Nina's Destiny

Junkyards and Dams

When I woke up, Apollo was gone and the train had stopped moving. I sighed and climbed out of the car. Everyone else was climbing out of there cars as well. We jumped of the train and made our way up to the nearest town, Cloudcroft, New Mexico. There was tons of snow up here. I picked up a snowball and threw it at the back of Zoe's head. It hit its target.

Zoe whipped around and glared at me. I smiled and waved innocently. An evil smile grew on her face. She held a finger to her lips then scooped up her own snowball. She threw it at Percy. He flipped around and glared at me. I shook my head. He turned his glare to Thalia who pointed at Zoe. Zoe just smirked at Percy. He threw a snowball at her. We started an all out snowball war.

The war ended when I tackled my brother and we landed in a huge pile of snow. A laughing Thalia helped pull us out. Percy and I used our magic to remove the water from everyone's cloths. Thank the gods we did that, otherwise Grover would smell like wet goat. Yuck!

We started to walk to the edge of town, but Grover collapsed. I felt a power surge around me and the nature seemed to come to life. The plastic rat Percy bought at a side store in the town turned into a real rat and scurried away. Grover was mumbling something that none of us could understand. Thalia and Percy lifted him up and we continued walking. We had only four days left, we couldn't stop now. Out of nowhere, five skeleton men showed up. They had been tracking us since D.C. Percy said that the General had created them. Now, I just need to find out who the General is.

We fought hard. We just couldn't kill the things. Everytime we knocked a head off, the demon would just pick it up and put it back on. Bianca stabbed one with her hunting knife, and it burst into green flames. That one stayed dead. It didn't work with Zoe's knife, though. They were made of the same metal. Suddenly, I got an idea. I pulled out my wand. "Incendio!" I shouted, pointing my wand at a skeleton man. He burst into flame and fell to the ground.

I didn't have any time to see what happened to him, because just then, a giant hog showed up. We have the worst luck. Grover, who was now awake, ordered us to climb on. At the moment, we would all do anything as long as it would get us away from the skeleton men. When we were all on, the boar to run. It turned out it was the Erymanthian Boar. How wonderful, not. We rode that creature all day. It was ridiculously uncomfortable and I don't recommend it.

We got off in Gila Claw, Arizona. It was the definition of a ghost town. All of the shops were boarded up. There were absolutely no people. The only thing there, was a two lane road straight through the middle of the town. We decided to camp out there. Zoe and Bianca produced six sleeping bags and foam mattresses and Percy and Grover collected some wood from a nearby shop. Thalia zapped it with lightning, she was a Lightning Mage because she was a daughter of Zeus, and it burst into flames. I summoned some hot dogs from my charm and we roasted them over the fire.

Later on, I sat staring at the sky. It was beautiful with all the stars out. There were millions of them since there were no city lights to block them from view. I had never actually seen the Milky Way before and here I was staring up at it. I was amazed.

A bright light flashed a little ways down the road. A sat up with everyone else. It was a car. A pure white limo pulled to a stop in front of us. A man stepped out of the driver's seat. I recognized him instantly. He was Ares. I growled when I saw him. He sneered at me and turned to my brother. He pointed his sword at Percy's throat. "At ease, people. This is a friendly meeting." He snapped his fingers and our weapons dropped to the ground. "Of course I'd love taking your head and your sister's head as a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."

"What lady?" asked Thalia.

Ares glared at her and said, "I doubt she wants to meet the rest of you. Particularly not them." He gestured at the Hunters. "Why don't you all go get some tacos while you wait."