Forgotten memories

Cow Dilemma

To be honest, this was the most boring flight I have ever been on. Lile seriously. I was squished up in the hand of one angel with Christine. I was slightly uncomeatable, but then it became fine after it had been a while. I started to get a little headache and I was fearing what would happen if I fell asleep, but alas I fell asleep because I hadn't slept since the boar.

In the recesses of my memory, there's a fragment, a fleeting moment that has lingered since my childhood. It's a recollection bathed in the silvery glow of moonlight.

I was a child, maybe seven or eight, standing on the outskirts of a forest. The moon hung low in the black sky, casting a glow upon the ancient trees. Amidst the shadows, a figure emerged – a woman, but just the outline of her with an aura of otherworldly strength. It was like looking at a figure of a person who been cut out of the memory interiorly.

Her presence resonated with a silent power. She extended a hand toward me, and as I reached out to touch it, a surge of warmth enveloped me, leaving an indelible mark on my soul.

The memory is shrouded in ambiguity, like a dream slipping through the fingers upon waking. Yet, I remember a voice, soft and comforting, whispering words that echoed through the years. "You are chosen, child of the night. Embrace the path ahead, for the moonlight shall guide you."

I heard the echoes of a father's voice. A voice I barely knew, belonging to a man with a presence as ephemeral as the moonlit night. His words were lost in the rustle of leaves, leaving me with a sense of longing, a yearning for a connection never fully realized.

I was awoken by Christine shaking me, I looked at her and she looked at me concerned.

"what's wrong?" I asked her.

"You began to glow!" she answered.

Before I could ask further questions, I was interrupted by the angel Hank.

"Where you guys want to land?"

I looked down and said, "Whoa."

I'd seen San Francisco in pictures before, but never in real life. It was probably the most beautiful city I'd ever seen: kind of 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. I felt like I should take a picture or something. Greetings from Frisco. Haven't Died Yet. Wish You Were Here.

"There," Zoe 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. That's when I realized I had no idea what we were going to do next. We'd made it to the West Coast. Artemis was here somewhere, But I had no idea how to find her, and tomorrow was the winter solstice. Nor did I have any clue 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. Now we were stuck on the ferry dock with not much money, no friends, and no luck.

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

"But how?" Percy asked.