'This is so not what Chiron meant,' Percy yelled over his shoulder.

'Whatever,' was the answer that the Stolls gave him in unison. Percy had to agree to that. Yeah, whatever, they were doing it now anyway, so what did it matter?

In a fit of annoyance that Chiron very rarely had, he had told the Stolls to go take a hike after they tried to talk and brine their way out of a week of dish-duty for stealing a lot of food saved for the Christmas feast. The Stolls, funny as they were, had decided to take that literally. For a few weeks, they tried to prepare for their journey without Chiron noticing. They had asked people if they wanted to come along, of course, but almost no-one did. They all thought actually taking a hike (and not just any hike, but a hike through the Himalaya of all places) after Chiron said something he probably already regretted was a little overboard. Piper and Percy were the only people who had wanted to come along.

Piper rolled her eyes while pulling her hat slightly further over her head. The boys had made this joke at least twenty times since they departed. 'Guys, the jokes can do with a little bit more creativity next time,' she screamed to the three walking in front of her. Travis looked over his shoulder.

'Of course, Piper. Being more creative is what Chiron would have wanted.' Piper felt like running towards him to do something to him Chiron would not have wanted, but that seemed like an action with too much real consequences at the moment.

'What if we find the yeti?' Connor suddenly asked, not even a minute later. Now. He had a point. Piper caught up with the others. Percy slowed down a little, so that they were all walking next to each other. 'Now that sounds like something exciting,' Piper answered. Travis gave her an indifferent look. 'This entire trip is exciting. We are hiking in the Himalaya!'

Piper rolled her eyes. 'Walking is not exciting. Bigfoot is.'

'Bigfoot is just another monster!'

Percy gasped and turned around. 'How dare you call Bigfoot a monster? They are probably a wonderful being!' Travis looked at him like she was crazy. He turned towards his brother, but to his shock Connor seemed to agree with Piper.

'Connor, you can't possibly...'

'We do not know them! They might be like Nessy, you know. She's nice.'

'We have never met Nessy! And have you forgotten about the Kraken? That was a nightmare.' Percy's smile faded. He rememberd the Kraken very clearly. It had indeed been a nightmare.

Piper scrapped her throat. She had walked slightly further ahead. 'Now, guys, not to worry you all to much, but I think this might just seace to be hypothetical.' It took the three boys some time to figure out what she meant, but as soon as they understood, they ran over to her, not thinking about the risks.

'Oh, eh... that is one big footprint,' Travis mumbeld.

Percy sighed deeply. 'We should not have made those jokes. That was like begging the universe to send the yeti our way.'

'I thought you and Nico managed to get to universe to stop doing that?' Connor asked.

'Yes, but it is literally the concept of the universe, what'd you expect?'

Everyone else had to agree with that. Piper zipped up her coat a little higher. 'Whatever the universe may or may not have promised, that is a dangerously large footprint and we need to watch out.'
'Does everyone have their weapons ready?' Percy asked. He should't have wasted his breath - expierenced demigods had their weapons ready almost all time.

More cautiously, they continued walking. Strangely enough, the constant thread of a huge monster nearby did not ruïn the mood. 'Which God do you think made these mountains?' Connor wondered, while shuffeling closer to Piper.
Percy shrugged. 'I think Hephaestus, Zeus or Poseidon would try to take the credits, but it must have been a God from Nepal. Maybe Nico knows who it was.'
'I say every single God has tried to take the credit for the mountain range with the highest mountain on earth, but my guess is that plate tektonics are real,' Travis added to that. Piper turned around.
'Shouldn't it be an earth god, then? Gaia? Geb? Others who cause earthquakes?'
'Then we are back at Poseidon,' Percy mentioned.
'Percy, there are earthquake gods in Nepal!' Connor was not very understandble, as he was also eating a Mars-bar that had been in Pipers' pocket a few seconds earlier. Piper briskly turned around.
'Connor! Eat your own food!'
'That's in my bag...'
'So you steal mine!?' Piper tried to push him, but Percy held her back.
'Eh...'

Piper straightend her back. 'Alright, alright, I'll be the bigger person then!' She glared daggers at Connor, who knew to watch out for revenge in the very near future.

'Would you look at that, more footprints.' Travis pointed at the huge mark in the white snow. 'I mean, it could be Bigfoot, but it could also be that the dinosaurs secretly survived.'

'I do not think dinosaurs had toes, Travis.'

'How do you know, Piper?'

'Just a hunch.' Piper rolled her eyes. 'Alright, they probably had toes, but I cannot imagine they had such...' she paused for a second and gestured at the footprint in the snow. '...humanoid toes.'

'Wow, that sounds terrifying! Let's quickly go further, so we might be able to reach the inn before nightfall!' Connor interrupted. They all stood still for a second, before running down the path - they did not want to be out in the dark with whatever the thing was that left footprints the size of a small lorry.

They made it just before dusk and after a big splurge of panic because the sun was setting. While they dumped their stuff in the rooms and freshened up a little, the owner of the inn made them each a bowl of soup with a side of bread, as a small dinner - she was a daughter of Ponoma and knew all about the difficulties of demigod life. When they were seated, Travis gave her an innocent look. 'Say, do you know anything about giant footprints?' The server stared at him for a few seconds, like she had had that question a million times before and was wondering whether he was worthy enough to know the answer.

'You have all heard of Bigfoot, I assume?'

'See? I told you!' Connor screeched. The few other guests in the inn turned around for a second. Connor looked down at his soup. The server rolled her eyes. 'Yes, I am sure you told them. Yet, Bigfoot. It lives here and it leaves footprints about half the size of the inn.'

'How do we know it won't step on the inn and destroy us all in the night?'

'We do not know for sure at all, but we do have a small shield around the place.' She smiled at them and walked back to the kitchen. Piper took a bite of bread, soaked in soup. 'If it gets close to the inn, we must fight it.'

'How?' Travis asked. A second later, he realised that that was a bit of a stupid question. 'Oh, you want to charmspeak it away?'

'...maybe. I mean, it must have a home somewhere here, right?'

Connor could not help but laugh. 'Are you imagining it has a giant mansion in the mountains?'

Piper gave him a death glare. 'I was thinking of a cave...'

'Well, I think I would buy a palace if I were a giant monster,' Percy added completely unprompted, which caused Piper to give him a deathglare as well. Yet, it also made her think. Why wouldn't the yeti have a palace if it had a house?

The conversation quickly swerved away to a different subject. When the last drop of soup was gone, they decided to go to their rooms. Connor, Travis and Percy shared one. Piper had her own.

While laying in her bed, Piper felt like she could use a roommate to feel less nervous. The idea of a giant beast walking around the mountains did not do much good for your nerves. She turned to her left side. It might be walking just past the inn right at this very moment. She turned back to her right side. Or it might be in its palace. No, cave. Stupid Travis. Stupid mountains. Stupid trip...

Connor was staring out the window. He was sure he saw something move out there. Something big, white and hairy. He looked through the room. His brother was staring at the ceiling with wide open eyes, while Percy had his eyes closed but did not seem to be actually sleeping. Slowly, he got up. He shivered - the inn was cold at night. 'Alright. Bigfoot, right guys?'

Immediately, Travis and Percy shot up. 'Did you see it?!' They yelled in unison.

'No! No... I do not think so. Yet, we are all laying awake because of him, right?' Percy and Travis could only nod. 'Yeah... I guess,' Percy muttered. He was not guessing and they all knew. Connor took a deep breath and dropped back onto his bed. 'Maybe we should just go back tomorrow.'

'Great idea, Connor. One problem: the person who is supposed to fly us back to the USA is four days walking away,' Percy said sarcastically. Connor gave him an angry look, which Percy could of course not see (but probably feel in his bones). 'We might be able to get him to come here.'

'He's not going to like it,' Percy answered, just as they heard a knock at the door. The boys could not help but scream. 'It's just me!' Piper yelled from the other side of the door. Travis jumped out into the cold to let her in. 'So you all are not sleeping yet either?'

Percy quickly chatted Piper up to what they had been talking about. Piper shrugged when he mentioned that it was probably impossible to get home early. 'I mean, we could ask him to pick us up with the heli. I brought my Phone, with Leo's receiver.'
'Yeah, as if he wants to go out in Big Foot land.'
'He lives here! He is probably used to living with the idea that a giant hairy monster is around! I mean...' her rambling was interrupted by a loud deep sound coming from outside. Percy felt the blood freeze in his veines.

As if they were one, the four demigods sprinted out of the room as quickly as their legs could carry them. A few other doors opened - some other sleepy guests of the inn came out. 'Wha was da noise?' One of them asked, sounding half-asleep.
None of the demigods answered. They had only one goal: get downstairs and ask the daughter of Ponoma what to do next.

She was already standing in the mess hall. 'No need to threat,' she told the demigods when she saw them tripping over each other to get downstairs. 'What do you mean, no need to...'
'It will probably go away in a few minutes. It always does,' she answered.
'And you did not tell us!?' Connor sounded angrier than he had been that one time one of his pranks backfired horribly. She shrugged.
'Some people get even more nervous if they know the Yeti walks by quite often,' she answered. While all four demigods were muttering not very nice things about her, she walked to a window.
'Come.' Piper was the only one whom actually shuffled a little closer to her, so she could look out the window.
'Ehw... that's its leg?'
'Yes. Don't worry, it can see us.' The innkeeper narrowed her eyes.
'Hm. It is going back south again.'
'What's there?'
'Its home.'

'Its palace is in the south? But we come from the south!' Connor yelled so loudly the yeti could probably hear it from outside as well. In the meantime, the other guests had gathered in the mess-hall. Some of them looked like this had been what they had been expecting, some looked panicked, and one guy was jumping up and down yelling about how he needed to go outside (he was being restrained by his teammates).
The innkeeper rolled her eyes. 'It's palace is hidden by magic. Mist.'
'Wait, so it does have a palace!?' Connors' tone changed like the wheather in the Netherlands. Piper rolled her eyes. 'You should not have said that.' The innkeeper shrugged, while looking outside one more time - the Big Foot was walking away from the inn. Good. That way she might be able to still catch up on some sleep.

The Yeti walked through the Himalaya. He knew he had just passed an inn, but he did not care about those puny humans as long as they left him alone. He was really feeling some relaxing time right now - leaving footprints all over the place was harder work than people thought it was. He could already see the towers of his palace in the distance. What a nifty little thing, mist. Could hide an entire yeti-sized gold-and-silver three-story big palace away from nosy demigods.