her laughter. She moved one hand to wipe away a tear.

"Ah, sorry. You just look so amazing."

"I'm sure," he deadpanned.

"A true Fishstick."

"Yeah."

Percy finally addressed Zoë again:

"How do I know which one is him?"

"Sneak up," she said. "Act homeless. You will know him. He will smell... different."

"Great. 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 something off the back of Percy's shirt—a big clump of fuzz that came from who-knows-where. "Eww. On second thought... I don't want your back. But we'll be rooting for you."

Grover gave Percy a big thumbs-up. Sylvie had started laughing at him again after Thalia found the fuzz clump.

Percy grumbled how nice it was to have super-powerful friends. Then he headed toward the dock.

Sylvie had to admit, the next few scenes were infinitely better than Percy's outfit. Not only did she get to watch him stumble stupidly down the pier in aforementioned outfit, but she could also bear witness to Percy's meeting with Nereus.

Percy jumped a random, sunbathing man, and it just escalated from there. The two rolled on the dock, until they rolled straight off and out of sight. That's when Sylvie, Grover, Thalia, and Zoë started booking it down the pier at once.

When they peered over the edge, they spectated the tussle that continued.

Percy and Nereus had begun fighting in the water of San Francisco Bay. Percy was using the sea on his side, but so was Nereus—the old man was shifting between a series of water animals. A black seal. A killer whale. A slimy eel. Until, finally, Nereus collapsed on the edge of the boat dock.

Sylvie, Grover, Thalia, and Zoë ran down the steps from the pier.

"You got him!" said Sylvie.

"You don't have to sound so amazed," he said.

Nereus groaned. "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 demanded.

"Only one question per capture! That's the rule."

Percy looked at his friends, contemplating. Eventually, 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 Percy's feet.

"Where?"

"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?"

"MOOOOOOOO!"

Sylvie looked down, and there was the cow serpent, swimming next to the dock. She nudged Percy's shoe and gave him the sad brown eyes.

"Bessie!" Sylvie and Percy said. But Percy added, "Now now."

"Mooo!"

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

"You can understand her?" Sylvie asked. "Er, him, I mean?"

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

Percy questioned, "The Ophi-what?"

"It means serpent bull in Greek," Thalia said. "But what's it doing here?"

"Moooooooo!"

"He says Percy is his protector," Grover announced. "And he's running from the bad people. He says they are close."

Sylvie was wondering how you got all that out of a single moooooooo.

"Wait," Zoë said, looking at Sylvie and Percy. "You two know this cow?"

Sylvie rose her hands in defense. "Don't look at me. This is all Percy."

Percy didn't seem so grateful that Sylvie threw him under the bus, but he impatiently told them the story.

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

"I mentioned it to Sylvie," Percy argued.

"I am a fool," Zoë 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?" Sylvie looked down at the bull serpent. "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."

"MMMM," Bessie lowed.

"I don't think he likes the S-word," Grover said.

Percy patted Bessie on the head, trying to calm him down. He let Percy scratch his ear, but he was trembling.

"How could anyone hurt him?" Percy said. "He's harmless."

Sylvie's vegetarian ass was swooning.

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."

"MMMMMM!"

"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.

"We have to protect him," Sylvie said. "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."

The Ophiotaurus made a whimpering sound and submerged.

Sylvie looked up. They'd been so busy talking, they'd allowed themselves to be ambushed.

Standing behind them, his two-color eyes gleaming wickedly, was Dr. Thorn, the manticore himself.

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"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 and smelly. 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.

"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 mortal mercenaries. Two more stood on the next boat dock over, just in case they tried to escape that way. There were tourists all around—walking down the waterfront, shopping at the pier above them—but Sylvie 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!"

They needed time to think. They had to save Bessie. They had to stay alive.

"We beat you once before," Percy said.

"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 them raised their guns.

"Wait!" Sylvie said. "Zoë, don't!"

The manticore smiled. "The girl 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. Doomsday was happening right now.

Sylvie waited for Thalia to tell the manticore off, but she hesitated. She looked completely stunned.

"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 them the same way she had the morning she woke up on Half-Blood Hill, dazed and uncertain. "I...I don't—"

"Your father helped you," Sylvie tried desperately. "He sent the metal angels. He turned you into a tree to preserve you."

Her hand tightened on the shaft of her spear.

Sylvie looked at Grover desperately. Thank the gods, he understood what Sylvie needed. He raised his pipes to his mouth and played a quick riff. She raised her hands.

The manticore yelled, "Stop them!"

The guards had been targeting Zoë, and before they could figure out that the farm girl and the goat with the pipes were the bigger problems, 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!

The guards started coughing. The manticore shot spines in their direction, but they ricocheted off Percy's lion's coat.

"Grover," Percy said, "tell Bessie to dive deep and stay down!"

"Moooooo!" Grover translated. Sylvie could only hope that Bessie got the message.

"The cow..." Thalia muttered, still in a daze.

"Come on!" Percy pulled her along as they ran up the stairs to the shopping center on the pier.

They dashed around the corner of the nearest store. Sylvie heard the manticore shouting at his minions, "Get them!" Tourists screamed as the guards shot blindly into the air.

They scrambled to the end of the pier. They 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 them. Down below, a bunch of sea lions were sunning themselves on the rocks. The whole of San Francisco Bay spread out before them: 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 they were about to die and the world was going to end.

"Go over the side!" Zoë told Percy. "You can escape in the sea, Percy. Call on thy father for help. Maybe you can save the Ophiotaurus."

She was right, but for some reason the thought made Sylvie's stomach churn.

"I won't leave you guys," he said. "We fight together."

"You have to get word to camp!" Grover said. "At least let them know what's going on!"

Then Sylvie noticed the crystals making rainbows in the sunlight. There was a drinking fountain next to her...

"Get word to camp," she muttered. "Good idea."

She unfurled Halcyon and slashed off the top of the water fountain. Water burst out of the busted pipe and sprayed all over them.

Thalia gasped as the water hit her. The fog seemed to clear from her eyes. "Are you crazy?" she asked.

But Percy understood. He muttered, "Applejack, you genius."

Sylvie had finally found the day Zoë would rue for making fun of Sylvie's cargo pants. She easily reached in the lowest compartment and was swift to fish out a coin. She threw a golden drachma into the rainbows created by the mist and yelled, "O goddess, accept my offering!"

The mist rippled.

"Camp Half-Blood!" Sylvie said.

And there, shimmering in the Mist right next to them, was the last person Sylvie wanted to see: Mr. D, wearing his leopard-skin jogging suit and rummaging through the refrigerator.

He looked up lazily. "Do you mind?"

"Where's Chiron?!" Sylvie shouted.

"How rude," Mr. D took a swig from a jug of grape juice. "Is that how you say hello?"

"Hello," Sylvie amended. "We're about to die! Where's Chiron?!"

Mr. D considered that. Sylvie wanted to scream at him to hurry up, but she knew that wouldn't work. Behind them, footsteps and shouting—the manticore's troops were closing in.

Percy looked at his friends. "We're dead."

Thalia gripped her spear. She looked like her angry old self again.

"Then we'll die fighting."

"How noble," Mr. D said, stifling a yawn.

Sylvie groaned, throwing her head back. "I did not waste my last drachma for this."

Luckliy Mr. D hadn't heard her. He tiredly asked, "So what is the problem, exactly?"

Sylvie told him about the Ophiotaurus.

"Mmm." He studied the contents of the fridge. "So that's it. I see."

"You're not even listening to her!" Percy screamed. "You don't even care! You'd just as soon watch us die!"

"Let's see. I think I'm in the mood for pizza tonight."

Percy looked like he was about to slash through the rainbow and disconnect, but he didn't have time. The manticore screamed, "There!" and they were surrounded. Two of the guards stood behind him. The other two appeared on the roofs of the pier shops above them. 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."

When wild boars fly, Sylvie thought. There was no way Percy would ever ask Mr. D for help—especially considering Mr. D was only making him to pay for being so rude to the god before. Sylvie was convinced she was going to get gunned down with Mr. D laughing in the background.

Sylvie squeezed both daggers. Zoë readied her arrows. Grover lifted his pipes. Thalia raised her shield, and Sylvie noticed a tear running down her cheek. Suddenly it occurred to Sylvie: this had happened to Thalia 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 them.

"Please, Mr. D," Percy muttered, catching Sylvie by suprise. "Help."

Nothing happened.

The manticore grinned. "Spare the daughter of Zeus. She will join us soon enough. 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 Sylvie, and a sound like a huge sigh. The sunlight tinged with purple. Sylvie 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 Sylvie had a feeling that somewhere inside there, the manticore was no more.

"Well," said Dionysus, closing his refrigerator. "That was fun."

Percy stared at him, 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," Sylvie said in amazement. "You... You saved us."

"Mmm. Don't make me regret it, Sylvie Duvall. Now get going, Percy Jackson. I've bought you a few hours at most."

"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," Percy said.

He raised his eyebrow.

"You called me and Sylvie by our right names," I said. "You called us Sylvie Duvall and Percy Jackson."

"I most certainly did not, Peter Johnson. Now off with you and Dylvie Suvall!"

He waved his hand, and his image disappeared in the mist.

All around them, the manticore's minions were still acting completely nuts. One of them had found their 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.

Sylvie 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."

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BAILEY YAPS...

I make myself crack up I still haven't stopped laughing at the chapter title

In my delusional mind Persylv are already a married couple because get you a girl who will full on cackle at the sight of you a multiple times POINTING AT HIM WAS CRAZY Sylvie I love you

I've tried to stop loving the Nature Freaks duo but God came down from Heaven and told me it was impossible. Shit's too good. Shit's too good. Shit's too good.

Nereus a goof

Sylvie had a smart idea what is going on in the world. I'm getting scared. Annabeth come back too many things are changing. Stop making Sylvie use her braincells pls and thx xx

Still listening to Epic The Musical POSEIDON! POSEIDON! POSEIDON! POSEIDON!