𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 - 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐲 𝐣𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐱 𝐨𝐜

¸„.-•~*°˜¨ 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 ¨˜ˆ°*~•-.„¸

They 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.

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

Grover looked uneasy. "That's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first."

Phoenix tried not to get too depressed about their chances. She didn't want to send Grover into a panic, but she knew they had another huge deadline looming, aside from saving Artemis in time for her council of the gods.

The General had said Annabeth and Davey would only be kept alive until the winter solstice. That was Friday, only four days away. And he'd said something about a sacrifice. Phoenix didn't like the sound of that at all.

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."

"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."

Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you two go get us some food. Percy, Bianca, Phoenix, and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

They all agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. Bianca looked a little uncomfortable going with the half-bloods, 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.

"Awe, Percy it's your twin."

Percy glared at her.

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."

"But the clerk said-"

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

Percy let her go. He knew how it felt to be restless. All half-bloods had attention deficit problems because of their inborn battlefield reflexes. They couldn't stand just waiting around. Also, Percy had a feeling Thalia was still upset over their conversation last night about Luke.

"I'm gonna get a smoothie," Phoenix said, walking into the coffee shop

Bianca and Percy stood awkwardly. Percy was never very comfortable talking one-on-one with girls anyway (except for Phoenix of course), and he'd never been alone with Bianca before. He wasn't sure what to say, especially now that she was a Hunter and everything.

"Nice rat," she said at last.

Percy set it on the porch railing. Maybe it would attract more business for the store.