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—SOMEHOW, the boar was even more uncomfortable to ride than Blackjack had been. Maybe it was because Judith was smushed between two people instead of just Percy's back ( and even then, she'd done her best to keep as little contact with him that time ). At least Bianca wasn't a terrible option to have in front of her. She could do without Percy breathing in her ear, though.
The discomfort also could have been a result of how long they'd been on the thing. They rode until sunset with very few breaks, which ended up being a little less than nine hours ( Judith was begging to get off by the third ).
They knew their time aboard the wild boar was upon them when they crossed a great plain into a desert.
The land without rain.
Everyone was thinking it, and everyone was thinking about what it implied. The prophecy had been pretty clear that one would be lost during this quest, and the last time a prophecy had said that, Bryce died. Judith didn't have high hopes.
Everyone was cautious as they got off the boar, hesitant to alert the boar of their departure. Grover slowly released the charm on the apple and they bolted away from its vicinity. After a quick sprint to a safer distance, they slowed to a walking pace.
Eventually, they walked far enough that they came across a billboard and a town. Well, ghost town.
GILA CLAW, ARIZONA
It was a total dump. Literally.
There were a few decrepit pop up buildings that were falling apart with time. The one building that seemed to be holding up well was like a campground manager's office, and the sign out front read 'OUT FOR LUNCH! WILL RETURN IN 4 EONS.'
As Judith stared out at the piles of junk, she lightly thought that Beckendorf would have a total field day. He was always complaining when Hephaestus' supply of monthly metal ran out. The god was pretty gracious when it came to giving the camp a share of his own materials, but he was strict about limiting their intake. But out here ... it would be enough to recreate their whole armory two hundred times over.
"Whoa," Percy had to say.
Judith, although constantly in the Hephaestus basement requesting more and more weapons, had never been all that great with the actual construction part. Beckendorf, on a particularly busy and stressful day, had snapped that she should learn how to create her own swords and daggers since she was so keen on bossing him around to do it. Well, she had tried — if just to prove that she could do it if she really wanted to — and had failed, miserably. It took three buckets of water to stop the fire and after that, Beckendorf had resigned to making whatever she wanted. So even though she was awful with that part, she could totally admire the different things in this junkyard.
