The Titans Curse: Apollo's Daughter

A Father's Gift

Skyler's POV

When the train came to a full stop we'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. 

We trudged through the thick snow. It was up to my knees and both Bianca and I were having a hard time trying to keep up with the others.

We 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 Bianca.

"Yes," Zoe said. "Coffee is good."

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

We agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. Inside the store, we 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, I bought a rubber rat and stuffed it into my pocket. Then we 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 cut Percy off. "I'm checking anyway."

"Let her go," I told Percy as he was about to follow the daughter of Zeus as she trudged away. "She just needs some time to think."

A couple hundred yards away, Bianca and Zoe came out of the coffee shop loaded down with pastry bags and drinks. Percy watched Zoe like he knew something that no one else did. It made me feel weird and I don't know why.

Zoe and Bianca handed each of us a cup and a small pastry bag. I was about to take a sip of my coffee when I stopped dead in my track.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked, placing his hand on the small of my back when a small heat wave passed. It seemed only I could feel it though because I felt like I was being boiled alive. I could hear the soft sound of someone playing some kind of string instrument.

Zoe gasped. "Skyler, thy cup."

Percy's POV

Skyler's coffee cup slipped from her hand and into the snow. Skyler collapsed next to her coffee, which steamed against the snow. We gathered around her and tried to wake her up but she wasn't moving. It was like someone had hit her in the back of the head but she had just been standing there.

"Hey!" Thalia said, running up from the street. "I just... What's wrong? What happened?" Thalia looked panicked as she crouched next to Skye.

"I don't know," I said. "She just collapsed."