The Nature of a Demigod

Bone Chilling Cold

[Percy's POV]

After Grover woke me from my dream, I stepped off the train and looked around at the people on this quest.

Zoe, the former whatever she was, betrayed by a demigod hero, adjusting the silver circlet on her head.

Bianca, the daughter of some god we hadn't yet identified, testing the string on her bow.

Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, tucking her fake can of mace into her pocket.

Grover, the satyr, shivering, despite his fur.

And Y/N. The son of Artemis, and a half titan. When I had seen him last night, he looked inconsolable, but now, he had a look of determination, and a more sure expression.

I looked out at the town in front of us.

We'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 my lion-skin coat, I was freezing by the time we got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As we walked, Y/N told Grover and I about his conversation with Apollo the night before, how he'd told us to seek out Nereus in San Francisco.

Grover looked uneasy. "That's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first." I tried not to get too depressed about our chances. Y/N shuddered. I knew what he was thinking. 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. We needed to get our friend.

That was Friday, only four days away. And he'd mentioned something about a sacrifice. I didn't like the sound of that at all.

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!" said Grover.

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

"I could use a triple shot espresso." Y/N groaned. Thalia turned to him. "I didn't know you drank coffee." He shook his head. "I don't. But I'm tired, and I need something to get the blood flowing."

"Pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper." Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you trek go get us some food." She gestured to Grover and Zoe. "Y/N, Percy, Bianca, and I will spread out and 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. 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 here. Cost several hundred dollars."

"How much of that is gas money?" Y/N jested, tiredly. The clerk sighed. "A lot." He looked so lonely. I didn't want to go crazy, so I 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."