A/N: I don't own the rights to any of the Percy Jackson series or it's characters. That right goes to Rick Riordan. I also don't own the rights to Animorph including it's title.

I am, however, the person who posted 'The Tales of...' series.

This is not a crossover of the Percy Jackson series with the book/tv series Animorph, despite what you might think from the title. I just thought it be a proper name for the ability to turn into animals since that's why the tv/book series 'Animorph' was called that in the first place.

If you haven't read this yet, read:

Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters

I Lead the Boar Off Into A Gorge

We'd 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 and Thalia about my conversation with Apollo the night before-how he'd told me to seek out Nereus in San Francisco. I included Thalia to try to build trust with her so we can work together.

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

"We will," Thalia said. "We have to."

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 it at all.

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, 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.

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."

Needless to say, it wasn't anything helpful for us.

The clerk looked so lonely, I bought a rubber rat. Then we headed back outside and stood on the porch to wait for Grover and Zoë.

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

I let her go as it was something to do. Demigods weren't too great at sitting around and doing nothing. We have attention deficit problems because of our inborn battlefield reflexes.

Bianca and I stood together awkwardly. I mean... I was never very comfortable talking one-on-one with girls anyway, and I'd never been alone with Bianca before. It didn't help that since she was a hunter, I'm sure there are restrictions I don't want to pass unless I want to be permanently turned into a Jackalope to be hunted down. I was once permanently turned into a Guinea Pig by Circe, and I don't want to go through permanent transformation unless I have to.

"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 madame 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 dread, 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 track 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 there, Nico would be fine. You're a good guy."

The compliment took me by surprise.

A couple of 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, 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 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 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 at 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 a Cyclops for a baby brother. I could relate to what Bianca was saying.

I was about to ask Bianca about her conversation with Zoë at the pavilion 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 forgot what I was going to ask Bianca.

"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 rustle 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.

Whatever it was, it opened up my senses to 100% as if all the super senses of every animal was activated in me if that was even possible. Either way, I felt as if I could sense everything around me.

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. "I just... What's wrong with Grover?"

"I don't know," I said. "There was this strange breeze, weird things happened, and Grover just collapsed."

"Uuuuuhhhh," Grover groaned.

"Well, get him up!" Thalia said. She had her separ in her hand. She looked behind her as if she were being followed. "We have to get out of here."

I can't explain it, but I could sense a bunch of-something coming and it wasn't friendly.

We made it to the edge of 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.

I drew Riptide, though I wasn't sure what good it would do against guns, but at the moment I can't think of an animal form helpful against handguns at the moment.

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. Two 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.

But he wasn't speaking. He made a chattering, 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. "The gift. The gift of the wild."

I had no idea what Grover was talking about, but I got a sense something was coming, something big and it wasn't the warriors. Sadly, I don't think it would be here in time to help us unless we fight.

"We'll have to go one-on-one," Thalia said. "Four of them. Four 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 that was it. I remember the General gloating over Annabeth's fate. I remember the way Luke betrayed her.

And I morphed.

I drop down on all four as my skin thicken and I grew as my nose elongated until I was a full grown elephant.

Why not? I heard it takes a powerful rifle to take them down.

I charged and the skeleton drew a baton but I swiped my trunk sending it flying through the air. The second skeleton clattered his teeth at me and tried to fire, but I swung my trunk at him, sending it flying along with its friend.

Thalia charged the third skeleton and Zoë and Bianca started firing arrows at the fourth. 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. I sure hope that was the gift and not reinforcements.

Sadly these skeletons didn't stay down. The remains immediately began to move, reassembling themselves. I stomped one of the skeletons as it was trying to reform but even that was temporary.

There seemed to be no way to stop them. Zoë and Bianca fired at their heads pointblank, but the arrows just whistled straight through their empty skulls. One lunged at Bianca and 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 three skeletons were wary of her now. They pressed my friend to me, keeping them at baton length and farther from me.

The trees behind the skeletons were shivering. Branches were cracking.

"A gift," Grover muttered.

And then, with a mighty roar, the biggest pig I'd ever seen came crashing into the road. It was a wild boar, thirty feet high, with a snotty pink snout and tusk the size of canoes. Its back bristled with brown hair, and its eyes were wild and angry. But I also got the sense it was drawn here by something.

"REEEEEEEEEET!" It squealed and raked the three skeleton flying into the mountain side, smashing them into pieces.

Then the pig turned on us.

Thalia raised her spear and I set myself to take on the boar, 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."

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

Well that wasn't reassuring. Sadly I doubt my ten feet tall elephant form had any chance against it and I morphed back to human form.

Still, the Boar said "REEEEEET!" and swung its tusk. Zoë and Bianca dived out of the way and I pushed Grover out of the way.

"Scatter!" I shouted.

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 this thing 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 tusk and pulverized the WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT sign.

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 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 of bad luck. When the boar turned on us, Thalia made the mistake of raising Aegis in defense. The sight of Medusa's head made the boar squeal in outrage. Maybe it looked too much like one of his relatives. The boar charged us.

We only manage 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. Itss hooves and big body were not made for this, but I was.

Ahead of us, I saw a covered tunned. Past that, an old trestle bridge spanning a gorge. I had a crazy idea. I dropped down on all four and my body expanded as horns as horns protrude from my forehead until I was a bull. I looked at Thalia as to say: get on. For whatever reason Thalia was hesitant but the sound of the boar knocking pine trees and crushing boulders under its hooves convince Thalia to do so.

I charged toward the tunnel and came out the other side.

"No!" Thalia screamed but I couldn't get a look at her since she was on my back. Too late now. I thought. Once a bull starts charging, it can't turn well. I could see the edge of the bridge. Below, the mountain dropped away into a snow filled gorge about seventy feet below us.

I charged off the bridge with Thalia hanging on. I remember all my pegasus riding lessons and how Silena instructed how to do a control fall. So I change back to human. Fortunately Thalia was clinging on really tight and just gripped tighter around my neck, nearly choking me, but I manage to shapeshift into pegasus form, straighten out my wings and manage to slow our fall as we landed safely on the snow below.

The boar wasn't so lucky. It couldn't turn that fast, so all ten tons of the monster charged out onto the tiny nestled, which buckled under its weight. The boar free-fell into the gourd with a might squeal and landed in a snow drift with a huge POOOOOOF!

The 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. I didn't seem to be hurt but it wasn't going anywhere.

I shapeshifted back to normal and fortunately Thalia finally let go. Now that I got a good look of her, I saw she was glaring at me for taking her on a dangerous ride, but I also noticed she was white as ice as though she experience her worse nightmare. That combine with her reaction finally made something click in my head.

"You're afraid of heights."

Her expression grew angrier. "Don't be stupid."

"That explains why you freak out on Apollo's bus. Why you didn't want to talk about it."

She took a deep breath. Then she brushed the snow and pine needles that were on her off. "If you tell anyone, I swear-"

"No, no," I said. "That's cool. It's just... the daughter of Zeus, 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, and Grover joined us. We stood watching the wild boar struggle in the snow.

"A blessing of the Wild," Grover said, though now he looked agitated.

"I agree," Zoë said. "We must use it."

"Hold up," Thalia said irritably. "Explained 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 and cowgirls."

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's 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 nut, 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.

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."

"You mean that strange breeze that multiplied my senses?" I asked. Now that I think about it, my senses were back to normal. I guess I was too busy dodging the boar to notice.

She stared at me like I must be some idiot who struck gold and not realize it. "The Lord of the Wild, of course. Just for a moment, in the arrival of the boar, I felt the presence of Pan."

A/N: I decided to work on Animorph Percy Jackson this month. I also thought since Percy can shapeshift into animals Pan's powers have some effect on him due to it. I hope you guys enjoy.