RED ¹ / Percy Jackson !

65

"YOU'RE AFRAID OF HEIGHTS." The son of Poseidon accused, turning to Thalia.

Now that they were safely down the mountain, her eyes had their usual angry look. "Don't be stupid." 

 "That explains why you freaked out on Apollo's bus. Why you didn't want to talk about it."

 She took a deep breath. Then she brushed the pine needles out of her hair. "If you tell anyone, I swear—" 

 "No, no," Percy said, ignoring the glare Viviene was sending him. "That's cool. It's just... the daughter of Zeus, the Lord of the Sky, afraid of heights?" 

 She was about to knock Percy into the snow when, above them, Grover's voice called, "Helloooooo?"

 "Down here!"  Viviene shouted. A few minutes later, Zoe, Bianca, and Grover joined them. They stood watching the wild boar struggle in the snow. 

"A blessing of the Wild," Grover said, though he now looked agitated.

 "I agree," Zoe said. "We must use it." 

 "Hold up," Thalia said irritably. She still looked like  she'd just lost a fight with a Christmas tree. "Explain to me why you're so sure this pig is a blessing."

 Grover looked over, distracted. "It's our ride west. Do you have any idea how fast this boar can travel?

" "Fun," Percy said. "Like... pig cowboys."

 Grover nodded. "We need to get aboard. I wish... I wish I had more time to look around. But it's gone now."

 "What's gone?" 

Grover didn't seem to hear Percy. He walked over to the boar and jumped onto its back. Already the boar was starting to make some headway through the drift. Once it broke free, there'd be no stopping it. Grover took out his pipes. He started playing a snappy tune and tossed an apple in front of the boar. The apple floated and spun right above the boar's nose, and the boar went nuts, straining to get it.

"Automatic steering," Thalia murmured. "Great." 

 She trudged over and jumped on behind Grover, which still left plenty of room for the rest of them. Zoe and Bianca walked toward the boar .

"Wait a second," Viviene said. "Do you two know what Grover is talking about—this wild blessing?"

 "Of course," Zoe said. "Did you not feel it in the wind? It was so strong... I never thought I would sense that presence again." 

 "What presence?"  Percy asked and Zoe stared at him like he was an idiot.

Well, he kind of was, but that was beside the point, Viviene thought to herself.

 "The Lord of the Wild, of course. Just for a moment, in the arrival of the boar, I felt the presence of Pan."

*

They rode the boar until sunset, which was about as much as Viviene's back end could take. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar-riding was. 

Viviene had no idea how many miles they 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, 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 said. "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 saddle sores. 

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

 "It likes the mountains better,"  Percyguessed. 

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

Ahead of them was a two-lane road half covered 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 Zoe 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 I 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," Percy said.

viviene immidieatly knew where they were. Hephastestus' junkyard. 

She felt her heartbeat speed up. She was definetly going to die here. Hephaestus hated her because she was Ares' child and tehnically, an adopted daughter to Aphrodite.

One shall be lost in the desert without rain, the oracle's words echoed in her head.

Shit, was she going to die?

Her breathing quickened and her palms were sweating as she looked around nervously.

Viviene cursed silently and closed her palm slowly, concentration on her heartbeat. She blocked out every possible noise, and with the use of her powers, she slowed down her heartbeat, forcing it to stay calm despite her wild thoughts.

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

 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 me, but Grover looked concerned. 

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

 "Which one is me?" Percy  asked.  

"The little deformed one," Zoe suggested. 

 "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..." He pointed straight toward the junkyard.

 With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet.