𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩

Chapter μ

Mu - 12
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Snowboarding Beast

  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.

  Even with his lion-skin Shawl and his usual resistance to temperature, (y/n) was shivering by the time they got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As they walked, Cyrus told (y/n) and Grover about his conversation with Apollo the night before—how he'd told him to seek out Nereus in San Francisco.

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

  (y/n) 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. (y/n) 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 cafes, 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.

  "Yes," Zoë said. "Coffee is good."

  "Oh, I'm starving for caffeine!" Brooklyn hummed.

  "I could go for a hot cocoa," Cyrus sighed.

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

  Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you guys go get us some food. (y/n), Nico, Bianca, and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

  The group agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. Bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with them, but she did.

  Inside the store, they found out a few valuable things about Cloudcroft: there wasn't enough snow for skiing (which was a bummer), 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, thing (y/n) almost audibly groaned about. He knew hotwiring those cars would've been good!

  "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, (y/n( bought a rubber rat. Then they headed back outside and stood on the porch.

  "Wonderful," Thalia grumped. "I'm going to walk down the street, see if anybody in the other shops has a suggestion."

  "But the clerk said—"

  "I know," she told (y/n). "I'm checking anyway."

  Nico excitedly raised his hand. "Oh, oh! Can I come with?"

  "Sure...?"

  (y/n) let them go. He knew how it felt to be restless. Most half-bloods had attention deficit problems because of their inborn battlefield reflexes. They couldn't stand just waiting around. Ironic, since (y/n) could manhandle his way through many battles, slaying monsters and overpowering opponents, but he'd be out of his mind if he was forced to sit still for more than 15 minutes.