Indigo Eyes

Chapter 56

"Your faith in me is astounding," Percy said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes.

"This has nothing to do with my faith in you or if I trust you. It has everything to do with past precedent because the past has the tendency to repeat itself. Again, something you'd know if you took Greek History class."

"I did take Greek History class! We only ever covered the gods, their birth and their rise to power," Percy protested and Cressida hummed as she bit her lips.

"Sometimes I forget you're only at camp for like two and a half months each year," she admitted, and he rolled his eyes even as he picked up an electric guitar shaped like Apollo's lyre.

"It's very convenient the pieces of information you choose to forget," he replied as he pretended to be a rockstar on stage.

"Books likes to say that wisdom is power. She saw it as a punchier version of the pen is mightier than the sword," Cressida replied as she gripped a golden rod that looked like part of a larger structure and spun around it.

"But my pen is a sword. Who wins then?" Percy wondered as he set down his guitar/lyre.

Cressida held the pole with one hand as she arched backward, extending her other hand behind her head as she brought up one of her legs, as if she was dancing and being dipped by a partner. "Ask Books when we find her," she replied, her hair dangling down behind her and nearly touching the ground.

"I will," Percy said as she straightened and found herself faced with Percy's outstretched hand. She didn't hesitate to take it as he spun her around a few times, and she laughed as if they couldn't quite possibly be walking to their deaths - or dancing to their deaths. She even got Grover to grin as she took his hands and had him dancing with her as they moved.

"You're a much better teacher than Thalia," he admitted, and she beamed.

"Your secret is safe with me," she promised as they started walking again, Grover giving her one final spin as the edge of the junkyard finally came into view.

"What is that?" Bianca gasped as they all gazed at what lay between them and the lights of a highway stretching through the desert.

It was a hill much bigger and longer than the others.

It was like a metal mesa, the length of a football field and as tall as goalposts. At one end of the mesa was a row of ten thick metal columns, wedged tightly together.

Bianca frowned. "They look like –"

"Toes," Grover said.

Bianca nodded. "Really, really large toes."

Zoë and Thalia exchanged nervous looks.

"Let's go around," Thalia said. "Far around."

"But the road is right over there," Percy protested. "Quicker to climb over."

"And if the machine belonging to that very large foot wakes up?" Cressida wondered before Grover threw a piece of scrap metal towards the toes and hit one before anyone could stop him.

"Why did you do that?" Zoë demanded.

Grover cringed. "I don't know. I, uh, don't like fake feet?"

"You are literally wearing fake feet!" Cressida exclaimed.

"Come on." Thalia looked at Percy. "Around."

This time Percy didn't argue and after several more minutes of walking, they finally stepped onto the highway.

"We made it out," Zoë said. "Thank the gods."

Those turned out to be the magic words as the sound of metal being crushed and they all turned to see the sight of the scrap metal mountain began rising up. The toes were toes after all. The thing that rose up from the metal was a bronze giant in full Greek battle armour. He was impossibly tall – a skyscraper with legs and arms. He gleamed wickedly in the moonlight. He looked down at us, and his face was deformed. The left side was partially melted off.