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Chapter 25
Attack of the Killer Skeletons
Volume 3: The Titan's Curse
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Pallas woke up with Pat kneeing him in the side. They had arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. Grover told them that 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.
They were all freezing by the time they got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As they walked, Pat tilted his head to the side, then pulled Pallas closer to Grover and Percy.
"Can't keep secrets from a blind man," Pat said, "Apollo visited us too."
Pallas paled, then tugged his arm out of Pat's grip, "Ami, no," He whispered. Hopefully, it did not sound like begging.
Pat gave him a small nod, but he continued to tell Percy and Grover about his own experience with Apollo. He explained how Apollo had given him his blessing, and how he was no longer sure if Apollo favored him after the way he had spoken to him.
"Do I look any different?" Pat mockingly twirled and laughed, "Do I glow in the dark?"
"You look..." Pallas did not finish his sentence. Nothing he would have said could have made much sense. Pat looked alive in a way he had not yesterday; he looked stronger, sharper, more calm—more powerful. But Pallas did not know how to explain that Apollo's blessing had delicately tweaked Pat's beauty to make him shine. "More or less the same."
Percy finished explaining to them that Apollo had told him to seek out Nereus in San Francisco. Grover looked uneasy, but he tried to stay positive, "That's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first."
Pallas did not want to discuss his meeting with his father, but the quest was more important than his feelings. He reluctantly, quietly said, "I told my father I would save Artemis. We have a deadline, and I do not like how close it is."
Pallas had never seen the solstice meeting before. Camp Half-Blood did field trips up to Olympus in the winter, to watch the council of the Gods, but Pallas had been quiet stubbornly against it since he was ten-years-old. (At age nine, he had a cold and stayed home with Lee and a glass of nectar).
If Artemis was not returned to Olympus in four days, the Olympians would be pushed into action. And Pallas would have failed his father. Both were horrible options.
In the middle of town, they could pretty much see everything from there: a school, a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store. They stopped there and tried to brainstorm ideas.
"Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."
"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.
"Yes," Zoë said. "Coffee is good."
"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."
"They are not French pastries, but they will do," Pallas said snobbishly.
YOU ARE READING
Prophesied Powder, PJO
Fanfiction(Atropos cuts the threads of Human Fate.) Pat was destined for something great. Apollo himself had said it. The only issue is, no one knows what he's meant to do or how he's involved in the so-called Great Prophecy. Percy is the only son of Posideon...
