𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒐𝒓𝒔－ 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐲 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐨𝐧

𝑻𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆.

"It is," Thalia said grimly. "Like Percy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods."

"Junk?" Grover picked you a beautiful crown made of gold, silver, and jewels. It was broken on one side, as if it had been split by an axe. "You call this junk?"

He bit off a point and began to chew. "It's delicious!"

Thalia swatted the crown out of his hands. "I'm serious!"

"Look!" Bianca. She raced down the hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. She picked up a bow that glowed silver in the moonlight. "A Hunter's bow!"

She yelled in surprised as the bow began to shrink, and become a hair clip shaped like a crescent moon. "It's just like Percy and Ariadne's swords!"

Zoe's face was grim. "Leave it, Bianca."

"But—"

"It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is defective. Or cursed."

Bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down.

"I don't like this place," Thalia said. "She gripped the shaft of her spear.

"You think we're going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?" Percy asked.

She gave him a hard look. "Zoe is right, Percy. Things get thrown away here for a reason. Now come on, let's get through this yard."

"That's the second time you've agreed with Zoe," Ariadne muttered, but Thalia ignored her.

They started picking their way through the hills and valleys of junk. The stuff seemed to go in forever, and if it hadn't been for the Ursa Major, they would've gotten lost. All the hills pretty much looked the same.

None of them left the stuff alone, a lot of it was cool. Percy found an electric guitar shaped like Apollo's lyre that he picked up, plucking a few strings only to hear a dead sound. Ariadne has picked up a small crown which shimmered in the moonlight. It had small diamonds and sapphires coating the rim, and it made her think that it was something a princess would wear.

Finally, they saw the edge of the junkyard about half a mile ahead of them, the lights of a highway stretching through the desert. But between us and the road...

"What is that?" Bianca gasped.

Ahead of them was a hill much bigger and longer than the others. It was like a metal mess, the length of a football field and as tall as goalposts. At one end of the Mesa was a row of ten thick metal comuna wedges tightly together.

Bianca frowned. "They look like—"

"Toes," Grover said.

Bianca nodded. "Really, really large goes."

Zoe and Thalia exchanges nervous looks.

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

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

Ping!

Thalia hefted her spear and Zoe drew her bow, but they realized it was only Grover. He had thrown a piece of scrap metal at the toes and hit one, making a deep echo, as if the column were hollow.

"Why did you do that?" Zoe demanded.

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

Ariadne narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. "Says the guy who wears fake feet all the time."

Grover gave her a coy smile.