03.12

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[act three; chapter twelve     -     the gift, a blessing of pan]

[act three; chapter twelve     -     the gift, a blessing of pan]

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They'd arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO. The air was cold and thin. The roofs of the cabins were heaped with snow, and dirty mounds of it were piled up on the sides of the streets. Tall pine trees loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, though the morning was sunny.

Adonis Storm didn't exactly like the cold, it wasn't really his preferred setting. He didn't like the heat either. He liked fall weather—when it wasn't hot or cold, it was somewhere in between and always ranging at comfortable temperatures. He could wear whatever he wanted, really, and didn't have to worry about his curly hair becoming a frizzy mess two hours into the day.

He could tell that even Percy, with his lion-skin coat, was freezing by the time they got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As they walked, Percy told Grover and Donnie about his and Andy's conversation with Apollo the night before—how he'd told them to seek out Nereus in San Francisco.

Grover looked uneasy. "That's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first."

All Donnie could think was, well, shit. The Solstice was in four days and they had practically no idea what it was they were doing, so, to sum it up: they were pretty much screwed. He knew, deep, deeeep down that they could maybe pull it off. Emphasis on maybe. But knowing them, either they would do it at the very last minute and almost die about seven times along the way...you know what? That's probably what's going to happen.

They stopped in the middle of town. You could pretty much see everything from there: a school, a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.

LUNACY; percy jacksonWhere stories live. Discover now