SANITY; heroes of olympus

03.2

Before anyone could say anything more, Reyna called a toast to friendship.

After introductions all around, the Romans and Greeks began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood without his memory, how when he "met" Andy, his memories began to come back, and how he'd gone on a quest with her, Piper, and Leo to rescue the goddess Hera (or Juno, take your pick—she was equally annoying in Greek or Roman) from imprisonment at the Wolf House in northern California.

"Impossible!" Octavian broke in. "That's our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there—"

"They would've destroyed her," Piper said. "And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now, be quiet and let Jason and Andy finish."

Octavian opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Andy bit her lip to keep laughter from spilling from her, but as the blonde boy narrowed his eyes at her, she held her hands up, flipping him the bird with a wide, joyous grin. Jason reached over and grabbed her hands, pulling them back down, while Percy let out a loud laugh at her behaviour.

"So," Jason continued, "that's how we found out about the earth goddess Gaea. She's still half asleep, but she's the one freeing the monsters from Tartarus and raising the giants. Porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands—Greece itself. He plans on awakening Gaea and destroying the gods by...what did he call it? Pulling up their roots."

Percy nodded thoughtfully. "Gaea's been busy over here, too. We had our own encounter with Queen Dirt Face."

Percy recounted his side of the story. He talked about waking up at the Wolf House with no memories except for one name—Andromeda, well, Lea.

Then Zara and Percy told them how they'd travelled to Alaska with Frank and Hazel—how they'd come across a newly alive Donnie, defeated the giant Alcyoneus, freed the death god Thanatos, and returned with the lost golden eagle standard of the Roman camp to repel an attack by the giants' army.

When Percy had finished, Jason whistled appreciatively. "No wonder they made you praetor."

Andy shook the son of Poseidon's shoulders, grinning proudly. "Yeah, he's pretty great."

Octavian snorted. "Which means we now have three praetors! Actually, four if you count Storm! The rules clearly state we can only have two!"

"On the bright side," Percy said, "both Jason, Lea, and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up."

Octavian turned as purple as a Roman T-shirt. Jason gave Percy a fist bump while the redhead snickered into her fist. Donnie had reached into his sister's pocket, pulling out the sharpie he knew was there. Pulling the cap off, he began doodling on her cast. She kept her amethyst eyes trained on the tip of the permanent marker, watching as the ink bled into the pink fabric that wrapped around the plaster that kept her from re-injuring herself.

Even Reyna managed a smile, though her eyes were stormy.

"We'll have to figure out the extra praetor problem later," she said. "Right now we have more serious issues to deal with."

Andy pointed her finger in Reyna's direction. "Consider me stepped down, well, Dom."

"I'll step aside for Jason," Percy said easily, nodding his head towards the blonde. "It's no biggie."

"No biggie?" Octavian choked. "The praetorship of Rome is no biggie?"

Donnie picked up a grape and flicked it at the boy's head, smirking when he glared back at the son of Dionysus. "What, you couldn't predict that?"