Forgotten prophecy

Chapter 37

Percy was having a bad day. He had spent most of the morning up to his elbows in monsters. But that hadn't been all that bad, in fact he had enjoyed the simplicity of a fight. It somewhat made the current meeting he was sitting through somewhat more manageable. It had been the fifth one that day alone, and as with the other four the Senate meeting had been reduced to a glorified shouting match. Percy had been one of the ones shouting at first, desperate to have himself heard above the others. He had continued his efforts until the third meeting in which he realized the futility of a shouting match. The issue that the Senate had been debating was on what the Romans should do about the rampant number of attacks that had taken place. Percy had, of course, voiced his desire to offer aid to the other demigod camp considering the Roman camp's immense size and available troops. He had been met with two main reactions, ready agreement and outraged denial. The Senate seemed to be split evenly down the middle on the issue with half of them in favor of bringing the camps together and the other half only concerned with protecting the Romans' own people.

He had implored both Frank and Annabeth to give their aid to his cause but, to his shock, both of them had regretfully denied his request. "It's not smart to bring everyone together right now." Annabeth had told him sadly. "Not until we have a better idea of what we are facing."

"Bringing both camps together would be painting a huge sign on our back." Frank had agreed.

So now Percy waited on the stone seats as the umpteenth Roman senator stood and made his case for whatever side he had decided to take. Percy had stopped listening after the first Roman had spoken, assuming the blank stare that he had mastered in his years of school. Annabeth sat at his side, taking the complete opposite direction. She watched the Roman speak, drinking in every word and narrowing her eyes. "He makes some good points." She muttered to Percy.

He grunted an unintelligible response which had been his principle form of communication in the past two meetings. He was not happy that Annabeth had shot down his idea to go to the aid of Camp Half-Blood but he also understood her reasoning behind the decision. Hazel sat on Percy's other side, her eyes just as bored as his were as they took in the scene as yet another Senator stood to speak. She immediately launched into a verbal rant about how they should band together the forces of both camps, immediately drawing several shouts of opposition. The Senate quickly fell into a near deafening roar as the two sides went at each other again. "I'm leaving." Percy decided, muttering his verdict to Annabeth. "This isn't going anywhere."

"Oh, don't leave me here." Annabeth whispered back in dismay. "I don't want to have to listen to them by myself."

"You have Frank," Percy protested. "I'm not the Praetor here."

"Well then, as Praetor I am ordering you to stay."

"I'm not a Roman either."

"Well then, it's a good thing that you are going to stay anyways isn't it?" Percy's neck cracked as he spun his head around to see who had spoken. He had not heard anyone approach, which usually meant that either Nico was around or a god had decided to visit.

It turned out to be the latter, though Percy had also been mistaken. It was not just one god that was sitting behind him, it was three. He recognized two instantly, Venus and Juno, but the third was a mystery to him. He frowned at the third, racking his brain to come up with an answer. She was beautiful, but then again most of the gods were, and her tunic was made out of a rich assortment of colors. She raised an eyebrow at Percy's inspection, but she did not seem to be offended. In fact she eventually smiled and chuckled softly. "I am assuming that you do not recognize me?" She guessed.

"Nope." Percy admitted, wincing. This goddess seemed nice enough, but then again a god could be as kind as the day is long as still turn you into a turnip for breathing wrong. Or, in Nico's case, a cornstalk. Percy's ADHD kicked in and he looked away from the goddesses when he realized that he could no longer hear the arguing from the senators. He was treated with what seemed like the world's most intense game of charades. The senators were still shouting at one another, but Percy could not hear a single word they were saying. Coupled with that was the fact that they seemed to have no idea that three of their principal goddesses had appeared mere feet from them. "Are they alright?" He asked concernedly.