ATN: THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY

THE OLYMPIAN COUNCIL

The six of us landed on the foot of Mount Olympus. The real Mount Olympus, that is there in Greece. "Are we supposed to climb the mountain?" Abhro asked. The six of us were pretty distraught after the war, and if this was a stupid joke of climbing the mountain to gain access to Olympus, I was going to turn away, and reject the meeting. But again, we knew we were gonna meet the Olympian council. There was nothing greater than them in the pantheon. 

I looked around me. We were all in our battle armors, which we were now removing one by one. The great mountain had vegetation in its foothills, but as I looked higher, the vegetation started to vanish away. I figured that snowfall was common in Mount Olympus. Now, the issue was getting to the divine city of Olympus. Now, I couldn't see the tip of the mountain. It was covered in clouds. I mean, the hiding magic Mom made was so strong that to any regular human, the tip was visible, but to us, it wasn't. "Well, no use standing." Riya said, "Lets start climbing."

"No need." Tina said, "Look."

We looked. Two big pieces of rocks moved automatically. And, a space opened up. We moved closer, and saw a room. An elevator room. It had a green carpet spread on the floor. There was a chair, and a woman was sitting on it. She called from inside, "Come on demigods, the council is about to start. Get in."

We got in. And I looked at the woman. She had honey coloured hair. She looked to be about thirty, had brown eyes, and wore an orange Greek dress. She had an olive skin tone. She held a glass of nectar on her hand. "Hi, kids." She said as she pressed a button with an 'O', "Nice work in ATN." The two rocks moved back to their normal spots.

"Thanks," Dadai said, "who are you?"

"Me?" she said, "I'm Hebe, goddess of youth, cup-bearer Olympus, or as people know me by nowadays, eternal wife of Heracles."

"Right." I said, "But isn't Heracles the gatekeeper of Olympus?"

"He is. But he had to go and guard the pillars of Heracles in the Strait of Gibraltar. Its a gate to the Ancient Greek world, you know. There could be enemies coming from outside."

"What about your sons?" Tina asked.

"They are at the gates. I came down here to receive you. Well, we are here." We had been in the elevator for a minute, and we were already there. The elevator was fast, and we didn't even feel that. 

The elevator gates flashed open. We got out and stood in front of a huge golden gate, with an inscription of a Greek letter. Now, having studied Physics, I had seen quiet a few Greek letters. I knew this one particularly. 'Ω' Omega. In front of the gate, stood two identical guys who looked of my age. One of them grinned at us, and said, "Hi, demigods, I am Alexiares, and this is Anicetus. We are twins." 

"Yeah, we can see." I said.

"These are my sons." Hebe said. Alexiares had a little brown mustache on his face. His hair was also brown, and his eyes and the rest of his face had a similarity to Hebe. He wore a red T-shirt with 'Welcome', and black jeans. Anicetus had an exact similar face and hair to that of Alexiares, except for the fact that he did not have a mustache. He wore a black T-shirt with 'No Entry' written on it, and black jeans. "Come on." Hebe said to her twin sons, "Open the gate."

"Reason for entrance?" Anicetus asked, "No one gets in without saying that."

"The council called us." Tina said.

"I am gonna need more than that." Anicetus asked.

"Look, Anicetus." I said in disturbed tone, "We just lost two of our best friends to a war, and our Queen. We really aren't in the mood for security check. So, either you let us in, or..."