Hanora Maeve Xanthus and the Titian's curse

I was still reeling from my talk with Hanora when we arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO. The air was cold and thin. 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.

Even with my lion-skin coat, I was freezing by the time we got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As we walked, I told Grover about my and Hanora’s conversation with Apollo the night before—how he'd told me to seek out Nereus in San Francisco. I left out the bit about the prophecy from Hanora’s dream, she had asked me to keep it between us and honestly it was one of the few times I agreed with her need to keep things under wraps.

 Grover looked uneasy. "That's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first."

 I tried not to get too depressed about our chances. I didn't want to send Grover into a panic, but I knew we had another huge deadline looming, aside from saving Artemis in time for her council of the gods. The General had said Annabeth would only be kept alive until the winter solstice. That was Friday, only four days away. And he'd said something about a sacrifice. I didn't like the sound of that at all, especially with the line ‘the last son of the dragon shall fall’. It made me want to send Hanora back to camp, I knew she would ignore me and do what she wanted anyway but the idea of her and Annabeth being in trouble made me nauseous.

 We stopped in the middle of town. You could pretty much see everything from there: a school, a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.

 "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 go get us some food. Percy, Bianca, Hanora and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

 We agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. Bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with us, but she did. Even stranger was when she seemed to be hovering at Hanora’s side but further from Thalia and me. I remembered how she had been heading back to Zoë when I went to hide with Hanora on the train. She must have been in the Ferrari before that. Not that it mattered, they were allowed to talk, besides Hanora shared her dream with me. No one else knows, not even Thalia. Great, now I sound like a jealous schoolgirl.

 Inside the store, we found out a few valuable things about Cloudcroft: there wasn't enough snow for skiing, the grocery store sold rubber rats for a dollar each, and there was no easy way in or out of town unless you had your own car.

 "You could call for a taxi from Alamogordo," the clerk said doubtfully. "That's down at the bottom of the mountains, but it would take at least an hour to get here. Cost several hundred dollars."

 The clerk looked so lonely; I bought a rubber rat. Then we headed back outside and stood on the porch.

 "Wonderful," Thalia grumped. "I'm going to walk down the street, see if anybody in the other shops has a suggestion."

 "But the clerk said—"

 "I know," she told me. "I'm checking anyway."

 I let her go. I knew how it felt to be restless. All half-bloods had attention deficit problems because of our inborn battlefield reflexes. We couldn't stand just waiting around. Also, I had a feeling Thalia was still upset over our conversation last night about Luke. Hanora patted Bianca’s shoulder and ruffled my hair before following Thalia down the street. She ran up and knocked their shoulders again, probably trying to cheer her up. Hanora was pretty good at that even when she was in her own head about things, she seemed to do better when she had someone else to worry about instead. Not that I liked letting her out of my sight but having her around would probably help Thalia gather her thoughts better.

 Bianca and I stood together awkwardly. I mean… I was never very comfortable talking one-on-one with most girls anyway, and I'd never been alone with Bianca before. I wasn't sure what to say, especially now that she was a Hunter and everything.

 "Nice rat," she said at last.

 I set it on the porch railing. Maybe it would attract more business for the store.

 "So… how do you like being a Hunter so far?" I asked.

 She pursed her lips. "You're not still mad at me for joining, are you?"

 "Nah. Long as, you know… you're happy."

 "I'm not sure 'happy' is the right word, with Lady Artemis gone. But being a Hunter is definitely cool. I feel calmer somehow. Everything seems to have slowed down around me. I guess that's the immortality."

 I stared at her, trying to see the difference. She did seem more confident than before, more at peace. She didn't hide her face under a green cap anymore. She kept her hair tied back, and she looked me right in the eyes when she spoke. With a shiver, I realized that five hundred or a thousand years from now, Bianca di Angelo would look exactly the same as she did today. She might be having a conversation like this with some other half-blood long after I was dead, but Bianca would still look twelve years old.

 "Nico didn't understand my decision," Bianca murmured. She looked at me like she wanted assurance it was okay.

 "He'll be all right," I said. "Camp Half-Blood takes in a lot of young kids. They did that for Annabeth."

 Bianca nodded. "I hope we find her. Annabeth, I mean. She's lucky to have a friend like you."

 "Lot of good it did her."

 "Don't blame yourself Percy. You risked your life to save my brother and me. I mean, that was seriously brave. If I hadn't met you, I wouldn't have felt okay about leaving Nico at the camp. I figured if there were people like you and Hanora there, Nico would be fine. You're a good guy."

 The compliment took me by surprise. "Even though I knocked you down in capture the flag?"

 She laughed. "Okay. Except for that, you're a good guy. But I’m sure even when you’re not Hanora will put you back in your place."

“Oh, she definitely does. Probably a little too often.”

We both laughed, and I was starting to feel much better,

 A couple hundred yards away, Grover and Zoë came out of the coffee shop loaded down with pastry bags and drinks. I kind of didn't want them to come back yet. It was weird, but I realized I liked talking to Bianca. She wasn't so bad. A lot easier to hang out with than Zoë Nightshade, anyway.

 "So, what's the story with you and Nico?" I asked her. "Where did you go to school before Westover?"

 She frowned. "I think it was a boarding school in D.C. It seems like so long ago."

 "You never lived with your parents? I mean, your mortal parent?"

 "We were told our parents were dead. There was a bank trust for us. A lot of money, I think.  A lawyer would come by once in a while to check on us. Then Nico and I had to leave that school."

 "Why?"

 She knit her eyebrows. "We had to go somewhere. I remember it was important. We traveled a long way. And we stayed in this hotel for a few weeks. And then… I don't know. One day a different lawyer came to get us out. He said it was time for us to leave. He drove us back east, through D.C. Then up into Maine. And we started going to Westover."

 It was a strange story. Then again, Bianca and Nico were half-bloods. Nothing would be normal for them.

 "So, you've been raising Nico pretty much all your life?" I asked. "Just the two of you?"

 She nodded. "That's why I wanted to join the Hunters so bad. I mean, I know it's selfish, but I wanted my own life and friends. I love Nico—don't get me wrong—I just needed to find out what it would be like not to be a big sister twenty-four hours a day."

 I thought about last summer, the way I'd felt when I found out I had a Cyclops for a baby brother. I could relate to what Bianca was saying.

 "Zoë seems to trust you, "I said. "What were you guys talking about, anyway—something dangerous about the quest?"

 "When?"

 Yesterday morning on the pavilion," I said, before I could stop myself. "Something about the General."

 Her face darkened. "How did you…The invisibility hat.  Were you eavesdropping?"

 "No! I mean, not really. I just—"

 I was saved from trying to explain when Zoë and Grover arrived with the drinks and pastries. Hot chocolate for Bianca and me. Coffee for them. I got a blueberry muffin, and it was so good I could almost ignore the outraged look Bianca was giving me.

 "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.

 I was about to ask what was wrong, when a warm breeze rustled past, like a gust of springtime had gotten 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 flock of tiny doves. My 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. We gathered around him and tried to wake him up. He groaned, his eyes fluttering.

 "Hey!" Thalia said, running up from the street with Hanora in tow. "I just… What's wrong with Grover?"

 "I don't know," I said. "He collapsed."

 "Uuuuuhhhh," Grover groaned.

 "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."

We 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 gray camouflage, they were now wearing blue New Mexico State Police uniforms, but they had the same transparent gray skin and yellow eyes.

 They drew their handguns. I'll admit I used to think it would be kind of cool to learn how to shoot a gun, but I changed my mind as soon as the skeleton warriors pointed theirs at me.

 Thalia tapped her bracelet. Aegis spiraled to life on her arm, but the warriors didn't flinch. Their glowing yellow eyes bored right into me.

 I drew Riptide, though I wasn't sure what good it would do against guns.

Hanora seemed to have a similar thought as she drew her own blade Aigéan and pressed closer to me.

 Zoë and Bianca drew their bows, but Bianca was having trouble because Grover kept swooning and leaning against her.

 "Back up," Thalia said.

 We started to—but then I heard a rustling of branches. Three more skeletons appeared on the road behind us. We were surrounded.

 I wondered where the other skeletons were. I'd seen a dozen at the Smithsonian. 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. Suddenly I understood what was going on. The skeletons had split up to look for us. These skeletons were now calling their brethren. Soon we'd have a full party on our hands.

 "It's near," Grover moaned.

 "It's here," I said.

 "No," he insisted. "The gift. The gift from the Wild."

 I didn't know what he was talking about, but I was worried about his condition. He was in no shape to walk, much less fight.

“Yeah, well is that gift going to help us with gun slinging sentient bones goat boy?” Hanora gritted out as she pressed our backs together.

 "We'll have to go one-on-one," Thalia said. "Five of them. Five of us. Maybe they'll ignore Grover that way."

 "Agreed," said Zoë.

 "The Wild!" Grover moaned.

 A warm wind blew through the canyon, rustling the trees, but I kept my eyes on the skeletons. I remembered the General gloating over Annabeth's fate. I remembered the way Luke had betrayed her. I remembered the gutted expression on Hanora’s face the day Luke showed his true colors.

 And I charged.

 The first skeleton fired. Time slowed down. I won't say I could see the bullet, but I could feel its path, the same way I felt water currents in the ocean. I deflected it off the edge of my blade and kept charging.

 The skeleton drew a baton, and I sliced off his arms at the elbows. Then I swung Riptide through his waist and cut him in half.

 His bones unknit and clattered to the asphalt in a heap. Almost immediately, they began to move, reassembling themselves. The second skeleton clattered his teeth at me and tried to fire, but I knocked his gun into the snow.

 I thought I was doing pretty well, until the other two skeletons shot me in the back.

 "Percy!" Thalia and Hanora screamed.

 I landed face down in the street. Then I realized something… I wasn't dead. The impact of the bullets had been dulled, like a push from behind, but they hadn't hurt me.

 The Nemean Lion's fur! My coat was bulletproof.

 Thalia and Hanora charged the second and third skeletons. Zoë and Bianca started firing arrows at the fourth and fifth. Grover stood there and held his hands out to the trees, looking like he wanted to hug them.

 There was a crashing sound in the forest to our left, like a bulldozer. Maybe the skeletons' reinforcements were arriving. I got to my feet and ducked a police baton. The skeleton I'd cut in half was already fully re-formed, coming after me.

 There was no way to stop them. Zoë and Bianca fired at their heads point-blank, but the arrows just whistled straight through their empty skulls. One lunged at Bianca, and I 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 stab?"

 "Well, do it again!"

 Bianca tried, but the remaining four skeletons were wary of her now. They pressed us back, keeping us at baton's length.

 "Plan?" I said as we 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 I'd ever seen came crashing into the road. It was a wild boar, thirty feet 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 four 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 us.

 Thalia raised her spear, but Grover yelled, "Don't kill it.'"

 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."

“Oh, goodie more unkillable things that want to send us to the underworld.” Hanora lamented.

 "It's a gift," Grover said. "A blessing from the Wild!"

 The boar said "REEEEEEET!" and swung its tusk. Zoë and Bianca dived out of the way. I had to push Grover so he wouldn't get launched into the mountain on the Boar Tusk Express.

 "Yeah, I feel blessed!" I said. "Scatter!"

 We 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.

 It seemed a fair question to me, but the pig was offended and charged her. She was faster than I'd realized. 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.

“Yeah, this seems way more like the fury of mother nature than anything even remotely helpful.” Hanora added as she helped Bianca up.

 I racked my brain, trying to remember the myth of the boar. I was pretty sure Hercules had fought this thing once, but I couldn't remember how he'd beaten it. I had a vague memory of the boar plowing down several Greek cities before Hercules managed to subdue it. I hoped Cloudcroft was insured against giant wild boar attacks.

 "Keep moving!" Zoë yelled. She, Hanora, 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 and I won the prize for bad luck. When the boar turned on us, Thalia made the mistake of raising Aegis in defense. The sight of the Medusa head made the boar squeal in outrage. Maybe it looked too much like one of his relatives. The boar charged us.

 We only managed to keep ahead of it because we ran uphill, and we could dodge in and out of trees while the boar had to plow through them.

 On the other side of the hill, I found an old stretch of train tracks, half buried in the snow.

 "This way.'" I grabbed Thalia's arm, and we ran along the rails while the boar roared behind us, slipping and sliding as it tried to navigate the steep hillside. Its hooves just were not made for this, thank the gods. Ahead of us, I saw a covered tunnel. Past that, an old trestle bridge spanning a gorge. I had a crazy idea.

 "Follow me!"

 Thalia slowed down—I didn't have time to ask why—but I pulled her along and she reluctantly followed. Behind us, a ten-ton pig tank was knocking down pine trees and crushing boulders under its hooves as it chased us.

 Thalia and I ran into the tunnel and came out on the other side.

 "No!" Thalia screamed.

 She'd turned as white as ice. We were at the edge of the bridge. Below, the mountain dropped away into a snow-filled gorge about seventy feet below.

 The boar was right behind us.

 "Come on!" I said. "It'll hold our weight, probably."

 "I can't!" Thalia yelled. Her eyes were wild with fear.

 The boar smashed into the covered tunnel, tearing through at full speed.

 "Now! "I yelled at Thalia.

 She looked down and swallowed. I swear she was turning green.

 I didn't have time to process why. The boar was charging through the tunnel, straight toward us. Plan B. I tackled Thalia and sent us both sideways off the edge of the bridge, into the side of the mountain. We slid on Aegis like a snowboard, over rocks and mud and snow, racing downhill. 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!

 Thalia and I skidded to a stop. We were both breathing hard. I was cut up and bleeding. Thalia had pine needles in her hair. Next to us, the wild boar was squealing and struggling. All I could see was the bristly tip of its back. It was wedged completely in the snow like Styrofoam packing. It didn't seem to be hurt, but it wasn't going anywhere, either.

 I looked at Thalia. "You're afraid of heights."

 Now that we 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," I said. "That's cool. It's just… the daughter of Zeus, the Lord of the Sky, afraid of heights?"

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

 "Down here!" I shouted.

 A few minutes later, Zoë, Bianca, Hanora, and Grover joined us. We 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."

“For what? A workout? Don’t worry, I think we already did that.” Hanora huffed as she inspected my injuries.

 "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," I 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 me. 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 us. Hanora helped pull me up and brushed some snow off of me, muttering something in Italian as she fussed a bit. I let her as Zoë and Bianca walked toward the boar.

 "Wait a second," I 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 me like I was an idiot. "The Lord of the Wild, of course. Just for a moment, upon the arrival of the boar, I felt the presence of Pan."