Percy Jackson and the Child of Victory (Annabeth Chase x Reader)

I Throw A Pig Off A Cliff

~~~~~Y/N's PΩV~~~~~

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 wings, I was freezing by the time we got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As we walked, me and Percy told Grover about our conversation with Apollo the night before—how he'd told me 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. I didn't want to send Grover into a panic, but I knew 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. That was Friday, only four days away. And he'd said something about a sacrifice. "Thank you, Grover, This conversation is really helping me calm my nerves. Di immortales"

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." "Yeah I could go for a coffee, I so fucking tired"

"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper." "....You know what, never mind" Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you two go get us some food. Percy, Bianca, Y/N 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.

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. And I really didn't want to go in another 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 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—" "I know," she told us. "I'm checking anyway." "ok, be safe, Pinehead" I let her go. I knew how it felt to be restless. All half-bloods had attention deficit problems because of our inborn battlefield reflexes. We couldn't stand just waiting around. Also, I had a feeling Thalia was still upset over our conversation last night about Luke.

Bianca, Percy and I stood together awkwardly. I mean... Percy and I were never very comfortable talking one-on-one with girls anyway, and I'd never been alone with Bianca before. I 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. "So... how do you like being a Hunter so far?" I asked. She pursed her lips. "You guys are not still mad at me for joining, are you?" "Nah. Long as, you know... you're happy." Percy said. 

"I'm not sure 'happy' is the right word, with Lady Artemis gone. But being a Hunter is definitely 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. I didn't really want to get into the curse Immortality is.