Son of the Moon

27

-Percy-

As the sun began setting he climbed out of his Viper, wiping his eyes and hoped that they weren't too bloodshot but he could tell from the piercing look Zoe gave him that she knew he had been crying and would be talking to him about it later. Shaking his head he waited for the train to stop before climbing off when the train ground to a halt, just as the sun set in the sky, the rest of the questers quickly following his lead before the train seemed to vanish into the night along with the tracks. Turning to the west he gazed at the looming mountains of metal that lay before him, the entrance to the junkyard of the gods, "We'll camp here for the night," he decided "press on in the morning when we have light to see through the junkyard.".

"What is this place Percy?" Castor asked nervously "It can't be a regular junkyard. It feels…off for some reason.".

"It's the junkyard of the gods," he explained "scrapped ideas, lost weapons, cursed objects, anything the gods no longer wanted or needed was thrown away in here, most of it are simply old little projects of Hephaestus.".

"It also houses many cursed items," Zoe added as she brought out a sleeping roll "so be caution when traversing it.". With that cheerful thought he began collecting boards from a nearby abandoned building to build a fire and take first watch, his fellow quest mates falling asleep as he gazed around the mountainous piles of metal.

"Hello Percy," a voice said to his right as he turned, having sensed the god flash in next to him "it was a wise choice to wait for daylight to go through my junkyard.".

"I didn't want to risk snagging something in the dark or stumbling across a cursed weapon and end up offending you Lord Hephaestus," he said humbly to one of his patrons "I know how…protective you can be of the yard.".

"Protective yes but not at the cost of the life of those dear to me," Hephaestus growled, the smith gods eyes burning like the fires of the forges the being worked "your mother is my Sister Percy, and while I may not be as close to her as Apollo is I still care for her and will do whatever I can to protect and rescue her. Added to that you are my champion. But more than that you are a good man… and I plan to help this quest in the only way I can without breaking the laws.".

"What do you mean?" he asked confused, not realizing what Hephaestus was trying to tell him.

"I've already removed the cursed objects from my yard," Hephaestus said, the god's eyes staring off into the distance of the mountainous piles of discarded objects "and as for the rest…anything you or the questers find that you feel you need and even just a few items you see and may want…take them. Take them with my blessing and bring my sister home.".

"I will Uncle," he promised firmly "I'll rescue them, all of them, and I will make those bastards who took them pay for what they've done.".

"I have one last thing I can tell you before I have to return to Olympus," his Uncle said seriously "I know about the Sparti chasing you and, while they may be a good ways off thanks to the train you took, they will eventually catch up with you. I know there are some Stygian Iron weapons in the yard somewhere so find one, find one and kill those abominations.".

At that statement he gave his Uncle a dark grin, "Gladly Uncle, gladly.".

Partway through the night his shift ended as he let Castor and Katie take over, the two wanting to shift together to be able to have some time alone, or as alone as they could get on a quest, before he went to sleep, eventually being woken up by Zoe who had taken the final shift, his sister staying up longer as she didn't want Thalia to be the only one awake and around his unconscious body….a sentiment he was very grateful for.

"Alright," he said as they packed up their meager campsite "Lord Hephaestus visited me last night and told me that all the cursed objects in the yard have been removed and we can take anything we might need from the yard as well as some objects that we may just want that don't have to do with the quest.".