Hey guys! I'm back with a new story. Read, review and enjoy.
Were quests normally so easy or were the God's going easy on them for once?Piper wasn't exactly a quest, more like finding a new demigod. Chiron called her a 'vital instrument for further victory.' Poor girl.
IAA (Indian Academy of Arts) was a big (no, huge) place with domes and a marble ceiling. It was snowy white all over, probably made of limestone. It had huge pillars and was overflowing with students. All the students looked similar, dark hair and dark eyes.
"I can't believe we get an all-expense paid trip to Mumbai! This is so exciting. Just look at the architecture! "Annabeth touched the delicately carved gates and grinned.
"I've got to admit, this is pretty." Piper said, "But we're here to get the new camper, not to sightsee."
Annabeth sighed, "Yeah, you're right. Let's go in."
The main building was surrounded by about 50 acres of grassy ground. To the left of the building, few students were doing some sort of gymnastics routine. About 10 boys and girls were standing in this formation with their hands locked together making some sort of ladder. Then, one girl walked over their hands almost as though she was flying and jumped to the ground, doing a somersault and landing perfectly, her hands stretched out and her feet together.
Annabeth mirrored Piper's expression of awe. Never, not even in the Olympics had she seen someone with so much of grace and perfection.
"That girl has style." Annabeth commented as we watched everyone circle around the girl chatting with her and probably complementing her on her grace. It was hard to be sure from so far of but it looked as though the girl was frowning, like she was being forced to do this and wanted to be left alone. She shrugged off that thought and pulled Annabeth (who was lost in her architecture dream land again) to the main entrance.
It took 15 minutes of persuasion and 5 minutes of Piper's charmspeak to convince the receptionist that they were students of the Academy and had merely forgotten their ID's.
"Finally!" She exclaimed as they entered the start of a long corridor.
"Shush." Annabeth whispered. " Is it just me or does this school reek and scream 'MONSTER!'?" Suddenly, she felt a slight chill, as though someone was blowing at her neck. Just to be sure she whipped around. Just as she'd assumed, there was no one there.
"We better keep our guard up." Piper took out Katoptis and Annabeth took out her dagger. The started slowly walking down the corridor.
Just then, a voice came from behind them.
"Weapons aren't allowed inside school premises."
...
The girl was casually leaning against the lockers like she saw maniacs with knives every day. She was the same graceful girl they had been gapping at twenty minutes ago. The girl was radiating power and somehow, she looked cute while doing it. Her hair was just one shade darker then Piper's and she'd tied it up in a katniss braid with a blue beanie in top. Her eyes were big and blue which was unusual in India. She had on a neutral expression but amusement glinted in her eyes at the sight of our faces.
The question was how could she even see their weapons? Was she the demigod they were looking for or was she just a mortal who could see through the mist?
"You can see our weapons?" Annabeth asked. The look the girl gave Annabeth was epic. "I'm not supposed to? Well..." she trailed off.
Piper and Annabeth's eyes locked for a minute and they came to a secret agreement, they'd found their new demigod.
"What?"Piper asked slowly. The girl looked at us sceptically. It looked as though she was deciding whether to trust us or feed us to wolves. Annabeth had no doubt she could do that with such an aura of power.
She came closer and Piper noticed that the girl had short flicks partially covering her eyes. She had a badge saying Head girl. "I have one too." She whispered.
This was the confirmation they were waiting for. The girl's eyes showed fear. "No one else can see it except me."
"See what exactly?" Came a raspy voice from behind them. The turned around as fast as they could to find a lady in her forties with an Alsatian.
"M-Mrs. Gupta?"The girl stammered. "What's Cuddles doing here? Isn't he supposed to stay in your office?" An Alsatian called Cuddles? Seriously?
"Yes, but we decided to come outside to check if the party had blown the roof of yet." That would have been a funny thing for a middle aged lady to say but the way she rasped it made the girls shiver.
"Speaking about the party," She continued. "What are you doing here Ms Summers and who are these interesting people?" The way she said interesting made Annabeth and Piper flinch. Did she know that they were demigods? Did that make her a monster?
Luckily the girl took charge of the situation. "I was just heading there with the new students maám." She said with a smile.
Piper was waiting for the lady to either burst out of her human form or kick the girls out for trespassing on private property or maybe do both but she just nodded. "Very well, make sure they get there." With that she walked off.
Annabeth let out the breath she was holding, "That was close." Piper looked at the girl. "What's your name?" She asked softly. The girl took a deep breath and said, "Adrianne Summers. Yours?"
"I'm Piper Mclean, that's my friend Annabeth Chase." Annabeth nodded and said, "We're friends. We want to talk to you. You were saying something about a weapon?"
The girl nodded. It looked as though she was beginning to trust them which was good. "I've had it since as long as I remember. It's the only thing my Dad left me." She opened her backpack and took out a charm bracelet. It had three charms on it – a dagger, spear and bows and arrows. "It's called αυγή. Aurora." Adrianne seemed to notice what she had said and hastily said, "Don't look at me like that. I just seem to understand Greek."
Piper and Annabeth looked at each other. "We all do. That just proves that you're like us." Annabeth said with a small nod.
Adrianne looked really confused, "Like you?" She repeated.
"Yes," Piper said, "A demigod."