Olivia Anworth liked to know everything. She knows nothing about Percy Jackson.
Percy Jackson seemed to know nothing. He has no problem getting to know about Olivia Anworth.
Annabeth Chase thought she knew everything. Alice Rosario changed that.
Ali...
They rode the boar until sunset, and it was about as comfortable as riding giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day.
At some point, the view of mountains disappeared and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until they were galloping (do boars gallop?) across the desert.
As night fell, the boar came to a full stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.
"This is as far as he'll go," Grover announced. "We need to get off while he's eating."
Nobody needed convincing. They all slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. and waddled away as best they could with the saddle sores they got. Or maybe it was just Percy.
After its third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.
"It likes the mountains better," Percy surmised.
"I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."
Ahead of them was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't been open since before Zoë Nightshade was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills... but not regular hills. The countryside was way too flat for that. The hills were enormous mounds of old cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.
"Well, shit," Alice said.
"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"
Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to Percy, but Grover looked concerned. Alice did too, and Percy wondered if she recognized the pattern after growing up with satyrs.
"That's us," Grover explained. "Those six nuts right there."
