Gods and Demigods read Altered Destinies

Chapter 7: One Lost in the Land Without Rain

Artemis turned to the page and began to read.

Chapter 7: One Lost in the Land Without Rain

Those who knew what happened looked down in sadness. For all the things she did, Phoebe was still a good person and a sister to the hunters.

As they continued, they saw the next town sitting around five hundred yards away to the left of the road. Sitting in between the questers and the town was a large junkyard that seemed to be abandoned.

Hephaestus raised his eyebrow. He knew exactly what that junkyard was.

"Let's go, the town is right there." Thalia said turning into the entrance of the junkyard.

Thalia frowned. If she hadn't suggested to go through the junkyard, Phoebe could still be alive. But how was she to know that that was Hephaestus's scrapyard?

Percy glanced towards Zoe who looked like she was feeling uneasy about things like he was. Despite their worry, the group followed Thalia through the junkyard. As they walked, Percy looked around at the scrap metal that littered the junkyard.

Percy looked down with regret, wishing that they had found a different way to the other side. If only he had sacrificed himself instead of Phoebe.

"Do you guys see this? It's an automaton head." Thalia said as she picked up the broken head of an automaton.

Thalia couldn't help but allow a tear to roll down her cheek. It was all her fault. She did this to her sister. Clarisse quickly went over to comfort her. "It's not your fault," Clarisse whispered. "She's in Elysium, and she's happy."

"I know, but it still doesn't help what I did," Thalia said sadly.

Percy walked over to Thalia and gave her a comforting hug. "Clarisse is right, Thals," Percy said. "It's not your fault."

Artemis frowned at her future huntress. What had occurred that would cause Thalia to break down? She almost didn't want to know. Was it Zoe? No, Zoe was still there. It obviously wasn't Thalia either, but who?

"Put it down!" Zoe yelled. 

"What? Why?" Thalia asked confused.

Thalia couldn't help but feel sad for her foolishness that caused her sister and friend to die.

"We're in Lord Hephaestus' scrapyard. This place is dangerous, don't touch anything." Percy said worriedly.

"It's too late," Hephaestus frowned.

Before Thalia could reply, the screeching sounds of scraping metals behind them alerted everyone to the trouble. In a matter of seconds, a fifty foot automaton rose from underneath a pile of metal and turned towards the now wide eyed members of the quest.

"Talos." Zoe gasped.

"Wait a second," Leo said. "Why is there a Skyrim character in a greek junkyard?"

"It's not that Talos," Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. "In Greek mythology, Talos was a giant bronze man or an automaton forged by Hephaestus."

"So, I'm guessing by that description that Talos is not a nice guy in this world," Leo said.

"Well not when people try to remove things from the graveyard," Annabeth nodded.