"With all the pain,
with all my chaos,
I somehow feel
myself being calm
when I'm next to
you, Percy."
IN WHICH
AELLALINA WALL IS THROWN BACK INTO HER
...
xiii. CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Untold Secrets of Old Friends ≿————- ❈ ————-≾
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AELLA WOULDN'T CONSIDER HERSELF an animal person. During her time on the run with Luke and Thalia, the yelping of foxes and the growls of mountain lions kept her up through the night. On her second quest, she encountered Yales—the most cursed, annoying creature of Olympus (and Artemis is very protective of them). Every once in a while, Silena will drag her over to the pegasus stables and attempt to explain the motions to the stubborn girl. The "lessons" usually ended up with Silena giving up, or Aella holding onto a pegasus neck as tight as she possibly could, threatening to curse the gods in her head if she fell.
Yet, as uncomfortable riding a pegasus can be, nothing could compare to the bumpiness of the giant boar. It was like riding one of those dreaded mechanical bulls, except twenty-times bigger and each strand of fur what like a giant metal needle. Everytime the boar took too big of a step, she grabbed ahold on Percy's Nemean Lion jacket to avoid getting flung in the air, but she stopped doing it when she realized how frozen he'd get every time she did.
They rode the boar until sunset, Grover in front, then Bianca, Zoe, Thalia, Percy, and her. She felt guilty for the time wasted from the long dispute to get Aella on the giant creature, but at least it gave them an excuse to rest whenever they got off the thing. So, really, they should be thanking her.
Aella had no idea how many miles they covered, losing track hours before, 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 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. Aella cringed at the phantom feeling of eating a cactus and huffed, annoyed at everything.
"Please tell me we can get off," she whispered. Percy snorted.
"This is as far as he'll go," Grover said. "We need to get off while he's eating."
Nobody needed convincing. They all slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then they waddled away as best they could with 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.
"Thank the gods," Percy murmured tiredly, glancing at Aella when she nodded in silent agreement. He watched the monster run away, "It likes the mountains better," he guessed.
