𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐈𝐋¹ || 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐘 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐎𝐍

𝐋

✦ 𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃 ✦

THEY HAD 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.

Even with Percy's lion-skin coat, he was freezing by the time they got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As they walked, Percy and Aurora told Grover about their 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."

Percy tried not to get too depressed about their chances. he didn't want to send Grover into a panic, but he knew they had another huge deadline looming, aside from saving Artemis in time for her council of the gods. The General had said Annabeth would only be kept alive until the Winter Solstice. That was Friday, only four days away. And he'd said something about a sacrifice.

Percy didn't like the sound of that at all.

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

"Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."

"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.

"Oh, please!" Aurora beamed.

"Yes," Zoë said. "Coffee is good."

"And pastries," Grover said dreamily, "And wax paper."

Thalia sighed, "Fine. How about you three go get us some food. Percy, Bianca, and I will check in at the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

They agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes (despite Percy looking at Aurora as if telling her to come with him instead.) Bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with Percy and Thalia, but she did.

Inside the store, they found out a few valuable things about Cloudcroft: there wasn't enough snow for skiing, the grocery store sold rubber rats for a dollar each, and there was no easy way in or out of town unless you had your own car.

"You could call for a taxi from Alamogordo," the clerk said doubtfully. "That's down at the bottom of the mountains, but it would take at least an hour to get here. Cost several hundred dollars."

The clerk looked so lonely.

Percy bought a rubber rat. Then they headed back outside and stood on the porch.