──── chapter eight

{ 🔮 }  · percy is kind of nice . ݁ ٬٬ ࣪

THEY WERE CROSSING the Potomac when the group spotted the helicopter. It was a sleek, black military model just like the one they'd seen at Westover Hall. And it was coming straight toward them.

"They know the van," Percy said.

"No shit," Endora muttered.

"We have to ditch it." Zoë swerved into the fast lane.

The helicopter was gaining.

"Maybe the military will shoot it down," Grover said hopefully.

"The military probably thinks it's one of theirs," Percy said. "How can the General use mortals, anyway?"

"Mercenaries," Zoë said bitterly. "It is distasteful, but many mortals will fight for any cause as long as they are paid."

"But don't these mortals see who they're working for?" Percy asked. "Don't they notice all the monsters around them?" 

"Mist is a powerful thing, Percy," Endora said, "I don't know what they see, but I doubt it would matter to them if they knew the truth. Sometimes mortals can be more horrible than monsters." 

The helicopter kept coming, making a lot better time than they were through D.C. traffic.

Thalia closed her eyes and prayed hard. "Hey, Dad. A lightning bolt would be nice about now. Please?"

But the sky stayed gray and snowy. No sign of a helpful thunderstorm.

"There!" Bianca said. "That parking lot!"

"We'll be trapped," Zoë said.

"Trust me," Bianca said.

Zoë shot across two lanes of traffic and into a mall parking lot on the south bank of the river. They left the van and followed Bianca down some steps.

"Subway entrance," Bianca said. "Let's go south. Alexandria."

"Anything," Thalia agreed. 

The group bought tickets and got through the turnstiles, looking behind them for any signs of pursuit. A few minutes later, they were safely aboard a southbound train, riding away from D.C.As the train came above ground, Endora could see the helicopter circling the parking lot, but it didn't come after them.

Grover let out a sigh. "Nice job, Bianca, thinking of the subway."

Bianca looked pleased. "Yeah, well. I saw that station when Nico and I came through last summer. I remember being really surprised to see it, because it wasn't here when we used to live in D.C."

Grover frowned. "New? But that station looked really old."

"I guess," Bianca said. "But trust me, when we lived here as little kids, there was no subway." 

Thalia sat forward. "Wait a minute. No subway at all?"

Bianca nodded. Endora tilted her head. Now, she knew nothing about D.C., but the girl didn't see how their whole subway system could be less than twelve years old. Endora guessed everyone else was thinking the same thing, because they looked pretty confused.

"Bianca," Zoë said. "How long ago. . ." her voice faltered.

The sound of the helicopterwas getting louder again.

"We need to change trains," Percy said. "Next station."

Over the next half hour, all the group thought about was getting away safely. They changed trains twice. Endora had no idea where they were going, but after a while they finally lost the helicopter.

Unfortunately, when they finally got off the train, the group found themselves at the end of the line, in an industrial area with nothing but warehouses and railway tracks. And snow. Lots of snow. It seemed much colder here. Endora had the lion's fur coat hanged from her shoulders, and at one point Percy joined her. She looked at the taller boy with a raised eyebrow, but he only smiled and slanged his hand over her shoulders, pulling her to his body.

They wandered through the railway yard, thinking there might be another passenger train somewhere, but there were just rows and rows of freight cars, most of which were covered in snow, like they hadn't moved in years. A homeless guy was standing at a trash-can fire. The group must've looked pretty pathetic, because he gave them a toothless grin and said, "Y'all need to get warmed up? Come on over!"

They huddled around his fire, Thalia's teeth were chattering. She said, "Well this is g-g-ggreat." 

"My hooves are frozen," Grover complained.

"Feet," Percy corrected, for the sake of the homeless guy. 

"Maybe we should contact camp," Bianca said. "Chiron ─ "

"No," Zoë said. "They cannot help us anymore. We must finish this quest ourselves."

Endora gazed miserably around the rail yard. Somewhere, far to the west, Annabeth was in danger. Artemis was in chains. A doomsday monster was on the loose. And they were stuck on the outskirts of D.C., sharing a homeless persons fire. Wow, where were those thoughts coming from? Endora has never been this afraid for Annabeth. . . is this how you act when you have friends?

"You know," the homeless man said, "you're never completely without friends." his face was grimy and his beard tangled, but his expression seemed kindly. "You kids need a train going west?"

"Yes, sir," Percy said. "You know of any?"

He pointed one greasy hand. Suddenly Endora noticed a freight train, gleaming and free of snow. It was one of those automobile-carrier trains, with steel mesh curtains and a triple-deck of cars inside. The side of the freight train said SUN WEST LINE.

Endora caught the man's eye. He flashed her a toothless grin and gave her a wink. Her eyes widened slightly and she laughed in disbelief. With that, he disappeared in thin air and the girl was the only one to notice.

"That's. . . convenient," Thalia said. "Thanks, uh. . ." her eyebrows furrowed at the empty spot.

The trash can in front of us was cold and empty, as if he'd taken the flames with him. Endora could only smile and follow the rest of the group towards their transport.

An hour later they were rumbling west. There was no problem about who would drive now, because they all got their own luxury car. Zoë and Bianca were crashed out in a Lexus on the top deck. Grover was playing race car driver behind the wheel of a Lamborghini; Thalia had hot-wired the radio in a black Mercedes SLK so she could pick up the alt-rock stations from D.C. and Endora sat in a silver Rolls-Royce, flipping though the pages of her spellbook. Usually, her mother would leave one to two spells every night and each morning the siblings would try them out. But now she was alone.

"Join you?" Percy asked her, appearing by her window, hair mess from the wind and cheeks flushed from the cold.

The girl shrugged, so the boy climbed into the shotgun seat. There was silence in the car, calming but at the same time a bit awkward ─ at least to Percy it was.

"What you doing?"

The girl spared him a glance before turning back to her spellbook, "Reading, like you can see."

"Oh, okay." Percy said, putting his hands in his lap and looking out of the window.

Endora sighed. She could see that he was starting to get fidgety, playing with his fingers or the end of his shirt. His face slowly came back to it's original tan color, and his hair, although still a mess, curled by the wind that blew outside.

"What did you do?"

Percy turned towards her, "Thalia kicked me out."

"For?"

"I brought Luke up."

Endora felt herself wincing. Luke was sore subject for almost everyone at the camp who has been there for long. It was even sore subject for the girl too. Luke was her first friend, someone she could trust, until he broke that. He broke her. He was the older brother she never had, someone who she saw as a part of the family, and yet he turned his back on her and the rest of the camp.

"It's a miracle you're still alive, boy."

"Yeah."

There were a few minutes of silence.

"I'm sorry," Percy said.

"About?" Endora asked. She had fully closed her spellbook, turning her attention to the son of Poseidon. 

"Everything, I guess," Percy sighed, "I shouldn't have ignored you when you were chosen to go on this quest. . . I was a bit of a bitch ─ "

"That you are right."

" ─ but I should have thought how you would feel and how you would react. I might not know you that much ─ like a lot ─ but, I really wanna get to know you and that wasn't a great second impression. I just ─ "

"Want Annabeth back?" Endora said blankly.

"Well, yeah, she's my best friend," Percy said, "But, Artemis is in danger too. Winter Solstice is in a few days and if not all gods are there, there will be chaos. She needs to be there."

Endora hummed. "Thank you for apologizing," she said, "And, I too, want to get to know you I guess. I'm not really a people person, so it's hard to make friends. I like to stay by myself and my spellbook."

"Don't count on that from now on," Percy said with a grin, "Now, you're stuck with me on your side."

"Oh, joy." Endora rolled her eyes.

"You're gonna get used to it," Percy poked her cheek.

Endora shook her head, hiding the small smile behind the chocolate brown curtains of her hair. Her heart was pounding, and there was this weird feeling in her stomach ─ like she was going to be sick, yet she felt totally fine. She didn't know what was happening.

"The Nemean Lion wasn't the monster we're looking for." Percy said.

"Not even close." Endora said, "We've got a long way to go."

"No idea what the monster might be?"

"Why?" Percy asked. "What's so bad about San Francisco?"

"The Mist is really thick there because the Mountain of Despair is so near. Titan magic ─ what's left of it ─ still lingers. Monsters are attracted to that area like you wouldn't believe."

"What's the Mountain of Despair?" 

Endora raised an eyebrow. "You really don't know? Ask Thalia or Zoe. They know better than me."

The afternoon sun shone through the steel-mesh side of the freight car, casting a shadow across Endora's peaceful face. When the girl brought the two girls up, Percy thought about how different Thalia was from Zoë ─ Zoë all formal andaloof like a princess, Thalia with her ratty clothes and her rebel attitude. But there was something similar about them, too. The same kind of toughness. 

Then suddenly, it hit him: "That's why she doesn't get along with Zoë."

Endora laughed, "Figured it out?"

"The Hunters tried to recruit her," Percy guessed. "You knew?"

"I hear a lot of things," Endora said, "Spending most of my time in the shadows and all. You don't want to hear some things. . . But yeah, Thalia almost joined them. Luke, Annabeth, and Thalia ran into them once, and Zoë tried to convince her. She almost did, but. . ."

"But?" 

Endora sighed, "She would've had to leave Luke." 

"Oh."

"From what I heard, Zoë and Thalia got into a fight. Zoë said Thalia was being stupid. She said she'd regret her choice. She said Luke would let her down someday." 

"That's harsh," Percy said. "Hard to admit Zoë was right."

Endora didn't say anything. She knew Percy was right, but the truth always hurt.

"I wanted to join the Hunters when Artemis first made the offer."

Percy looked at her with his mouth agape, before going back to normal; although, Endora noticed, his eyebrows were a little bit furrowed. He bit the inside of his cheek, trying not to say anything rude, "You did?"

Endora nodded, "I mean the benefits are just. . . awesome! You get to be immortal, go hunting with the badass girls who have your back no matter what and are always there for each other. Travel the world, hunting for the most evil monsters and getting rid off them so the world could be better. . . what more do you need to ask for!. . . and I could get away with my curse. Get away from the spirit that is possessing my body. Be free."

Percy swallowed, "It sounds. . . perfect."

"It does."

"But, what about the camp? You siblings, friends, people that care for you!" Percy said, "Would you leave them."

Endora smiled, "Those are the reasons I didn't join, Jackson." she sighed, "I couldn't leave Lou Ellen nor Basil. They're still learning and need someone to show them to take care of them."

Percy turned towards her, and Endora felt her whole body warming up despite the cold. He flashed her a smile, one that would be printed in her mind forever a smile that will brighten her day when something wrong happens and a smile that could make her feel that strange feeling in her stomach.

"You're the nicest person I've met," Percy said, "Beside my mother, of course."

Endora laughed, a genuine laugh, "Didn't know Percy Jackson is a mama's boy."

"And he is not ashamed of it."

They'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 the lion-skin coat that Percy insisted for Endora to wear, she was freezing by the time they got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As they walked, Endora listened about Percy's conversation with Apollo the night before ─ how he'd told the boy to seek out Nereus in San Francisco.

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

The group 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!" Endora said, "Please, coffee sounds amazing right now."

"Yes," Zoë agreed. "Coffee is good."

"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."

"Just coffee."

Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you three go get us some food. Percy, Bianca, and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

They agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes and Endora couldn't wait to get her hands on some hot, brewed coffee.

"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.

Endora 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. Percy's 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. They 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," Percy 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."

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 gray camouflage, they were wearing blue New Mexico State Police uniforms, but they had transparent gray skin and yellow eyes. They drew their handguns.

Thalia tapped her bracelet. Aegis spiraled to life on her arm, but the warriors didn't flinch. Their glowing yellow eyes bored right into Percy. He drew Riptide, while Zoë and Bianca drew their bows, but Bianca was having trouble because Grover kept swooning and leaning against her.

"Back up," Thalia said.

"No, stop," Endora told her friends, stepping forward, missing the way Percy tried to pull her away. Her demeanor was calm, her brown eyes bored into those yellow of the skeletons, not giving into their cowardly act. "Ego sum filius necromantiae, proles Hecates, magicae tenebrarum possessor. I am the child of necromancy, the child of Hecate, the holder of the magic of darkness." she said, keeping her stare hard on skeletons.

The skeletons stopped their attacks. They made a clattering, clicking sound, like dry teeth on bone, like a hissing sound, "Consurge, Hecaten, ne sis ineptus. Magicae tenebrae vos edent. Stand down, child of Hecate, do not be foolish. The dark magic will eat you out."

"Noli me minoris aestimo, Do not underestimate me," Endora said, her hands sparking with black magic, "Magia quae per venas meas fluit non me occidet. Non me occidet. Magic that flows through my veins will not kill me. She will not kill me." she tilted her head to one side, a sly smirk appearing on her lips, "Sed necabo te. But I will kill you."

As she said those words, the magic from her hands shot at the skeletons, blasting them backwards into flames, leaving a little pile of ashes.

"Now!"

And the group charged

The first skeleton fired. Time slowed down. Percy won't say he could see the bullet, but he could feel its path, the same way he felt water currents in the ocean. The boy deflected it off the edge of his blade and kept charging. The skeleton drew a baton and Percy sliced off his arms at the elbows. Then he 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 Percy and tried to fire, but the boy knocked his gun into the snow. Percy thought he was doing pretty well, until the other two skeletons shot him in the back.

"Percy!" Thalia screamed.

Son of Poseidon landed facedown in the street. Then he realized something. . . he wasn't dead. He looked up. Endora was glaring at the two skeletons, her arm outstretched and hand closed in a fist. As she opened her hand, the skeletons burst into flames. Percy blinked a couple of times.

Wow.

Thalia charged the second skeleton. Zoë and Bianca started firing arrows at the third and 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 their left, like a bulldozer. Maybe the skeletons' reinforcements were arriving.

Percy got to his feet and ducked a police baton. The skeleton he'd cut in half was already fully re-formed, coming after him. 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 Percy 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 three skeletons were wary of her now. They pressed the group back, keeping them at baton's length.

"Plan?" Percy said as they retreated. "Some crazy magic?"

"I could - " Endora begun.

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

"A gift," Grover muttered.

And then, with a mighty roar, the largest pig Percy'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 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 the group.

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."

"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. Percy had to push Grover so he wouldn't get launched into the mountain on the Boar Tusk Express.

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

It seemed a fair question to Percy, but the pig was offended and charged her. She was faster than the boy'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.

Percy racked his brain, trying to remember the myth of the boar. He was pretty sure Hercules had fought this thing once, but he couldn't remember how he'd beaten it. The boy had a vague memory of the boar plowing down several Greek cities before Hercules managed to subdue it. He 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 Endora, Thalia and Percy won the prize for bad luck. When the boar turned on them, 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 them.

Endor ran like her life depended on it. Well, it actually did.

The three of them only managed to keep ahead of it because they ran uphill, and they 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.'"

Percy grabbed Endora's and Thalia's arm and they ran along the rails while the boar roared behind them, slipping and sliding as it tried to navigate the steep hillside. Its hooves just were not made for this, thank the gods. Ahead of them, Endora saw a covered tunnel. Past that, an old trestle bridge spanning a gorge.

"Follow me!" Percy said.

Thalia slowed down, but Percy pulled her along and she reluctantly followed. Behind them, a ten-ton pig tank was knocking down pine trees and crushing boulders under its hooves as it chased them. The three demigods ran into the tunnel and came out on the other side.

"No!" Thalia screamed. She'd turned as white as ice. They 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 them.

"Come on!" Percy 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!" Percy yelled at Thalia. She looked down and swallowed.

"Come on, Thals!" Endora said, trusting her hand down as she stabilized the bridge with her magic.

And that's when Percy tackled Endora and Thalia and sent them sideways off the edge of the bridge, into the side of the mountain. They slid on Aegis like a snow-board, 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!

Endora, Thalia and Percy skidded to a stop. They were all breathing hard. Percy was cut up and bleeding. Thalia had pine needles in her hair, and Endora had a gash on her cheek. Next to them, the wild boar was squealing and struggling. All Endora 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.

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

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

"So not the time, Jackson," Endora muttered.

She examined his face. There were small cuts around his face, one close to his mouth looked the worst. Without much thinking she grabbed his face into her hand, making the boy fall a bit over and almost making them fall into snow.

"Endora," Percy begun, but she cut him off as her hand rested over his mouth. The cut begun to fade, leaving no scars behind. The girl wiped off the blood that was left behind and did the same to the rest of the cuts.

She patted his cheek after finishing her work, "There you go. Brand new."

"Um, thanks." he awkwardly smiled.

Above them, Grover's voice called, "Helloooooo?"

"Down here!" Percy shouted.

A few minutes later, Zoë, Bianca, and Grover joined them. 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."

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."

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?" Endora asked,

Grover didn't seem to hear her. 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 them.

Zoë and Bianca walked toward the boar. Endora followed them, letting Zoë help her up.

"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 the boy like he was an idiot. "The Lord of the Wild, of course. Just for a moment, in the arrival of the boar, I felt the presence of Pan." 

niki speaks!

last day of school!! yess!!
am so excited for more free time just to
do nothing,
although, i'm planning on going to help
my father when he goes to work in
the field to earn some money
( most of students do it during the summer)
so yeah.

but that won't stop me from writing,
especially when i have more stories to
show you.

endora in action is just something
everyone needs to see and i love my
badass baby sm.

have a nice day/night!
bye!