ATN: THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY

ALLY OF ATN

Oh! This Atlantean weather was making me fall in love with this place. The place was beautiful. It was peaceful, had an ancient touch, and the weather, man. A pleasant breeze was blowing as we walked through the fields. I had spent the best two weeks of my life, with respect to weather. Yes, it had been two weeks in the legendary Atlantis. In these two weeks, we had gotten better at using weapons. Abhro could stand against Tina, Dadai beat her twice. I slammed her on the ground in a knife battle. Hiya had shot arrows in a way Artemis would have been proud of. And, Riya, she had made that trident her slave, using it just as she wanted to.

Moreover, I was with my cousins, and had made a few friends here in the last two weeks. Tina was definitely the best one of the lot. She had made us feel welcome in an unknown place. She had told me about Atlantis personally. She was training us, and had let me help her when needed. In return, I had trusted her and talked about my dreams that still made me feel like something was coming. But, she wasn't the only one. I met two other Indian demigods here. Rahul Sinha was one of them. His mortal family was from Murshidabad, another historic Indian place, and he was Hephaestus's child. He was the forge man out of all the demigods. But he was Hiya's age. So, he had that younger brother vibe in him. The other one was Viraj Singhania. The dude was from Delhi. He was a buff guy, of my age. He had nice Mohawk black hair, and red eyes. He and I spoke Hindi in almost the same way. He was a demigod son of the greatest demigod in history, who had been turned into a god. Yes, who else, but Heracles, or as we know him, Hercules. Viraj was super strong, like his father, and was one of the two lucky godlings to have met their divine parents. Strongest among all of us. Others included Juan, the son of Hermes, and a daughter of Apollo, Nadia. 

Nadia and Juan were of our age, and were dating. Juan Marquez, born in Cozumel, Mexico, was athletic, with brown shoulder length hair, and black eyes. He had quick reflexes, but still fell to my stealth attacks. Nadia Petrova was born in Kazan, Russia. She had a slight Russian accent when she spoke English. She was blonde, and had curly hair. Her eyes were black. She was a great archer, something she had inherited from her father, who is a deity of many talents. She had promised to take Hiya under her wing, and help her get better at the bow and arrow.

There were two more kids, of Abhro's age. They stuck together, and wanted to stick with the others too. But, whenever they tried to speak, they pulled out, and everyone went quiet for a second. I had asked Nadia about this. She had said, "Those two are Rhian Allan and Trent Butcher. They are from Florida, best friends since childhood. But they found out about two months ago that they are demigods. But, not just that. Trent is son of Zeus, and Rhian is son of Poseidon, which makes him your elder sister's uncle, despite being a year younger. So, being demigods of the big gods, it gets awkward, and we don't understand how to talk to them."

Anyway, coming back to the situation at hand, I, Riya and Tina had gone out to see a few creatures. We had asked the others to join, but Abhro and Dadai were peacefully sword-fighting, and Hiya chose sleep over all these shenanigans. The fields were a starting point. And grazing in those fields were horses. All of them white. "See how all the horses are white." I said.

"Those aren't horses, Jay." Tina said.

Oh, right. Now that I noticed them, I saw noticed something else on them. I couldn't believe my eyes, but I had seen so much in these recent weeks that I knew what I was seeing was real. The horses had horns. Just one single spiraled horn on their forehead. "Unicorns!" I exclaimed.

"My goodness." Riya said, "If seeing a phoenix was something out of this world, this is a fairytale coming to reality."

"Welcome to Atlantis!" Tina said, "Where fiction turns to fact."

Suddenly, there was a loud squeak, and the unicorns that were grazing, just moved sideways, clearing a space in the field. "If you think the phoenix and the unicorns are majestic, watch this." Tina said.

And as she finished her sentence, a huge animal ran across the field. Then, it spread its wings and flew away. I noticed that it had four legs, a beak, and wings. I asked, "Was that a griffin?"

"Yes. Half eagle, half lion." Tina said, "Its funny how you guys can see so many supernatural creatures so quickly. Anyway, in the forest, there is an ally, with his group. He is a little Roman type, by belief. Though he is originally Greek. I have been to his cave. He likes demigods." 

We walked on, and finally reached the edge of the forest. "You know the way back, right?" Riya asked, and Tina nodded confidently. After walking through the big trees, we finally reached a huge cave. There were many bones, and quite a lot of blood at the entrance. Around the cave, there were many more smaller caves, and in front of it was a wooden statue of a wolf. I had no idea why someone would keep a wolf's statue in front of their home. "You sure they are allies?" Riya asked.

"Absolutely." she went closer to the cave and shouted, "Actaeon!"

A man came out. He looked about twenty five. He had black hair, and orange eyes. He wore a robe such that only his head, legs and hands could be seen. But, there were four very disturbing facts about him. The first, his face had a little too much hair. The hair covered his cheeks almost completely. Second, he bared his teeth while grinning. His teeth were fangs. Third, his hands and feet had nails longer than any human's. Those looked like claws. And finally, he had not come out alone. He had brought five more like him. "Roy!" he said, "What a pleasure! And you have guests too."

"Actaeon, this is Jay, and Riya. They are new." Tina said.

"Cool!" Actaeon said, "Parents?"

"Hecate." I said. "Triton." Riya said.

"Interesting. Very interesting. I haven't seen demigods of these gods ever."

"I'm sorry, but who is this?" I asked to Tina.

"Don't talk via, buddy. I'm right here."

"Yes, who are you?"

"I'm Actaeon. Follower of Mother Lupa, descendant of Lycaon."

That name rang a bell. I had heard that name, Lycaon. There was some story related to meat. I tried to recall, and slowly it came to my mind. "You're a werewolf?"

"Very nice. How did you get that?"

"Your appearance is a pretty nice giveaway. Other than that, you're a descendant of Lycaon. He was turned into a werewolf by Zeus when he killed his own son and fed the supreme god his meat."

"Yes. My ancestor was a stupid man. He tried to play a trick, and we ended up like this."

"How?"

"The wolfish features have been inherited by every child in the family." Tina said.

"I am not like this normally. But, today is the full moon." Actaeon said.

We talked for almost half an hour, but Riya didn't say a word. Then, it hit me. Where was Riya? She wasn't here beside me. I looked around, but there was no sign of Riya. "Where's Riya?" I asked.

"Wait. Where is she?" Tina asked, "She was right here."

"Oh mother Lupa! Guys, you saw her?" Actaeon asked his pack. One of the werewolves just raised his hands and said, "Alpha, I think I saw her go towards the deeper forest."

"Oh, Riya and her love for forests." I said.

"Jay, this isn't good." Tina said, "That part is dangerous. There are two very dangerous creatures living there. I specifically told her to stay close to us."

"Ten years ago, these beasts were wrecking havoc on Atlantis." Actaeon said, "We chased these creatures down and they hid here in the deep forest. We made our den here, to keep them away from the city."

"Oh my gods." I said, panic flowing all over my body, "Lets go then." They all nodded, and we ran towards the deeper forest.