Rick Riordan
The Titan’s Curse - 03
There was no way to stop them. Zoe and Bianca fired at their heads point-blank, but the
arrows just whistled straight through their empty skulls. One lunged at Bianca, and I 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?" Zoe 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 us back,
keeping us at baton's length.
"Plan?" I said as we retreated.
Nobody answered. The trees behind the skeletons were shivering. Branches were cracking.
"A gift," Grover muttered.
And then, with a mighty roar, the largest pig I'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 us.
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," Zoe 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. Zoe and Bianca dived out of the way. I
had to push Grover so he wouldn't get launched into the mountain on the Boar Tusk Express.
"Yeah, I feel blessed!" I said. "Scatter!"
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 that 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 tusks 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!" Zoe 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 for bad luck. When the boar