The questers arrive in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, a small snowy mountain town with no convenient transportation west. Percy tells Grover that Apollo instructed him to seek Nereus in San Francisco, but Percy is also worried because the General said Annabeth would only live until the winter solstice, now four days away.

While Thalia looks for a way out of town and Grover and Zoë buy food, Percy and Bianca speak alone. Bianca explains that becoming a Hunter makes her feel calmer and freer, and she admits that she wanted a life beyond constantly caring for Nico. She gives Percy more of her and Nico’s strange history: dead parents, a bank trust, lawyers, a hotel stay, and eventual transfer to Westover.

Grover suddenly collapses when a warm, springlike wind passes through town. Birds on his coffee cup come alive, Percy’s rubber rat turns real, and Grover mutters about a gift from the Wild. Thalia returns urgently, and the group tries to leave, but four skeleton warriors in New Mexico State Police uniforms surround them and call for reinforcements.

Percy attacks first and discovers that his Nemean Lion coat is bulletproof, but the skeletons re-form after being cut apart. Bianca unexpectedly destroys one by stabbing it with her hunting knife, though she cannot explain how. As the remaining skeletons press the group back, an enormous Erymanthian Boar crashes from the forest and scatters the skeletons with its tusks.

The boar turns on the questers, forcing them to split up. Percy and Thalia lure it uphill along old train tracks, but Thalia freezes at a high trestle bridge, revealing her fear of heights. Percy tackles her off the bridge onto Aegis, using the shield like a snowboard, while the boar breaks the trestle and plunges into a deep snowdrift below.

Grover, Zoë, Bianca, Percy, and Thalia regroup beside the trapped boar. Grover and Zoë insist that the boar is a blessing from the Wild and their best ride west. Grover climbs onto its back, uses his pipes and a floating apple to steer it, and Zoë reveals that the warm presence they felt was Pan, the Lord of the Wild.