Disclaimer: I don't own the Riordanverse.
Little Protogenoi's Tales
Chapter 3: Shopping in New Rome
Betas: None so far, you're welcome to apply
The sun shined down pleasantly on red tiled roofs, the wind blew between the white marble columns and through the streets. Altogether, it was a wonderful day in the city of New Rome.
It was in this welcome environment that a shadow in an alley off one of the city's main streets suddenly sprung unexpectedly to life and shifted into a portal from which two young figures exited.
"Uwah!" Ophis exclaimed as she admired the city around her.
Nico just nodded, as he too tried to contain his awe at seeing an ancient Roman city seemingly transported to the modern day.
"It's pretty amazing." The demigod finally conceded.
"Yup." Ophis agreed, nodding enthusiastically as she turned to her brother and tugged on his arm. "Let's go explore."
"Sure." Nico said as he easily allowed his sister to drag him along. "Though shouldn't we go announce ourselves to the locals first?"
Ophis came to a stop, causing Nico to almost walk right into her, thankfully his demigod reflexes allowed him to avoid that.
"Oppy?"
Pouting adorably, Ophis tilted her head to face her brother and replied, "I don't wanna. If we do, then they will all want to watch us or pay me homage or something. And that means we won't have as much fun."
Nico sighed. He knew Ophis was right, but he worried that this might come back to cause them trouble in the future. That said, he couldn't say no to his sister when she was looking at him like that.
"Ok. We'll do things your way."
"Yay!" Ophis cheered and tightening her grip on his arm, cheerfully pulled him into the main street.
Seeing how happy his little sister was, Nico couldn't help the smile that blossomed across his own face.
"Nico, Nico! Look they're selling unicorn draught." Ophis whispered excitedly to her brother as she held up a flask of the aforementioned liquid.
"Really?" Nico said in surprise.
Ophis shoved the flask into her brother's face.
"See for yourself! It says so right here."
Nico took a closer look at container and noted that his little sister was correct. "Wow! That's new."
The son of Hades was not so distracted by his surprise to fail to notice the confused and even suspicious stares that their conversation was inspiring from the handful of other people in the store that he and Ophis were currently exploring.
Ophis seemed outwardly oblivious, but Nico knew her well enough to see how her shadow was shifting uneasily. She noticed the looks alright, and was not happy about it. If he didn't do something soon, things might quickly become a bloodbath.
"Oppy, how about we go and find those unicorns?"
"Really?" Ophis asked cheerfully, her restless shadow calming. "Oh! I can't wait. Maybe I can get to ride one?"
"I'll see what I can do."
It took the siblings only a few minutes to find their way to the city's stables. Ophis' powers could come in very handy sometimes.
"They are so pretty!" Ophis enthused as she eyed the many unicorns mulling around the stables. Nico wouldn't have phrased it quite that way but he had to admit that the unicorns did look pretty cool.
A stablehand nearby chuckled. "First time seeing a unicorn in the flesh, little girl?"
Ophis nodded as she spun to face the man and shot him the puppy dog eyes. "Can I ride one?"
The stablehand rubbed his chin in faux contemplation, even as he discreetly had a wordless conversation with the couple of teenagers that had been tailing the siblings since the shop. Apparently, receiving permission, he smiled and gave Ophis a nod. "Sure thing, little miss."
Ophis cheered.
As the man went to get a unicorn ready for Ophis, Nico took the time to speak to her about their stalkers.
"Oppy-"
Or at least he tried to. Before he could get further than calling out her name, she cut him off with a telepathic message.
It's alright. They won't try anything. Not if we don't do anything threatening.
Nico sighed and changed his tack for the benefit of those spying on them. "Have fun."
I hope you're right, Oppy.
"I will."
Trust me, Big Brother.
Nico nodded with a smile, agreeing with both Ophis' verbal and telepathic replies. The two siblings waited in companionable silence for a few more minutes, admiring the unicorns with their majestic gold and silver horns, before the stablehand returned with a saddled foal for Ophis to ride.
Nico watched on as Ophis enjoyed every minute of her unicorn ride. At the same time though he kept a vigilant watch on their not so well hidden watchers.
"It was a fun day!" Ophis declared as she walked down the main street of New Rome with a baked dormice on a stick that she had bought off a street vendor in hand.
Nico was still feeling a little green at the idea of anyone, especially his little sister, eating something like that. Despite that, he managed to reply, "It has. So ready to go home?"
He certainly hoped she was. The number of tails they had picked up over the course of the day had grown quite a bit and he was starting to really get uneasy.
"Almost." Ophis shot back happily as she took a bite from her snack. Swallowing, she continued, "We just need to go pay Terminus our respects and we can go."
"Terminus? The god of boundaries, right?" Nico replied as he recalled what he had been told about New Rome from his father and from his own study of Roman mythology.
"Yup." Ophis said with a nod as she finished off her snack.
It did not take long for the two siblings to reach one of the boundary stones that denoted the Pomerian Line that outlined the limits of the city of New Rome and which served as the vessels for the god Terminus.
"Julia, move that stone back into its proper place." An animated stone bust ordered as the two siblings drew near. "Julia! Where are you? Didn't you hear me? I need your help."
A little girl, a year or two younger than Ophis, giggled as she hid behind the plinth that supported the god's body.
The two siblings exchanged a look and shrugged.
Taking a step forward, Ophis summoned her power and called out with it lacing her voice, "Terminus."
Startled, the god turned his statue like body a 180 degrees to face Ophis.
"Who? No, wait! That's not important, how did you get into New Rome!? You're not one of its citizens or a legionary!" The god rambled out in quick succession as he gathered his wits.
As if in response to his uneasiness, the dozen or so followers that the siblings racked up over the course of the day suddenly showed themselves and surrounded them.
Nico tensed and summoned his sword. The warriors surrounding them, all wearing purple t-shirts the son of Hades noticed, tensed. Some reached for weapons that weren't there, others took stances similar to those he knew some of his fellow demigods fell into when they used their powers.
"A weapon! You dare!?" Terminus ranted at the sight of Nico's sword.
While everyone was preparing for what was shaping up into a deadly confrontation, Ophis just sighed in frustration.
"All I wanted was to have a nice day exploring the city but nooooo, things just have to lead to a fight." Ophis whined. "Well, there's no way I'm going to let that happen. Not when I can help it."
"Oppy?"
"What nonsense are you talking about, gi-"
The god trailed off as his eyes widened in shock as Ophis transformed. Shedding her mortal disguise, she changed from her human form as a seven year old little girl into a massive winged serpent. Her scales were made out of smaller snakes of light sucking black and brilliant white. Her wings were so immense that fully outstretched as they were, they blotted out the sun.
Ophis had explained to Nico that it was a pale imitation of her true godly form, but it was a healthy medium that allowed her to utilise a greater percentage of her full powers than her human form while not having the effect of reducing mortals to ash that her true form would have. The son of Hades however was of the opinion that pale imitation or not, it was absolutely badass.
"I am Ophis! The Great Serpent! Primordial of Time and Space! Daughter of Chaos and Saturn!" The massive serpent protogenos announced herself.
For a moment, Terminus and the Romans were too stunned by this development to do anything.
Nico however was not.
"What are you waiting for? Stand down!" He ordered.
The Romans exchanged uneasy looks.
"Heed my Big Brother and Champion!" Ophis demanded as she narrowed her eyes at them, even as she folded her wings against her body and coiled up. Her equivalent, as Nico understood it, of shifting into a comfortable position when in this form.
"Do as they say you fools!" Terminus, having found his voice, demanded. "And bow. Show your respect!"
Prompted by their god, the Romans obeyed. Even as said god eyed Ophis' form appreciatively. Nico's eyes narrowed at this, but he trusted Ophis to handle things with other gods. That wasn't going to stop him from telling his Father about the Roman god's actions though.
It was to this scene, of Romans bowing before Ophis' godly form that that the legion led by their Praetors, arrived to.
"What's going on here?" The female Praetor, a teenaged girl of about sixteen with piercing black eyes and glossy black hair in a braid demanded.
Terminus was the one who replied, "We have been graced by a visit by Ophis, the youngest of the protogenoi."
"The youngest protogenoi?" The male Praetor, a handsome blond boy with electric blue eyes, asked in confusion.
"I'm seven." Ophis informed helpfully.
Both Praetors and the dozens of squads of legionaries that had come with them both looked up at her at this, shock and awe written clearly across their faces.
Nico smirked, pleased with the response his sister was eliciting from the Romans. He always liked it when people recognized just how utterly awesome his little sister really was.
His smirk just grew even more smug as led by their Praetors, the Romans knelt before Ophis.
"You honour us with your presence, Lady Ophis." The female Praetor offered respectfully.
Ophis however barely paid her any mind, instead she seemed preoccupied with looking at how low the sun was in the sky.
"Oh no! We're late! Big Brother Pluto is gonna be mad!"
Nico paled as he realised that his little sister was right. His father would be furious at him if Ophis showed up late for dinner again. The Lord of the Underworld might not have initially known how to deal with having a little sister as young as Ophis, but he'd quickly grown into the role of the overprotective big brother.
"Oppy! We need to go. Now."
"I know, Nico! I know!" Ophis said nervously as she transformed back into her human form.
"I beg your pardon, Lady Ophis, I know you're in a rush." The blonde Praetor said, cutting into the mild panic that the two siblings had fallen into. "But do you have any instructions for us?"
Several people looked at the boy like he was an idiot but Terminus was nodding approvingly. Privately, Nico applauded the boy's foresight. Always assume a divine being has a task for you when they show up and always be sure to check just in case even when they don't tell you outright.
Ophis turned to the Romans, who were still kneeling. Quickly she looked towards Terminus and hummed in thought for a moment. Seemingly inspired, she spoke up, "I do. I want you Romans to build me a shrine to pay me homage like you honor Terminus here. I'll send the blueprint soon. Once it's built, I want you to offer tributes there. Brownies and candy for me, and rats for Fidi and Lily!"
The Romans muttered amongst themselves at this. They didn't seem to be too pleased that Ophis was demanding they build her a custom shrine. Nico was unimpressed with their attitude, his little sister was a protogenoi, something as simple as this was well within her due. If the rolling of Terminus' eyes as the Romans began to complain was any indication, the god agreed.
"Fidi and Lily?" The blonde questioned, silencing his men.
"We'll explain later." Nico cut in. "In the meantime, Oppy, we really need to go."
Ophis nodded and without another word the siblings disappeared leaving behind a impressed looking god and a crowd of nervous and confused Romans.
Chapter 3 is done!
And Ophis takes her first step into the Roman side of the Olympian world. This opens up so many avenues for me to have fun with. What do I mean? Well, you readers will just have to wait to see.
Before I sign off, I just want to talk about the dormice bit. Yeah, ancient Romans did eat the furry critters which are a type of rodent as a delicacy. Since this is the case, I thought why not have the New Romans maintain this little bit of classical Roman culture too? Hence, why Ophis was munching on one as a snack. Plus, she's a snake, so having her eat a rodent was just so appropriate that I couldn't resist.
Ok. I think that's all I have to say this time.
So until next time, peace.
