¹On This Spring Day, percy jackson & the olympians

011.

ON THIS SPRING DAY
━━━━━ chapter eleven

━━━━━ THEY RODE THE boar until sunset, which was about as much as Violet's ass could take. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar-riding was.

               She had no idea how many miles they had covered, but the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until they were galloping ( do boars gallop? ) across the desert.

               As night fell upon them, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.

               "This is as far as he'll go," Grover informed the others. "We need to get off while he's eating."

               Nobody needed convincing. They slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then they waddled away as best they could with their sore saddles.

               After its third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled round and galloped back towards the east.

               "It likes the mountains better," Percy guessed.

               "I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."

               Ahead of them was a two-lane road half blown over with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't been open since before Zoë Nightshade was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills ... but then Violet noticed they weren't regular hills. The countryside was way too flat for that. The hills were enormous mounds of old cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.

               "Whoa," she gasped, her eyes wide with shock.

               "Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"

               "Please say you don't," pleaded Violet. "I don't want my ass any flater than it already is."

               Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to Violet, but Grover looked concerned.

               "That's us," said the satyr. "Those six nuts right there."

               "Which one is me?" Percy asked.

               "The little deformed one," Zoë and Violet suggested simultaneously. The Hunter frowned at Violet, as if she couldn't believe she had the same thought as a daughter of Eros.

               The son of Poseidon glared at the two. "Oh, shut up."

               "That cluster right there," Grover said, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."

               "A monster?" Thalia asked.

               Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge ..."