Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, Rick Riordan does.
Annabeth's POV:
I strolled down the old streets of Greece, where I was taking a vacation. The road was getting more narrow and uneven the farther I walked.
Since I was supposed to be going to the "Garden of the Princess," I checked my map to make sure I was heading the right direction. The road and decorations didn't make any sense if I was going to a Princess' garden. Shouldn't the road be almost flawless and the flowers beautiful roses instead of a bumpy road and yellowish poison ivy snaking along the sidewalk? Shouldn't there be gardeners tending to the plants around here?
I shook off the thought, as I caught my first glimpse of the garden. I wasn't really sure what to think of it. It was breathtakingly beautiful, but gnarly and creepy at the same time.
I suddenly stopped short. This didn't make any sense at all. There was almost no one there, only a couple scattered people here and there that looked as confused as I felt.
When I first heard about the Garden of the Princess, I pictured a luxurious area with beautiful plants and a small waterfall and a pond. Maybe a well-scrubbed brick path that led to a wonderful area that had a breathtaking view of the entire place. Maybe there would be a small cottage for the princess to stay in if she wanted.
Not this. The silence was eerie. I was bothered by it. Almost all the plants were dead and yellowed by age. What little metal furniture was covered by ivy that was creeping over the entire place. It was basically the only thing that was alive in the area.
And I was utterly horrified by the state of the garden. This was a princess' garden?
I entered the garden through a rusted iron gate that had a couple Greek words engraved on it. The ivy was so thick on the gate, that I didn't notice it until my hand groped it and felt the words. I stopped and cleared the ivy away to read what it said.
What confused me was that it translated into, the Garden of the Forbidden Princess, when all my resources had only said, the Garden of the Princess. I wasn't able to find any information on it, either. When I searched the internet, it only gave me the location of the garden, nothing else. However, all the other tourism locations had at least something about their history.
That was one of the reasons I had wanted to come visit so badly. It sounded mysterious. In fact, it looked mysterious.
Cautiously, I walked along the dirt trail that had been worn away. My eyes skimmed over every detail, searching for another clue to my question. When I saw nothing, I sighed and sat down on one of the many large rocks lying around.
I felt a tugging in my mind, as if part of my mind wanted to think about something that the other part was against. My vision blurred and then everything around me changed.
The flowers and plants came back to life, and the ivy disappeared. It didn't take away the eerie and creepy aura around it though. I suddenly blacked out.
A girl was wandering through the garden. She had a smile on, but it was a sad one. It reminded me of Mona Lisa's smile.
Then I noticed something else about the girl. She had curly blonde hair that was tied into a French braid. When she turned around, I was taken aback. She had the exact same grey eyes as me, but hers looked older and sadder.
"Um, hi." I started awkwardly.
She didn't seem to hear, so I repeated it, more confident this time. I finally realized that I was basically invisible to her. Then I recognized something else. There was a certain element to the scene before me, as if it were a dream or a flashback. I was obviously being shown this for a reason, so I didn't try to protest since I had gotten plenty of demigod dreams like this.
There was a soft rustling a bit past the gate. When I turned to see who or what it was, I saw a young man, maybe in his 20s.i didn't pay much attention to him, since my attention was diverted to the girl who looked alert and suspicious. Her facial expression looked like a lion's when someone is trying to trespass their territory.
I looked back at the man. He seemed familiar, not in his looks, but in his…aura? Maybe. I knew that I should know who he reminded me of, but since this was a vision, my senses weren't really at their sharpest. He had brown hair and blue eyes. Definitely not someone I knew.
He said something, but I couldn't hear. It wasn't like I wasn't paying attention to the scene, but it seemed that whoever was showing me this took out the sound. Maybe because they wanted me to figure things out on my own. That's how it always works in the world of the gods.
Well, there's a tiny flaw in your plan, I thought, I can lip read pretty well.
I moved closer to get a better view of them and concentrated.
"Are who the f-blah blah blah? "
"Ow two no hat!"
Okay, maybe I wasn't that great at lip-reading. At least I tried. Right? Right, Annabeth. So what if I talk to myself? I do it all the time when I am stressed.
I woke up all of the sudden and noticed it was dark already. How long was I out? It didn't seem that long. I quickly fished out my cell phone from my pocket. 6:47. Hades! I was out for three hours!
I promised I would meet him at 6:30! I was the one that made sure he was on time! And there I was, me, the late one. I sighed, and quickly snuck out of the garden, leaving the garden the way it was when I first saw it. Abandoned. Lonely. Full of bad memories. Ones that would soon become mine.
There it is! The first Chapter of my new story! I actually had the idea for this a long time ago, I just never really wrote it down. So I hope you like it!
R&R!
Iridescent Coconut