Early in the morning, Annabeth was woken up again. This time, however, it was quietly. A hand was placed over her mouth just as she saw exactly why Piper was so quiet. It was a small creature, looked slightly like a salamander, but it was snorting smoke. It seemed to be asleep, in the little corner of the cave, so neither girl was anxious to wake it as they quickly grabbed their things and left.
They journeyed till the sun was high in the sky, at which point they rested near a small pond. Gazing into the water, Annabeth grabbed a small handful to splash against her face. When she looked back down at the pond, a scream ripped it's way out of her throat. Someone was looking back at her! A girl, with greenish skin, dark hair, and almost amphibic features. She quickly stumbled away from the water and stared as the girl stood up. Where was Piper? Annie had no idea how to face this creature! Did it have good intentions, or bad intentions?
The frog-like hands were clutching what seemed to be a small flute. She raised it to her green tinted lips and started to play a melody. Annabeth suddenly found herself wanting to know this person, as the creature morphed from a green monster into a normal girl, with the acceptance of her slit-like ears and the bottom of her skirt being wet and dripping, even though the rest of her was perfectly dry. Annabeth walked towards her, and the creature held out her hand.
Just as her small hand slipped into the creatures hand, it went back to it's original form and flipped backwards into the water, dragging Annabeth with her. Just at that moment, Piper walked into the clearing. "Annie? Where are you?" Then her eyes glimpsed the foot of the slimy creature. "Nixies. It just had to be Nixies." Then she threw off her armor and put down her bag before jumping in fully clothed.
Opening her eyes underwater, she looked around for a struggle. It had just just occurred to Piper that perhaps there were more than one when a hand clasped her ankle and tugged her deeper towards the bottom. It was then that Piper caught sight of the other girl. She was floating peacefully beside another one of the tricky creatures. Looking behind herself, she saw that her own monster was more blue than the other. Smirking to herself, she pretended to have fallen under the mysterious spell. While the beasts could swim underwater, their alluring song did not go through the liquid as easily as it could through air.
The Nixie let go of her and smirked successfully at her supposed victory over the silly little mortal. Then, suddenly, Piper kicked hard at the things gills. Enough to make it sputter and then slam into a rock before going limp. Reaching the surface, she gasped sweet, fresh air before going back under to save Annie. The Nixie who had dragged her under was still holding her hand, knowing that in order for the spell to keep going underwater, she would have to keep in contact with the victim whose ears had already heard the treacherous song. Using the element of surprise, Piper grabbed a reasonably sized rock and hit it against the back of the Nixies head. Crumpling to the pond floor, the Nixie's eyes rolled back in it's head. Piper quickly grabbed Annabeth's hand and pulled her to the surface. She wasted no time in letting her become undazed before dragging her to the clearing, farther away from the pond.
"Wha-?" Annie murmured, dazed.
"Nixies. I leave you alone for all of a couple minutes and you stumble into trouble immediately," Piper explained exasperated. "You're helpless, princess. I understand why they threw you into a tower and locked the door. You need a prince to survive." And with that said, she grabbed her bags and armor, tossing them on and starting to walk again.
Annabeth scrambled to her feet and shoved her bag onto her shoulder before following the other girl resignedly. Yet again, they fell into a silence. But this one was much more strained. Annie was upset at being called helpless, and Piper wasn't so happy about the other girl being so useless and getting them into trouble.
They silently made camp, thankfully this time not on an ogre, but a deep cave. How deep they did not know because they stayed at the entrance. Sleep came easily to both, the day had exhausted them to their limits.