II. AQUILA
❪ CHICKEN GIRLS
AND PROPHECIES ❫

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THE WELCOME FEAST FOR THE GREEKS WAS ALMOST TOO MUCH, ESECIALLY A DAY AFTER THE FEAST OF FORTUNA. Sets if couches and low tables were carted into the forum. Legions lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while aurae  swirled overhead, bringing endless assortments of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks and fresh-baked cookies. Lares  drifted through the crowds, fauns trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change. Percy's pet hellhound, Mrs O'Leary was frolicking in the nearby fields with the war elephant, and children played tag around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits.

Aquila was sat with Percy, Annabeth, Reyna, a few of her officers, Frank, Hazel and the other Greek demigods. She was sat with Jason, his new girlfriend - Piper, to her right and the scrawny, impish boy Leo, to her left.

She wasn't quite sure what to say, she hadn't seen Jason for what was almost half a year. She was hardly the most outgoing person. She felt unusually out of place as all the hustle and bustle and chatter went on around her, and she was sat in the middle of it all.

"So, Quil, I hear you've been busy?" Jason tried to start up a conversation, knowing she was probably uncomfortable. She couldn't help but grin, happy to have her friend back.

"You could say that," she laughed, leaning her elbows onto the table as she took a bite out of her pizza.

Jason's eyes crinkled as he chuckled, "How many times did you save Percy's backside?"

"Oh, too many, J. Too many." She smirked across the table at the raven haired boy, who rolled his eyes at her, and leant to whisper something to Annabeth.

She could feel someone's eyes on her, and she turned to see Piper eyeing her. "You two know each other?" Piper asked.

"He's the second best swordsman, if that says anything. Although he'd like to tell you otherwise," she winked at Jason, who rolled his eyes.

"So you beat me three times, Pera, it was luck!"

"Oh, sure, he also likes to say it was just three times. More like ten."

"You cheated about seven of those matches, Q."

"Cheated? Jason Grace, I'm offended!"

They were interrupted by Reyna, who was calling a toast to friendship.

After introductions all around, the Roman's and Annabeth's crew began exchanging stories. Jason explained how he'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood without his memory, and how he'd gone on a quest with Piper and Leo to rescue Hera (or rather, Juno) from imprisonment at the Wolf House in northern California.

"Impossible!" Octavian broke in, and yet again, Aquila rolled her eyes, growing ever more irritated with the blond. "That's our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there -"

"They would've destroyed her," interrupted Piper. "And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now be quiet and let Jason finish."

Aquila let out a snort, knowing the Daughter of Venus - Aphrodite - was using charmspeak, something she wished she had. Mostly to tell Octavian to shut up. And maybe tell him to throw himself off the Temple of Jupiter, while she's at it.

She couldn't help but smirk as she imagined the numerous ways she could end Octavian's life with charmspeak. (If only)

"So," Jason continued, "that's how we found out abut the earth goddess Gaia. She's still half asleep, but she's the one freeing the monsters from Tartarus and raising the giants. Porphyrion,  the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House; he said be was retreating to the ancient lands - Greece itself. He plans on awkwaneing Gaia and destroying the gods by... what did he call it? Pulling up their roots."

Percy nodded, "Gaia's been busy over here, too. We had our own encounter with Queen Dirt Face."

Percy recounted his side of the story. He talked about waking up at the Wolf House with no memories except for one name - Annabeth. Percy told them how he'd travelled to Alaska with Aquila, Frank and Hazel - how they'd defeated the giant Alcyoneus, freed the death god Thanatos and returned with the lost goldeneye standard of the Roman camp to repel an attack by the giants' army.

When Percy had finished, Jason whistled appreciatively. "No wonder they made you prætor."

Octavian snorted. "Which means we now have three prætors! The rules clearly state we can only have two!"

"On the bright side," said Percy, "both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up."

At this, Aquila nearly fell out of her chair as she tried (and failed) to stifle a laugh. Reyna shot her a glare, and Jason gave Percy a fist bump from across the table, even though Aquila could see Reyna was smiling through the glare.

"We'll have to figure out the extra prætor problem later," she said. "Right now we have more serious issues to deal with."

"I'll step aside for Jason," Percy said easily. "It's no biggie."

"No biggie?" Octavian choked (Aquila hoped he'd choke to death one of these days) "The prætorship of Rome is no biggie?"

Aquila snorted as Percy ignored him and turned to Jason, "You're Thaila Grace's brother, huh? Wow. You guys look nothing alike."

Now that was new information. She looked at Jason in surprise. She didn't know he had a sister.

"Yeah, I noticed," Jason said, "Anyway, thanks for helping my camp while I was gone. You did an awesome job."

"Back at you," Percy said. Aquila watched the exchange with an amused expression on her face.

Percy winced as Annabeth kicked his shin to get his attention, "We should talk about the Great Prophecy. It sounds like the Romans are aware of it, too?"

Reyna nodded. "We call it the Prophecy of Eight. Octavian, you have it committed to memory?"

"Of course," He said, somewhat indignantly, "But Reyna-"

"Recite it, please. In English, not Latin."

Octavian sighed. "Eight half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall -"

"An oath to keep with a final breath," Annabeth continued. "And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."

Aquila's eyes turned to her, along with everyone else's. Except for the one called Leo, who had constructed a pinwheel out of aluminium foil taco wrappers and was sticking it into passing wind spirits. Aquila shook her head at the ADHD ridden boy in disbelief.

Frank sat forward, staring at Annabeth in fascination, "Is it true you're a child of Min- I mean, Athena?"

"Yes," she said, defensively. "Why is that a surprise?"

Octavian scoffed, "If you're truly a child of the wisdom godess-"

"Octavian, I swear to Bellona, if you don't shut up-" Aquila finally spoke up, just wanting the damn boy to be quiet, but her fun was ruined by Reyna, who cut in.

"Enough," she snapped. "Annabeth is what she says. She's here in peace. Besides..." she gave Annabeth a look of grudging respect. "Percy has spoken highly of you."

Judging from the undertones in Reyna's voice, Aquila suddenly sensed a lot of tension in the air. She studied Reyna's expression, and Percy's sudden interest in his cheesburger, and it dawned on her. Oh, Reyna. Her taste in men in was just unlucky.

"Uh, thanks." Annabeth gave Reyna an awkward smile. "At any rate, some of the prophecy is becoming clear. Foes bearing arms to the Doors of Death ... that means Romans and Green. We have to combine forces to find those doors."

Aquila glanced across the table at Hazel, who shifted, and picked up what looked like a large ruby from next to her plate. Then she slipped it into the pocket of her denim shirt, "My brother, Nico, went looking for the doors," she said.

Aquila was reminded of her concern for the small, pale boy when he came into camp and told Hazel that he was going to try and find the Doors of Death.

"Wait," Annabeth said, surprised, "Nico di Angelo? He's your brother?"

Hazel nodded, and this seemed to confuse Annabeth further, "Okay. You were saying?"

"He dissappeared," replied Hazel. "I'm afraid... I'm not sure, but I think something's happened to him."

"We'll look for him," Percy promised. Aquila wrung her hands nervously, hoping they did find Nico. "We have to find the Doors of Death anyway. Thanatos told us we'd find both answers in Rome - like, the original Rome. That's on the way to Greece, right?"

At the mention of Rome, Aquila perked up. It had always been a dream of hers to visit Rome. The original Rome. See all the sights, and go to Italy.

"Thanatos told you this?" Annabeth asked incredulously. "The death god?" Aquila couldn't blame her for being weirded out. Seeing the incarnation of death in person brought up a lot for her. She had wanted to scream and shout at him for taking her father. Her dad was her hero. Her dad was the only one she had left, and he was taken from her. Her dad was the bravest man in the world in her young eyes. And he was ripped from her cruelly. Percy had to hold her back from attacking the God of Death.

Percy took a bite out of her burger, blissfully unaware of the thoughts running through his friends mind. "Now that Death is free, monsters will disintegrate and return to Tartarus again like they used to. But as long as the Doors of Death are open, they'll just keep coming back.

Piper twisted the feather in her hair, "Like water leaking through a dam," she suggested.

"Yeah." Percy smiled. "We've got a dam hole." Aquila furrowed her brow in confusion.

"What?" Piper asked.

"Nothing," he said. "Inside joke. The point is we'll have to find the doors and close them before we can head to Greece. It's the only way we'll stand a chance of defeating the giants and making sure they stay defeated."

Reyna plucked an apple from a passing fruit tray. She turned it in her fingers, studying the dark red surface. "You propose an expedition to Greece in your warship. You do realise that she ancient lands - and the Mare  Nostrum - are dangerous?"

"Mary who?" asked Leo.

"Mare Nostrum," Aquila piped in, feeling a little left out of the conversation and wanting to put some useful input in. Leo looked at her, seemingly to suddenly notice her presence. "Our Sea. It's what the Ancient Romans called the Mediterranean."

All heads turned to her, and she shrugged, "What? I know things too."

Reyna nodded, "The territory that was once the Roman Empire is not only the birthplace of the gods. It's also the ancestral home of the monsters, the Titans and giants... and worse things.  As dangerous as travel is for demigods here in America, there it would be ten times worse."

"You said Alaska would be bad," Percy reminded her. "We survived that."

Reyna shook her head, "Percy, travelling in the Mediterranean is a different level of danger altogether. It's been off limits to Roman demigods for centuries. No hero in his right mind would go there."

"Then we're good!" Leo grinned over the top of his pinwheel. "Because we're all crazy right? Besides, the Argo II is a top-of-the-line warship. She'll get us through."

"We'll have to hurry," Jason added. "I don't know exactly what the giants are planning, but  Gaia is growing more conscious all the time. She's invading dreams, appearing in weird places, summoning more and more powerful monsters. We have to stop the giants before they can wake up fully."

Aquila couldn't help but shudder, via the quest to Alaska and just last night, she'd had some horrible nightmares. She couldn't begin to imagine what they'd be like if Gaia awoke fully.

"Eight half-bloods shall answer the call," she recited. "It needs to be a mix from both our camps. Jason, Piper, Leo and me. That's four."

"And me," Percy said. "Along with Hazel, Aquila and Frank. That's Eight."

"What?" Octavian shot to his feet. "We're just supposed to accept that? Without a vote in the senate? Without a proper debate? Without-"

"Percy!" Aquila had never been more happy to hear a Cyclops' voice in her life. Tyson bounded towards them with Mrs O'Leary at his heels. Ella the Harpy sat on the hellhound's back.

Tyson stopped by their couch and wrung his large hands. His big brown eye was full of concern. "Ella is scared," he said.

"N-n-no more boats." the nervous harpy muttered to herself, picking furiously at her feathers. "Titanic, Lusitania, Pax... boats are not for harpies.

Leo narrowed his eyes at the harpy, looking at Hazel, who was sat to the other side of him. "Did that chicken girl just compare my ship to the Titanic?"

"She's not a chicken," Hazel defended the small harpy, averting her eyes as if Leo made her nervous. "Ella's a harpy. She's just a little... high-strung."

"Ella is pretty," Tyson said. "And scared. We need to take her away, but she will not go on the ship."

Ella gave Aquila a nervous smile as she fidgeted with her feathers, "No ships," Ella repeating, turning to look directly at Annabeth. "Bad luck. There she is. Wisdom's daughter walks alone-"

Aquila tensed, clearing her throat awkwardly, as Frank cut in before she could, "Ella!" Frank stood abruptly. "Maybe it's not the best time-"

"The Mark of Athena burns through Rome," Ella continued, despite Frank and Aquila's protests, cupping her hands over her ears and raising her voice. "Twins snuff out the angel's breath, Who holds the key to endless death. Giants' bane stands gold and plain, Won through pain from a woven jail."

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ajsjs i wanted to get this chapter up and I'm past 2200 words at this point so I didn't want to make the chapter too long. It'll get more exciting later on and come off the books a little more to squeeze in cute Aquleo (?) moments and expand he relationships with . It's my birthday atm so I'm not gonna be too active, so I'll get this up and probably just occasionally read things and maybe write a bit. idk when the next chapter will be up, but we'll see!

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