Sealed fate || Percy Jackson

I • IX

Chapter nine: "Bumpy Ride."

They'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.

Even with his lion-skin coat, Percy was freezing by the time we got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As they walked, he told Grover about my conversation with Apollo the night before—how he'd told me to seek out Nereus in San Francisco.
Grover looked uneasy. "That's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first."

Percy tried not to get too depressed about our chances. He didn't want to send Grover into a panic, but he knew we had another huge deadline looming, aside from saving Artemis in time for her council of the gods. The General had said Annabeth would only be kept alive until the winter solstice. That was Friday, only four days away. And he'd said something about a sacrifice. He didn't like the sound of that at all.

Nara was really thoughtful as well, the dream she had last night really left her with a bad sensation through all her body, what did that dream meant? Aggh, if at least she could talk to her father. When your parents rule the universe really was brutal. She could kinda understand Luke choices sometimes.
They were going to rescue Arthemis and Annabeth while the other gods just stay in their thrones thinking important thoughts or something.
But on the other hand, she also knew that Kronos' ways weren't right either.

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."

"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.

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

“Ohh, I’m dying for a White mocha” Nara said dreamily.

"And pastries," Grover said with the same tone. "And wax paper."

Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you three go get us some food. Percy, Bianca, 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.

Inside the store, they 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, Percy bought a rubber rat. Then they 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."