Chapter 24: When Pigs Fly
When most people step off the train and onto the platform, they expect someone to be waiting for them. A relative, perhaps? Or maybe a friend, who knows? Either way, whoever's waiting for you obviously gives good, welcoming company. This was not, however, the case for the two hunters, three campers, and satyr stepping off the platform. Typically when someone is waiting for us, it's not a someone more so than something, and 90% of the time you can expect lethal, blood thirsty company. The small 10% chance is an annoying god or goddess out to get you.
And of course, with our luck, the occasion proved to be the former.
Which probably explains why we are currently running for our lives from the lethal skeleton warriors holding guns. I can definitely confirm they don't shoot rubber bullets.
"There!" Annabeth pointed to the hole-in-the-wall town just a couple of yards across from us. We hurried down a couple of concrete steps, slid down the rusty railings, and past a few benches like our lives depended on it, which unfortunately is no exaggeration. The bullets clinked of the sidewalks and rained down with the sounds of thunder. We zigzagged to throw off the targets on our backs and made a break for it into town. Where are we? I didn't have time to check the sign.
Soon the sounds of clattering footsteps faded into the distance. The blood rushing in my ears ceased to a low throb and my racing heart rate slowed to a consistent thump. We all hurried into a nearby cafe with a glowing open sign and a bell above the door rang. I looked around.
We were in an ordinary coffee shop with small wooden tables and chairs lining the walls, various coffee makers steaming behind the counters, mouth-watering pastries of all colors and flavors displayed leisurely behind curved glass, a fire danced in the corner casting firelight all around, and the invigorating smell of coffee and mochas lingering in the cozy atmosphere.
"Um, where are we exactly?" Grover asked.
"Some town in New Mexico," Annabeth immediately answered.
"Oh, Awesome," Thalia said sarcastically. "That's only what? 2,000 miles away or so? We're right on track!"
"The Winter Solstice is only three days away. We still have time. We just need to keep moving," Annabeth advised.
"'Still have time' is not good enough. If we are to save my goddess, we must leave now!" Zoe exclaimed.
"Take a chill pill, Zoe! We can't just save her overnight!" Thalia argued.
"Right," I said irritably. I was already fed up with their bickering. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to take advantage of this precious break time and buy myself a nice cup of hot cocoa," I turned to Bianca. "Coming?"
Bianca hesitated for a moment. Finally, with a guarded expression she said, "I could use a cup of hot cocoa."
"Coffee sounds good right about now," Percy chimed in.
Annabeth frowned. "Do we have enough money?"
"Who needs money when Demon Boy can just light fires with his hands and make food appear out of thin air?" Thalia turned to me. "After all, he must have a lot of tricks up his sleeve if he can do that."
I glared menacingly. "It doesn't work like that, you uncultured swine!" I informed her coldly. "Coffee isn't a meal, it's a beverage."
"What did you just call me?" The Daughter of Zeus demanded.
"Okay!" Annabeth, the now peacekeeper of our group said. "I think we could all use a nice cup of caffeine. Bianca," She regarded my sister. "do we have enough money to buy a few cups of coffee and hot chocolate?"
Bianca took out the money envelope and counted up the dollars. "Should be good for at most two rounds of coffee," she said. She handed the money envelope to Annabeth to keep.
We all got in line and paid for the warm beverages. Everyone, save for Bianca and I, ordered a coffee. We went outside once our orders were ready so we could all keep a lookout for our bony friends. I sucked down my hot chocolate pretty fast, my taste buds relishing the rich chocolatey taste and my stomach the warm fuzzy feeling.
Grover took a sip of his coffee, paused, and not two seconds later swooned. Percy and Annabeth had to catch him before he could fall in the snow. I came to the conclusion that he must really like coffee.
"Uh, G-Man? You okay?" Percy asked.
"Pan," the satyr managed to gasp. I frowned. My ADHD brain registered that as: Frying pan? In what scenario does Grover need a frying pan? The sensible part of my brain—which is slowly deteriorating—realized: Oh, wait! He means Pan as in the God of the Wild!
Oh, boy. Gotta love ADHD.
"Pan's presence!" Grover exclaimed breathlessly. "I felt it! His presence was here!"
"You felt his presence?" Annabeth inquired as she looked deep in thought.
"Oh, yeah. Cause' that's totally normal," Thalia said.
"When is anything normal in our lives?" I asked no one in particular. "That's like calling bloodthirsty werewolves puppies. It just doesn't work that way."
Everyone looked at me, then looked away as if I didn't say anything.
"Okay," Percy said. "Grover? Explain."
Grover was about to say his verdict, but before he could, a shot rang out.
Thalia's eyes were wider than saucers. She cursed in Ancient Greek. "They found us!"
"Already?" Percy exclaimed.
"Run!" Annabeth cried. We made another break for it. The caffeine gave me an extra boost to my otherwise exhausted body. Like hot chocolate energy.
Choco-energy.
The skeletons were, of course, right on our tails. Their bony footsteps proved to be marvelous motivation. More shots rang out as we dashed through the nearly empty town. Shattering glass exploded around us like crystal stars. Startled, the pedestrians pressed themselves to the store bricks with their hands over their heads, thinking the raining bullets was just typical police business. They have no idea.
"Guys!" Grover exclaimed breathlessly. "There's something else here! We need to get to it!"
"We have no time for thy shenanigans, satyr!" Zoe shouted. "Nothing is here for us except led bullets aimed for our hearts!"
"Grover has a point, Zoe!" Bianca surprisingly was the one to retort. "If he was able to feel this Pan guy's presence, who's to say there's nothing else here that might help us?"
"The satyr is nothing short of delusional—"
"Hey! I'm not delusional!"
"And thy brother is secretly a demon in disguise!" Zoe claimed.
I rolled my eyes. "I haven't the time nor the energy to tell you how utterly stupid that sounds, you diabolical muppet!" I shouted from the other side of our mini-marathon we were running through.
"Thou take that back, boy!"
"Make me!"
"Why, thou little—"
Zoe would've said more if it weren't for the bullet shot only a centimeter from her head. We shut our mouths after that.
"Uh, guys?" Percy pointed up ahead. "Dead end!"
He's right. We're surrounded. The skeleton warriors, about twenty of them, all circled around us. They all pointed their guns at our hearts, their hollow eyes boring into our souls. My eyes searched desperately for an opening—the perfect exit to get out of harm's way. With all of their guns pointing at us, there's no way we can make an escape without getting hurt, as bullets are typically faster than demigod reflexes. Even if we duck as the bullets come flying in, there's no way we would go out unscathered, especially with the tiny amount of room we have in the skeletal circle. After a moment of deduction, I concluded we were outnumbered, outmatched, and very much dead.
A surge of anger flooded through me. Who do these unos idiotas think they are cruising through town, shooting bullet after bullet at us? I came here for a reason and I am not about to quit all because twenty some grave crashers want to kill us. If they want a battle, I will gladly give them one.
I felt the familiar sensation of fire coursing through my veins. I raised my hand at the ready and narrowed my eyes at the nearest target. My anger must have been rolling off of me in waves, because my friends took one glance at me before backing up behind me. I didn't think much of it.
"Merry Christmas, you degenerative numbskulls!" I cried. I snapped my fingers and three skeleton warriors combusted into Greek Fire, disintegrating into ashes until there was nothing left. The remaining skeleton warriors turned their heads to their fallen comrades before turning their attention back on us. Well, I think it's safe to say their buddies aren't coming back.
The adrenaline left me just as the fatigue took hold. I stumbled and collapsed into Annabeth's waiting arms.
"Nico!"
I vaguely recalled falling into Reyna's arms plenty of times too when I ran out of energy after an exhausting jump. Now all of that seemed like a world away.
My eyes widened as the skeleton warriors in the front aimed and fired straight for me. I braced myself for the pain, but the bullets never hit. I stared in horror at Percy, who had taken the blow for Annabeth and I.
"Bullet proof jacket?" I asked hesitantly when the Son of Posiedon showed no signs of falling over.
"Bullet proof jacket," he answered just as shakily.
And that's when all hell broke loose.
Quite literally.
Bianca and Thalia took the first dive at the skeletons, pulling out a spear and a hunting knife and going to town. Percy, Grover, and Zoe followed their lead, they too pulling out their weapons and slicing and dicing.
Annabeth set me gently on the ground. She kneeled down in front of me. "Stay down and out of sight."
I nodded tiredly. "Okay."
She unsheathed her dagger and joined the others in the fight. Whenever a skeleton warrior would come too close, I would slice its leg bones to knock it off balance and away from me.
Bianca stabbed one skeleton in the rib cage. The bony psycho was engulfed in raging orange flames before blowing away like dust bunnies in the wind. And she says she isn't a daughter of Hades. I almost shook my head.
Everybody turned to her with the same question written on their faces: How did you do that?
"I don't know how I did that," Bianca admitted breathlessly.
Well, it's a good thing I do.
"Where did you stab it?" Annabeth asked.
"Somewhere near the rib cage, I think."
Everyone besides Grover and I tried to stab the skeleton warriors in the rib cage, but to no avail. It takes a certain kind of person to be able to combust a skeleton into flames, and I'm sorry to say that they just aren't one of those people.
Then again, Leo Valdez is. So, maybe not that sorry.
"Um, guys? There's something else here!" Grover yelled.
"Shut up and blow your reed pipes, Goat Boy!" Thalia responded as she hacked at the same skeleton for the third time.
"Seriously, I think there's a—"
Grover was interrupted by a mighty roar—or should I say whine? I frowned. That sounds like… like a giant wild pig. Why is there is a giant wild pig?
The sound reverberated from above. We all looked up. High and majestic in the sky, a humongous boar glided through the air. It's tusks glinted like a halo in the white sun and it's feathery wings could be mistaken for fluffy white clouds.
I took this as a sign. Someone is finally helping us instead of trying to kill us! Then I realized gods don't do that. I squinted against the blinding sun to get a better look at which direction the boar is flying to. As the cursed pig descended lower in our direction, it suddenly occurred to me just how screwed we actually are.
"Everyone scram!" Percy cried.
Thank the Gods the skeleton warriors didn't understand us or a very different story would have unfolded. Without another word we scrambled out of there. We shoved past the skeleton warriors just in time to see the giant boar crash land into our bony friends and scatter their limbs every which way like bowling pins. We all sighed in relief. They won't be reforming for a while.
Then the boar looked at us.
You don't have to be a child of Athena to know we're the next targets.
We ran for our lives. The hunters have become the hunted.
Annabeth, Grover, Bianca, and Zoe all went in one direction while Thalia, Percy, and I headed in the other. The boar decided to go after three children of the big three instead of one. Us. We realized all too late what lies in the direction we're running in: A cliff.
I racked my brain for the quickest, least harmful way to get down the cliff. We can try rolling, but I doubt we could outroll a freaking 600 pound boar trying to kill us, so that's out of the question. Then a thought occurred to me: What better way to get down a steep mountain then to sled down? But where are we going to get a—
Thalia's silver bracelet caught my eye.
"Thalia, I need you to activate your shield so we can use it as a sled to get down the mountain," I said.
We stopped on the edge of the cliff to catch our breath. "Are you crazy? You want us to go down the mountain?"
"Well, seeing as there's no other way to go, I don't think we have other options."
"It's the only way!" Percy chimed in. "Come on, Pinecone Face, just do it!"
"Why can't Percy use his shield?" Thalia asked, her eyes wide and panicked.
The squeals and thumps of heavy footsteps came closer and closer. Who knew squeals could be so terrifying?
"Percy's shield is too small," I answered matter-of-fact. "Your's is the perfect size."
"I—I can't!"
The squeals grew increasingly louder.
Why is Thalia acting like this? Then it hit me.
Heights.
I have to convince her like our lives depend on it—which they do.
"Thalia," I grabbed her shoulders. "I know you're scared. I am too. But being a demigod isn't about being fearless. It's about stepping up and facing those fears, no matter how impossible they may seem. You can do this!"
I stared at her dead in the eyes and for the first time ever, I saw hesitation and fear. She swallowed and nodded. "Alright, I'll do it."
She clicked her bracelet and the face of Medusa jutted to life. She threw down the shield with ferocity. "Hop on."
The giant hog charged for us as we sat on the shield. "Let's go! Let's go!" Percy screamed. We all held on for dear life as Thalia pushed the shield forward, and the next thing we know we're racing down the incredibly steep hill.
As the trees passed us by at what felt like 50 miles per hour, we screamed like there was no tomorrow, which could very well be true with our current predicament. I death gripped Percy's shoulders while he death gripped Thalia's shoulders. Thalia—bless her quick thinking—used her spear to steer and maneuver away from the trunks and rocks scattered along the mountain.
The wild boar followed closely behind.
The gigantic pig skeeted along the ice at break-neck speed, rolling and tumbling down the mountain like those boulders in that movie I watched once with Thalia and Percy, Indiana Jones. (Long story, something about educating me on pop culture.) Our screams synchronized somewhere in the middle of the mountain and only grew louder as we descended. Snow blasted in our faces, eyes, and open mouths. We passed a particularly steep part of the hill and flew off the ground for a few seconds.
Finally, after what seemed like a million years, our "sled" came to a slow stop. Without a word, we scrambled off the shield and ran for our lives. The wild boar crashed landed with a huge thump. We turned around.
The manic pig squealed and whined as it tried to get its little hind legs back up, but to no avail. It cried in defeat and gave in to its vertical challegeness.
As quick as lightning, Thalia lifted me up off my feet by my jacket collar and gave me a wicked glare. "How did you know I'm afraid of heights?" She demanded.
I met her eyes and refused to cower. "Your reaction when Apollo told you drive the magic school bus made it obvious enough," I replied evenly.
Thalia narrowed her electric eyes and leaned in. "I don't believe you."
Something inside me cracked. In one swift motion I grabbed her wrist and twisted, judo flipping her on the cold powdery snow. I kneed her in the chest and leaned in too. "I don't care."
Her eyes widened. "Nico, that's enough," Percy reprimanded sternly, but I wasn't finished yet.
"I am so done with everyone's crap! Especially yours," I said lowly. I took a deep breath to keep my anger under control. "Look, I know I seem pretty suspicious to you, but I have my reasons. Like you, I have some goals too. Though if you get in the way of those goals… if you put your hands on me again… I swear to all the Gods, Pinecone Face," a cold laugh escaped my lips. "You will get more than a judo flipping. This is my one and final warning. Don't cross me again or you will regret it."
I got up and held out my hand. Thalia stared at my outstretched hand for a moment before taking it and pulling herself up. Thalia regarded me with an unreadable expression. I figured this would probably be the moment I get clocked in the face or severely electrocuted, but to my surprise she merely said, "You got some moves, Demon Boy, I'll give you that. With time, you could earn my respect. In another universe, we might even be friends," she said. I couldn't help but smirk at the irony. In another universe, we're cousins. Thalia's face darkened. "But if you or Kelp Head tell anyone my secret, including Annie, I will fry you like a chicken and throw your corpse in Mt. Vesuvius. You got me?"
"Yeah," I said. "I got you. As long as you don't cross me."
Thalia held out her hand to shake. "Consider it a deal."
We shook hands and turned to Percy questioningly.
Percy's eyes flickered between me and Thalia before he finally gave a thumbs up. "Well, I'm glad you two are getting along," He frowned a little. "A disaster even larger than what I usually make could have been annoying to deal with."
Thalia and I glanced at each other before shrugging. "I mean, it could've gone worse," I said.
"Well, how are we going to get back up?" Percy asked no one in particular.
We looked at him, then at our soon-to-be-bacon friend.
"I think I have an idea," I proposed.
……
"THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA, DEMON BOY!!!" Thalia shrieked. I was too busy holding on for dear life on the huge freaking piggy to agree with her.
A pale Percy turned to me and nodded in agreement. I too nodded back. This was to be expected, of course. You don't tame a flying wild boar in a couple of minutes and expect the ride to go smoothly.
I squinted against the bright sun to spot our friends down below. (The partially human kind, not the skeletons.) I spotted a few shapes waving what looked to be tiny sticks. It took me a second to realize they're arms. "Down there," I pointed.
Percy leaned all of his weight down on the wild boar—which, granted wasn't very much compared to the pig—and somehow managed to guide the pig to the ground. When I say "guide it to the ground," I really mean crash land it to the ground.
We screamed the whole way down. It was like a terrifying roller coaster, except with no tracks.
"THIS… IS… THE WORST… PIGGY… BACK… RIDE… EVER!!" Percy screamed. Well, it's not my fault they listened to my idea.
The pig refused to descend any lower than a couple feet above ground, so we had to grab everyone with our shaking arms one by one while the flying boar was in motion. I can confirm from this experience that flying pigs are not as fun as they sound.
Grover gasped. "The Erymanthian Boar! So Pan did send us a gift!"
"Alright, I'm just gonna say it. This is the worst gift I've ever gotten, and I used to get empty beer bottles—courtesy of Smelly Gabe—for Christmas," Percy admitted.
"Where do thou think the Erymanthian Boar is heading?" Zoe asked.
"As long as it's West, I couldn't care less at the moment," Bianca said.
"You know what?" Annabeth asked. "Why don't we use this time to take a break and get off near some body of water when the boar starts heading another direction."
"Sounds like a good plan," Percy said. Without another word, he pulled up his hoodie and went right to sleep.
A/N:
Hey guys, sorry the update took so long. Life happens and so do migraines. Also note, I am not hating on Leo Valdez. I actually really like his character, but for the sake of the story, I felt the need to add in that little part. Also also note, this was more of a filler chapter. I'm building up for something big. Don't get too excited, but kind of excited? Anyway, another update will come soon.
-Echo
