𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 || 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙮 𝙟𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣¹

009

Percy's ears tinted pink. "Oh, shut up, both of you," He muttered, though a smile was flickering on his face.

Her laugh, Percy thought.

He liked her laugh.

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

"A monster?" Thalia asked.

Grover looked on-edge. "I don't smell anything, which is strange. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge..."

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

They all decided to set up camp for the night and check out the junkyard in the morning. None of them were really feeling the idea on going dumpster diving in the dark.

Zoë and Bianca had produced six sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. Selene didn't know how they did it, because their packs were tiny, but they must've been enchanted to hold that much stuff.

The night got chilly fast, so Percy and Grover collected old boards from the abandoned house, and Thalia zapped them with an electric shock to start the campfire. Pretty soon, they were about as comfy as one can get in a rundown ghost town.

"The stars are out," Zoë said.

She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to turn the sky orange.

Selene felt at peace, here, in the wilderness. She felt animals stir in their sleep, the nocturnal ones just waking up.

She heard the soft rustling of the trees, the breeze carrying many secrets into the wind.

She sighed, and cuddled up into her sleeping bag more.

This was nice.

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

"This is nothing," Zoë replied. "Back in the old days, there were more. Many of constellations have disappeared due to human light pollution."

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

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

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

"But you use you for the beginning of a sentence," Zoë argued.

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

Zoë through her hands up in exasperation. "I hate this language. It changes too often!"

Selene chuckled at her frustrated tone.

That's when she stared up at the stars again. The moon. The moon that reminded her painfully of Artemis.

'She's out there,' Selene thought hopefully. 'We can still save her.'

Percy seemed to be reading her mind. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it — and it mildly surprised him when Selene didn't pull away, instead, intertwining their fingers.

Percy tried not to freak out, but he couldn't help but grin widely at the action.

Grover sighed. He was looking up at the stars like he was thinking about the light pollution problem. "If only Pan were here. He would make things right."

Zoë nodded sadly.

"Maybe it was the coffee," Grover mumbled. "I was drinking coffee, and the wind came. Maybe, if I had more coffee..."