CONSUMED - Percy Jackson

[ 02 ] dinner memories

Walking back, Percy had asked tons of questions about Hazel's brother, Nico, but Frank didn't know that much and Noah refused to answer any questions.

"He's okay," Frank said. "He's not like Hazel-"

"How do you mean?" Percy asked.

"Oh, um..." Frank coughed. "Nico is kind of mysterious. He makes everybody else nervous, being the son of Pluto, and all."

"But not you?" Noah noted.

Frank shrugged. "Pluto's cool. It's not his fault he runs the Underworld. He just got bad luck when the gods were dividing up the world, you know? Jupiter got the sky, Neptune got the sea, and Pluto got the shaft."

Noah smiled. He was starting to grow on her.

"Death doesn't scare you?"

Frank hesitated for a second before he said, "Back in the old times, like the Greek times, when Pluto was called Hades, he was more of a death god. When he became Roman, he got more...I don't know, respectable. He became the god of wealth, too. Everything under the earth belongs to him So I don't think of him as being real scary."

As someone who had met Hades, Noah knew Hades wasn't as scary as he tried to be.

Percy scratched his head. "How does a god become Roman? If he's Greek, wouldn't he stay Greek?"

Frank walked a few steps, thinking. "The way Romans saw it, they adopted the Greek stuff and perfected it." Noah rolled her eyes while Percy made a sour face. "Perfected it? Like there was something wrong with it?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "Rome was more successful than Greece. They made this huge empire. The gods became a bigger deal in Roman times more powerful and widely known. That's why they're still around today."-Noah almost laughed- "So many civilizations base themselves on Rome. The gods changed to Roman because that's where the center of power was. Jupiter was...well, more responsible as a Roman god than he had been when he was Zeus. Mars became a lot more important and disciplined."

"And Juno became a hippie bag lady," Percy noted. "So you're saying the old Greek gods-they just changed permanently to Roman? There's nothing left of the Greek?"

If it was what he was saying, he was wrong.

"Uh..." Frank looked around to make sure there were no campers or Lares nearby, but the main gates were still a hundred yards away. "That's a sensitive topic. Some people say Greek influence is still around, like it's still a part of the gods' personalities. I've heard stories of demigods occasionally leaving Camp Jupiter. They reject Roman training and try to follow the older Greek style like being solo heroes instead of working as a team the way the legion does. And back in the ancient days, when Rome fell, the eastern half of the empire survived, the Greek half."

Percy stared at him. "I didn't know that."

"It was called Byzantium." Noah noticed the weird smile on franks face when he said that. "The eastern empire lasted another thousand years, but it was always more Greek than Roman. For those of us who follow the Roman way, it's kind of a sore subject. That's why, whatever country we settle in, Camp Jupiter is always in the west the Roman part of the territory. The east is considered bad luck."

It's also where the Greek camp is, Noah thought.

"Huh." Percy frowned.

They reached the gates.

"I'll take you to the baths to get you cleaned up," Frank said. "But first...about those vials I found at the river."

Noah turned to the boy confused.