The hunt is where I belong

The Junkyard

Jasmine POV

We rode the boar until sunset, until the mountains were gone and we were in the middle of a desert.

As we got off, me and Zoë exchanged nervous looks. 

Two of us would be lost here.

Ahead of us, we saw mountains of junk. Grover tensed and dug out the acorns, murmuring a spell and frowned when it made some kind of pattern.

"This is us." he said, pointing at the acorns. "And this is the way to go but..." he pointed to the junkyard "Our next brush with danger is in the junkyard."

"Are you sure?" Thalia asked him.

"Yup." he said. "The acorns don't lie."

We all decided to camp for the night and go through the junkyard the next day. Zoë, Bianca, and I all produced mats for all of us.

I got the fire going while Grover got us some food.

I tilted my head back as I was lying down, watching the stars. I thought about the Astronomy classes I used to take at Hogwarts before I joined the Hunt.

I would always be exhausted the next day after the Astronomy classes, but it was worth it to see the beauty of the stars. Untainted by mortals/muggles.

As I watched the stars, I raised my hand and shadows summoned by my call came to me, forming shapes.

"What's she doing?" Bianca whispered to Zoë. Zoë shushed her as the shadow figures became more distinct.

All of my sisters in the Hunt loved it when I did this. It was something I only did when a new sister joined the Hunt, it was one of my sisters birthday, or Christmas when there was a lot of begging.

I sat up and played with the shadow figures for a bit.

"Which one?" I asked.

"Bianca's new, she gets to choose." Zoë said.

I nodded and waited for her to tell me. "What?" Bianca asked.

"Choose a myth, any myth." I said.

Bianca thought for a minute before deciding.

As she opened her mouth to say what she wanted we were hit with a blazing light from down the road. The headlights of a car appeared out of nowhere.

I was blinded for several moments, so Zoë had to pull me away as she and Bianca pulled our mattresses out of the way as a deathly white limousine slid to a stop in front of them.

The back door of the limo opened right next to Percy. Before he could step away, the point of a sword touched his throat.

Zoë and Bianca drew their bows, Thalia her spear and shield, and I got out my bow blade. As the owner of the sword got out of the car, Percy moved back slowly, as the owner of the sword was pushing the point under his chin.

"Not so fast now, are you, punk?" Ares asked Percy.

"Ares," Percy growled.

The war god glanced around at them.

"At ease, people," he said. He snapped his fingers, and everyone's weapons fell to the ground.

"This is a friendly meeting," Ares said, digging the point of his blade a little further under Percy's chin. "Of course I'd like to take your head as a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."

"What lady?" Thalia asked.

Ares looked over at her. "Well, well, I heard you were back."

He lowered his sword and pushed Percy away.