ｔｈｅ　ｔｉｔａｎｓ　ｃｕｒｓｅ

LUCIA WASNT SCARED OF HEIGHTS, but you try being up mountain-high dangled in the air by 30 feet tall giant winged automatons, and not freak out a little.

"Tell me when it's over," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to them so they couldn't fall, but still, Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.

"Everything's fine," Percy promised.

"Are... are we very high?"

Lucia looked down. Below them, 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."

"You're afraid of h-?" Lucia began to ask when Percy glanced at her, silently sending her the message to not bring up the subject.
"-hamburgers."

"Hamburgers?" Thalia asked her eyes were still tightly closed shut but her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Hamburgers? Percy mouthed

"Yeah" Lucia shrugged at Percy "They're so freaky no? just me? oh well."

"Didn't you eat a burger your first night at camp?" Thalia questioned

"uh...exposure therapy.." Lucia said, "anyways enough about my irrational fears, where are we?"

"We are in the Sierras.'" Zoe 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!" Lucia's 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?" Lucia asked.

"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" Lucia's 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, Lucia swore Hank did. "Back to flying."

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

Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoe got bored 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.

Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot like she was praying.

"You did good back there," Lucia tried to distract her. "Zeus listened."

It was hard to tell what she was thinking with her eyes closed.

"Maybe," she said. "How did you two get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway? You said they cornered you guys."

Percy told her about the weird mortal girl, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who seemed to be able to see right through the Mist. Thalia only nodded.

"Some mortals are like that," she said. "Nobody knows why."

"Well, the girl was annoying," Percy said. Lucia tried to hold back her grin. "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.

☼

"WHERE YOU GUYS WANT TO LAND?" Hank asked, waking up Percy from his nap.

Lucia stayed entertained the whole flight watching Zoe shoot at department stores, she was almost tempted to throw her daggers but remembered, unlike Zoe she didn't have any magical extras.

Percy looked down and said, "Whoa."

Lucia followed his gaze. She'd seen San Francisco in shows before, but never in real life. It was probably one of the most beautiful cities she had ever seen: It was like a smaller, cleaner Manhattan if Manhattan 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.

"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 did however freak 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 goodbyes to the angels, who flew off to party with their statue friends. That's when Lucia realized she had no idea what they were going to do next.

They made it to the West Coast. Artemis was here somewhere. Annabeth too. But how were they supposed to find them? And tomorrow was the winter solstice. And what monster had Artemis been hunting?. It was supposed to find them on the quest. It was supposed to "show the trail," but it hasn't. Now they were stuck on the ferry dock with not much money, no friends, and no luck.

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

"But how?" Percy asked.

"Nereus," Lucia said.

He looked at her. "What?"

"Isn't that what my dad told you to do? Find Nereus?"

He nodded. "The old man of the sea," He remembered. "I'm supposed to find him and force him to tell us what he knows. But how do I find him?"

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 do you mean?" Percy asked.

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

Lucia watched as they stopped at the Goodwill drop box. 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."

Lucia smiled in amusement.

Zoe nodded with satisfaction. "A typical male vagrant."

"Thanks a lot," He 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, Zoe 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," Zoe 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?"

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

"Great." Percy didn't look too excited to smell out the old man. "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 his 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 me a big thumbs-up.

"You got this Perce" Lucia tried to sound encouraging when he looked toward her, but she kept snorting every time she looked up at the rainbow hat.

He grumbled and headed toward the dock.

Percy pulled his hat down and stumbled like he was about to pass out. He passed the homeless guy they freaked out from the Embarcadero, A couple of grimy dudes with plastic grocery bags for hats, and a lady with a bunch of plastic flamingos sticking out of a shopping cart.

At the end of the pier, a guy who looked about a million years old was passed out in a patch of sunlight. He wore pajamas and a fuzzy bathrobe that probably used to be white. He was big, with a white beard that had turned yellow, kind of like Santa Claus, if Santa had been rolled out of bed and dragged through a landfill.

They all watched as Percy got closer, He froze.

Percy sat down near him like he was tired.

Then Percy jumped Santa Claus.

"Ahhhhhl" he screamed. Percy was supposed to grab him, but it looked to Lucia that the man seemed to grab Percy instead. It was as if he'd never been asleep at all. He certainly didn't act like a weak old man."Help me!" he screamed as he squeezed Percy

"That's a crime!" one of the other homeless guys yelled. "Kid rolling an old man like that!"

He rolled, all right—straight down the pier until Percy's head slammed into a post.

"ouch" Lucia winced "Should we help?"

"Perhaps," Zoe said, but no one moved

Nereus was making a break for it. Before he could, Percy tackled him from behind. He tried to get up and run, but Percy locked his arms around his chest.

The man growled and tried to shake Percy off his back. He thrashed around, making it impossible for Percy to keep on his feet. They staggered toward the edge of the pier before Nereus jumped off the edge. Together, they plunged into San Francisco Bay.

Lucia and her friends then ran over. Lucia could've sworn she saw her best friend holding onto the dorsal fin of a killer whale as it sprung from the water. 

A whole bunch of tourists went, "Whoa!"

Percy managed to wave at the crowd. Lucia couldn't stop her laughing as she ran over.

Finally, the old man collapsed on the edge of the boat dock. Above them were tourist piers lined with shops, like a mall on water. Nereus was heaving and gasping as the group ran down the steps to the pier. 

"You got him!" Zoe said. 

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

"That was better than a WWE match" Lucia laughed not hiding her amusement in the slightest

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 at his friends.

This wasn't good, Lucia knew what was going through his head. They needed to find Artemis and figure out what the doomsday creature was. But they also needed to know if Annabeth was still alive, and how to rescue her. How could Percy condense all that into a single question?

Percy seemed to have come to a decision, 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?" He 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?"

"MOOOOOOOO!"

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

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

"Mooo!"

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

"You can understand her... er, sorry, him?" Lucia asked

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

"The Ophi-what?" Percy tried

"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."

Lucia was wondering how he got all that out of a single moooooo.

"Wait," Zoe said, looking at Percy. "You know this cow?"

Percy quickly told them the story while Lucia knelt holding a hand out to caress the Ophiotaurus' head  "Hey buddy, nice seeing you again"

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

"Well... yeah."

Lucia didn't blame him, things had been happening so fast. Bessie, the Ophiotaurus, seemed like a minor detail.

"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?" Lucia looked at the bull serpent she was still petting. "But... he's too cute. How could he 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."

"MMMM," Bessie lowed

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

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

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

Zoe 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," Zoe 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 Lucia. She almost looked... hungry.

"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."

The Ophiotaurus made a whimpering sound and submerged.

Lucia 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, Lucia's old Vice-principal and 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. 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 of the mortal mercenaries Percy mentioned in D.C. 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 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!"

"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."

Zoe notched an arrow and aimed it straight at the manticore's head. The guards on either side of them raised their guns.

"Wait!" Percy said. "Zoe, don't!"

The manticore smiled. "The boy is right, Zoe 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. Lucia wasn't sure if she felt relieved, horrified, or disappointed. Percy wasn't the prophecy kid after all but Thalia was still her friend. Plus if it really was the daughter of Zeus that meant one thing—Doomsday was happening right now.

Lucia 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 dazed and uncertain. It was almost like she didn't know them. "I... I don't—"

"Your father helped you," Percy said. "He sent the metal angels. He turned you into a tree to preserve you."

Her hand tightened on the shaft of her spear.

"...Thalia?" Lucia frowned

Lucia watched Grover then raise his pipes to his mouth and play a quick riff.

The manticore yelled, "Stop him!"

The guards had been targeting Zoe, 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. Zoe 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 Lucia stayed focused enough to hear them coming and dodged out of the way.

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

"Moooooo!" Grover translated. Lucia hoped that Bessie got the message.

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

"Come on!" Lucia 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.

They 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. Lucia couldn't lie, she felt a little tempted to turn on her playlist.

"Go over the side!" Zoe told me. "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," He said. "We fight together."

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

"Get word to camp," Percy muttered. "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 them.

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

Lucia stood there shivering like a wet dog "Could've given a warning Aquaman!"

Grover seemed to be the only one to understand what Percy was trying to do. He fished around in his pockets for a coin. And threw a golden drachma into the rainbows created by the mist and yelled, "O goddess, accept my offering!"

The mist rippled.

"Camp Half-Blood!" Percy said.

And there, shimmering in the Mist right next to them, was the last person they 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!" Percy shouted.

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

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

Mr. D considered that. Lucia 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.

"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 at his friends. "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?"

Lucia didn't see that it would make any difference, but She told him about the Ophiotaurus.

"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 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 it were an amusing thought. "You could say please."

Percy refused to.

Zoe readied her arrows. Grover lifted his pipes. Thalia raised her shield, and had a tear running down her cheek. Percy glanced at her and it looked like he came to a decision.

Then he made eye contact with Lucia who stood right next to her, sparks of light flickered from her fingertips as she squeezed onto one of her spartan daggers.

"Please, Mr. D," He muttered. "Help."

Of course, 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. It felt like when all the blood rushes to your head, after hanging upside down and turning right-side-up too quickly. There was a rush like that all around them, and a sound like a huge sigh. The sunlight tinged with purple. Lucia smelled grapes and something sourer—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 Lucia had a feeling that somewhere inside there, the manticore was no more.

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

She 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," 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."

"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 Zoe. "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 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 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.

Lucia looked at Zoe. "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."