Indigo Eyes

Chapter 53

Percy woke first the next morning, the train still going as he took out his pen and studied the name inscribed on it in Ancient Greek, and he was sure that it was the weapon he'd seen in his dream along with Zoë Nightshade.

Cressida was still asleep in the seat next to him, looking extremely peaceful, one earbud in as the other had fallen out. Out of curiosity, he picked it up, listening to the symphony of string music that was playing. It seemed to be the cover of a song because it sounded very familiar, but it was oddly relaxing. But while her face seemed peaceful, her body was shivering. Percy didn't hesitate to shed his lion-skin coat as he covered her with it and her body seemed to still. He seemed to be falling asleep again as he laid back, the string music lulling him to sleep, at least until someone knocked on the window.

"Percy," Grover said as opened the door and shook his arm. "The train's stopped. Come on. Get Cressida up."

"Cress? Cressida," Percy called as he rubbed his eyes and gently shook her shoulder as he pulled out her earbud. "Wine Vine, time to get up. We're here," he said as her eyes began to flutter open.

"Hi," she murmured as she woke up and stretched under the lion skin coat.

"Hey," Percy smiled. "Time to go. We're here."

"Thanks for the blanket," she said as she handed him back his coat.

The two of them gathered their things and began to disembark the train.

They arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said Welcome to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. 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. To put it plainly - it was cold.

Even Percy was shivering inside his lion-skin coat, except his cheeks weren't red from just the cold as he walked up next to Cressida who had let her hair out in hopes that it would help keep her warm - even though it did nothing.

"Hey, uh, remember how we stayed warm on Blackjack?" he asked nervously as they walked, Cressida with three layers on as she hugged herself.

"I'd make a joke about how you can't ask me a direct question, or that whole stuck to me like a parasite thing, but it's too cold for that," she replied as she accepted his offer and Percy wrapped the coat around both of them.

As they walked the half mile from the train tracks to Main Street, Percy and Cressida explained to Grover their conversation with Apollo - to seek out Nereus in San Francisco.

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

They had four days until the solstice. That meant four days to save Annabeth and Artemis.

"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 and Cressida go get us some food. Percy, Bianca and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

Percy and Cressida's eyes met, both of them seemingly uneasy about splitting up but they simply offered each other a reassuring nod before they split up, Cressida leaving the warmth of the lion coat and Percy's body. To be honest though, it was taking a lot of energy to keep reminding herself that this wasn't a real lion's skin, that it was a monster, but it was getting harder.