Blind Sun

Chapter 12 (45) Junkyard of the Gods

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We rode the boar until sunset, which was about as much as my backside could take. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar-riding was. The only comfortable part was me being able to hug Thalia the entire time.

I have no idea how many miles we covered, but we were out of the mountains shadows. And the place we were galloping through felt dry.

As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. From the sound of it he started drinking the muddy water, then ripped something out of the ground and chewed it.

"This is as far as he'll go," Grover said. "We need to get off while he's eating."

Nobody needed convincing. We slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then we waddled away as best we could with our saddle sores.

After its third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled round and galloped back towards the east.

"It likes the mountains better," Percy guessed.

"I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."

Ahead of us was a two-lanes. On one side of the lane was a cluster of what looked to be buildings. Beyond that was a range of hills but they looked strange with areas of random spikes and stuff jetting out. The little light their was also bounced off of it, which was strange for hills.

"The hills are reflecitng light." I pointed out confuesd.

"It's a scarpyard little sun." Thalia told me and I nodded, that made a lot more sense. "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?"

I heard Grover sniffing the wind before he threw something into the sand, then played his pipes. I assume whatever he was doing was working.

"That's us," he said. "Those six 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.

"Looks more like grapes in my opinion." I commented.

Grover sounded uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge..."

His silouhette pointed straight towards the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked ominous.

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Timeskip brought to you by
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Oryx teaching Y/n the Sword Logic
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We decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. None of us wanted to go dump-diving in the dark.

Zoë and Bianca produced six sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. I don’t know how they did it, because the packs were tiny, but they must’ve been enchanted to hold more stuff. I’d noticed their bows and quivers were also magic. I never really thought about it, but when the Hunters needed them, they just appeared slung over their backs. And when they didn’t, they were gone.

The night got chilly fast, so Grover and I collected old boards from the ruined house, and Thalia zapped them with an electric shock to start a campfire. Y/n offered to light it with sunshot, but I'm pretty sure that'd do more than just light it. Pretty soon we were about as comfy as you can get in a rundown ghost town in the middle of nowhere.