Pyrrhic

━━ VIII

THEY RODE THE BOAR UNTIL SUNSET, which was when all of them started to let out whines. She had no idea how many miles they had covered, but the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until they were galloping across the desert. As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.

"This is as far as he'll go," Grover said. "We need to get off while he's eating."

Nobody needed convincing, everyone eager to leave the wild beast. They slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then they waddled away as best they could, as it seemed everyone was in pain, and Lyra was happy to notice she did not feel the same muscle soreness as they did.

After its third cactus 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 guessed.

"I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."

Ahead of them was a 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 had not been open for a long while, and a white post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills... but then she noticed they were not regular hills. The hills were enormous mounds of old cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.

"Whoa," Percy 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 Lyra, or to the ones that were not a satyr, but Grover looked concerned.

"That's us," he said. "Those six nuts right there."

"Which one is me?" Percy asked.

"The little deformed one," Zoë suggested.

They all chuckled, even Lyra. Zoë's one-sided grudge against Percy reminded her of the relationship between Michael and Marisol. It was fun to watch. Until things went too deep.

"Oh, shut up."

"That cluster right there," Grover said, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."

"A monster?" Thalia asked.

Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge..."

He pointed straight toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet.

They decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. None of them wanted to get into the junkyard in the dark, not when the satyr had said it was trouble.

Zoë and Bianca produced six sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. When Zoë handed Lyra her own, she said, "Thank Artemis we always bring a spare."

Lyra only smiled sheepishly.

The night got chilly fast, so Grover and Percy collected old boards from the ruined house and Thalia zapped them with an electric shock to start a campfire. Pretty soon they were as comfortable as they could be in their circumstances, the golden fire illuminating their faces and making Lyra appreciate them in another light–quite literally.