Waves of Fire || Leo Valdez

Prologue - The Wolf House

I opened my eyes and discovered immediately that I was lying on the floor in some sort of ruined house. There was a silhouette a few feet away from me. As I sat up, I noticed it was a boy. He had dark hair, like mine, and he wore an orange T-Shirt and jeans, also like me. His name popped into my head.

"P-Percy?" I asked. The boy roused and sat up, looking up at me. He had sea-green eyes, which confirmed he was my older brother.

He blinked. "Alaia?"

I felt a rush of relief. At least I wasn't alone.

"Where are we?" I wondered.

"No clue." Percy stood and helped me up. "I can't remember anything. Well, I remember you. And... someone else... Annabeth."

I had no idea who Annabeth was, but she sounded important to Percy. I tried to remember anything at all. A face popped into my mind. She had an ovular face and dark hair. I felt a large rush of affection for her.

"I remember... Sally. Mom. And you. But nothing else."

"Okay," Percy looked around. "We have each other, and remember two people, and... what?"

I checked my pockets for any clue that would help me out. There was nothing, but I was wearing a necklace with beads around my neck and a bracelet on both of my wrists. The bracelet on my left hand had a trident charm on it, and the one on my right hand had an anchor charm.

I took the one with the trident off and the band snapped and elongated. The trident charm grew to actual size. Seconds later, I was holding a bronze trident that had a dim glow. The word Σέικερ was engraved on the shaft, and somehow I knew it meant Shaker. On instinct, I touched the shaft of the trident to my wrist and the weapon shrunk and curled around my wrist like a slap bracelet.

"Not bad," Percy remarked. "What's the other one do?"

I took the bracelet with the anchor charm off. This one transformed into a bronze sword. It was perfectly weighted and the hilt was encrusted with coral. Engraved on the blade, near the hilt, was the word καταιγίδα, Tempest. This also had the slap bracelet effect.

I looked up at Percy. "You got anything?"

"Yeah." He held up a ballpoint pen. When he uncapped it, the pen turned into a bronze sword, like Tempest.

"Whoa."

"Anaklusmos," Percy said, reading a word near the hilt. "Riptide."

For a second, I remembered a deep voice saying, "That sword had a terrible history," or something like that. But it was gone the moment I tried to remember who had said it.

Where were we supposed to go now? I had no idea what we were supposed to do. Percy remembered Annabeth, whoever she was, and I remembered our mother, but I didn't know where they were, or where we were, for that matter.

"Maybe we should... go ... or something?" Percy suggested. I saw the exit of the ruined house to my right. If we could find out where we were, maybe we could at least start looking for the few people we remembered.

"Yeah, let's see if there's civilization anywhere."

Percy laughed.

We made it to the threshold before the wolves came. They blocked our way, snarling and growling. Percy uncapped Riptide and I pulled out Shaker. For some reason, I felt like I like Shaker more than I like Tempest.

"Do not attack," a feminine voice said. A she-wolf, larger than the rest, emerged from the mist around us.

"Welcome, Perseus and Alaia Jackson," the she-wolf said. "We've been waiting for you."

"Stay away," Percy warned, raising his sword.

"We will not attack," said the wolf. "Not as long as you do not show any weakness."

Percy still looked suspicious. Somehow, I knew we would be alright. I didn't put Tempest away, because Lupa might have taken that as a surrender, which would have been seen as weak, but I didn't point the trident at them.

"You're Lupa," I guessed. "You raised Romulus and Remus."

"Yes," Lupa said. "Come with me, children of Neptune. It is time to train."