New Rome
Most mornings, Atreus would wake up, greet Mimir and go to the pen where he kept his wolves. He and his father got them a couple years ago, when the winter really started getting bad. Back then, they were just cubs who had lost their mother to an untreated wound. Maybe Atreus saw some of himself in the cubs? Either way, Atreus pleaded with his father to take them in. At first, his father denied him, stating it would only be more mouths to feed and left the cubs behind.
Atreus secretly brought them home, putting them near the back of his home in a secluded spot, he fed them scraps from his meals for food. That lasted only a few weeks before his father caught him.
Again, Atreus begged, 'They have no one to care for them!' he said to his father. To this day, Atreus still doesn't know what changed in his fathers mind, but he relented. The wolves were to be in Atreus' care, and all that applied, with no help from his father except the occasional lesson. In the 2 years since, the three wolves - Speki, Svanna, and Fenrir - became unquestionably loyal and useful to life in FimbulWinter.
Every day, he'd groom them, feed them, and speak with them as if they were good friends. They were his wolves, and he felt great pride in their development. As we woke up in the cabin assigned to him by Annabeth he couldn't help but worry about them, could they get food without him? Would they be safe from anyone passing by? Troubling questions like these bubbled to Atreus' mind as he stood up and checked his equipment. Perhaps that is how Father felt right now.
Outside he could see Annabeth waiting by the entrance to the cabin leaning on one of the pillars, "Good, you're awake," She pushed herself off the pillar as he walked up to her. "So, how are you, sleep well?" She asked.
"A little too well, yesterday was exhausting, and I didn't know beds could be that soft." Truly, it felt like sinking into a bed of feathers, not that he knew what that would feel like.
"You get used to it, the cohort cabins are actually a lot more stiffer than the guest beds. But that's only because the cohorts are on-duty. It's a military thing." Atreus could see the reasoning behind it, he nodded in understanding.
It was at that moment his stomach protested its disapproval, "Oh, sorry, I guess I haven't eaten since yesterday." To be fair, it was a long and exhausting day.
"Well, I was waiting on you anyway, let's head down to the mess hall and find some food." Annabeth motioned to the door, and he followed.
The fields of Camp Jupiter - named after the king of the gods as told to him by Annabeth - were once again bustling with activity. Many kids his age walked to and fro across the camp, most of them in groups dressed in purple clothes, outfitted with armor, and given weapons. He could see some groups position themselves at posts watching the perimeter of camp, practicing archery, sparring, or various other activities. It was at this moment he realized someone wasn't outside the cabin waiting on them.
"Where's Freya?" She had been noticeably absent from their conversation inside.
Annabeth shrugged, "She left before I woke up, she's somewhere in camp, if she wasn't in camp someone would have let me know by now. After yesterday, I thought it would be best to give her some space." Atreus couldn't argue against that, Freya looked like she was ready to gut him with her sword. If she would was another question entirely, and he didn't want that answered.
"Speaking of, can we talk about that?" Atreus sighed, he supposed it would help to fill Annabeth in on things.
"Where do you want to start?" Atreus asked.
"Preferably, eggs than some toast. We can eat and talk at the same time," Annabeth clapped him on his back and pointed to the building ahead, where many other kids were heading to.
The inside was large, tables upon tables filled with kids and adults eating food. Annabeth guided him, first making their way through a line of others, eventually reaching the front to see what everyone was lined up for. Atreus had been taught to never waste things, food was made to be served in portions to gain enough energy for the day and promptly eaten. The food in front of him was extravagant. Bowls full of food he had never seen or smelled before lined in front of him temptingly. He quickly looked at Annabeth in disbelief, she said it was fine for him to pick whatever he wanted.
Atreus picked some of everything, he couldn't even tell what it all was, but by the end of their turn his plate was noticeably hard to manage, "You must be hungry," Annabeth chuckled as the two sat down.
"I've never seen so much food like that, especially stuff like this," Atreus used his utensil to pick up the round disk of bread on his plate.
"That's a pancake," Annabeth pointed out.
Atreus bit into it, it was sweet and fluffy, his mouth felt like it was melting from sensory overload, "It tastes incredible!" He quickly ate more, quick to fill the empty space in his mouth.
"I was hoping we could talk," Atreus looked up from his food, having stuffed a piece of what he assumed was pork into his mouth. He quickly swallowed and reoriented himself.
"Ah right, sorry, I kinda got carried away. This is kinda new to me." Atreus rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.
"It's fine, I just have a few questions I want to ask, so I can get a handle on the situation," Atreus nodded, seeing no reason to oppose Annabeth, "Good, so, first question: Who is your godly parent?"
"My father? His name is Kratos." Annabeth took a bite out of her eggs, a delicacy Mother rarely made with the fowls that seldomly wandered into their families home.
"Do you know where he's from?" Father had told him a brief summary of his past before, he seemed to be ashamed of it.
"He said he was from some place called greasy?"
"You mean Greece." Atreus nodded, biting into his food again. "Do you know what kind of god he is?"
"Father told me he was the god of war, but he isn't particularly proud of that time."
Annabeth's stormy gray eyes stared at him, it creeped him out a bit, "Yesterday, Freya said your father was the last of his pantheon, do you know what she meant." Ah, so that's what she was getting at.
"I only know bits and pieces, no one ever seems to want to tell me the whole story," Annabeth waited for him, "From what I understand, Father was the general of a great army, but one day he fought a battle he could not win and made a deal with a wicked god. In exchange for winning, Father would pledge loyalty to the god." Atreus took a gulp of water, although he was sparse on the details he was not enthusiastic to tell it.
"What happened next?" Annabeth asked, sensing more.
"The wicked god played a trick on him, and as a result my father lost his family, one he had before he met my mother." Atreus looked at his father differently when he learned his father had another family, some things started to make sense afterwards. Than there was his sister, Calliope was her name. Atreus always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling, sadly he would never get to experience that. He never knew he could feel sad about never meeting someone.
"A war broke out, from what I can tell, my father on one side and the rest of the gods on the other. Eventually he was the last one to remain, at least that's what I can tell. Everyone seems to think it was Fathers fault that his pantheon fell, they call him "The Ghost of Sparta" for that reason."
"The entire pantheon?" Annabeth question him, now finished with her plate of food.
"That's what Father said, that's what Freya said, even Mimir has heard of my father in passing apparently." Everyone but him seemed to know the true extent of which his fathers actions had gone, and talking to Mimir about it was met with a quick apology for Mimir promised to never tell him the full story. Freya was obviously out of the question.
"What if I told you that the very gods you are talking about are alive, and I saw them not that long ago?" The implication was that everyone was lying, but that certainly couldn't be the case.
"My father isn't a liar, I don't see why he would lie about it. Besides, everyone seems to believe him. Even Freya believes the stories." There just wasn't any reason to believe that his father lied. It made no sense.
"You're right on that point, why would Freya believe it too?" Annabeth mulled over it as Atreus went back to eating, by the time he finished his plate he felt considerably heavier.
"Well, I guess I'm calling this visit short." Annabeth clapped her hands together.
"What do you mean?" Atreus asked.
Annabeth pulled out a parchment, it looked like a map, "This is the whole of the continental U.S., the country we're in now. Right here," She pointed to the west-most part of the parchment, "This is where we are at, and the Greek gods are all the way over here." She pointed to the north east part of the parchment.
"That seems…far?" He couldn't tell, he had no reference.
"It's pretty far, yeah, coincidentally, we can drop off Freya here," She pointed just above the home of the Greek gods, "Vallhalla." Atreus quickly looked at Annabeth.
"Wait what?! Why would we do that?!" Annabeth looked at him in confusion.
"This is where her pantheon is, I have no clue why she would still be here, but we can see her home while we get back to ours." Atreus shook his head, not believing what he was hearing.
"That doesn't answer my question, she can't go anywhere, not without Odins magic still keeping her in Midgard."
"Odins magic? Something else I should know?" Annabeth looked at him with those same focused eyes like before. Without fail, those eyes managed to make him feel like he was being interrogated, and that really unnerved him.
"Y-Yeah, she can't leave Midgard, she was cursed by Odin, anytime she tries to leave she's brought back by magic." Atreus was really starting to question how much Annabeth really knew, this was fairly common knowledge.
Annabeth seemed to accept what she was told, and nodded, "Let's go, we have to meet with the Praetors before the end of the day." Atreus reluctantly stood up, feeling the weight of the food he just ate slow his movement. If Father were here he'd be disappointed.
"Lead the way," Atreus said.
Annabeth guided the two of them to one of the more impressive buildings, made out of clean marble and with a statue that must have depicted a note-worthy god. Annabeth must have noticed him looking at the statue, "That's Jupiter, King of the Roman gods. He's the Roman version of Zeus. Like a second personality, but equally as powerful." Atreus nodded as the two of them entered the building.
Inside was a handful of other men, women, and kids his and Annabeths age all standing around doing one thing or another. Some seemed to be in a rush, others stood around and talked. At the far side of the room was a desk with someone sitting waiting for anyone to speak to them. Annabeth seemed to be the only one to approach.
"Hey, we're here to see the Praetors, we have an appointment." The boy sitting behind the desk smiled a warm glow at their arrival.
"Ah, Ms. Chase, the Praetors have been expecting you. The goddess is already inside waiting, head through the hallway on your left. The meeting room is the fourth door on the right." With a quick thank you, the two of them followed his direction.
Sure enough, the praetors and Freya were sitting waiting for them. The room was incredibly silent, with only the shuffling of paper breaking it. Frank and Reyna looked up from their papers and seemed to lower their shoulders. The room definitely had an awkward aura in it. The room itself was rather large, one big table with many chairs formed the center of the room. On the walls were various names and paintings of what seemed to be other praetors. The last two before Frank were two older boys.
The first had blonde hair with piercing blue eyes. They weren't like Annabeths, who's eyes felt like daggers, more like they were lively. The name under it said Jason Grace. He wore a stern face, hardened and no nonsense. The next however seemed to be the exact opposite. The boy had black hair and blue-green eyes, he wore a big wide smile on his face. The name under it said Percy Jackson.
"Annabeth, Atreus, thank you for coming." Frank greeted them as the two sat down opposite of the two praetors.
"I hope we didn't keep you waiting, we had breakfast."
Frank waved off Annabeths excuse, obviously not a problem, "It's fine, we just got here a few minutes ago with Freya here. Now that we're all here, we can finally discuss what happens next."
Reyna spoke up, "While we do not mind guests, we do have some issues housing a goddess of another pantheon, especially one we have not directly been in contact with. We have just finished smoothing relations with your camp, Annabeth, we do not want another conflict on our hands so soon." Annabeth had made mention of that, and it seemed to be more of an issue than she let on. Atreus wondered how deep the divide between these two camps truly was.
"Of course, aside from Freya here, I have family who can help us."
"Ready to get rid of me so fast?" Freya asked.
"We're just being cautious, is all. From what Annabeth has told us, your pantheon has been gearing up for the apocalypse for centuries with hordes of warriors at their kings beck and call. We don't want any misunderstandings." Frank tried to be diplomatic, but Freya simply scoffed.
"Odin would have no reason to attack you unless you pose a threat to him or his plans for Ragnarok. If anything, he would bring Odin's wrath down upon you more than I would." Freya motioned to Atreus, he couldn't help but agree with her. Even if he wished she was wrong.
Reyna looked to Atreus for a moment before returning to Freya, "Nevertheless, your presence could have ramifications we wish to avoid. Annabeth, I assume you have a plan already?"
"Of course, I plan to take Atreus and Freya with me to camp. While there, we can look for Atreus' godly parent and we can figure out what to do with Freya."
"You think we can find him at your camp?" Atreus looked to Annabeth.
"Your father is a Greek god, so it shouldn't be that hard. With the Norse pantheon not that far away I can speak with my cousin what to do with Freya. All we have to do is cross the country. Not a big deal, I've done it before. The only issue is you two." Annabeth looked at him and Freya.
"You think I'll kill him?" Freya voiced the unasked question.
"I did find you with a sword inches from his neck." Annabeth remarked.
"And destroyed a road in a highly populated area, it's gonna take us a while to fix that and make sure no one suspects anything." Freya gave Frank an ugly stare at his comment, but relented. "I only wanted information out of the child, he is faultless for his fathers crimes." She turned back to Atreus with a frown.
"You have a funny way of showing it." Atreus muttered, rubbing the side of his neck.
Freya scoffed, "If I wanted you dead, you would not be standing here. That is besides the point. I have no wish to return to Odins side and neither does he want me. He banished me to Midgard for a reason."
"We cannot be sure, therefore we have to take the most cautious route in this situation. Please, by tomorrow be ready to leave." Reynas words were final, Atreus' short time at Camp Jupiter would be over soon. He'd miss the food.
Freya grunted, "Fine, I will go." She stood up to leave, she saw no reason to stay. "Just know I'm going to find the boy's father, and nothing else." She exited the room at that.
"Is she always like this?" Frank asked.
Atreus sighed, "Only after Baldur died, she was a nice person before that."
"If you don't mind me asking Atreus, I have some questions about that." He turned to Annabeth, he expected more questions.
"Sure, what is it?"
"How did Baldur die?"
"Oh, well my father and I fought him, we won but Baldur wouldn't stop trying to kill Freya so my father did what he could. Freya has hated us since." Annabeth gave him that stare again, like she was seeing into him.
"How did you get past his invulnerability?"
"A friend of mine gave us mistletoe arrows, Freya tried to throw them away but I kept a piece of one on me. Baldur just so happened to punch where that mistletoe arrow was, removing his invulnerability." That was the first time Atreus had taken a punch like that, for the few seconds after he couldn't breathe. He was also very sore during that fight.
"I see." Annabeth cupped her chin in thought.
"Atreus, do you mind if we discuss with Annabeth in private? Feel free to explore the grounds while you're here, and take some supplies from our armory if you wish. We have enough to spare." Reyna motioned to the door, Atreus didn't argue and left the room.
Now left to his own devices, Atreus left the building and wandered the camp. He was still full from breakfast, so he didn't feel like eating lunch. Perhaps he should take up Reynas' offer to go the armory and pack some supplies before heading off tomorrow.
Reading the directions to the armory was not as hard as he initially thought it would be, that potion he was given was probably doing the heavy lifting for him, so finding the armory wasn't an issue. What was an issue was finding arrows he could use. When he entered the armory he asked for a full quiver of arrows, unfortunately the ones they gave him were too strong.
Ironic, that an arrow was too strong for the bow it came from. Simply put, the arrows he were given required more tension to shoot accurately than his bow allowed. They were big and sturdy too, very different from the wooden arrows he often used. After a few minutes of getting progressively lighter arrows he had given up.
"Having trouble?" He turned around to see a girl behind him, she had dark brown-red hair and wore impressive looking armor.
"Uh, hi?" He awkwardly waved.
"Frank said you'd be here, told me to help if you needed any, and by the looks of it you do," She stuck her arm out, "My names Hazel Levesque, I'm the Centurion for the Fifth Cohort."
Atreus shook her hand, "Frank told you to come see me?"
"Yeah, he wanted to make sure you were set up and ready to go. As someone who has crossed continents, we know a little about long distance traveling." She gave a small smile, like she was remembering a good memory.
"Annabeth said she also crossed the country, what's up with that?" They talked about it like it's no big deal.
"Well I haven't known Annabeth for long, but being a demi-god means going on quests, and that takes you around the country doing whatever. Could be a bunch of reasons why, most of the time it's doing a favor for the gods or for glory." Hazel shrugged.
"I guess that makes sense," Atreus and his father went to most of the nine realms during their adventure a few years ago. Although that wasn't for glory or a favor.
"So, what are we looking for? I see arrows, so you must have a bow." At the mention, Atreus pulled out his Talon bow.
"Seems pretty simple, any magic in it?" Hazel asked, inspecting the bow.
"Not really, at least not anymore. I used to shoot stun and lightning arrows, but the magic faded. Most of that comes from me now, summoning wolves, using defense wards, nothing from the bow." He quite missed being able to stun enemies with the light of Alfheim, but he hasn't been to the land of the elves to enhance his bow.
"The arrows not doing you good?" Atreus shook his head. "Well we have some more bows you can use that can fit them, mortals sure know how to make 'em." He didn't even give it a thought, the bow belonged to his mother, so it held importance to him. When the time came that he truly outgrew his bow, he'd give it up, but now he can still effectively use it. So it stayed.
"I'm good, this bow works well enough for me." He shouldered the bow for now.
"Well, if you aren't going to take a bow, why don't we get you some arrows that can actually work." The two of them spent the next hour testing arrows, eventually finding a size that fit him. Atreus was happy to stop there, but Hazel insisted on 'special arrows'. Whatever that meant.
After speaking to the armorer, Hazel procured a set of a dozen arrows. She then lead him to the firing range, where many other campers were practicing their shots. She then handed him the arrows and proceeded to instruct him on their uses.
"This is an incendiary arrow, this one is full of smoke, this one has a net." She went on about each arrows utility, he was quite amazed how they were able to make these arrows without magic. She told him it was not a big deal for Vulcan kids, children of the god of the forge apparently. They seemingly had a habit for making more elaborate machines, according to Hazel.
Atreus settled on a handful of incendiary arrows, electric stun arrows, flares, and smoke arrows. The normal arrows would work well enough for his needs. After what seemed like another hour of shooting arrows testing their use, Atreus and Hazel left the range.
The two of them stopped by the guest house Atreus was staying at and dropped off his gear before leaving the camp proper and heading to the city. New Rome - as Hazel called it = was like the mortal city but better. No Rentals flooded the streets, the buildings were articulately made, all in all it was great.
"So, this is where you guys live?" Atreus asked, looking up and down the road. Unlike the camp, mostly full of kids his age or a little older, there were plenty of adults here. He even spotted some who looked like they were grandparents.
"Yep, New Rome is open to all campers who spend ten years serving. Afterwards, you get to be a citizen and enjoy the benefits. Here you can live and grow old, get an education at the college, find a job, basically everything you can ask for. All without fear of dying from monster attacks." The two of them stopped at a food stand, Hazel bought them both a hotdog. Apparently it was a strip of pork with bread to hold it. Atreus found it surprisingly good.
"Is that an issue?" Atreus bit into his hotdog and swallowed, "Monster attacks, I mean."
"Most demi-gods don't know this when they're young, but we apparently give off a stench to monsters. Like ringing the dinner bell for them, It doesn't really start until you realize what you are or when you get older, but when it does you become a target. Monsters will stop at nothing to get you, and when they do it's never pretty. Many demi-gods never reach us, or our Greek counterparts. Even when they do, going out into the world is a risk and many who go out there sometimes don't make it back." Hazel bit into her hotdog, the mood definitely soured a bit.
"Sorry, I didn't know." Atreus fought his fair share of monsters, usually by his fathers side. But he never thought he could attract them.
"It's ok, all new arrivals get this talk at some point."
Looking to alleviate the mood, Atreus switched topics, "So ten years, that seems a long time."
Hazel nodded, biting into the hotdog, "Yep, that or exceptional service, which is rare. That said, we seem to be getting quite a few of those lately."
"What do you mean?" Atreus asked.
"If you do something extraordinary you get fast tracked. Our last two praetors more or less got that. Same with me and Frank, but we still serve because it's our duty."
"Oh, what did you do?"
Hazel chuckled, "It's a crazy story, we basically helped stop the gods from being overthrown by their grandma while stopping a war between the Roman and Greek camps. It was touch and go at some points, but we managed to get out the other end."
"That does sound crazy." The two ended up in a park during their conversation.
Hazel chuckled, as the two walked around the park Hazel told him of the quest she went on a few months ago. How she, Frank, and seven other demi-gods flew to the other side of the globe to stop Gaea from usurping the Olympian gods with her Giant children. Atreus didn't know what to make of these "Giants", they certainly weren't the Jotnar from how she described them, but that still made him uneasy. As the last of his kind, he would hope there were more good people like him. Unfortunately he had to keep looking.
The two of them talked for hours, usually about the state of things between the Greek and Roman camps and the gods themselves. Father never really talked about that side of the family - his family as well, Atreus thought - only ever mentioning the little bits we was told. It fascinated him that Greek gods embodied aspects of nature or ideas, unlike the gods of his realm.
As the two talked, Atreus looked up, somehow the two had been talking all day as the sun lowered. It was getting late, and he had to be ready for tomorrow's journey.
"I think I'd like to go back now, I got to get ready for the day ahead. Thank you, for talking to me, it was nice." Hazel turned to him.
"No problem, maybe you can share some of your stories while we're at it." At that, the two of them left sharing stories all the while.
By the time Atreus made it back to his bed, he felt tired. Unnaturally so, like he was being slowed by weights that threatened to make him fall. Had he really been this tired? Atreus yawned, finding his room and bed, Atreus flopped onto it and fell asleep.
Unconsciousness came quickly to him, it was blissful…for a time.
Atreus didn't know when, but he found himself in what he could assume was a dark cave. Everything moved hazily for him, or was it that he was moving? He couldn't tell, he couldn't even tell what was moving. But eventually he found himself stopped in front of a boulder, the sound of dripping water was ahead of him. He moved yet again, or existence moved for him, he couldn't tell.
Finally up close, he could make out details. Chained to the boulder was a man with sickeningly white hair, he was dreadfully thin to the point Atreus could see his bones, and his skin was ragged. Above him was a snake with translucent liquid dripping down onto the mans head, venom perhaps? Across his chest was someones innards, the sight made him feel deathly ill.
"Hehehe," The man chuckled, his face down, the hair blocking it.
The man's head shot up, and Atreus could clearly see that his face was nothing more than a sloppily put-together sack of skin. His smile wicked, like he was got what he wanted.
"I found you."
I had an issue finding where to stop this chapter, so I kept writing until I could end things naturally...and the next thing I know this 2k word chapter ballooned into 5k words. I swear I'm not doing this on purpose. Anyway hope you enjoyed.