The Beginning of the End (J. Grace)

II: I'm an awful parent

Gods, the Romans know how to eat.

The forum resembled a furniture showroom after people had carried through sofas and low tables and were now lounging, talking and laughing together in groups of ten to twenty while wind spirits swirled around, bringing an endless assortment of food and drinks. Purple ghosts in togas and legionnaire armour were drifting around and around the edges of the feast, fauns trotted from table to table, panhandling for food or spare change -it was odd to see that: satyrs would never do it.

I caught sight of the war elephant Hannibal frolicking in the fields with Mrs O'Leary and I watched the children played IT around the statues of Terminus that lined the city limits. It was incredible to see so many happy families of demigods. I so wanted that... I want that for Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Piper and Jason. I won't get the chance, will I?

Tears sprung to my eyes as I thought about that: I'll never grow old. I'll never get to have these opportunities. I'll never-

"What's wrong, Lara?" Dove leaned over and softly squeezed my arm, her eyes were her worried colour of dark green with light brown around the edges.

"Nothing." I shook my head, turning away to see our gathering of Reyna, a few of her officers (including Octavian... unfortunately), the Argo II crew, Percy and his friends Frank and Hazel. "It's just amazing to see so many families of demigods."

Percy's face fell and the others who knew that my end is near looked down with saddened expressions.

"Oh, Gods, the prophecy." Guineapig whispered, looking at Jason, then back to me.

"What prophecy?" Teddy-killer demanded.

"Shut up, Octavian." Lightning Boy snapped, completely guarded with pure resentment in his voice.

Everyone lapsed into a startled silence at that, a tornado of food platters settled onto the table and Rey ended the awkward silence with a toast of friendship.

After many introductions, we began to share stories, starting with Jason, Piper and Leo's quest, then I told them about my trip to Tokyo and meeting Phoenix. It wasn't much, but the Romans seemed glad to hear that their old friend was alright. Percy then recounted his story, waking up with no memories except for one name -Annabeth. That's so cute, I could tell she was trying to not cry.

When he finished, Lightning Boy whistled, clearly impressed. "No wonder they made you praetor."

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

"On the bright side," Seaweed Brain reasoned. "Both Jason and I outrank you, so we can both tell you to shut up."

I burst out laughing while Octavian turned as purple as his T-shirt and the two male praetors fist-bumped.

"We'll have to figure out the extra praetor problem later." Reyna butted in. "Right now, we have more serious issues to deal with."

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

"No biggie?" Teddy-murderer choaked. "The praetorship of Rome is no biggie?"

Guineapig ignored him and turned back to Lightning Boy. "You're Thalia Graces's brother, huh? Wow, you guys look nothing alike."

"Yeah, I noticed." He grumbled. "Anyways, thanks for looking after my camp while I was gone. You did an awesome job."

"Back at you." Percy made finger guns and Wise Girl rolled her eyes.

"We should talk about the Great Prophecy." Annabeth decided and I groaned, bored of the subject. She shot me an irritated look, but continued. "It sounds like the Romans are aware of it too?"