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Chapter 26
We Visit the Junkyard
of The God's
Volume 3: The Titan's Curse
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They rode the boat until sunset, uncomfortable and sore. Pallas couldn't tell how many miles they covered, but the mountains faded at one point. Now they were surrounded by flat, dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until they were moving 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 saguaro 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. They slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then they waddled away as best they could with their saddle sores. 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 guessed.
"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 had not 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 they noticed they were 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.
"Whoa," Percy said.
"Small town," Pallas whispered to Pat, "The hills are made of garbage."
"It's a junkyard," Thalia said, "Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," 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 Pallas, but Grover looked concerned.
"That's us," he said. "Those seven nuts right there."
"Which one is me?" Percy asked.
"The little deformed one," Zoë suggested.
"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 go Dumpster-diving in the dark.
Zoë and Bianca produced seven sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. Pallas added that to the Hunters ever growing list of enchanted objects—their bags that could carry anything, their bows that appeared whenever they needed them.
YOU ARE READING
Prophesied Powder, PJO
Fanfiction(Atropos cuts the threads of Human Fate.) Pat was destined for something great. Apollo himself had said it. The only issue is, no one knows what he's meant to do or how he's involved in the so-called Great Prophecy. Percy is the only son of Posideon...
