The First Goddess Alexis - Heroes of Old and New

Chapter 9.

Hello everyone. Good to see you all again. 

Once again we have nothing to tell you...

But if you have something to tell us-

Then please do tell us!

(Now on with the story)

(Also thank you for all the reads!)

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We'd arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said 'WELCOME TO CLOUDCFROFT, 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 my lion-skin coat, I was freezing by the time we got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the main tracks. As we walked, I spoke with Zoe about my meeting with Apollo last night. How he told me about Nereus in San Francisco.

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

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!" Grover exclaimed.

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

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

Thalia sighed. "Fine, how about you two go get us some food. Percy, Alexis, Bianca and I 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.

I left Asteria outside and we walked into the store.

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 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 there. Cost several hundred dollars,".

The clerk looked so lonely, Percy bought a rubber rat. Then we 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-" Percy started.

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

He let her go. I knew how it felt to be restless. I waited a long time in the Underworld to get come up here, and demigods also were hard-wired differently. Made to always be ready for battle.

"I'll come too," Percy suggested. Thalia sighed and nodded. Percy gave me his rat and walked away with Thalia.

Bianca and I stood together awkwardly - Asteria was lying on my feet at the moment - I mean... I'm fine with talking to girls. But I've never actually got to know her. I didn't know what to say exactly. 

"It's a nice rat," Bianca said at last.

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