I do not own Percy Jackson, Rick does

Chapter 4

Jason POV

"Hey Jason!" I turned around at the sound of my name being called. Dakota was walking towards me, smirking a lopsided grin. He had a cup of red kool aid in his hand, and his mouth looked like it was bleeding from the juice.

"What's up Dakota?" He walked up to me and handed me a badge. I inwardly groaned at the sight of it. It was a golden badge that had the words, praesidio.

"It's your turn to guard tonight." He said while grinning.

"Has it already been a month?" I asked while taking the badge out of his hand.

"You know the rules." Dakota said with a shrug.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll do the stupid guarding. If I didn't Reyna would have her dogs chew my head off." I complained while pinning the stupid badge on my shirt.

"So you and Reyna going out yet?" Dakota asked with a smile. I pricked my finger on the needle of the badge, which made me curse.

"Why would you think we are dating?" I said with a shocked face. Dakota started laughing, showing off his bright red tongue from his kool aid addiction.

"Everybody thinks that. You guys are so close, can you blame us for thinking that you guys were dating?" Dakota said in between laughs. My face was burning from embarrassment. The whole camp thinks I'm dating Reyna? Gods how do i fix this?

"Dakota! I'm not dating Reyna. We're just friends." It was true. Ever since I was promoted to Centurion I've been hanging out with Reyna more. Our friendship started after we both completed missions together; and when we were promoted to centurion in our respective cohorts. I respected her as a fellow Roman, but I never thought of her in that way. Dakota arched an eyebrow and gave me a smirk.

"Okay, whatever you say Jason." I stared at Dakota with a menacing look. He paled slightly and raised his hands up in defeat.

"It was a joke, I'm sorry." He said in a hurry. I let out a sigh and gave him a friendly smile. My fellow centurion gives me headaches, but I know he didn't mean any harm.

"I forgive you. Just don't go around spreading false rumors. I don't want Reyna to fall victim to such baseless gossip." I said. I then left Dakota to his kool aid and walked towards the armory. I went to pick up some Roma style armor and turned around. I leaped back a few feet in surprise. Standing behind me was the centurion of the first cohort and augur, Octavian.

"Gods Octavian, don't scare me like that." I said in a snarl. He regarded me with his gaunt eyes, and gave me a smirk.

"Easy, Centurion. No need to get so worked up. I came here bearing news from the auguries." He said in a mocking tone.

"News?" I asked suspiciously.

"Yes, the auguries have spoken, something will happen tonight. The words were a bit confusing but it pretty much says, The moon's hunter arrives." I gave him a skeptical look. His hands were holding a ripped up bambi doll and a dagger in the other.

"What in Pluto does that even mean?" I said with sigh.

"The auguries never lie son of Jupiter. If I we're you I would watch out for a hunter." Octavian said with a murderous smile. I glared at him, my surrounding started to heat up, and the smell of ozone was wafting in the air.

"What are you suggesting Octavian?" I said. He looked at me with the same unchanging smile.

"Just a warning Jason, even I do not know what the auguries are saying a hundred percent of the time." And with that he turned around and left the armory.

….

I went up the hills leading towards the Caldecott Tunnels, and saw Felix Greene, a fellow Roman in the Fifth Cohort.

"Hey Felix. I'm guessing it's your turn to guard too?" I asked.

"Yup, I was just going up to tell the others on watch that they can take a break." I nodded at his words and walked up to Felix. Together we walked out the tunnels, while chatting about the last war game. As we got out we told the ones on guard that they we would take over. I went on one side of the tunnel while Felix went on the other. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Felix spoke up.

"So… you and Reyna an item?" I choked on air, and had a coughing fit.

"Wh, what!?" I yelled with a red face.

"Well, I mean you and Reyna have been hanging out a lot recently."

"We aren't dating! Why do people keep thinking that? We're just friends."

"I see." Felix replied with a smile. My eyebrow arched at the sight of his smile. After a few seconds of thinking, a realization dawned on me.

"Wait… are you in love with Reyna?" This time Felix was the one having a coughing fit.

"What? No, I mean…. I…." I started laughing at his response. Felix's face was bright red.

"What's so funny!?" Felix yelled in embarrassment.

"Nothing, It's just funny when I think about Reyna dating." I laughed harder at that thought.

"It's not that funny." He muttered.

"Sorry, sorry." I said in between laughs. After calming down I looked at him with a wide grin.

"So… when did… you know." I asked. Felix sheepishly looked at the moon, and scratched the back of his head.

"It happened during that one time when we went hunting basilisks. You remember right?" I nodded my head at his words remembering the time he was talking about.

"If I remember correctly you got pretty injured that day." Felix nodded his head in shame.

"I was too careless, and got bitten from one of the basilisk. I thought I was a goner. I couldn't move my arms and I was surrounded by them. That's when Reyna jumped in. She took all of them by herself, then she treated me." I grinned at the image of Reyna fighting off a horde of basilks.

"That sounds like something she would do." I said. Felix laughed, making me smile.

"Hey, I'll be rooting for you." Felix looked at me with wide eyes. After a while his face grew red, and smiled.

"Thanks Jason. I'm glad we're friends."

"Yeah, no prob-" My words cut off as I heard the sound of howls coming from the woods. Felix stiffened from the noise and looked out towards the dark trees."

"Wolves?" Felix asked.

"No, those aren't wolves." I replied in a serious tone. I reached into my pocket and took out a golden coin. In a swift movement I flipped it and caught the transformed imperial gold lance. Both Felix and I we're in a readying stance. Heavy footsteps could be heard from the woods and what I saw was not what I was expecting. A boy that was glowing silver in tattered clothes stood there. He had dark black hair, and a gaunt face. He looked to be around ten or eleven years old. The thing that stood out however were the boy's unnerving silver eyes. I then noticed a hunting knife strapped to his side. "Watch out for a hunter" Octavian's voice echoed in my mind, but I quickly dispersed the thought.

"Felix go back to camp and alert some of the campers." Felix saluted at my command and ran back to the tunnel.

"Halt!" I yelled at the boy. I saw a couple of hellhounds come out of the woods, but when they saw me the hounds went back into the dark wilderness.

"Who are you?" I yelled out.

"My name is Arcus, and I have passed Lupa's test. I come here as friend, not foe." His voice was haggard, slowly the silver glow started to disappear and his legs were trembling. I nodded my head in approval and went to help him out. I took his arm and helped him up on his feet. We slowly walked into the tunnel in silence until the boy spoke up.

"How did you know I wasn't an enemy?" I looked down at the tired boy, and gave him a friendly smile.

"It's because I spoke to you in Latin. I knew you were a demigod as soon as you spoke back." I replied.

"I spoke Latin?" He asked in confusion.

"You probably didn't realize it. We demigods are hardwired to speak fluent Latin. That's why we all have dyslexia and ADHD. The ADHD is for your battle reflexes so you can survive in an actual fight." I shrugged while answering his confused question.

"I see… you know, I didn't catch your name."

""It's Jason, Jason Grace. Son of Jupiter." He looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"So your dad's the king of Olympus?"

"Pretty much. How about you? Who's your godly parent?" The boy shrugged his shoulder.

"Don't know. I haven't been claimed yet." I looked ahead avoiding the boy's gaze. Something seemed off with him, I was sure he knew who his parent was, but was just trying to avoid it.

"I see." I shrugged it off. He probably had reasons for keeping it a secret. We left the tunnel and the familiar scene of Camp Jupiter greeted us. Beyond the camp was the city of New Rome. Kids from the camp could be heard from up here, while the sound of rushing water could be heard from the Little Tiber. I looked at Arcus and noticed that he had wide eyes, which made me grin.

"Welcome to Camp Jupiter." I said.

…..

As we crossed the bridge a group of campers greeted us. Felix ran up to me and noticed Arcus who was trying hard not to fall from his wobbling knees.

"This is Arcus, a new Roman." Felix nodded at my words and grabbed Arcus' other arm and slung it around his shoulder. I turned my attention at the group of Romans.

"As the Centurion of the Fifth Cohort, of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata I order you guys to go and take watch, while I deposit our fellow brother to the infirmary." The Romans saluted at my words and trekked off. Together with Felix we hoisted the tired demigod and took him to the infirmary.

As we entered the building I noticed that Arcus had dozed off to sleep. Slowly, with Felix's help we hoisted him onto a bed. I got Marcus Flitch to come down to the infirmary to help out. Being the son of Apollo he knows quite a bit about healing. I sat down at the closest seat and observed Marcus as he checked up on Arcus' condition.

"Marcus, is there any serious wounds?" Marcus shook his head at my question.

"Not any that I can see. From What I can tell, he's just tired and hungry. A pint of nectar and a few days of sleep should be all he needs."

"Alright, that should be it for now. I'm gonna head back and finish up my duty." Felix said tiredly and went out the infirmary.

"So who's the kid?" Marcus asked.

"His name is Arcus. I'm pretty sure he's a demigod." Marcus raised an eyebrow at my words.

"How do you know he's a demigod? He could just be a legacy." I shook my head in response.

"Most legacies are born in New Rome. It's uncommon to find one out in the world. Plus… when I first met him, I could feel a godly aura on him."

"Aura?" Marcus seemed confused at the word.

"I can't explain it. He was covered in some weird silver glow. It could've been my imagination, but I highly doubt it. Well, I have to go and report this to the praetor." I said while standing up from my seat.

"I'll see you in the morning." I said while walking out.

"Night." I heard him reply. I walked out of the infirmary and trekked my way towards the barracks. I was gonna wake up the centurions and the praetors, to inform them that there is a new demigod in our midst. A hunter named Arcus.