Percy had only lived in Paradise for around forty-eight hours, and he was already happier than he had been in years. It was everything he hadn't known that he'd needed out of a home. The perfect get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It was beautiful here. Ever since he was a kid, he'd loved the outdoors. Maybe it came from his time at camp, constantly surrounded by greenery and forestry, but there was something comforting about the thickness of the forest surrounding the town.

He still didn't know a damn thing about Pegasus breeding or how to run a ranch, but…well he would figure it out. It helped when he had the ability to actually speak to the animals.

Besides, it wasn't even like he necessarily needed the funds from the ranch. He'd made more than enough in the last couple of years that he could probably live fairly comfortably for a while. Especially in a place like Paradise. Cost of living up there was so low that he didn't even think he'd put a dent in his total savings.

He'd been initially hesitant to go so far north. Getting so far away from Olympus could be…dangerous. Especially as remote as the place was, but all of those worries had gone out the door the moment that he got into the Upper Peninsula. It helped that the town was so close to Lake Superior. While it most certainly wasn't the ocean, having such close contact to a large body of water was, if nothing else, comforting.

He'd need to send his cousin a thank you card or something. Sure, the farm had technically been payment on an old debt that Percy had finally called in, but Apollo hadn't needed to go to the lengths that he had to make sure Percy was comfortable and happy. Percy decided that he'd offer one of his cousin's favorite meals as a sacrifice in thanks.

The sun had set by the time he'd gotten done with his chores for the day. For a half-god, the physical labor of working on a farm wasn't arduous, but it was certainly time consuming work. By the time he'd gotten the Pegasi stabled again, the sun had set and the temperature was dropping rapidly. He'd not brought much in the way of food with him, and had been surviving off of some of the camping MRE's that he'd brought with him as he gathered his bearings and got a better idea of how to actually manage his new farm.

But he'd since eaten his way through his rations and he didn't think his stomach would allow him to go another night of eating something that wasn't homemade. He'd seen what looked like a small mom and pop grocery store on his way into town the other day, and after donning his coat and hopping in his truck, he made his way into town.

In spite of the fact that it was not even seven yet, the sun was fully set and the waxing-crescent of the moon was shining brightly overhead. There wasn't a parking lot attached to the grocery store, so Percy parked his truck along the curb, across the street from the store. There was plenty of parking, as there were only a handful of vehicles downtown, and they were all sequestered in the parking lot near the large building at the end of the street.

The downtown of Paradise was as stereotypically small-town America as he'd ever experienced. Small, family-owned businesses lined each side of the street. An ancient-looking post-office marked the end of the street, running parallel to what Percy presumed was the town's lone bank. In total, the downtown had the feeling of a company town that had been abandoned decades ago, and the pieces were picked up by the few who had decided to scrape together a living there.

The only building that really stood out was the large, brilliant building or marble at the end of the street. Percy assumed that it had to be the town's mayoral officer. It was an oddly opulent building, standing in stark contrast to the run-down and well-loved brick and mortar of the rest of the street. It almost looked like someone had attempted to re-build, poorly, the palace of Versailles in the middle of nowhere northern Michigan.

There was something rather…comfortable about small town grocery stores, Percy decided as he walked inside. The building itself was likely a relic from the town's old mining roots, and the inside reflected that history.

The shelves, counters, and cubbies were all made out of impressive, well-maintained oak. It smelled like pine needles, baked bread, and freshly washed produce. It wasn't a big store by any means. And it certainly lacked the variety of a bigger, chain store, but it had all of the necessities, which was all he really needed anyways.

It was later in the evening, so he wasn't surprised to see that it was empty inside, save for the lone woman working at the counter. She was an older woman, maybe in her sixties or so. What had once been bright blonde hair had faded into a soft gray. Age lines and wrinkles dotted her face, but she smiled kindly at him as he walked inside. Percy smiled back and waved, but faltered slightly as he realized that her smile seemed a little…strained. She didn't say anything to him, and busied herself with working around at the counter. Putting a variety of oddities into the drawers behind her before darting through a small wooden door labeled as a "staff only" room, and disappearing.

Shrugging it off, Percy busied himself with assembling some supplies. Since he had quite literally nothing in his small home, he ended up filling his cart rather quickly. Approaching the lone checkout counter, he waited for a few minutes, but it soon became clear to him that no one was coming.

"Excuse me!" He called out towards the door the woman had left behind. "Excuse me, can someone please come check me out?" He waited a couple more moments, and then he caught the eyes of the older woman as she peeked through the small window in the doorway. Her face flushed and she quickly averted her gaze. A moment later, the woman shuffled her way out of the back room. Her hands fiddled with the hem of the long apron she had tied around her waist. She looked adamantly down at the floor as she shuffled behind the counter. Without looking up at him the entire time, she began scanning the items from the cart.

Percy eyed the older woman carefully. Nothing about her was telling him that she was presenting a threat. But that didn't mean that she wasn't, it wasn't as though his instincts hadn't been off before. He shook his head, he was being paranoid. Granted, it was probably well warranted. A life of looking over his shoulder for monsters that wanted to eat him alive had left its mark. Not to mention that he was fairly isolated out here. Unlike the big city, there weren't throngs of people around to mask the scent of his blood from those that wanted to kill him.

But nothing untoward happened. Apart from the strange woman remaining completely silent as she bagged his groceries, there was nothing outwardly strange about the encounter. He decided to chalk it up to typical small-town life. There were only a couple thousand people in the town. Chances were it was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone else, and an outsider like him wouldn't exactly be welcomed or trusted out the gate.

He was fine with that, and could live with it. It wouldn't be the first time, and he was more than happy to confine himself to his little plot of land with his pegasi. He hadn't come here to make friends, he'd come here to start fresh.

He paid the woman, pulling a wad of cash from his pocket and placing the bills down on the counter. She eyed him oddly for a moment, but didn't make a comment. Percy didn't mind, he was used to it. He didn't like using his debit card when he didn't need to. "Cash is King" was a lesson that he had learned at a young age. Perhaps he took its meaning a little too literally, but he'd always found that some people were always a little more favorable when one had cash on hand.

Stuffing the receipt into one of the many bags, Percy hefted his many bundles into his hands and left. Shooting the wary older woman one final, disarming smile, as he left. The townsfolk might not trust him at first, but that was no reason for him to be hostile. He could understand it. He was an unknown. An unknown who had just supposedly purchased an enormous plot of land and was raising horses - even if they weren't aware of the animal's true nature. It was a lucrative and rather elitist profession. So he would understand and respect the apprehension.

To a point.

Reaching his truck across the street, he opened the tailgate and began piling his groceries into the bed of the truck. He noticed out of the corner of his eye as several cars began to pull away from the parking lot near the town hall building. Their lights darted past him quickly enough, but a few of them drove by slowly enough for Percy to know he was being checked out.

He did his best to ignore them.

He had just finished clicking the Tano cover over the bed and closing the tailgate when he heard the commotion. A shouting match was occurring up the road. Turning to look up the road, Percy could just make out a pair of figures in the dark. The nearby streetlight didn't help to illuminate them, but Percy thought he could make out the forms of a man and a woman. The man had his arm on the woman, who was recoiling. But she didn't look scared, at least not if he was judging her body language properly.

Pissed? Definitely. Scared? No. Still, Percy found him walking in their direction, almost before he even realized what he was doing. As he came closer, he recognized a shock of red hair that he knew. His new neighbor, Isabella Connors, was having quite the heated argument with a man that Percy didn't recognize. Though judging by the star-shaped medallion on his belt and the holstered nine-millimeter, Percy put the pieces together himself.

"Hey there neighbor!" He called out, without even really thinking about what he was doing. His eyes tracked the length of the street. No civilians besides them. They were backed up near a pair of cars but the man would still have an easy escape route east and west should he need one. Obvious threat was the pistol on the man's hip, but Percy felt that he could defuse the situation before it got any more out of hand.

"Didn't think I'd run into you tonight!" He said cheerily as he got closer. Begrudgingly, the man dropped his hold on Isabella, who took a couple of steps away. The new man eyed Percy warily. Glaring at him as he took in Percy's form. Percy did the same. He was a little taller than Isabella, but easily shorter than Percy himself. He wasn't overly muscular, but definitely built powerfully. There was also something about the man that rankled at Percy's instincts, though that could have just been because he'd been looking like he was seconds away from smacking Isabella.

As Percy's eyes washed over the man, he blinked, his gaze landing briefly on the man's hands. For the barest, briefest of moments….they'd looked like claws. He looked away, doing his best not to react. He glanced at Isabella, whose hands were behind her back. Almost as though she were trying to hide them. The hairs on the back of his neck began to rise, and he fidgeted slightly.

"Hey…Percy…" Said Isabella carefully, "Nice to see you too…"

"Who's this?" Percy asked, gesturing to the man. He made an effort to keep his tone light and cheerful.

"Officer Bradly Packard," growled Packard, stepping forward and looking up at him. "Second in command of the department here in town." He inched closer, and Percy was all but certain that he could see the man's canine's elongate somewhat. Percy's eyes narrowed as they twitched towards his pocket, but made no further move.

"And you must be the new guy," He sized Percy up, gazing up and down his taller frame.

"We don't get too many strangers in town…see to it that you don't make us regret our hospitality." With a final meaningful look at Isabella, he turned on his heel and stalked away.

"He's…delightful," muttered Percy and Isabella snorted.

"You okay?" He asked, looking at her. "It looked like you two were getting into it a bit."

"I'm fine," she huffed, "He's an asshole but he's not stupid enough to try something so blatantly."

"Don't know about that," Percy muttered. "He your boyfriend or something?"

Isabella leveled him with the flattest stare that he had ever experienced, and he chuckled. He did his best to ignore the slight swooping sensation in his stomach at finding out that the pretty redhead was hopefully single. He'd noted the other day that she didn't have a ring on her finger, so he figured that Cassidy's father wasn't in the picture any longer.

"Sorry," Percy chuckled. "Didn't mean to offend."

"Some offense taken," said Isabella under her breath, but she didn't sound actually offended. "Sorry you had to see that. Council business got a little…intense tonight."

"Council?" Percy asked.

"Right…new in town," muttered Isabella. "There's a town council, we…work with the mayor to try and implement policies that would be beneficial to the town."

Percy could feel her heart beat a little faster as she spoke. It wasn't a lie. Not exactly, but she was certainly not telling him the whole truth.

"Huh," Percy said carefully, then tried to smile disarmingly. "Good to know my new neighbor is such a high-roller. Does this mean that you can help me lower the property taxes on my farm?" He made sure to say it in such a way to be clear that he was kidding.

Isabella rolled her eyes, but Percy was happy to see her smile. He rather liked her smile.

"Careful buster," she teased, jostling his shoulder with the palm of her hand. "I don't play favorites like that."

"I don't know," said Percy, smiling. "I think I can change your mind."

"You're welcome to try," laughed Isabella, then checked her watch. She sighed, "All right, it was nice to see you Percy, and thanks for stepping in like you did, but I need to get back to Cassidy."

"You need a lift?" He asked.

"No, but thank you Percy."

"Of course, and I was serious about the offer to teach Cassidy by the way! Let me know!"

"I'll think about it," she smiled at him. Then she waved, and turned towards her car at the other end of the lot. Percy waited until she was safely in her vehicle, and was pulling out of the lot before he began making his way back to his truck, his mind racing. What the hell had he stumbled into? He was certain that what he had seen had been real. But did it mean anything? Fingers that looked like claws, teeth that looked like fangs…

He didn't trust his luck, but he did trust his eyes and his instincts. He knew that what he'd seen hadn't been a mere trick of the light. But what was he dealing with? They weren't monsters, at least not his particular kind of monsters. They would have already tried to kill him. Skin-walkers? Shape-shifters? He supposed the latter made the most sense. Skin-walkers were far more common on the west-coast. But what did that mean? And what was this?

He sighed, rubbing at his forehead in exasperation. Was it too much to ask for him to just live someplace normal? He very nearly punched his truck, but refrained. He wasn't particularly in the mood to try and buff out whatever dent he put in it. But what did he do with his suspicions? Anything? Did he try and figure more out?

No. No, he wouldn't do anything with this information. It wasn't his problem anymore. He didn't care, besides, it wasn't like they were actually doing any harm here. Probably. If he found anything to show that they were a threat. Well…then he'd reconsider his options then. But for now, he would leave them be. Most supernaturals were no different than any other person. Driven to have as normal a life as possible. Packard seemed like a prick, but Isabella was kind.

No…until he was given a reason. He would just live his life as though nothing had changed.

That was why he was here after all.

In his own little slice of Paradise.

AN: Shoutout to Double for helping me with this idea and for being the best beta on the planet. Check out the link in my channel for the discord server I'm in. My upload schedule is there and you can come hang out with me a bunch of other really awesome and talented authors. Thanks for all the love, and hope you're enjoying the ride thus far.

Love,

LilDB