The King

Chapter 33

Chapter 33: The Talk

Narrator's POV

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.

Even with his lion-skin coat, Thalia 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 Grover and Thalia 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."

They stopped in the middle of town. You could 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."

Percy sighed. "Fine. How about you two go get us some food? Thalia, Bianca, and I will check in at 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 Percy, 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 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.

Thalia, being restless, decides to go and ask other shop owners.

All half-bloods had attention deficit problems because of their inborn battlefield reflexes. She couldn't stand just waiting around.

It was just Percy and Bianca... Percy had nothing to say to her so they remained in silence

"Nice rat," she said, at last, being unable to handle it. She and Percy were friends until she made this decision, now he doesn't even look at her anymore.

He set it on the porch railing. Sighing as he continued going along with her convo

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

She pursed her lips. "You're not still mad at me for joining, are you?"

"...."

Percy stayed silent waiting for her to answer his question.

"Being a Hunter is cool. I feel calmer somehow. Everything seems to have slowed down around me. I guess that's the immortality."

I stared at her, trying to see the difference. She did seem more confident than before, more at peace. She didn't hide her face under a green cap anymore. She kept her hair tied back, and she looked me right in the eyes when she spoke.

"Immortality is cool... I'd be immortal too... If I wanted to look like this forever."

Percy mumbled to himself; Chaos had offered immortality, Nyx had done it, and Aphrodite once made lunch for him with Golden apples, thinking he wouldn't know he pitted