Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
87
87
middle of the trunk.
"You cannot imprison me!" he bellowed. "I am Hyperion! I am—"
The bark closed over his face.
Grover took his pipes from his mouth. "You are a very nice maple tree."
Several of the other satyrs passed out from exhaustion, but they'd done their job well. The
Titan lord was completely encased in an enormous maple. The trunk was at least twenty feet in
diameter, with branches as tall as any in the park. The tree might've stood there for centuries.
The Titan's army started to retreat. A cheer went up from the Athena cabin, but our victory
was short-lived.
Because just then Kronos unleashed his surprise.
"REEEEET!"
The squeal echoed through upper Manhattan. Demigods and monsters alike froze in terror.
Grover shot me a panicked look. "Why does that sound like . . . It can't be!"
I knew what he was thinking. Two years ago we'd gotten a "gift" from Pan—a huge boar that
carried us across the Southwest (after it tried to kill us). The boar had a similar squeal, but what we
were hearing now seemed higher pitched, shriller, almost like . . . like if the boar had an angry
girlfriend.
"REEEEEET!" A huge pink creature soared over the reservoir—a Macy's Thanksgiving Day
Parade nightmare blimp with wings.
"A sow!" Annabeth cried. "Take cover!"
The demigods scattered as the winged lady pig swooped down. Her wings were pink like a
flamingo's, which matched her skin beautifully, but it was hard to think of her as cute when her
hooves slammed into the ground, barely missing one of Annabeth's siblings. The pig stomped
around and tore down half an acre of trees, belching a cloud of noxious gas. Then it took off again,
circling around for another strike.
"Don't tell me that thing is from Greek mythology," I complained.
"Afraid so," Annabeth said. "The Clazmonian Sow. It terrorized Greek towns back in the day."
"Let me guess," I said. "Hercules beat it."
"Nope," Annabeth said. "As far as I know, no hero has ever beaten it."
"Perfect," I muttered.
The Titan's army was recovering from its shock. I guess they realized the pig wasn't after
them.
We only had seconds before they were ready to fight, and our forces were still in a panic.
Every time the sow belched, Grover's nature spirits yelped and faded back into their trees.
"That pig has to go." I grabbed a grappling hook from one of Annabeth's siblings. "I'll take
care of it. You guys hold the rest of the enemy. Push them back!"
"But, Percy," Grover said, "what if we can't?"
I saw how tired he was. The magic had really drained him. Annabeth didn't look much better
from fighting with a bad shoulder wound. I didn't know how the Hunters were doing, but the right
flank of the enemy army was now between them and us.
I didn't want to leave my friends in such bad shape, but that sow was the biggest threat. It
would destroy everything: buildings, trees, sleeping mortals. It had to be stopped.
"Retreat if you need to," I said. "Just slow them down. I'll be back as soon as I can."
Before