[Percy's POV:]
We had just concluded that the Titans are most likely in Alaska, but there was one teeny tiny problem. How do we get there? And who's gonna watch the camp while we are gone. I HAD to go, I was responsible for their release and therefore responsible for their wellbeing.
"Dami, I know this means a lot to you, I can tell that much, but we can't leave camp without its praetors. Especially so soon after regaining its second one. You're still being adjusted and hopefully accepted by the legionnaires. I'm sorry, but you cannot go on this trip. I will make an official quest and have a small group of trusted legionnaires go instead" yeah I had expected this response, but I had already determined I would go whether she allowed me to or not. I mean how hard could it be to sneak out of a roman demigod camp?
-smol timeskip-
Hard. Very very. Hard. That's what. I had tried escaping a grand total of 8 times and it had only been a few hours. I had tried simply strolling out the gates only to somehow bump into Reyna and get shooed back in 3 times from different areas. I tried "going for another hunt", but Electrum immediately exposed my lie; tried the puppy wolf eyes, fail; tried shooting myself out off an onager, fail (was fun and somehow nostalgic though); I even tried tunnelling out, but somehow ended up digging straight to the archery range and almost becoming a pin cushion if not for activating my celestial bronze hide at the last second and don't get me started on the 8th...
"Dami! Would you quit it already?!? I want to go just as much as you do, but so long as we're praetors we have a duty to stay here! Stop bein.." wow, she looked so cute when mad I ended up ignoring the rest of her lecture in favour of just admiring her. Maybe I was developing feelings for her, why had my old self ignored her feelings? Was I really that dense? Once her mouth stopped moving, I re-tuned my ears in and tried my hardest to pretend I had been listening, which I hadn't. I was simply too busy admiring her anger born cuteness.
"Rey, I have to do this. I know that others may be able to complete this task, but what if they can't? What if the Titans hide even from them? I could track them, even in the snow with some effort, but the important thing is I don't plan on bringing them back here until I know It's what they want. They fled to Alaska for safety, sending in a group to retrieve them would only endanger them more. I seek only to find them and ensure they are safe before finding out what the best course of action is." Reyna gained a thoughtful look in her eyes weighing the pros and cons of what I had said.
"Fine, I can't argue with that plus If Percy ever heard I turned down an opportunity to save the peaceful titans he'd probably douse me in river Tiber's water a few hundred times over" saved by the old me I'm starting to think I was awesome.
"I do have a condition, however" it better not be me wearing that toga. NOT happening I can and will burn that to ashes someday and I am so sacrificing the ashes to a God... hmm wonder if that would be considered a good sacrifice or a bad one.. That would change whether it's sacrificed to Artemis or Hestia, to Thunder thighs and The Big Jerk.. heh even after all this, I still remember their Greek nicknames. Congrats memory.
"You have to take me with you" at first I wanted to say sure since I would've actually enjoyed her company when she wasn't talking my ears off, but then I realised something.
"Who will watch over Camp? It's bad enough that I'll be gone, let alone the both of us" I did want her to come, but I didn't want to leave Camp unsupervised for so long, especially with that brat Octavian still breathing its air.
"I suppose I can appoint two of my trusted legionnaires as temp praetors reporting in their work every afternoon, in fact I'll go and inform them now, in the meantime you can plot the trip there and pack things up into the car, we realised having to rent or steal a car every time we had a quest was very.. Inefficient so we got a few to keep for ourselves". Well this was gonna be fun, it seems Reyna had forgotten one important thing. I didn't have any hands to write the directions down nor pack up and load the car. I looked around the room, determining if anyone could enter easily and where from before locking the front door and for the first time since I arrived at Camp turned to my human form. A familiar sensation of bones reforming, fur and claws retracting filled my being; as usual my wolf tail, wolfy canines and wolf ears remained: features I had come to quite appreciate.
Hastily I retrieved the overly large map of America from the drawers and began tracing lines from camp to Alaska, a total of 3038 miles (4889.18km) distance; that hurt my ADHWID brain to figure out.. I had to ensure that the route frequented rest stops, hotels and of course fuel stations. I wouldn't do well to have the car run out of fuel half way and run for a week or so.
Then came the packing, I decided to.. I mean accidently misplaced my toga over on the sofa in plain sight and so unfortunately I couldn't pack it, so so unfortunate.. oh well. I began packing Reyna's clothes and realised just how casual it felt, as if I was more than used to handling women clothing than my own.. I hope this meant my old self helped women pack a lot and not anything else.. Yeah It better be that... Else I swear new me and old me will have some dam problems.
Once the bags were packed as tightly as I could, I shifted back to wolf form, relishing in the comfort it brought, then looked at the note Reyna had left for me, stating the car was located on the opposite exit of new Rome. Why it was there I had no idea since no road led from there to well anywhere. Still I'm sure they have a way out at the least though; the Romans are very organized with their road systems. Though I still wonder how they do leave from there since I can't see any direct exit from camp even if the maintenance tunnel was large enough. Which it obviously isn't since it's a dam doorway.
I left the Barracks and began walking through New Rome with bags strapped to my back, hanging from my mouth and to my bronzed tail; which was quite difficult to put on. I found myself to be the main subject of attention, whether that was due to me being a wolf carrying bags or being their praetor in all my wolfishness was unknown.. Actually it was probably both at the same time. Nonetheless I trekked on with my quickly diminishing pride to the Berkley hills gate determined to get this show on what I hoped was the road, since quite frankly I was excited to go on my first quest since my memory loss. I wonder how many I had been on before this? Must've at least been one, due to the whole becoming praetor due to some godly intervention last time.
"Damia-" Come to think of it, what was my purpose here this time? Mother seemed to believe that lady Hera- sorry, Juno had a play in my arrival here yet I've been doing whatever. was it perhaps her secretly trying to save the titans through me? Nah seems way too sincere. What was her plan? Was there even a plan at all? For all I know I dived head, or well snout first into that river.. Yeah that sounds about right.
"Hey-" still I wonder if I had a good life going for me, it seems like I was famous at least yet also a smart idiot apparently.
"DAMIAN!" shouted my little winged friend, who had been trying to grab my attention for the past 3 paragraphs of monologue.
"Oh sorry Acanthis I was in my own dam sea for a sec there. When did you wake up?" she looked both relieved and very ticked off that I had finally acknowledged her.
"I've been awake since you left the damned Barracks Damian, I was trying to tell you that you forgot the food and water supply bag at the Barracks" She was currently in her original form but with brighter and more varied colours since she was a bird anyone, but me, would have heard light chirping sounds. I loved being able to understand wildlife, especially birds. Jupiter's bolt, can they Gossip.
"Dam, I knew I forgot something. Let me get this stuff to the car first and then I can go back and get it" I always forget something don't I... bags, evil togas, my entire life... you know the usual.
"Don't worry about it, I was gonna say I'll go get it if you had taken a second away from your internal monologue. What was it this time? A debate on which carpets to drag your ass on?" Oh she has some sass.. We're going to get along perfectly.
"Sure, you know what bag it is right? It's the red one. Oh you're not colour blind right? I heard some animals are" What? I sucked at animal studies.
"Actually we birds can not only see in colour, but see colours better than humans and more colours that are invisible to humans. Funny enough It's you Canines that are colour blind well you do see A LOT more shades of grey and weirdly a tone of blue... don't make a blue sea pun I will peck you." dammit she saw right through me, still I guess becoming a wolf wasn't a perfect transformation since I'm seeing Acanthis's bright colours with 8K quality and i don't even know what the hell that is!
"Dam, well I for one see very clearly in colour. Just go get the dam bags, oh and I decided on the blue wool carpet if you were wondering." I chuckled and then realised how far off track we had gotten in under a minute and with that detour finally concluded we set off once again to get the rest of the bags.
[Camp Half Blood][Annabeth's POV]
I had just entered the Big House where Artemis, the kids, Percy's half sister, most of the seven including Leo, Frank, Hazel, Piper and Jason.. Whom I had let in reluctantly after having found him in bed with some unclaimed girl, I also noticed the shadows darken probably meaning Nico was here too. I asked Percy's sister to take the kids to her cabin while the meeting was in session, sure they seemed mature, but I still didn't know how this would affect them.. It sure as hell was affecting me.
"I have finished analysing the Prophecy and you guys are going to want to sit down for this" I pointed at the chairs with Jason's noticeably further from the rest and waited for them to sit.
"Why is my chair so-" of course I didn't let him finish.
"Problem Jason?" Was all I said mixing a glare I had learned from Percy years ago.. Sure It was practically about as intimidating as a baby rabbit when you compared it to his, but trust me it was Intimidating enough for me and for Jason too who promptly shut his mouth while shaking his head no.
"Ok now that's out of the way (literally) I want to discuss my findings and research, as you all know the prophecy goes as follows:
The Twice hero turned canine by time
The Earth shall rise when he and the moon shines
Misunderstood, the hero must choose
To save the Earth or slice it through
I believe the first line is quite obvious and refers to Percy becoming a wolf, as for the time part, it likely means that Kronos..." A quick nod from Artemis confirmed that to be true.. Of course Percy would get cursed by Kronos stupid seaweed brain. "...Was the one to do it.
The second line states 'The earth shall rise' Which I believe to be Gaea then and then it says 'when he and the moon shines' this part is rather vague and could have several meanings from Percy shining something from the moon to him and Lady Artemis co-operating in some form" I couldn't bring myself to admit it may infer them becoming intimate, Prophecy or not I was not giving up on him though judging from the look Artemis just gave me, I'm sure she already knows or suspects it...
"T-the third line suggests that Percy will be provided a choice by Gaea, one that will determine whether the planet lives or dies based on the last line, I believe this could mean she will try to sway Percy to move to her side or force him to sacrifice himself. Damn seaweed brain is gone when you need him the most... when I need him the most" I couldn't help a few tears escape and the others all jumped at the chance to comfort me. Save for Jason who was rejected the moment he stood.. I still plan on reintroducing him to that brick on a speed date he'll never forget, the very thought perked me up a tad.
We continued discussing where in the Hades Percy could be going to for a few hours and everyone, save for Jason, had agreed Percy would have returned by now unless something had happened to him and knowing him... yeah It was more likely than Demeter having Cereal for breakfast. The rest of the seven present Left I noticed the shadows lessoned, indicating Nico had just left. I also left and headed for the Poseidon cabin since I wanted to talk to the kids... Once seaweed brain gets back they WILL be my kids too.
Walking through camp I thought over the things we had discussed. Since camp had been running extremely low on drachmas lately, simply Iris calling was not possible. We had a planned envoy being sent to camp Jupiter later this week to ask them about any sightings as well as finally inform them of the prophecy, we had forgotten to tell them about it since they had been so focused on the rebuilding of New Rome. It had just slipped our minds. He would likely have gone to a body of water since he feels most comfortable there, then again Artemis has been telling me of his new habit of relaxing and sleeping in trees so he could be in a forest as well... Ugh this is frustrating..
I decided to just give the thinking a break, something I rarely did, and hurried on towards the cabin. Soon the familiar sights of the cabins simply elegant yet slightly intimidating design and walked in knowing full well Poseidon wouldn't mind in the slightest; unlike my mother when it came to the opposite, poor Percy always had to ask permission just to get even remotely close. Inside Percy's new sister, Natasha, sat across from her Nieces, and my daughters to be, chatting happily to them. It was a shock to us all that Percy had a half sister now. She was Russian, but born in New York, living there her whole life. Yet she still managed to develop a slight accent and at times it would slip through which was very entertaining.
"How are the kids?" A simple yet appropriate answer I would like to think.
"They are handling it betterrr than you" I had expected that, even in the big house when we first found out, it was quite obvious they were seemingly better kept together than me, I also couldn't help stifling a laugh at Natasha's slip in accent which was refreshing somehow.
"Father will come back eventually, his instincts hate being away from us and so does he. He probably got lost again or something." spoke the older one Aria, she gave off the aura of a free spirit, someone who you would think more than twice before trying to contain her.. Then there was Coral, in a word she was the mash-up of Tyson and Percy, which is creepy and interesting at the same time, though instead of metal working and crafts she seems much more Intune with nature similar to Aria. Likely due to being raised in the hunt.
"Dad will be back, just you wait. He would never abandon us! he is too loyal and too dam awesome" Coral's statement summed Percy up perfectly.. And has she been around Apollo? Has Percy? I could not handle sea pun filled haikus, I would lose it fast.
"You're right, he will be back soon enough, I just hope we don't have to wait for the seaweed brain too much longer" the girls tilted their heads at me confusingly, what had I said?
"What?"
"Why do you call him seaweed brain? You call him that a lot" huh, seems they never heard their fathers nickname before me. I suppose Artemis isn't the type to use that kind of name... which is a good thing in a way.
"Honestly... it started as a sort of insult, I actually used to dislike Your father when I first met him based only on the fact that our Godly parents do not like each other, then as I got to know him and develop feelings for him it kinda stuck and became my pet name for him" they listened intently seemingly relishing in the stories of their father before his time with the Hunt. We spent a few hours exchanging stories of our adventures, most they knew but not everything. They got a laugh out of the story on Circe's island with a guinea pig Percy.
Though I suppose he's now wolf Percy so we're getting better in a way.