The Forgotten Emperor

Chapter 1

The quest was going downhill even before he got stuck in the tree. Sure they were given all of the supplies they needed to succeed. The quest was not the hardest that Jasper had been on and he completely trusted his two friends. Well, acquaintances. He hadn’t officially met one of them and he had been enemies with the other since pre-school. Jasper was sure that when the praetor had put the trio together, he had silently laughed. They would never make it back alive. Never the less, Jasper trusted his companions if for no other reason than Will had said they were trustworthy. A good roman always does what his praetor says. Jasper was the most roman of them all; his family was somehow linked to Julius Caesar.  Jasper had no idea how, and didn’t care. All he knew was that it put him under more pressure than was reasonable. After two weeks at camp, Jasper thought he would crack. Everything he did was watched. Every time he spilled food or tripped he heard sniggering. Finally, he went to Julia, the second praetor, usually there are two of them, and asked for help. She told him a secret, a big secret. Then she started to help him. Things got better, and then she wound up dead. Jasper was the one who found her, he was walking past the temple of her father, Mercury, and he thought he heard her voice. He stepped inside and saw a muscular man standing over her limp form. He raised his head and Jasper saw that he was crying. “She came to ask for help. I came here as fast as I could but they got her first. Kill them. Kill them, Jasper.” Mercury said in a hard, brutal voice. “You can. Don’t leave one alive. Kill them all.” His body and voice shook with fury. Tears were still streaming down his face, but, Jasper started when he realized this, they were tears of hate, not sadness. Mercury was sad but, for now, he couldn’t see past getting revenge. “You know I can’t go there or I would. I’m…” His voice broke. “I’m taking her to Olympus.” Mercury started to glow and Jasper averted his eyes. He couldn’t do anything when he was a pile of dust. Because that’s what he would be, if he had looked.

                Jasper shook himself; he couldn’t dwell on the things he couldn’t change. He glanced around looking for the umpteenth time for a way down. He was usually good with trees, more often than not; they did what he wanted them to do, like grow more branches and stuff like that. But the trees around here hated him. Tristan looked up at him, disgust etched into every detail of his face. Jasper suppressed a growl of anger. This was Tristan’s fault anyways. He just couldn’t leave well enough alone. Isabel turned and smacked Tristan hard across the face. “Shut up, idiot. He’s trying to be more useful than you are.” She looked up at him. “But really, can you get down sooner rather than later? Only, my feet are cold and we need a safer spot to stay for the night.” She knelt down and unzipped her backpack. “I’m going to through up the rope; try to catch it, ok?” She took out a neon-colored rope and threw it up. Jasper lurched to grab it. The branch he was on gave a nasty crack as he grasped the rope.

                “Caught it!” Jasper called with relief. He quickly tied it to the thickest branch he could find and slid down. “Ahhh!” His hands felt like fire.

                “Here.” Tristan said gruffly as he sprinkled a small amount of nectar over the wound. Isabel took out her bow and an arrow. “What are you doing?” He said, turning to face her.

                “We could need that rope.” She said as she aimed. The arrow pierced the rope and when she tugged on the rope it came down, with the arrow. “Yes!” She muttered happily as she restored the arrow to her quiver. “Let’s keep going. There is a safe house near here. Keep your eyes open.”

                “No, we were going to walk around with our eyes closed,” muttered Tristan sarcastically. Isabel scowled. After a few minutes of walking through the trail filled woods in the neighborhood Isabel stopped. She breathed out in relief as she swept away a cleverly concealed piece of fabric.

                “Jump. It’s about ten feet down.” With that she shoved Jasper into the hole. Jasper felt a brief rushing sensation and then landed heavily on his butt. He crawled forward just as he heard a second thud. Tristan lit a match and illuminated the small cave. It had weapons and blankets and torches. It was a demigod hid out. Jasper jumped as Isabel’s voice spoke right behind him. “My friend told me about this place. I’m glad we found it.” She smiled. Jasper hadn’t seen her smile before. It was nice to know that she could. “Ok so Jasper, get a fire going. Tristan, go through the weapons; see if there is anything we can use. I’ll set up sleeping bags.” She seemed to be much more relaxed now that they were out of the open.

                Jasper smiled as he tried to light the fire. He remembered Julia trying to teach him how to start a fire and getting so exasperated at him that she hit him in the arm. He had been striking a match as she hit him and he set his pants on fire. She did a half scream and poured water all over him. They laughed late into the night and when he final got back to his barrack in the third cohort everyone was asleep.  Jasper’s smile deepened as he thought about Julia. The others noticed and Tristan had a strange look on his face. “Who?” He asked.

                “What?” Jasper stuttered.

                “I said who are you thinking about?” Tristan repeated.

                “Oh, uh, no one. Why do you ask?” Jasper said, disoriented.

                “I know that look. How about that fire?” Tristan changed topic.

                Isabel glanced at them, amused. Soon the fire was hot and Isabel was digging around in her bag again. “I have smore’s ingredients here if I can find them, hold on, oh there.” She pulled out a bag of jumbo marshmallows. Cinnamon gram crackers and Hershey’s chocolate closely followed. She sat down and opened the marshmallow bag. “We can’t eat them all tonight but I do have another bag.” She motioned to me. “Go get three sticks would you? I forgot to.” Jasper sighed and got up.

                “How will I get back…? Oh.” Jasper stopped as he saw the rope hanging into the hole. He assumed that Isabel had attached it to a stable tree. “Thanks.” He climbed back up the hole. He imagined ways to make the climb easier. If they had been planning to stay longer he would have suggested that they widen the walls and put foot holds. He walked out into the trees. He walked north, tying strips of cloth to random branches along the way just in case.

                As he put his foot down it hit something hard. He immediately recoiled, dropping to the ground and rolling out of striking distance while pulling out his imperial gold knife. He crouched, waiting for something to make a move. Finally after several minutes, Jasper stood up, realizing that what he had stepped on was a concrete trail they had seen earlier. He could feel heat rising to his cheeks as he went on. Soon he found three reasonable strong sticks and started carving them as he headed back to the camp. As he passed each strip of cloth he untied it, stuck it in his pocket, and continued.