Note: This is just the prolouge and the only time a chapter will dip under 1700 words.
Beta'ed by: Astoria Goode. Many thanks for the edits!
Things to Be Resolved
Wolves. Ruthlessness. Hierarchy. Staunch loyalty. No pity for the weak.
Lupa, the Great Wolf who was the mother of Rome, had many pups now. Much more than those two Mars had fathered with a human woman so long ago. As long as the blood of Rome still lived, she would be here to guide the next Demi-pack to greatness.
Her Demi-pack had taken harsh losses during the recent war against Saturn and his brethren. Those who hadn't died brutally had either suffered emotionally, or were physically incapacitated for the time being. It made her uneasy. Enemies thrived on weakness. Many bore hate for her Demi-pack, and would jump at the chance for vengeance.
Conquer or die, she had whispered to Remus and Romulus as they suckled from her, growing stronger with each passing day, moving away from the weakness that plagued other mortals. With her milk to drink and food brought by the woodpecker to nourish them, the sons of war grew to be men. Start a pack of their own-of humans. An empire.
The pack of mortals had died, as all humans did, condemned to a dull afterlife in the underworld, with only Lord Pluto and Lady Proserpina, and their own regret and sorrow for company.
But their line hadn't died. Following in Mars' example, many other children of the had come about, and most of them found their way to her and her cave. Some didn't. They became meals for monsters. But most did. The she-wolf had no pups of her own flesh and blood; however, these demigods she fostered, Lupa secretly considered her own.
Now she was in America, with a great home in the woods, a long way from her Roman cave. And her main beta was gone; another halfing, someone of the hated Greek line, was in his place.
Lupa didn't know what to make of it. This uncertainty bothered her. Indecision-just another form of weakness. Strong mind, strong body. She was doubtful that Juno's gamble would work out, but a vow on the River Styx could not be undone. All there was to do was wait and train.
Percy Jackson would certainly make things interesting.
((()))
Ack! That was painfully short for me to look at, however it was necessary to start the ball rolling. I know there isn't much to comment on, but I'm curious about what you thought of this.
1/16/11