Jason smacked his lips and yawned, resting his head on his mother's shoulder sleepily as she carried him from the car deeper into the forest.
He vaguely wondered why Sissy wasn't coming with them, but at the moment he was too preoccupied with his nap to think about it.
"I'm sorry…I'm sorry…" He thought he heard his mother sob as he drifted off to sleep. "You have to be her sacrifice. It's the only way. I'm sorry."
He dreamt of a storm, low and rumbling, covering the entire sky above a vast plain with gray clouds.
Thunder never scared him. Neither did lightning. He passed a gentle sleep with both roaring in his head, content and cradled in his mother's arms.
Once, he thought he saw the figure of a man with black hair and a beard smiling wistfully down at him from the storm clouds.
When he slowly opened his eyes at last, he was no longer with his mother. He was in a patch of grass in the courtyard of a mansion's ruins as the sun was setting.
He sat up.
"Mommy!" He cried.
He scampered around yelling for her. He began to weep.
Now, now, pup. That will do.
Jason hiccuped and turned to see a giant red wolf, like The Big Bad Wolf, only this one was female and though he didn't know how he knew it, far more ancient.
He thought it must be The Big Bad Wolf's grandmother.
That thought made him laugh.
The wolf looked him over quizzically.
You do not fear me, young one? She seemed to say.
"No." Jason said aloud.
That is good. It is better to die bravely and with honor than to live a coward.
He toddled up to her and tentatively stroked her fur. The wolf relaxed and her ears folded back.
"Where is my mommy?" He asked her.
Alas, young one, I fear your mother has forsaken you.
He didn't know what forsaken meant but he did know one thing.
"I won't see Mommy again?"
No, my little pup. Never again in this world.
Tears welled up in him, but he remembered the wolf didn't want him to cry. He took a deep breath and managed not to bawl. Only a few tears streamed down his face as he desperately held them in.
The wolf nudged him gently.
You show great promise, pup.
She hesitated.
Wait here.
She bounded into the forest. Jason sat by an empty pool for what felt like hours before she returned with a dead rabbit between her bloody teeth.
He almost threw up, but the wolf said
Come here, pup. I will teach you how to cook your food. Soon you will be able to hunt it as well.
He nearly burned himself several times but the wolf instructed him in how to collect firewood, make a fire and keep it going while roasting the meat. It was pitch dark when it was done and Jason devoured it ravenously.
Over the next few days, the wolf took care of him. She brought him meat that he cooked himself. Eventually he was hunting small game. She also wrestled with him. He thought it was playing, but she gave him tips like it was a lesson.
She told him her name was Lupa and that his father was someone called Jupiter, who was a god.
He had heard of God. He wondered if his father was anything like that. He wondered if he was the man he saw in his dream. He didn't really understand.
After weeks of gaining cuts and bruises in wrestling, growing bulky on nothing but red meat, and being bored out of his skull during lectures about the gods, Lupa told him they were going south.
She made him walk most of the way.
Sometimes she carried him in her maw like he was a real wolf pup.
Sometime she would sneak him onto trains or buses. Nobody seemed to see a wolf place a toddler on them. More strangely, they never noticed Jason as he sat there, never asked where his parents were or what he was doing there alone.
When he looked out the window, he always saw Lupa running as a dark grey blur.
Soon they crossed into a large city he didn't recognize. Lupa scooped him up in her mouth and slinked through the trees in the outskirts until they came to a tunnel. She guided him through it but on the other side, instead of the rest of the highway, there was another city with big white buildings and columns. There were buildings off to one side next to a river closed off by a fence.
There was a crowd when they arrived. Everyone stared and whispered. Some bowed to Lupa. Some looked nostalgic to see the wolf.
Then they all began to murmur.
Jason looked up at where they were gazing.
There was a golden haze in the shape of a lightning bolt above his head. He thought that was pretty cool, though he didn't know where it came from.
One by one, they all bowed on one knee.
This is Jason Grace, son of Jupiter. Lupa informed them. He has trained with me and now I must leave him in your hands to rise as a great leader or fail his father's expectations, as Fate would have it.
And then Lupa was gone.
He felt ashamed for it because Lupa thought it was weakness, but he cried. He had lost his mother again.
He listened to the grown-ups argue as an older woman picked him up and gently shushed him (only later would he realize most had actually been teens).
"…sends us a baby…"
"Can't be over, what? Three?"
"Where's his mother?"
A tall boy in a purple cape roared "Silence!"
After he got his wish, he continued "Lord Jupiter has blessed us by giving his son to the legion. If it is the will of the Almighty gods, then we will take this child in. Considering the circumstances, I propose we make him an honorary full member of the legion now and let him officially join a cohort when he is of age. All in favor?"
Several people raised their hands.
"It is passed." The boy declared. He strode over to Jason, still in the woman's arms.
"We accept Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, into the Twelfth Legion Fulminata."
He didn't understand what all that meant but he did understand his arm hurt badly.
He whimpered and the older woman held his hand as the pain careened down his arm like a lightning bolt.
When it was over, he had a line drawn on his arm over the outline of a bird. He knew by instinct it was an eagle.
The boy ruffled his hair and smiled.
"Obey the rules, serve Rome and bring glory to the legion. Senatus Populusque Romanus."
"Senatus Populusque Romanus." The crowd chanted.
"Senatus Populusque Romanus." Jason copied in a garbled, three year old way. He could translate the words for some reason as the Senate and the People of Rome. He had no clue what those words meant in English.
They put him to sleep in the bottom bunk bed in a dorm building within the fence, the first of many cohorts he would be passed around, until he would settle on the Fifth.
That night he dreamt of storms.
A/N: I just think it's interesting Jason grew up and had his own adventures right at the same time Percy was, so I wanted to write something on it. Right now, I think it will be a three part drabble series.
Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it and please tell me what you think!