Chapter 12: Important Research

[Percy's POV:]

"Apollo, turn the brightness down dammit! I'm trying to sleep here!" I couldn't help the strangely nostalgic feeling my words felt, a seemingly autonomic response.. Anyway, today was the day I would find out more about the Titans that went missing. I'm certain they didn't just go poof, that's for sure. I'll need to find out where they could and or would go, and then find a reason why they would go there; that's assuming they ain't imprisoned on Olympus by the bastard thunder thighs himself.

"Why are you cursing Apollo, Damian?" The voice belonged to Anna, the girl I had promised to train today. It was only now that I realised two things. One, I'm a wolf, how does a wolf train a human? Then again Mum did it with me, though she could switch to a human form to help where I can't do that here. Secondly, she uses daggers, I don't use daggers.. I think. This whole memory thing was really getting old fast.

"I have no idea, but I have no regrets either" I jumped down from my tree before sizing her up. She had a sleek figure, one made for agility by far. She was built for speed, but her muscles looked strong enough to do some damage. She reminded me of someone, I couldn't put my finger on it so I did the easy solution and put it down as a Percy memory.

"Today I will begin training you. Meet me in the arena at noon battle ready. I will be assessing your skills and what there is to work on" Saying these long sentences with a Wolf voice box is seriously hard.. Like forcing a trumpet to sound like a flute only possible, wait is that even possible? I bet someone did it on Hephaestus TV or Vulcan TV as they probably call it here.. Dammit ADHWID, where did I even get that from? I need to just stop thinking already.

"Great! Umm can I bring my daughter with me?" Hold up. HOLD THE SCHIST SHE'S A MAMA?!?!? What's a schist? I hate this memory thing.

".... Say... How old are you again?" needless to say my brain was shutting down. She didn't look a day over 14. Ok maybe a few days. I mean it isn't impossible for her to be a mother, but 14? Really? I didn't see any girl other than her sist.. Nonono she's like 6!

"I'm 306 this year. I was made partially immortal roughly 292 years ago. Had my daughter, Emma 6 years ago" well, I did not expect that. At all. Makes sense now thank Gods.

"I did not expect that. At all, but sure bring her along. I'll train her in daggers, nothing too advanced" she smiled and told me she'd see me then, I hadn't expected to meet an immortal demigod I guess it would partly explain why she was a chosen representative at the initiation. I started my trek to the praetor's cabin, hoping by some miracle I'd beat Reyna awake. Chances were not in my favour at all, but I had a feeling that wasn't anything unusual for me. I arrived through my open window that I had left through the previous night and of course Reyna was sitting on the bed looking as pissed as if I had left a big number two on her kitchen floor and no, I did not do that.

"Where were you? It's already 7am! We are late to the council meeting" council meeting? What did I sign up for... should've read the fine print always the fine print..

"Yes, yes I'm on my way your majesty" I rolled my eyes before bounding through the house praying to mother she'd forgotten about that dam outfit.. She of course didn't.

"Damian Lupus GET DRESSED" ohh sorry seems I prayed to the wrong person. Obviously Reyna here is. I begrudgingly trot back to my room where I pick out the accursed wraps of cloth that is my toga. I still think this ain't natural no matter how good I'm forced to admit I look in it, but it's better than listening to Reyna go mama over it, hmm maybe I can 'mis-place' it somewhere like in a firepit or something, purely accidental of course. My evil plans set, I trot on back to Reyna for dressing... this is getting ridiculous now.

"See not so bad is it Dami" Dami? The heck is Dami? And yes that was very bad my dignity, my poor broken dignity.

"I feel violated" Reyna completely ignored my cries of indignity and walked out of our home, Probably to the Dining Hall for breakfast. What's even the point of our kitchen then? Don't tell me we take dishes back to clean.. Wait I'm a wolf NO DISHES, yup life rocks. I followed on silently, hating the feel of clothes over my fur, we eventually arrived at the dining hall where the usual chaos of flying dishes of mouth watering delight, were attacking me with the uncanny urge to play food frisby and trust me the cost of dignity was seeming very insignificant right about now.

"Dami, come and sit down already. I want to get through the apprentice selection process by high sun, which is noon if you didn't know" Firstly I'm a wolf not an idiot, secondly Not an idiot and thirdly what the heck does she mean by the apprentice selection process? And by mid day? It's barely a few hours past sun rise! How long does this take?

"Apprenticeship selection process? What the Pluto is that?" She rolled her eyes as if she had expected me to say it.. She probably did in all honesty.

"It's where we select a Legionnaire to be trained personally by a Praetor, I trained a young man back before we lost our second Praetor and as such I don't need to train another for a few years to come. You however must pick someone to train under you, this isn't just a student and teacher deal either, It's more a position of family traditionally taking on the role of an older sibling or parent even. I chose to become the boy's older sister before.. Nevermind. The point is this is something you should take seriously as this is basically as important as raising a child which is..." As she spoke a girl in what was only described as coloured by the very rainbows themselves, alongside a younger.. Japanese looking? Cyclops with flowing black and blue hair wandered into my mind accompanied by a strong overwhelming sense of longing that brought me to tears fast. Who are they? Why does the memory hurt so much yet elicit so much Joy? I felt my wolf instincts grow unsettled becoming alert and defensive. Reyna noticed my state of.. Whatever this was and stopped her verbal diarrhoea. Her face contorted to one of concern as she crouched low and cradled my head.

"I miss them.. I miss them soo much.." The tears were falling whether I permitted them to or not. I didn't know what to do, these memories were both painful and felt good, pride, joy, love all these emotions surged.

"Damian! What's going on? Who is 'them'? Why are you crying?" her expressions were one of pure worry and I was thankful for it.. And mega embarrassed. I decided it was still not time to reveal myself since I had a mission to complete and Titans to save regaining my memories could wait a little longer.

"I'm sorry, just old locked up memories resurfacing about people I am yet to fully remember" it wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the full truth either. She looked at me sceptically before accepting my reasons.

"Just don't make a habit of it. Roman demigods are very Judging of strength, though you will always have my shoulder to cry on" her last sentence hit home, she truly cared for me even as a wolf she had been treating me as if I were a normal person.. With obvious exceptions. Something I began to reciprocate.

"I'm fine, let's get back on task" she looked at me still with worry in her eyes, but made no attempt to question me further. "Besides I have already decided my apprentice and will be meeting her at noon for training" she gained an expression of surprise and curiosity.

"And pray tell who is this apprentice of yours?" yeah she seemed more than sceptical of this. Probably expecting I was being lazy and lying to get out of the selection process. C'mon I'm a wolf not some tabby cat.

"Her name is Anna DuPain, one of the girls I fought during my initiation. I was impressed by her technique and I want to help her grow her confidence and style." Anna really had left an impression on me and although even in my human form I'm more equipped for swords, teaching her seemed like it would just feel right.

"Anna DuPain? Hmm you mean the daughter of Venus? Are you sure? Children of Venus don't tend to be good at committing to training though I can definitely vouch that Anna is different, but she has a daughter you know?" I wanted to chastise her for her demigod parentally racist? Remark, but I could see her point based on what Anna had said herself and it definitely didn't help that they had been bullying them.

"She is hardworking I can tell and yes I know she has a daughter I think I've met her already cutest little thing I ever saw" Reyna was taken back by my remark, what a wolf can't find kids cute? Wait I hope she doesn't think what I hope she ain't thinking.

"I suppose we can skip the selection process if you have already chosen someone.." I honestly believe she was as relieved by this as I. With the topic over with we began walking alone through the empty fields, chatting nonchalantly about random things. She'd told me more in depth about her initial arrival here as well as her personal history with her sister Hylla in Puerto Rico and how their father turned into a crazed mania with telekinetic powers and ultimately was killed by her. I was ready to jump in as the comforting wolf, but it seemed she was well past the emotions, though I suspected it was a front on her end. She also stressed that the mere mention of this to anyone could have had her executed since Patricide, the killing of one's father, was deemed a severe crime to Romans; I couldn't help but be curious as to why she even told me this perhaps it was the sorta thing where you let out your heart to your pet.. Does she see me as a pet? More importantly why am I not bothered by that thought? damn instincts... Reyna proceeded to tell me how they both ended up on Circe's Island where her sister became Circe's Spa secretary and Reyna was her attendant. She skipped the part about why she left since Mary had pretty much summed it up, finally she told me about how she and Hylla split, one taking the Crown as queen of the Amazons and the other Praetor of Camp Jupiter. I wanted to ask about her time with me as Percy Jackson, but felt it be better I hold my tongue for now. Well metaphorically I'm not putting these dirty paws anywhere near my tongue, can I even do that in the first place?

We had looped back to our home and both relaxed with a sigh more than glad to have escaped watching at least half the legion make fools of them-self in an attempt to impress us and become my apprentice. Reyna waved me off saying she was going to take a nap until noon since she had some free time, I was surprised at how laid back she was outside the praetor duties. I however had a mission to do, finding the location of the missing Titans. According to idle chatter I had heard during Breakfast, the Titans had been given cabins yet no Titan or demititan had been spotted even close to the camp. Zeus claimed it he had freed the Titans, if they weren't at camp then that would be their choice, naturally no one believed this crap since this it's Zeus. well they called him Jupiter, but it honestly feels more natural to call him Zeus. So where would they go? I don't have a clue where to even start they could literally be anywhere. I need more information so I left the barracks in search of a Library, surely Romans had a decent archive right?

Right I was... In fact I was too right, the library was massive so large I had no doubt that without my nose I would easily get lost in minutes. I steeled myself and began the tedious search for the Titans section that I hoped to Lupa existed.

[Timeskip a few hours...:]

I have been searching this place for hours and found NOTHING, nada, not a thing. Did I find neon cat or Jack and the beanstalk? Yes. Did I find the Roman version of the Harry potter series? Yes, yes I did and it was dam awesome once I managed to run out of random thoughts to fuel my now patented ADHWID I have no idea how I came up with it, but I love it.. Ok so maybe I got a little distracted, but c'mon demigod wizards. Try tell me that isn't worth the distraction?

"There you are, you annoying mutt! I was looking everywhere for you! Why the Styx are you even here?" I decided Just to tell her, I seriously needed the help.

"I'm trying to figure out where the Titans went, they don't deserve to be outcasted like this" she looked at me calculatingly, trying to see just how serious I was about this and I was dead serious about this... excluding the demigod Harry potter book..s incident.

"Fine I'll help you but how about we head to the Latin translation section instead? It will be faster to read" she took off in what I guess was the direction of the Latin section and I couldn't help, but thank Lupa for being a roman Goddess which hardwired my brain to Latin as well.. Wow I'm ranking up the languages. English, ancient Greek, Latin, wolf and animals... just call me Percy-linguistic... yeah I'm never telling anyone to call me that. Shaking the terrible idea from my head I followed her to the Latin translation zone. Where Reyna picked up a book from the shelf and placed it on a small table.

"This Is the most modern book this library has on the behaviours of all know Titans" huh looks smaller than I expected, shouldn't be to ba- "well volume 1 of 30" schist I just had to tempt fate, why do I always tempt fate. It's a simple equation temp fate, get a crappy life. Why do I never get this?!? I sat down and begun the painful process of reading the second volume while Reyna read the first. Luckily by now, I had got the skill of changing the pages with my paw down, the trick was simply to lightly blow at the book as I dragged my paw across it making the pages separate easier.. There were a few times I needed Reyna to get me back to my page due to blowing too hard and changing too many pages.

This was gonna take a while.