Wild ― Piper McLean

―xxii. survivor

[trigger warnings: brief mention of suicide & mental breakdown]

🌿

ROMAN FEASTS WERE AS CHAOTIC and delicious as Verona remembered.

Aurae brought around an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies. Lares drifted through the crowd. Around the edges of the feast, fauns trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. In the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with a hellhound, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits.

Reyna and a few of her officers, including Octavian (who Reyna confirmed was, in fact, Evander Simmons's son), sat with the Argo II crew. Percy joined them with Frank and Hazel.

Reyna called a toast to friendship, and after introductions were made all around, the Camp Jupiter kids and the Argo II crew began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he and Verona had arrived at Camp Half-Blood without their memories, how they'd gone on a quest with Piper and Leo to rescue Juno from imprisonment at the Wolf House.

"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 finish."

Verona snorted at Octavian's face, which looked like it was trying its best to impersonate a rotting tomato.

"So," Jason continued, shooting Piper a grateful look, "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."

He recounted his side of the story: waking up at the Wolf House with no memories except Annabeth's name (how grossly romantic) and his quest with Hazel and Frank to Alaska.

Verona went still as he talked about the land beyond the gods, and Piper reached for her hand under the table.

He told them how they'd defeated the giant Alcyoneus, freed Thanatos, and returned with the lost golden eagle standard of Camp Jupiter to repel an attack by the giants' army.

Basically, how he and his two friends had done what a cohort of soldiers had failed to.

"Wow," Verona said, hoping she didn't sound as bitter as she felt. "Congrats, dude. No wonder they made you praetor."

Octavian snorted. "Which means we now have three praetors! The rules clearly state we can only have two!"

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

Octavian's face turned purple. Jason gave Percy a fist bump like they were already best friends.

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."

"I'll step aside for Jason," Percy said easily. "It's no biggie."

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