𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗗 ⋆━━⋆ percy jackson

𝐱. skeletons from mario bros try to kill them

THEY'D ARRIVED on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains.

Cassie remembered when she was six, her mother's boyfriend had taken her and her mom to ski. Cassie had loved it, until one of the skies bumped into her, she couldn't stop crying.

Her mother's boyfriend, had gotten mad at her, but her mother made her hot cocoa, while he skied the two girls watched Christmas movies.

It was one of Cassie's best memories with her mother.

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.

Even with Percy's lion-skin coat, Cassie was freezing by the time they got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks.

As they walked, Percy told Cassie about his conversation with Apollo the night before-how he'd told him to seek out Nereus in San Francisco.

"At least we know where to go now."

Cassie tried to be positive, but it was hard. They didn't have much time left until the winter solstice.

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."

"What would we ever do without your positivity?"

Zoë frowned. "Thalia wasn't being positive."

Suddenly Grover said, "there's a coffee shop!"

"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. Bianca, Percy, Cassiopeia, and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

They agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes.

Bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with them, but she did.

Cassie applied some gloss and flipped her hair, she went straight up to the cashier.

He looked about sixteen, a year older than them, with freckles and blonde hair. He gaped at Cassie.

"Hi," she smiled. "is there any place where we could get a car or something?"

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

She smiled, "thanks!"

The boy looked at how the four left the shop. "Thanks to you!"

Then they headed back outside and stood on the porch.

Percy didn't look happy, Cassie didn't really know why. "Was that necessary?"

"Doing what?"

"That."

Cassie shrugged and popped a bubblegum ball in her mouth. "We got the information, didn't we?"

Thalia left to check the other shops, so it was just Percy, Bianca and Cassie.

Cassie offered her bubblegum. "Anyone?"

Bianca took one, Percy still looked pissed- Cassie didn't know why.