A Crown of Golden Leaves: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Caput XLII: The Puzzle Pieces

A Crown of Golden Leaves
By Kitty
January 1, 2017

"Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool, or you go out in the ocean." – Christopher Recue

Caput XLII: The Puzzle Pieces

WARM, early morning sunlight filtered through the linen draperies that were meant to block the harsh heat of the afternoon. The birds sang their melodies, their voices harmonizing and pitching in perfect cacophony. The streets bustled with the early rising servants and plebeians moving about, preparing to tackle the mob that was the midday market during a State of Emergency.

If he was a morning person, he might have enjoyed lounging in bed, listening to the sounds of life. Even though there was a plague taking men and women and children, plebeian or patrician, left and right, there was still movement in his city.

Percy was not a morning person.

He glared at the drapes, somewhat wishing he had the ability to douse them with water or set them on fire or something by his will power alone. A part of him wanted to strangle the birds. But, here was the worst offense of all: Annabeth the snoring starfish had stolen his side of the bed. With his blankets. And she was the one who always, somehow, miraculously, woke up bright eyed and bushytailed before Apollo dragged his scrawny podex into his chariot to pull the sun over the ocean.

And it was all Grover's fault.

The faun was worrying his bottom lip even as he (quite bravely, Percy understood) repeatedly poked his shoulder, rousing him from his glorious state of slumber. With a groan, he attempted to borrow back underneath the sheets, half tempted to gesture rudely at his companion. It would be warranted. But it would be unbecoming of the future Caesar. And Reyna would disapprove of that. But Jason would try to egg him on. Annabeth would probably be disapproving to save her face and then she would covertly encourage him.

But the only way to get rid of him so that he could get back to sleep was to tell him to explain why he was waking him up at some gods' forsaken hour in the morning.

"What?" he snapped. Grover ignored his tone out of long habit. Thank the gods he had found someone calm enough to not take his morning moods personally. Or perhaps he had been desensitized over time?

"Sorry, sire. I wouldn't bother you if it's not important. I know that you don't like waking up early. And normally Lady Annabeth is awake, so usually she handles it if it's urgent, but she's sleeping and she probably needs it because she's usually awake before I'm here. So I decided to wake you up. Plus he said to tell you directly. Which meant I probably wouldn't have been able to tell Lady Annabeth."

Probably desensitized. Grover was nervous and jumpy by nature.

"Grover," he tried to say nicely and patiently. "You're rambling. I can't translate rambling this early in the morning."

You need to cut back on the sarcasm, he heard Reyna sniff mentally.

It's too early in the morning to have to deal with society without an abundance of sarcasm, he told the Reyna-voice.

You need to stop talking to yourself in your head, either Jason or Annabeth warned.

"The Caesar wants to talk to you. Immediately."

For a moment, Percy wasn't entirely sure he had heard correctly. And then he wasn't sure if his ears were lying to him. It wasn't uncommon for his pater to talk to him, but it was usually during midday. When the sun was high above the clouds and the sky was blue. Not pinkish-reddish black. Unless it was night time, but then the stars and the moon was out.