Chapter 3: Going into Town

Six Months Ago

"Can anyone tell me what the next stage in cellular mitosis after metaphase is?" said Mrs. Luis.

"Anaphase," answered Cary Chang.

"That's correct, now class what's the next stage…"

The class continued its lesson as Cary looked around. Everyone was attending except Amber. It was strange, he saw her earlier in class at Canyon Ridge Jr. High. He didn't remember anyone excusing her out of class like a hallway monitor or anything. In fact, her backpack with floral designs were here. He would have to ask about when the bell at the end of period began.

The bell for fourth period rang. Cary packed up his stuff and headed out, but Amber's backpack was still there.

"Mrs. Luis, did you see Amber, her backpack was still there?" he asked.

"That's strange, I didn't mark her here today. Oh, hang on, she did drop it off at the beginning of class, then excused herself before I could take attendance. She hasn't returned since. I can hold on to it and if you find her at lunch you can tell her I have her back." Mrs. Luis responded eloquently.

"Sounds fair, see you tomorrow, Mrs. Luis," Cary departed with the rest of class to lunch.

At Lunch

Waiting in lines wasn't the most enjoyable part of the day and a bunch of hungry teenagers were bound to feel irritated. Cary was more irritated that he hasn't seen Amber around. Once he picked up his order he went to sit down with his friends. It was nice to share meals and their days with each other. Before he could take his seat, he felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned around to find Amber standing before him.

It was very peculiar though. She wasn't in her blouse, and her whole body was covered in a hoodie too big for her stature. No wonder Cary couldn't find her waiting in line, she covered her short brunette bob cut under the hood.

"Meet me in the library when you're done with lunch." Amber requested before ruffling Cary's short hair.

Cary took the hint and quickly scarfed his meal down rather than take his time. Excusing from his friends right after before walking out of the lunch quad and into the auditorium where the library was.

He found Amber deep into her book and sat down next to her.

"Hey what's up I saw your backpack in class, but I didn't…"

"Shhhhhhhh, Cary sorry to put you in the spotlight, but can you grab it for me?" Amber interrupted.

"Umm, okay. I'll head to Mrs. Luis's classroom." Cary walked in faster stride than normal to the classroom and knocked on the door. He was greeted by Mrs. Luis who let him in. He grabbed Amber's backpack, thanked the teacher, and headed to the library.

Amber was waiting for him at the table when he found her. Cary handed her the backpack, but just as she outstretched her arms to accept her backpack, she quickly retracted them and back away slowly. Her attention was occupied behind him.

"Amber, what's …" Cary did not get a chance to finish his sentence as heard a growl behind him. He turned around to see where that noise had come from. What he saw petrified him.

At the end of the entrance was a giant wolf with the richest brown fur was prowling in their direction. Not a local coyote, a wolf. However this wolf was bigger than most, on its four feet, its eyes met Cary's hairline. It was sniffing the air looking for something. It looked around the hallway before setting its gaze at Cary, or at the very least at Amber's backpack in his hands.

The wolf growled as it treaded in his direction. Cary was taking deep breaths to avoid panicking. He kept his eyes on the beast and backed away slowly with Amber at his rear. They tried to avoid stepping on the sound and making a noise. They could call for help, but all the students were at lunch, and there was no certainty that the teachers were around. In fact, the librarian seemed to be nowhere. Their best bet was to scramble for the nearest emergency exit.

"Don't sprint until we reach the emergency exit," Cary whispered. Amber complied and tiptoed toward the exit just a few meters away. However, Amber had other ideas. Next to the exit, was a fire alarm switch. If they evacuate the school, they can disappear into the crowd, but it would put everyone else at risk. On the other hand, there were strengths in numbers, and a lone wolf would cut its losses then flee.

She reached for the switch and pulled it. The blaring sounds of the fire alarm grabbed everyone attention. Amber kicked the door open and ran out. Cary turned his head to see what Amber had done. It was a critical mistake as the wolf sprinted and pounced in his direction. With no time to improvise, he instinctively used Amber's backpack as a shield to protect himself from the wolf's claws and teeth. But the backpack could do little to protect him from being bodied by a giant wolf. The wolf knocked Cary down to the ground and latched its jaws around him, or it would have if Cary didn't used Amber's backpack as a shield. The straps caught themselves between the fangs. Neither of them didn't want to release the backpack.

Cary and the wolf were now in a tug-of-war and continued to do so until the wolf shooks its head and flung Cary into the air. Cary was tossed into a bookshelf and knocked out. Slowly recovering, he struggled to pull himself up. He had nothing to fend himself with except books, which were merely chew toys to the wolf. Luckily, the wolf lost interest in him and dashed to the emergency exit that Amber passed through.

Cary took the time to catch his breath, but exhaustion caught up with him and he collapsed to his knees before passing out.

A While Later

"Hey, wake up. Can you hear me?"

"I got a guy here, he's hurt."

Those were the next things he heard waking up. Cary recollected the events that followed before and realized that he's left Amber alone.

"Crap, where's Amber?" He scrambled to his feet, only to be restrained by the school nurse -Cary didn't recall her name- back to the bed.

"Calm down, you've been unconscious for the last hour."

"But, but, there was a giant wolf on the loose." "Sir, calm down, you need to rest. You can answer questions later. But you need to take deep breaths"

"Okay," Cary complied with their wishes and laid back. He looked around to find himself in the nurse office.

After a few breaths, the nurse was ready to hear his story. After sharing what happened, Cary was informed that the school went to follow fire drill protocols and began clearing classrooms. While checking the buildings, faculty found him and the librarian passed out. Meanwhile, all the students in attendance were accounted for. Except Amber.

Amber was nowhere to be found. All that was left was the torn backpack in the library. The one with Cary's fingerprints on. Local authorities were called in to search after an Amber Alert went on. The next few days were chaotic. With Cary as a person of interest, he was questioned on what happened. His parents were watching him from observation while a social worker shared a room. Cary told them what he saw, but the police didn't believe them. What they did believe was how Amber was behaving strangely, scared that someone was stalking her and attacked the two of them in a wolf suit.

Days Later

"Look, I know what I saw. Amber felt something was following her. She ran while I stayed behind."

"I appreciate it, but it's hard to believe the description of the attacker you just mentioned," responded an Officer Muntz.

"Okay, fine. Someone was after her, I think it was…" Cary paused to consider his words. Maybe they can accept something more grounded than what I have, "it was a big guy in a large brown wolf suit. I couldn't see his face."

"Okay, that works. What else?"

And so Cary continue on a story that he felt wasn't truthful, but convincing to the officers. He was excused and released to his parents.

"Alright, we're done," Cary informed his parents. His dad and mom were waiting for him.

"Finally, I'm glad they can stop asking questions. Let's go home and eat, sweetie,"his mom comforted him. It was a blessing that he had a supportive family, because things didn't get easier at school. The gossip machine caught wind of Amber's disappearance and painted Cary as a person of interest. Some students think he had something to do with the disappearance, while others saw him at the wrong place and wrong time. Her adoptive parents were worried about her, and Cary had no answers for them.

"They don't trust me at school," he said on the way home.

"Don't let them get to you. You're not a troublemaker and you did nothing wrong. Your classmates will not care too much. Just focus on school and the gossip will die down," his dad comforted him.

His father was sort of right. Many students stop following up or moved on. Amber's friends would still be asking him questions, but Cary's friends never really suspected him of her disappearances. They've kept their distance from the subject, but they never let that affair be a wedge between them. After all, getting along in school was the key to surviving and police had no idea on where Amber was. They declared her disappearance a cold case.

It would be months before he would see Amber again.

-RING- -RING-

"Morning Fifth Cohort. Rise and Shine!"

"Mmmmm," Cary was waking up from his dream about the events of before. Why was he revisiting this memory? He never understood what Amber was thinking, pulling the alarm and ditching him. Maybe she was just afraid. But why did the wolf go after her? Was it trying to eat her or bring her to camp?

"Get ready for breakfast and start the day," said Jason.

Cary hoped the reception would be better than the night before. Today was the start of their festival preparations. They needed food, decorations, and tables set up and get the festival running in three days on the 24th of June.

Thanks to Reyna and Jason's orders last night, he could finally cross off 'having a meal in Camp Jupiter' off his mental checklist. He was in the mood for a classic breakfast of ham, eggs, and toast and was grateful of the aurae serving him, though he could feel the cold shoulder from the wind spirits who served him.

As part of the Fifth Cohort, Amber was assigned with the rest of the legionnaires to set up decorations in New Rome around the Forum. The other cohorts were assigned to different locations like Temple Hill or in different parts of New Rome. Since this was a casual errand and not training, everyone was either in plainclothes or purple shirts. Cary was wearing a simple sky blue t-shirt and slacks while Amber was wearing a beige blouse and sweatpants. Gwen and Jason wore their purple shirts, but no armor.

This was Cary's first time in New Rome, and he was excited. The Fifth Cohort was traveling by cart and were about to enter city limits. However, they stop in front of a statue with its arms broken off. Jason walked up the statue to have a conversation.

"Why is Jason talking to that armless bust?" Cary asked Amber, who was sharing a seat next to him.

"Oh, that's Terminus, god of boundaries. He protects the city from those who seek harm. Anyone who wishes to enter New Rome must turn in all weapons or be denied entrance," Amber answered.

"But what if a guy tries to show up without weapons, and uses his fists to hurt others?" Cary asked.

"Well, as far as I know. There're no swords, spears, arrows allowed. I'm not sure about knives since there are a bunch of shoppes that use them. I would press your luck, Terminus can be …"

"YOU, ORIENT!" the statue commanded, "STEP FORWARD!" Cary obliged and got out of the cart then walked up to the statue.

"Cary, this is Terminus. Terminus guards the borders of New Rome. He also acts as the protectors of the townspeople, which allows the Twelfth Legion to devote more time training and fulfilling quest. What do you think of him, Terminus?" Jason asked.

"Hmmmmmmm, he seems to be an obedient lad. Not a troublemaker. When I heard that Camp Jupiter was getting a visitor of Orient heritage, I had suspicions that he might be a spy from the other side. But I don't detect any weapons, so you're good. Just obey the rules of traffic and you'll be fine. Welcome to New Rome, Mr. Chang," Terminus answered.

And like that, Cary was granted passage with the Fifth Cohort into New Rome.

Cary didn't need to walk too deep into the city before he found himself easily impressed and amazed at the splendor of the city.

It was like a miniature Rome, with its columns and forums. Civilians were hanging out on the streets and chariots raced down roads like cars would back home. He didn't get too much time to sightsee though. It was as if the city from the days of the Republic was transported through time to the modern era.

Jason and Gwen assigned the legionnaires to help local shops set up stands and write prices in the Forum. However, the local shopkeepers and merchants used Roman numerals instead of conventional Hindu-Arabic numbers that mortals do. Cary stayed close to Amber since Romans -like her- were supposed to read them more easily than non-Romans.

The job was simple: Go to help local shopkeepers and help with their sales. The days leading up to the festival would be the busiest of all. Fresh picked crops and the finest of wares were on sale for the citizens. Meanwhile, Jason and Gwen would stop by the Senate to approve of the supplies for the festival.

"Okay, so we have the pharmacy, right?" Cary asked Amber.

"Umm, yeah it's down this street" she said. The two split off from the Fifth Cohort as they went off to their assigned shops.

Cary and Amber made their way to the street address of the drugstore. Knocking on the door, Cary was greeted by an old man with a salt and pepper beard and bushy eyebrows above his glasses. "Hello, who is this?"

"It's Cary," he answered. "Amber," she replied.

"Cary? I'm supposed to just get Amber, oh never mind. Come now we got a busy day. I need to get these orders to fill, herbs to restock, and vials to organize," the old man rushed through his orders.

Cary moved over behind the desks to organize the shelf. The old man, introducing himself as Galen, showed him all the things he wanted set up. There were prescriptions to fill out and shelves to restock after. Galen asked him to use the metric scale to measure weights and fill the bags with the right medicine. Galen took Amber in the backroom to restock ingredients.

Cary's approach to his requests was to treat this like lab work back in school with Mr. Cooke. Galen would answer his questions to make sure prescriptions were correct, while Amber points out the mistakes he made in reading Roman numerals. There wasn't really much time to socialize, since there were 40 prescription orders, one of which ask for 10 ounces of unprocessed almonds. By the time, he finished, it was already lunchtime.

"I'm done with the orders, Galen," Cary finished.

"Oh, really, let me see," Galen came over swirling a violet fluid in a flask, "Great work. Why don't you help Amber out in the backroom?"

Cary went in the back to find Amber with her hands full with licorice roots and dried cabbage. She was trying to restock drawers on the high shelves. With his help and a ladder, Amber was done for lunch as well.

"When a legionnaire shows up to help, they barely make it past a quarter of my requests at this time of the day. Well, I guess I close up early, let me write up some commendations to your centurion," said Galen.

"Ohh, I'm not a legionnaire, I'm a visitor under Jason's supervision," Cary paused, "With the Fifth Cohort."

"Then I take it you weren't given a tour of New Rome?" said Galen as he sipped his flask. He shook his head and went to add some table salt.

"No, I think Jason was going to give me one when he was free," he said.

"I see… well, it's about lunchtime, why don't I excuse you two early so you can roam the city a little? Get it?" Galen excused him with a pun slipped in it.

"Sure, see you soon," Amber said absentmindedly.

Cary and Amber stopped by what seemed to be a forum, an open court of tiles surrounded by shoppes and vendors. Kids were running across the lawns, while adults strolled pass stands to gaze or purchase.

'Jason said he had to go to the Senate to approve some deliveries,' Cary went to ask a vendor where the Senate was. "Where the Senate, Amber?" he asked. "It's the dome building up that way," she pointed out.

Cary and Amber made their way to the entrance of the Senate and caught Jason and Gwen walking out.

"Oh, hey Cary, Amber. What's up?" Jason asked.

"We finished up with Galen at the pharmacy, I was wondering if you were free. You did say I can buy some stuff around," Cary had noticed that Romans weren't using quarters or bills, so whatever money he brought with him was useless.

"Yeah, we just need to pick up supplies and party goods. Gwen, why don't you pick them up, while I show Cary around New Rome?" he asked.

"No problem. I'll meet you guys at the Pomeranian Line at 3," Gwen answered.

Gwen rode the carts down to a storage warehouse. "Amber, would you like to join us? He asked.

"No thanks, I'm going to the bookstore. I'll meet up with you later," said Amber. She walked away and went in the direction of the marketplace.

"So, then. Where would you like to start?" asked Jason.

Jason took Cary to grab lunch from the vendors. Jason got himself what appeared to be a pizza in a cone from a stand selling Italian food, while Cary grabbed a turkey flatbread wrap. Jason paid the vendors with denarii.

Jason showed him what he believed are the great landmarks any visitor should know. Jason showed Cary the Coliseum -where sports and games were performed- the New Rome University -the school for students who finished legionnaire service- and the Garden of Bacchus -a quaint place that overlooked most of the city. From there, Jason pointed out the Little Tiber that rings around New Rome and Camp Jupiter, which acted as a barrier for monsters.

"This is an amazing place. How do you keep this area hidden from the rest of the world?" Cary asked.

"There's a phenomenon called the Mist, a supernatural force that obscure mortals from seeing all things divine or magical. Monsters, gods, things that go against what you perceive as natural are hidden in a manner that prevents you from seeing for what they truly are," Jason answered.

"So how am I able to see this city or the Germani from back home?" Cary was puzzled about what he saw the day Amber was taken and the day Amber returned.

"Honestly, I don't have an answer to that. No one, not even the gods know why some mortals are clear-sighted," he answered.

"Well… thanks for the tour, we should meet up with Gwen then," Cary urged.

"Before we do, I promised you that we can do some shopping before hand the next time you get to New Rome. Why don't we buy some things to spruce up your life here?" Jason suggested.

And like that, Jason and Cary went shopping for extra socks, extra underwear, and a shirt saying, 'I HEART NEW ROME'. They also purchased some swimwear for the baths, a hat for fieldwork, and a pocketbook for Cary to scribble or write notes. It was a rather successful day for the two before the clock hit three o'clock.

The two made their way to the Pomeranian Line where Gwen and other legionnaires and Centurions were waiting.

The centurions took roll call. All of them were accounted for, except Amber.

"Mr. Chang, Amber hasn't returned. Can you get her?" asked Gwen.

Cary obliged to go find her. He asked around for the bookshop. The vendors gave him instructions to the store labeled Libri. He walked through the door to find books stacked around with shelves brimming with texts or scrolls. He found Amber on a couch. Reading what looked like an encyclopedia.

"Hey Amber. We have to go. The legion waiting for us," said Cary.

"Oh, shoot. Sorry, I was just reading up on some folklore," excused Amber. Both Cary and Amber enjoyed picking up a good book. Cary was more interested in scientific and historical analyses, while Amber prefers a good literary fiction or classic. Nevertheless, both like to share their preferences with each other.

"I need to buy this guide. Can you excuse me?" she walked up to find the owner…nowhere.

"Hello, Alex. Where are you ?!" she yelled.

"I'll be right with you Amber," said the bookstore owner named Alex.

A brunette middle-aged woman with old-school spectacles came down from the upper levels. "Are you looking for something?"

"I wanted to buy this book," said Amber.

"Ohh, don't worry. I won't charge you for that. As a returning patron, I think you qualify as a friend. It's on the house."

"Thanks, Alex. That's means a lot," Amber grabbed Cary's arm before they exited the store.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"Sorry, I wanted to look for something in Libri. When I first showed up at camp, I barely hang out with anyone. My first time in New Rome, I tried using bills and quarters. I couldn't buy anything. On a hungry stomach and nothing to get, I took shelter here. Alex was kind enough to keep me here even with no denarii. She even suggested some books, including one that are supposed to tell me more about myself," Amber showed him the book she was looking for. It was titled "Finding your Godly Fortune". "I wanted to know if I can get some idea who my parents are," she said with a tone of hope.

"I'm glad to hear that you're doing well. Why don't we return to the campers though and talk more later?"

The two rushed back to receive get a serious scolding from Gwen. For a day in New Rome, they were rather fortunate not to have last night's reception ruin the mood.

That finishes up the day in New Rome. Next time, festival preparations. Sorry for the wait.