The Junkyard of Destiny - Pt 1
After leaving the airport and failing to find a bus or any way to get out of Albuquerque, because at that exact moment it seemed like the entire world had decided to travel and all the tickets were sold out
The group had no choice but to walk along the highway and hitchhike, hoping some good Samaritan might give them a ride.
Everyone walked in near silence as the sun began to set on the horizon, causing the light it cast to turn a deep reddish color, almost like blood.
Only Grover seemed to have taken the matter seriously; he had pulled out a few acorns and was muttering something about a tracking ritual, since Percy had told him that Apollo wanted him to find the Hunter who had run away. But this was going to be difficult for Grover, since they really had no idea which Hunter had escaped, although Percy could more or less guess who it might be.
As they walked along the road, Bianca eventually moved a little closer to Percy, adjusting the jacket more comfortably around her shoulders.
"Thanks for this. It's still really comfortable. If you ever want it back..." she said while gently squeezing the fluffy fabric of the jacket, seeming to have grown quite fond of it.
"It's fine, you can keep it for now. Ever since the last time I fought a Hydra and something got inside my body, my skin became pretty durable," Percy said, trying to sound confident.
But he realized his words had actually sounded pretty weird. And judging by Bianca's confused expression, they definitely had.
Even so, she let out a small amused smile.
But silence immediately took over again, beginning to feel a little awkward, with only the sound of their footsteps on the highway.
"So, you were in the Lotus Casino. What was it like? Do you know how long you were there? We passed through there the first year I found out I was the son of a god. I'd been framed for stealing Zeus's Master Bolt and a war was about to start between him and my father. So I crossed the entire United States to reach the Underworld and get it back, thinking Hades had taken it. But in the end it was just Ares," Percy said.
For some reason, talking to Bianca came pretty naturally to him, even though he had only known her for a short time. Besides, she seemed to genuinely appreciate his master a lot, so he finally had someone he could talk to about Miraak.
"I don't really have a clear answer for that. I have some mixed up memories after getting out of there. When Mr. Miraak took us to... well, our school. As soon as we arrived, he simply disappeared. It felt like he had been an illusion. If it weren't for the fact that I still had my bow and Nico still had his magic tome," Bianca explained with a somewhat forced smile.
"Yeah. That sounds exactly like my master," Percy said, nodding confidently.
"After that we met a lawyer who suddenly appeared and gave us money and made sure we were okay. But..." Bianca looked at the road while thinking about something. "Other than that, I don't remember much. Just that my whole life I've taken care of my brother. I don't even remember whether I had a mother or a father," she added with a trace of sadness.
"To be honest, Artemis invited me to join the Hunters and I almost accepted. I was tempted by the idea of finally not being the one taking care of Nico twenty four hours a day. Don't get me wrong, I love Nico a lot. He's my brother. But sometimes I'd like a little more freedom. To know what my life would be like without being his sister all the time. So when Thalia invited me to be part of her team, I didn't hesitate much. Besides, you were there. I thought I might get to meet Mr. Miraak one more time," Bianca said.
"Even if it put your life in danger?" Percy suddenly asked, making Bianca look at him.
"Yes. Maybe I took a bigger risk than I realized. And I probably still don't understand the complexity of what we're facing. But right now you're in the group. Grover told me everything you're willing to do for a friend. Of course, that's if you can consider me your friend," she told him with a gentle smile.
Percy looked at her, and automatically his gaze drifted for an instant above Bianca's head before returning to her eyes and giving her a somewhat forced smile.
"Of course you can consider yourself my friend. Though that usually ends pretty badly for the people around me. Grover almost ended up becoming a Cyclops's wife, which is actually a really funny story," he added.
"Hey, don't make fun of my traumas!" Grover said, having overheard that part about his dark past.
That made Bianca laugh for a moment just imagining it, while Percy laughed at his friend. But Grover let it slide this time because he was still trying to track someone without really knowing who he was supposed to be tracking.
"You know... you're a good guy," Bianca suddenly said while laughing as she looked at Percy.
Something that caught Percy completely off guard, making him look at her as if she had just said something absurd.
"The fact that you're saying that after watching me almost murder a Hunter right in front of you is... interesting," he couldn't help but add.
"Well, aside from that, you're still a good guy," she said, amused.
"Hey!" Thalia shouted from the back of the group, where she had been tasked with hitchhiking rides from truck drivers or passing cars, which, by the way, weren't very common.
"What is it?" Percy asked, turning toward her.
"Is it just me, or wasn't that there a moment ago?" Thalia replied while pointing ahead, off the road, almost in the middle of the desert they were crossing.
Percy followed the direction of her finger.
At first he thought it was a mountain, since the sun wasn't providing enough light anymore to properly distinguish it. But as he looked more carefully, he began to make out flashes of light, reflections from cars, rusted iron towers, and mountains of appliances.
Thousands and thousands of tons of scrap metal rising toward the sky.
It was so enormous that it looked like an artificial mountain range born in the middle of the desert.
And so out of place that it almost seemed like a mirage.
As if it had appeared out of nowhere.
At that moment, while everyone stared at the enormous scrapyard, perhaps the largest in the world, Grover interrupted with a confused expression.
"I think I found her," he said.
"Who?" Thalia asked.
"The Hunter Percy told me to look for. I didn't think I'd be able to do it without clues, but..."
Grover looked once more at the acorn spinning in his hand like a compass, pointing directly toward the exact same place they had been staring at moments earlier.
Silence fell over the group.
Percy frowned deeply as he looked at the acorn in Grover's hand. Then he looked at the nearby mountain of scrap. And then his gaze drifted upward toward Bianca's head, or rather toward the thread of destiny extending from her.
Which right now was so dark that it seemed to absorb the light around it.
Even darker than when they had used it in the past to reach Hades.
Showing that they were in danger.
And it pointed completely toward the same direction as the enormous mountain of scrap.
The same mountain Percy had seen when he first looked at Bianca's thread of destiny.
He had even been trying to avoid the direction the thread pointed toward.
But in the end, as if it were unavoidable, and as if every possible path led to the same place, they ended up right there.