𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒐𝒓𝒔－ 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐲 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐨𝐧

𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏.

I 011. I

𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒐𝒓𝒔

❝ limo ❞

SUNSET HAD FALLEN. They had been riding all day, which was about as much as everyone's back ends could take. Her back was killing her and her tailbone felt as if it had been dented by the long period of sitting.

She didn't know how many miles they'd covered, but the mountains had faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land. Grass and shrub brush grew sparser until they were galloping ( if boars can gallop ) across the desert.

Night fell and the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking muddy water, ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and started chewing it, needles and all.

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

Nobody needed to be convinced. They slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti.

After it's third saguaro and another long sip of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.

"It likes the mountains better," Percy guessed.

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

Ahead of them was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door.

Beyond was a range of hill... but they weren't regular hills. The countryside was way too flat for that. The hills were enormous mounds of old cars, appliance, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.

"Whoa," Ariadne said.

"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?

Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves into a pattern that made no sense to Ariadne, but Grover looked concerned.

"That's us," he said. "This six buts there."

"Which one is me?" Percy asked.

"The little deformed one," Zoe suggested.

Ariadne snorted.

"Oh, shut up."

"That cluster right there," Grover said, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."

"A monster?" Thalia asked.

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

He pointed straight towards the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet.

They decided to camp out for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. No one wanted to go dumpster-diving in the dark.

Zoe and Bianca produced five sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. They were magic, allowing them to fit as much stuff as hey wanted in there without the weight. Ariadne has to explain quietly to Percy about how that worked and how their bows appeared and disappeared with their will, and she just told him it was because Artemis made them that way.