Olivia Anworth liked to know everything. She knows nothing about Percy Jackson.
Percy Jackson seemed to know nothing. He has no problem getting to know about Olivia Anworth.
Annabeth Chase thought she knew everything. Alice Rosario changed that.
Ali...
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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝟔: 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐆𝐞𝐭𝐬𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐊𝐢𝐬𝐬
December 18, 2019
THE NEXT MORNING, PERCY AWOKE TO LEARN THEY'D ARRIVED ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF A SKI TOWN SOMEWHERE IN THE MOUNTAINS.
There was a sign that 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 (or as Alice called them, Thalia trees) loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, despite the sunny morning.
Despite his coat, Percy was freezing by the time they made it to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As they walked, Percy relayed the conversation they'd had with Apollo to Grover, and how the sun god 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 didn't like their chances. Not only did they have to save Artemis in time for the council meeting, but General had said Olivia would only be kept alive until after the winter solstice. That was Saturday, only four days away. And he'd said something about a sacrifice. Percy couldn't help but feel sick.
Since Artemis had taken the sky, Percy wondered where Olivia was now, what with her being taken away by Luke after the moon goddess took her place.
They stopped in the middle of town, where Percy could pretty much see everything from: 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!" Grover said cheerfully.
"Yes," Zoë said. "Coffee is good."
"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."
Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you two go get us some food. Percy, Bianca, Alice, and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."
"Why not three and three?" Percy asked.
"Because neither you, me, or Pinecone are going with Zoë and to be honest, I don't trust Grover not to scare the hell out of Bianca," Alice mumbled to him.
"Oh," he said.
They agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. Bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with them, but she looked at Alice and apparently decided it was worth it.
Inside the store, they managed to find 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.
