Chapter 1: An Unexpected Visitor

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What is it even about?

I don't know seaweed brain! But get you're butt up here before I drag you up here myself! Annabeth now tapped her foot impatiently, still waiting against the column.

Annabeth not knowing something? The world must be ending! He shut his mouth tightly, preventing himself from thinking aloud. Yes, it's hard to do that after having a 30-second mental conversation. Last time he teased his girlfriend about not knowing an answer, he fell upon the wrong side of her celestial bronze blade. Well, it'll probably be her drakon bone sword now but that's not the point...

Something definitely was going on.

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Annabeth's day actually started out pretty normal. Most people are probably thinking Yeah right! A demigod's life normal? and Annabeth would probably reply, well I only had ONE rogue hellhound try to bite my face off, so that's as good as it can get for me! 

Because of the recent wars, most of her progress on rebuilding Olympus was put on hold. And of course, the gods being the self-centered *cue thunder* and ignorant *cue more thunder* gods they were, asked for her to immediately resume her work on remodeling Olympus. And to be honest? Annabeth actually enjoyed it, in an almost therapeutic way. The art and creativity poured into her work was actually... fun. It seems impossible at first, a god's request being fun? But it was. Annabeth's dream was to become an architect, and what better practice is there to remodel the gods' home?

So that's where Annabeth was all morning. And throughout the all-nighter from yesterday. After 6 cups of coffee (and maybe a couple small doses of nectar), an endless lecture on makeup from Aphrodite, and having to listen to Poseidon and Zeus' bickering, Annabeth finally returned back to Camp. Looking back on it, Annabeth took back her previous thoughts. The work may be fun, but the clients were not.

Yep! And then in 6 hours she can come back and go through it all over again.

Annabeth drooped her head backward, trying to rest against the seat of the taxi. Emphasis on the word tried. With a subtly 'bang' she bumped her head against the hard back of her seat.

"Oi! Careful back there!" yapped the taxi-driver. His head patterned with very thin strands of grey hair that just managed to hide beneath his brimmed cap. Which she had to say, was an interesting fashion statement for the middle-aged man. It made him look even weirder, especially with his torn tweed jacket. What type of taxi driver wears a tweed jacket? Especially because his hat had the same pattern as the taxi's car seats...

Snap out of it Annabeth! She chided herself. Stupid ADHD!

She massaged the sides of her temples, trying to remember key details from her work. What was it Demeter wanted again? And there was absolutely NO WAY she was going to put a bloody boar's head in the middle of Zeus' temple, no matter how hard Aries persuaded it was going to be a 'funny joke.' And what was the inscription for Artemis' temple? Agh! Right on the tip of her tongue...

The taxi stopped with a piercing sharp 'screeech' as it pulled up along the roughly paved road. She could tell the driver stomped on the brake pedal too forcefully, because he just then shifted his footing to shut off the engine.

"You sure you wanna stop 'ere, missy? The middle of the woods is quite an odd place to be..." he turned back around to face Annabeth. Much to the opposition of his annoying character, he seemed quite troubled to "ditch" her in the middle of nowhere.

"Yep!" Annabeth piped a little too cheerfully for the taxi driver's taste, as she unbuckled her seat belt. But he nodded anyways, muttering something about 'troublesome teenagers' and counted the cash she handed to him before driving away.

With a few abrupt clouds of smoke spewing from the car's engine, it drove off.

Annabeth walked straight towards the Big House. Well, at least in that direction. Chiron has made it his newly utmost concern to make sure all campers were accounted for after... erm... Hera's incident. So all she had to do was poke her head through the door and give him the heads up she arrived safely. Simple as that, right?

On her way she greeted Peleus by giving him a good scratch beneath his scaly chin (Which ended up with him 'purring.' Who knew dragons purred?). And being the sensible counselor she was, stopped Leo, Conner, and Travis' plan to set fire to the Demeter Cabin's garden. "It's the third time this week! I'm doing you a favor. Katie will bury you alive, LITERALLY..." or at least something along those lines.

She eventually made it there, and climbed up the few stairs of the Big House's deck. When she swung open the door, she did NOT expect what she saw.

A mortal.

Startled, she froze for a moment as the two stared at her. Chiron... or uh, Mr. Brunner as the mortal might know him as, sipped a cup of tea and only turned his head once he caught sight of Annabeth.

The mortal held a cup of tea too. Along with a polished wooden stick in his other hand, which was no longer than his forearm. Odd, she thought. He seemed to look as somewhat of a businessman. He was clad in all black, and practically blinded Annabeth with his polished shoes. He too, wore a brimmed hat. But unlike the taxi driver's it wasn't matching the interior of the taxi, but his all-black-scary-businessman theme. Only when he turned his head, she noticed his "toothbrush" mustache and slightly wrinkled face. Not the, 'I'm really old' wrinkles, but the 'I am a very busy man, and have undertaken quite a lot of stress' sort of wrinkles.

"Ah, are these one of your students?" he gestured towards her with his cup, then wore a forceful grin, "I've heard great things from Dumbledore..."

Chiron merely nodded, "Yes," then turned towards her with a grim smile, "Annabeth, would you mind bringing Percy here? I believe he is teaching with Clarisse in the amphitheater."

She nodded in reply, taking one last glance at the mortal, and Chiron's wheelchair form.

What was going on?

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Word Count: 1,732

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