{1} Princess - P. Jackson 🔱

"We're pig cowboys... Pigboys. (Does that exist?)"

🕊️

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.

I was freezing till my soul with the clothes I was wearing, It should be prohibited to go on quests during winter. I kept thinking about the way that I woke up, I started to feel agitated out of nowhere. Maybe the way Percy woke up startled me more than I think it did.

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 Grover.

"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. The rest of us 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. Bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with us, but she did.

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 and magazines, 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."

"Yeah, we don't have time nor money." I mumbled while looking at myself in the mirror.

The clerk looked so lonely, Percy decided to buy a rubber rat. I got a magazine about the last fashion show in France and put it next to Percy's rubber rat.

"We are completely lost and you're buying magazines? For real, Princess?" He paid the man and we stepped outside. 

"You literally just bought a fucking rat, let me read in peace."

"You can't read, your dyslexic ass won't let you." He handed me the magazine.

"Fuck you, Perseus."

"Fuck you, Princess."

"Why don't the two of you fuck each other and shut up?" Thalia said, putting her hands on her hip.

"Ew, Thalia?" I said in a mix of shock and disgust.

"Don't you ever say that again." Percy stepped away from me.

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

"But the clerk said—" Percy started.

"I know," she told him. "I'm checking anyway."

The three of us stood together awkwardly, well, they stood. I sat down at the steps of the porch and started to look at the magazine. I mean... After what Thalia said I'm not talking to Perseus ever again. Bianca was a case apart, I never talked to her after what happened at the school, after all she is a Hunter, maybe they made her mind to not like me.

"Nice rat," she said at last.

Percy set it on the porch railing.

"So... how do you like being a Hunter so far?" He asked.