"With all the pain,
with all my chaos,
I somehow feel
myself being calm
when I'm next to
you, Percy."
IN WHICH
AELLALINA WALL IS THROWN BACK INTO HER
...
xii. CHAPTER TWELVE The Fears Left Behind ≿————- ❈ ————-≾
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AELLA ACCIDENTALLY PUNCHED PERCY when he shook her awake. She really didn't mean to, it was more of a reflex when her fist lightly ("lightly"— in Aella's opinion) whacked the middle of his face. Her aggressive awakening was a bad habit she had picked up from years of being awoken by life-threatening monsters.
Percy rubbed his nose as to dull the pain, commenting on how her punch was way to powerful to be normal. He seemed to have just waken up, also.
Percy collected himself and explained how she had fallen asleep just in time to narrowly miss a visitation from Apollo. Percy also confirmed her assumption regarding the true identity of the old man that helped them find the train. He then told her that he spent almost five minutes trying to wake her up without result, and everyone was already outside. Percy said it like he was annoyed, but had a restrained smile like he was trying to hold in his laughter.
Aella slapped Percy's hand away when he tried to help her get up out of the car. She pushed herself to her feet and groaned tiredly, dragging her hand down her face (with no pain from her scar). She checked herself— knife, check; jacket, check; locket, check; sword...no check. Aella hoped Evania didn't mind she didn't go back for it after fighting the Nemion Lion. Oh, well.
She smiled at Percy tightly, no actual happiness with it (she hated being awoken, yet also hated sleeping?), silently thanking him for getting her up— a task that was deemed "unbearable" by many. Only the roaring and the stench of monsters woke her without fault.
They'd arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said something along the lines of "WELCOME TO CLEAR CUT, NEW MEAKS." Aella's interpretation was corrected when Thalia said they were in Cloudcraft, New Mexico. Aella didn't dare bring up her mistake, saving herself from the embarrassment and the judging looks she envisioned they would all give her.
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. It reminded her of when at the farm, her grandpa would shovel tons of snow to clear out the goat pens. When he wasn't looking, Aella would sneak on her small snow pants and jump into the freezing mountains, building castles, forming snow angels, creating snowmen families, freezing her hands.. But when he found out, he scolded her for being reckless, then gave her gloves and a puffer coat, much to her surprise.
"Si vas a romper las reglas, If you're going to break the rules," hewould say, "al menos hazlo bien. At least do it right."
