Percy woke first the next morning, the train still going as he took out his pen and studied the name inscribed on it in Ancient Greek, and he was sure that it was the weapon he'd seen in his dream along with Zoë Nightshade.
Cressida was still asleep in the seat next to him, looking extremely peaceful, one earbud in as the other had fallen out. Out of curiosity, he picked it up, listening to the symphony of string music that was playing. It seemed to be the cover of a song because it sounded very familiar, but it was oddly relaxing. But while her face seemed peaceful, her body was shivering. Percy didn't hesitate to shed his lion-skin coat as he covered her with it and her body seemed to still. He seemed to be falling asleep again as he laid back, the string music lulling him to sleep, at least until someone knocked on the window.
"Percy," Grover said as opened the door and shook his arm. "The train's stopped. Come on. Get Cressida up."
"Cress? Cressida," Percy called as he rubbed his eyes and gently shook her shoulder as he pulled out her earbud. "Wine Vine, time to get up. We're here," he said as her eyes began to flutter open.
"Hi," she murmured as she woke up and stretched under the lion skin coat.
"Hey," Percy smiled. "Time to go. We're here."
"Thanks for the blanket," she said as she handed him back his coat.
The two of them gathered their things and began to disembark the train.
They arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said Welcome to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. The roofs of the cabins were heaped with snow, and dirty mounds of it were piled up on the sides of the streets. Tall pine trees loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, though the morning was sunny. To put it plainly - it was cold.
Even Percy was shivering inside his lion-skin coat, except his cheeks weren't red from just the cold as he walked up next to Cressida who had let her hair out in hopes that it would help keep her warm - even though it did nothing.
"Hey, uh, remember how we stayed warm on Blackjack?" he asked nervously as they walked, Cressida with three layers on as she hugged herself.
"I'd make a joke about how you can't ask me a direct question, or that whole stuck to me like a parasite thing, but it's too cold for that," she replied as she accepted his offer and Percy wrapped the coat around both of them.
As they walked the half mile from the train tracks to Main Street, Percy and Cressida explained to Grover their conversation with Apollo - to seek out Nereus in San Francisco.
Grover looked uneasy. "That's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first."
They had four days until the solstice. That meant four days to save Annabeth and Artemis.
"Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."
"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.
"Yes," Zoë said. "Coffee is good."
"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."
Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you two and Cressida go get us some food. Percy, Bianca and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."
Percy and Cressida's eyes met, both of them seemingly uneasy about splitting up but they simply offered each other a reassuring nod before they split up, Cressida leaving the warmth of the lion coat and Percy's body. To be honest though, it was taking a lot of energy to keep reminding herself that this wasn't a real lion's skin, that it was a monster, but it was getting harder.
Zoë and Cressida both threw down some cash as they placed their orders for warm drinks, muffins and pastries. Grover was ordering his own things as the girls waited.
"Has thy given any more thought to Lady Artemis' offer?" Zoë wandered and Cressida's heart went to her throat as she began to fiddle with her bracelet.
"I have, but I'm no closer to a decision. There's too much chaos with the quest."
"That is understandable," Zoë agreed. "Thy does seem rather attached to that boy."
Cressida had to refrain from setting her lips into a hard line. "He and Annabeth were my first friends. I already lost one of them. I suppose I'd like to refrain from losing another."
"With the Hunters, thy would not have to worry about that ever again," Zoë pointed out, no malice, no hint of bitterness in her words at all.
"But I'd still have to say goodbye to my friends, to my brothers. To the only family, I've ever had."
"But thy would gain a new family. One thy would never have to say goodbye to forever."
Gods above it was tempting - to never have to say goodbye again. To never lose anyone to time, to sickness. And the Hunters were good, very good warriors. For one of them to fall in battle, it seemed virtually impossible. But that meant saying goodbye to Annabeth, to Grover and Percy, and saying goodbye to her brothers. She didn't know if she could do it.
Thankfully, both Zoë seemed to respect the fact that Cressida didn't want to talk anymore and Cressida's order was called. Zoë and Grover's were called soon after and then they were leaving.
They found Percy and Bianca easily enough, Thalia having gone off to scout, and Percy seemed glad for it as Cressida handed him his hot chocolate and the blueberry muffin she'd gotten him. You'd have thought that the blueberry muffin was gold with the way Percy devoured it. Cressida had her own hot chocolate and chocolate muffin while everyone else had coffee and pastries.
"We should do the tracking spell," Zoë said. "Grover, do you have any acorns left?"
"Umm," Grover mumbled. He was chewing on a bran muffin, wrapper and all. "I think so. I just need to –"
He froze. Percy was about to ask what was wrong when a warm breeze rustled past, like a gust of springtime had got lost in the middle of winter. Fresh air seasoned with wildflowers and sunshine. And something else – almost like a voice, trying to say something. A warning.
Zoë gasped. "Grover, thy cup."
Grover dropped his coffee cup, which was decorated with pictures of birds. Suddenly the birds peeled off the cup and flew away – a tiny flock of doves. A squeak then came from Percy's pocket before a rat poked its head out and scampered into the trees. He claims it had been rubber but she'd seen the state of his cabin.
The rubber rat squeaked. It scampered off the railing and into the trees – real fur, real whiskers.
Grover collapsed next to his coffee which steamed against the snow as they gathered around him, trying to wake him up. But nothing worked until Cressida put her hands on his face, her eyes fiery and palms glowing as she ordered, "Wake up!"
And Grover almost headbutted her in the face.
"Whoa! That's one way to thank me," she exclaimed as she just managed to dodge a horn to her face.
"Hey!" Thalia said, running up from the street. "I just... What's wrong with Grover?"
"I don't know," Percy answered. "He collapsed."
"Well, get him up!" Thalia said. She had her spear in her hand. She looked behind her as if she were being followed. "We have to get out of here."
"What's new?" Cressida sighed as Zoë and Thalia hauled Grover up and Percy had his hands under her arms as he did the same.
"Run now, talk later," Percy said as she was up and they began bolting as fast as they could go.
They made it to the edge of the town before the first two skeleton warriors appeared. They stepped from the trees on either side of the road. Instead of grey camouflage, they were now wearing blue New Mexico State Police uniforms, but they had the same transparent grey skin and yellow eyes. They drew their handguns.
Thalia tapped her bracelet, Aegis spiralling to life on her arm as Cressida drew her spear. And yet, where the Nemean Lion had feared her shield, the skeleton warriors were unfazed.
Percy drew his own sword, and Zoë and Bianca drew their bows, but they honestly didn't know how their weapons were supposed to defeat guns, especially since Grover kept swooning and leaning on them.
"Back up," Thalia said and they started to – but then they heard the rustling of branches. Two more skeletons appeared on the road behind them. They were surrounded.
"Oh, we are so going to die," Cressida muttered under her breath.
"Don't think negatively," Percy reprimanded out of instinct.
Then one of the warriors raised a cell phone to his mouth and spoke into it. Except he wasn't speaking. He made a clattering, clicking sound, like dry teeth on bone - it was calling for backup.
"I'm going to feel so happy when I take your positive thinking plans and strangle you with them. How's that for positive thinking?" she retorted.
"Could use some work."
"It's near," Grover moaned.
"It's here," Percy said.
"No," he persisted. "The gift. The gift from the Wild."
"Our odds look good. Four of them, five of us. They won't worry about Grover," Thalia insisted.
"Agreed," said Zoë.
"The Wild!" Grover moaned. A warm wind blew through the canyon, rustling the trees but they all kept their eyes on the skeletons.
Percy charged first and Cressida was on his heels. For Annabeth.
ADHD was a wonderous thing - sometimes - and this was one of those times. The world seemed to slow down as the skeletons fired their bullets. While Percy deflected it, Cressida spun her spear so quickly that it looked as if nothing was there and yet, no bullets struck her.
It was easy enough to dismember the skeletons, but as soon as their bones hit the ground did they begin to reform. They'd be drained of energy and wounded before they found a way to dispel the skeletons for good.
They were actually doing pretty well though - at least until two skeletons shot Percy in the back.
"Percy!" Thalia yelled as Cressida let out a scream, and vines erupted from the ground. They swirled like serpents through the air, snatching their guns and crushing them until they were a pile of mangled metal. As Cressida's vines responded to her rage, engaging against the skeletons, it gave the others a small reprieve as Cressida ran for Percy.
The bullets hadn't even pierced his coat because he was sitting up and he appeared unscathed.
"You Barnacle Butt! You absolute idiot! I thought you were dead!" she exclaimed as she dropped to her knees and threw her arms around his neck.
"So did I," he admitted as he hugged her back. And the heat of the moment combined with the relief of seeing Percy alive, had her kissing his cheek as it turned red.
"Come on! I can't hold them forever," she said as she yanked Percy to his feet. The two skeletons that still had guns were shooting her vines to ribbons as her anger was replaced by relief, while the two that had been dismembered by Percy and Cressida had fully reformed.
There was a crashing sound in the forest to their left and if it was the skeleton's reinforcements then they were completely and absolutely screwed. There was no way to stop them as Percy and Cressida drew their weapons again.
Zoë and Bianca fired at their heads point-blank, but the arrows just whistled straight through their empty skulls. One lunged at Bianca, and they thought she was a goner, but she whipped out her hunting knife and stabbed the warrior in the chest. The whole skeleton erupted into flames, leaving a little pile of ashes and a police badge.
"How did you do that?" Zoë asked.
"I don't know," Bianca said nervously. "Lucky shot?"
'Well, do it again!"
"And don't stop!" Cressida added.
Bianca tried, but the remaining three skeletons were wary of her now. They pressed them back, keeping us at baton's length.
"Plan?" Percy said as they retreated. Nobody answered. The trees behind the skeletons were shivering. Branches were cracking.
"A gift," Grover muttered. And then, with a mighty roar, the largest pig Cressida had ever seen came crashing into the road. It was a wild boar, ten metres high, with a snotty pink snout and tusks the size of canoes. Its back bristled with brown hair, and its eyes were wild and angry.
'REEEEEEEEET!' it squealed, and raked the three skeletons aside with its tusks. The force was so great they went flying over the trees and into the side of the mountain, where they smashed to pieces, thigh bones and arm bones twirling everywhere. Then the pig turned on them.
"Of course, we have to fight the giant pig," Cressida sighed as she and Thalia raised their spears.
"Don't kill it!" Grover yelled.
The boar grunted and pawed the ground, ready to charge.
"That's the Erymanthian Boar," Zoë said, trying to stay calm. "I don't think we can kill it."
"Not without Hercules," Cressida joked, though it wasn't really a joke - he was probably the only person in history who could take on the boar and live to tell the tale.
"It's a gift," Grover said. "A blessing from the Wild!"
The boar said "REEEEEET!" and swung its tusk.
Zoë and Bianca dived out of the way as Thalia pulled Grover and Percy grabbed Cressida as they jumped out of the way, rolling onto the ground again.
"I don't think that's a blessing, goat boy," Cressida said as they got up.
"Yeah, I totally feel blessed," Percy added. "Scatter!"
They ran in different directions and for a moment the boar was confused.
"It wants to kill us!" Thalia said.
"Of course," Grover said. "It's wild!"
"So how is that a blessing?" Bianca asked.
"Oh, gods above. Where is La Rue when you need her?" Cressida wondered, the boar being one of Ares' sacred animals and Clarisse probably having the best chance to defeat it - and for probably the only time in his life, Percy wished Clarisse was here too and not on whatever secret mission she was on.
The boar charged at Bianca who was a hell of a lot faster thanks to her Hunter powers as she rolled out of the way of its hooves and came up behind the beast. It lashed out with its tusks and pulverized the WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT sign.
'Keep moving!' Zoë yelled. She and Bianca ran in opposite directions. Grover danced around the boar, playing his pipes while the boar snorted and tried to gouge him, but Thalia, Cressida and Percy won the prizes for bad luck.
When the boar turned on them, Thalia made the mistake of raising her shield in defence. The sight of the Medusa head made the boar squeal in outrage before it charged.
The only reason they weren't flattened instantly was because Cressida had her hands outstretched and her eyes closed as she called upon more vines, thick ones that were the size of massive industrial pipes that wrapped around the creature. The boar bucked and fought his bonds as Cressida's brows furrowed and she held her concentration.
At least until Percy grabbed her hand and they began running.
"I won't be able to hold it long if I get too far away," she panted as she let Percy tug her along, Thalia moving with them as they ran uphill.
"Let it go! Better it follows us and not Grover," Percy shouted back. "Grape Girl, let it go!"
It was like weights were lifted off her chest as she let her concentration snap and they heard the sounds of the boar ploughing after them.
As they made it to the other side of the hill, they saw train tracks half-buried in the snow.
"This way!" Percy shouted, his hand like stone as it gripped Cressida's and he pushed Thalia forward and they began running along the rails while the boar roared behind them, slipping and sliding as it tried to navigate the steep hillside.
"Is this another one of your positive thinking plans, because it's not working?!" Cressida screamed as her lungs did, a stitch forming in her side.
Ahead of them was a covered tunnel where an old trestle bridge spanned a gorge beyond that.
"Follow me," Percy yelled but Thalia slowed down, forcing Percy to grab her wrist too, because behind them a ten-ton pig tank was knocking down pine trees and crushing boulders under its hooves as it gave chase.
"Is it too late to go back home now?" Cressida shouted.
"Yes!" Percy fired back as they came out the other side of the tunnel.
"No!" Thalia screamed. She'd turned as white as ice as they were at the edge of the bridge. Below, the mountain dropped away into a snow-filled gorge about twenty metres below. The boar was right behind them.
"Come on! It'll hold our weight, probably," Percy encouraged.
"I can't!" Thalia yelled, her eyes glistening with fear before Cressida grabbed her hand, her palm glowing in unison with her eyes.
"You can and you will," she ordered simply as the boar smashed into the covered tunnel, tearing after them at full speed.
"Now!"
And Percy pulled them all sideways off the edge of the bridge into the side of the mountain, the three of them piled on top of one another as they slid down Aegis like a snowboard, over rocks and mud and snow.
The boar was less fortunate; it couldn't turn that fast, so all ten tons of the monster charged out onto the tiny trestle, which buckled under its weight. The boar free-fell into the gorge with a mighty squeal and landed in a snowdrift with a huge POOOOOF!
And when they skidded to a stop, they were all breathing heavily after Thalia pushed them off of her. She then began picking the pine needles out of her hair, Percy and Cressida both covered in nicks and scratches.
Next to them, the wild boar squealed and struggled, the bristly tip of its back sticking out of the snow. It was like Styrofoam packing, the boar wasn't hurt but it wasn't going anywhere.
"You're afraid of heights," Percy said to Thalia as he sat up, but now that they were down the mountain, her eyes were angry once more.
"Don't be stupid," she snapped.
"That explains why you freaked out on Apollo's bus. Why you didn't want to talk about it?" Percy continued and Thalia took a deep breath.
"If you tell anyone, I swear –"
"No, no," Percy said quietly. "That's cool. It's just... the daughter of Zeus, the lord of the sky, afraid of heights?"
Thalia looked as if she was about to knock him into the snow before she realised why Cressida had been so quiet. "Cressida?" she called as the girl lay unconscious on the ground, her bag next to her.
"Cress? Wine Vine, hey! Can you hear me?" Percy asked as he crawled over to her, lifting her head up.
"I'm ok," she murmured but her voice sounded exhausted as her eyes stayed closed.
"Ambrosia, quick!" he yelled to Thalia who began rifling through Cressida's bag. "You can't get tired. You have to wake up, Cress."
"Don't call me that," she muttered sleepily. "I haven't....given you...permission yet."
"Got it!" Thalia exclaimed as she pulled it out of the Ziploc bag and began feeding her the godly food.
"Grape Girl, come on. Let's see those eyes. Show me your eyes," Percy pleaded, his hands holding her face gently as her eyelids began to flutter open, Thalia feeding her another piece.
And indigo met sea green as her eyes opened and stayed open.
"I'm ok," she promised, as she felt his hands on her. "I'm fine."
"You want to sit up?" Thalia asked and she nodded as they each took her arm and helped her up.
"Ok, as much shit as I give you for your positive thinking plans... they work," she admitted as she saw the state of the boar.
"I want you to remember this moment the next time you want to mock my plans," he said as Cressida took another bite of the ambrosia - honestly with the amount she ate, Percy was surprised that she was still alive, though that might explain why she was so warm when you hugged her.
"I will be conveniently forgetting this moment the next time you drag me off a bridge."
"Hey, technically we slid down and we didn't fall," Percy clarified.
"My brothers won't see the difference," she said and Percy just rolled his eyes.
"Ok, you can't keep threatening me with that. It's getting old."
"My brothers would disagree," Cressida said with a grin.
"Are you two always like this?" Thalia interrupted.
"Pretty much," they both shrugged and Thalia blinked in confusion.
"Helloooooo?" then called Grover's voice.
"Down here!" Percy called back as they helped pull Cressida to her feet, the girl rather stable on them as some of her nicks and scratches began to close.
A few minutes later, Zoë, Bianca and Grover joined them and they stood watching the wild boar struggle in the snow.
"A blessing of the Wild," Grover said, though he now looked agitated.
"I agree," Zoë 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."
"Yes, I would like an answer before we ride that thing like a horse," Cressida added.
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."
"Sliding down grapevines is fun. This is a death wish," Cressida retorted, Bianca agreeing with her.
"We need to get aboard. I wish... I wish I had more time to look around. But it's gone now," Grover said sadly.
"What's gone?" Percy wondered, but Grover didn't seem to hear him as 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 jumped on next, sitting behind Grover and leaving plenty of room for the rest of them.
Zoë and Bianca walked towards the boar.
"Wait a second," Percy said. "Do you two know what Grover is talking about – this wild blessing?"
"Of course," Zoë said.
"Did you not feel it in the wind? It was so strong... I never thought I would sense that presence again."
"What presence?"
She stared at both demigods like they were stupid.
"The Lord of the Wild, of course. Just for a moment, in the arrival of the boar, I felt the presence of Pan."