A Starburst's Descent

After half an hour of train hopping, we managed to finally lose the helicopter. 

Interestingly enough, when we got off our latest train we ended up in what seems to be an unpopulated train-yard littered with railways, train cars, and snow. So much snow.

Luckily for me I've got my trusty lion's fur to combat it, but everyone else is dealing with the cold and having varying degrees of success. 

We wandered around for a while in the hopes of finding another passenger train, but only found more freight trains that were covered in snow and looked like they hadn't moved in quite a while.

Just a bit ahead of us was what seemed to be a lanky homeless man in front of a trash-lit fire, and the others wasted no time gathering around his fire when he offered some space for us. 

They spent time chatting and bantering with each other, but I couldn't bring myself to focus on my surroundings for the life of me, and it was all due to the strange feeling I was getting from the homeless man in front of us.

No, I can't even call it strange, it's more like it's…familiar?

[Divine Skill Revealed: Lesser Energy Sensing]

That just makes this guy's mysteriousness even more worrying.

My best guess is that this right here is a god, but at the same time I'm not really sure who he is. There are plenty of theories running around in my head, yes, but none of it is completely concrete. Could he be…?

"You know, you're never completely without friends." Suddenly I'm thrust from within my thoughts by the pretty ominous words of said homeless man alongside everyone else paying more attention to him now, and I think that's what he was going for.

"You kids need a ride to the west? Just take a look over there, and you'll find the answer to your current predicament." He raised one of his, admittedly pretty dirty, hands in the air and we all looked towards the direction he was pointing in. 

Interestingly enough, gleaming in the snow is an automobile-carrying train with its side saying "SUN WEST LINE". Not exactly what I'd pick if I had a choice, but we're pretty much out of those at this point.

Realizing that I'm the only one who hasn't said anything to him since arriving, I turn around to finally provide him with a response only to realize that he disappeared out of thin air.

"Fuck, that's kinda cool," I mutter aloud to myself. 

- Some Time Later - 

So by now I've realized that despite my thoughts and attempts towards trying to gain more information on the quest I haven't actually done much in the way of that, but this is getting ridiculous. 

According to Percy, my own father visited him while we were on the trains and gave him some direction on where we're supposed to go next. So not only are we taking a detour to find some random old guy, but my deadbeat dad didn't even think of speaking to me.

At the very least it confirms my theory that he was the homeless guy from earlier, but I can't say that really makes me feel better to be honest. 

Eventually we arrived at some ski town in the mountains of New Mexico. Instead of hanging around the others I decided to take a detour for a moment around a store and mess around with my powers a little bit in the back while Grover and Zoe went to the cafe to take the orders that some of us had. 

If it isn't obvious by now, I can be a little introverted at times. No matter how good I may be at social interactions, I've never liked them for the most part. I guess that's just one of my quirks.

As of right now I'm trying to work on new applications for my abilities beyond just light. Namely, archery, prophecy, and healing; you'd need to give me some damn good rewards to have me singing in public. 

[Divine Quest: Living Up To The Name]

- Sing in front of a crowd larger than 20 people 

- Generate a heavy emotional response from 90% of the crowd

Rewards:

|'Master of The Arts' Divine Perk| |Audiokinesis|

There's no way…

I'm just gonna pretend that message never even showed up in the first place.

Time to go back to focusing on my abilities!

In the limited time I've had, I've come to a couple conclusions. One being that my skill in archery does in fact translate to my ability to aim with most likely anything, and the other is the fact that healing takes a lot of my divine energy.

[Divine Energy: 89%]

This is just from healing myself from fatigue, and I started at 100%!

That being said, it's still pretty broken. I can train myself to the bone and then heal myself before doing that once again in the span of one day. Now imagine just how much stronger I can get in just about a year if I were to do that every day. It's insane!

Dismissing the system prompt, I look ahead of me to see Zoe and Grover coming out of the coffee shop with everyone's orders. 

It may sound crazy to some people, but I really don't get how people can drink coffee without damn near spilling their guts. 

Either way, the only ones who got coffee were Zoe and Grover. Percy, Bianca, Phoebe, and I all got hot chocolate. Percy and I also got blueberry muffins, but what no one knows is that I may or may not have stolen a few muffins already while I was gone; they're so delicious it doesn't actually make any sense.

Thalia opted out of getting anything for whatever reason, but I'm not going to pry. It's her loss. 

Zoe asked me to lead the way towards where we're going next on our quest, but before I can answer I get distracted by a wave of pure divine power.

Taking a look at Grover, I see just how affected he is by it. 

I noticed the birds that adorned his cup coming to life and talking flight to who knows where. Glancing at Percy I can see his rat, which I didn't even know he had, gaining sentience and scurrying off into the distance.

It seems to me as though everyone's at least noticed that something happened. 

"What's wrong with Grover?" Thalia asked.

"I don't know," Percy said, "He just collapsed." 

"Uuuuuuhhhh." Grover groaned weakly. 

"Don't worry man, we'll keep you safe." I joked. 

"Not the time Noah, someone get him up," Thalia said as she gripped her spear, "We have to go!"

This is just great, we're running for our lives once again.