[b]Coco and Annabeth[/b]

Coco sighed. Or at least she would have if she had a mouth in the first place. Instead she reared her head back as she relaxed, sitting on a bench in the gardens. Barely noticeable it was when her face scrunched up near her two nostrils, allowing her to taste the scents in the air in a richer way. Her leaves quivered, and she lazily brought up her left hand to her nostrils and sniffed it. 

[i]'By the Tree, I should not take in so much sun.'[/i] She thought. Her leaves quivered again, and she stretched her muscles. Soon, she was on her feet and rubbing her hands together, feeling quite a bit of excess energy. It'd be fine if she had a class later that day, but it wasn't so this time. 

She walked into the College, passing by a pair of students who, oddly enough, smelled like herself. In a common situation, Coco would walk up to them, but she needed to use energy right away, lest she either accidentally shock someone or push possible interesting persons away with her excitement. She had come to learn the importance of seeming calm, at least when she was around fleshlings. Superficial things that they were. 

Then, as Coco got closer to the Gym, a scent hit her right on the face. Roses. She slapped her palm against the wall, yet she could see no rose nearby, only a group of surprised people at the entrance of the gym. 

So she walked into the gym, brushing shoulders against many of the other students who were bunched up at the entrance.

Like usual, Annabeth was in the gym honing her skills. With no classes at the moment this was a good time to get a bit of a warm up before she'd meet up with Ssarak and the others. Ever since the college was attacked by demons, she and some other students would come together and train with one another with their weapons and magic. Annabeth was not like before; this time she struck out against her target with both brutal fury and precise grace. With an axe no less; her slashes hew through the straw dummy's limbs and unarmored openings like a honed heated knife through warm cheese. And it wasn't as though Annabeth had gotten herself a new weapon; it was the same axe as before, perhaps sharpened.

Piles of dismembered straw corpses were piled up near her. After lopping off the shoulder of one more dummy, Annabeth figured it was time to clean up her mess. She had began putting away straw dummies when she noticed a strange yet familiar creature, Coco the Foreas. Annabeth had breifly remembered meeting her once, but after that the only time Annabeth ever saw her was when she was training here in the gym with Alaira, or just wandering around the college. [i]"I wonder what brings her here..."[/i]

Sweat, slashes, stabs and grunts filled the Gym. But none of them smelled of what she was trailing after. None, but one girl. Or woman. Coco couldn't tell, really. So all she did was walk toward her. Something about the woman seemed familiar to Coco, yet she couldn't point a finger on it. The scent of roses threw her off. It might as well we a perfume, as she knew fleshlings were strange enough to hide their true scents, sometimes. 

[b]"Hello! I'm Coco Bean, you can call me Coco. I'm a Foreas. Are you a human? Why do you smell like roses? I love roses, but humans do not smell like roses. Or do they? How could a human smell of roses? Who are you?"[/b] She asked the woman, stopping just a foot away from her, clasping her hands against her chest and sniffing the air a few times.

Annabeth was partially caught off guard, partly ammused as Coco made a beeline strait towards her. While Annabeth never dealt with Coco on the regular basis, it was hard not to know about the only Foreas in the school. So Annabeth braced herself with the onslaught of questioning and took them in stride. [b]"Hello Coco, yes I'm a human. As for the roses, I was given a prefume by my workplace, my boss thought it complimented me very well. Some humans can smell like roses, but I normally don't. Only with the prefume. I'm Annabeth by the way. I think we might have met before, but I've certainly heard about you."[/b]

Before Coco could throw more questions at Annabeth she countered with her own. [b]"Did you just come here to find out why I smell like roses? You know I think we did meet before, back on the first day. Do you remember that? Actually I've seen you around the college a lot too, or with Alaira. Does she treat you nicely?"[/b] Not as many questions as Coco, but at least Annabeth could humor the idea that she had turned the tables on the Foreas.

[b]"Annabeth..."[/b] Coco mused out loud, raising a hand up to her cheek. She then perked up, leaves puffing out. [b]"Annabeth! I remember! But you didn't smell like roses back then. That's why I didn't recognize you."[/b] She said, then processed Annabeth's questions.

[b]"I love roses. Yes, I came here to find out why you smelled like a very beautiful flower,"[/b] Coco mentioned, entertaining the thought of a Foreas Annabeth for a short while, before she snapped herself back to reality, [b]"yes, I remember the first day, too! I've heard you a few times, too. Alaira's great. First time I met her, she was very very very scary. Not as scary as the Syphis, but very scary nevertheless. I thought I was going to become, uh, how do you fleshlings say it...? Salad. I thought I was going to become salad for a moment." [/b]

Annabeth couldn't help but to laugh when Coco mentioned being turned into a salad. Granted, it was likely for something that was very scary on Coco's part but stilll... Salad. [b]"Well, I can promise you Coco, no one wants to turn you into a salad here. The college can be pretty scary, but I think that we're all pretty close to one another. So.... I'm thinking of doing a bit of training here at the gym. I'm waiting for some of my friends. Would you like to join me?"[/b]

[b]"Yes! I need to burn some energy. I had too much sunlight."[/b] Coco's leaves puffed out at her own mention of sunlight, and she had to force them back down with her hands. [b]"I don't generally use the gym for more than sparring or training with my spear, so why don't you lead the way, Annabeth?" [/b]

[b]"Alright than! Follow me please."[/b] Annabeth led Coco back into the gym to do some excises. Annabeth didn't want to immediately start sparing since she wanted to conserve her energy for when the others arrive, and because she wasn't really sure what Coco was capable of. Annabeth didn't really think that Coco was "Strong", but she has never seen her in action before and wouldn't want to get injured for underestimating Coco.

---

Annabeth led Coco in various stretches and calisthenics excises, while also teaching her some songs from her homeland. Just something that happened to go well with the calisthenics. She was starting to wonder if training for today was canceled when Ssarak finally showed up. [b]"Ah, Ssarak! Where have you been?"[/b] However when Ssarak came closer, she could see that there was something wrong. His voice was distressed. Annabeth didn't need to know much else to know something was up. [b]"Ssarak, what's wrong?"[/b]

[b]"You do sound different than you did months ago, Ssarak."[/b] Coco mentioned, going over to Annabeth's side, facing Ssarak.