LUNACY; percy jackson

03.13

"Whoa," She heard Percy whisper, and she couldn't help but agree with him.

"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at Graver. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"

Donnie coughed out a laugh, looking around almost nervously. He fiddled with his hands, twisting the rings on his fingers as his wine colored eyes flickered around the metal graveyard.

Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous as well. 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 me, but Grover looked concerned.

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

"Which one is me?" Percy asked, looking strangely concerned.

"The little deformed one," Zoë suggested.

"Oh, shut up."

Andromeda raised her hand with a small, teasing grin on her face. "No, I agree with her on that one."

"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..."

"That also doesn't mean they aren't nearby." Donnie added, looking at the nuts with narrowed eyes. "Something could be lurking nearby and we wouldn't know. It's probably masked by the stench of...well."

Grover pointed straight toward the junkyard, the son of Dionysus nodding in agreement. 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 go Dumpster-diving in the dark.

Zoë and Bianca produced seven sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. Andromeda wasn't quiet sure how they did it, because the packs were tiny, but must've been enchanted to hold so much stuff. She'd noticed their bows and quivers were also magic, just like hers.

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 about as comfy as you can get in a rundown ghost town in the middle of nowhere.

"The stars are out," Zoë said.

She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to turn the sky orange. Andromeda looked up, looking at tall of the stars in the night sky. She always thought they painted murals with themselves, creating the most wonderful piece of art there is. They were so simple yet extraordinarily complex, so much so that even people like her could never comprehend them.

Her mother used to tell her she was like the stars. Beautiful yet complex. Simple yet chaotic. Loved yet judged.

"Amazing," Bianca said. "I've never actually seen the Milky Way."

"This is nothing," Zoë said. "In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution."

"You talk like you're not human," Percy said.

Zoë raised an eyebrow. "I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?"

"For you," Thalia corrected. "Not thee"

"Oh gods, they're at it again." Donnie groaned.

"But you use you for the beginning of a sentence."

"And for the end," Thalia said. "No thou. No thee. Just you"