Chapter 13: A New Companion

[Reyna's POV]

Here I am sorting through these numerous books trying to figure out where the heck the Titans could be. We don't even know if they are alive, free, imprisoned, abandoned or if they even left their original homes in the first place! Dami seems to feel quite strongly about this, but I can tell something else is bothering him, perhaps it's his wolf instincts?

"Dami? Why so jumpy?" at first he didn't respond, but as he finished what I think was the section on the Titan Selene, he turned to face me.

"Sorry Rey, what was that?" I felt my face flush at the nickname, but couldn't argue thanks to having given him one myself.

"I said what's got you so jumpy, you look like you can barely keep still" he took on a thoughtful-ish expression. I think, I mean what does a thinking wolf even look like?

"I guess I just haven't had the chance to do any hunting in a while and my instincts are going nuts over it" of course this idiot would be ignoring his instincts.. We still have a few hours till he trains that Anna girl.

"Idiot.. Go do some hunting in the forest. I'll keep researching and tell you my findings when you return" He tried to resist, but I insisted to the point I was practically shoving him out of the library. Much to the librarians pleasure. Well time to get back to research… yayy…

[Percy's POV:]

After having been kicked out of the library, which I was by no means upset by, My instincts instantly took over and I found myself bounding towards the forest my snout set its senses on finding a suitable sent to track. Before long I started smelling faint hints of what I think was goat. Which sounded delish to both me and my instincts. I searched the area to find the direction the scent was strongest in, deciding on the west direction and promptly bounding that way. I had slightly shrunk my size to reduce my presence as I made my approach to where I assumed the Goat was. The scent was strong and the grass freshly trampled indicating at least a small herd of them. I go for the oldest and weakest of course making sure it has no cubs. I was a carnivore, not a monster.

I spotted my prey, an old goat much slower than the rest clearly injured at the leg. I'd put it out it's misery and satisfy my carnal urges to hunt. After a somewhat satisfying meal I decided to head back as while the hunt felt too fast I was not going to kill for fun. Walking back I noticed something peculiar, a small falcon attacking what looked like a raccoon in the tree, they moved to the side revealing a small collection of eggs.. Sadly already broken by the raccoon. The falcon was not aware yet was still trying to defend them. I decided to help since I felt for the mother.. Or father, no way to tell yet. I scaled the tree with speed and ease, biting at the raccoon and dragging it off the tree. The falcon quickly flew into the tree nest only to find them all broke, it came back out and flew straight down at the raccoon before literally pecking it to death.

"Thank you wolf, while it was in vain, you did try to help save my eggs. For that I am in your debt" she spoke into my mind, something I thought only blessed animals could do and perhaps she was.

"Why did you lay eggs in a tree? Falcons usually do it on inaccessible cliffs and even more they don't make nests usually" she looked at me curiously, probably trying to figure out how I knew such things.

"I'm not your usual falcon, as you can tell by us talking like this. I am Acanthis, many years ago Zeus and Apollo took pity upon me and my family during a tragedy and had us changed into birds to survive. I was made an Acanthis after my name. We birds like to nest in low tree crevices and bushes. It was recently I learned how to change into other birds, my favourite form being the falcon you see me as now but my instincts remain the same, but in this case I had adopted the eggs from a dying woodpecker friend of mine. But no matter who their mother was they were still my kids." I couldn't help the feeling of feeling I could relate even though I had no kids of my own.

"I'm sure your friend would be proud of how hard you tried to defend her kids" My reassurance seemed to work even if only a little.

"Thank you wolf. That means a lot, though I don't know what to do now. Those eggs were my new purpose in life without them.. I might as well be dead myself" oh hell no. ain't anyone one committing suicide on my watch.

"Why not come with me? I am the co-praetor of camp Jupiter. Having a flying companion would fit the look. Plus I find I enjoy your company" she tilted her head sideways showing off her read and brown feathers before simply nodding her head. She changes into a small bird, what I imagine is an Acanthis and falling asleep. I knew we had become friends, but wasn't this a little too trusting for someone you just met? I wasn't going to complain, but still looking at her laying snugly in my fur I couldn't help but feel a wave of fatigue wash over me and so I decided if you can't beat me. Join em. Laying down, I allowed Morpheus or Somnia as the Romans call him, to take me to his realm.

-Imma smol line break hii-

"Wake up wake up wake up. I will turn into a woodpecker and peck you!" and sure enough she turned herself into a small woodpecker keeping her red and brown feather pattern. She rose her head aiming for my furrowed brows before bringing down her beak in what was the start of my literally splitting headache.

"OW OW OI What the Hades?!? Acanthis that dam hurt, heh dam…" Acanthis' eyes rolled at me before pointing a wing at the sky. Which was luckily still bright with the high sun… Oh dam.

"It's midday! Why didn't you wake me sooner!?!?" I shouted before taking off high speed towards the Arena where hopefully a super pissed Reyna wasn't.

"How was I supposed to know you even wanted to be woken? I just did it since you were in the direct sun too long" dam that perfect reason it's now all my fault. Acanthis was flying to my side lecturing me on manners and blame which I had already tuned my mind out of.

"Well look who finally showed up. Here I thought our praetor had gone feral" spoke an annoying worm known as Octavian and I caught myself wondering why he was alive, was it just my wolf instincts learning passive aggressive thoughts?

"Don't make me shoot you out of a onager (catapult) again. You made quite the fool of yourself the first time we had to revive you" spoke Reyna with an amused tone and I had to say I found it hilarious myself. That said her words had confirmed one thing It wasn't that I wanted him dead… which I kinda do, it was that he had already died once already and been revived and apparently in a pathetic way which honestly suited him well.

"Why is there such a large crowd? I'm only training Anna and her daughter" Reyna rolled her eyes, probably expecting my response. I mean it's a dam legitimate question right? Then again I find asking if there's a greater pleasure than blue cookies a legitimate question. One no ever has or ever will find anything more pleasing than blue cookies… Okay note to self try blue cookies old me seems to love them a lot.. Okay enough talking to yourself she'll figure out how crazy I am.

"Lets just say the news that our wolf praetor conducting his first training session leaked out and since the arena has no restrictions I can't stop them. Not that I would anyway" A little birdy, no not Acanthis, told me she somehow had planned this out.

"Hey Damien, ready to train?" I could tell from the eagerness in her voice that she was well eager to start this. I was too, I've been wondering how well this would go since I'm a wolf and she's a human.

"Okay, show me your battle stances, starting with your ready stance" she got into a classic Greek style position, Her left side of the body poised forwards with her daggers at a risen guard the left side also positioned further forward than the other. The only flaws I could see was her hip position and legs. I could literally knock her over if I lightly pushed from her behind, since her hips were twisted too far and her legs were just too close. It still looked better than most I had seen.

"Straighten your waist more and further spread your stance. Then raise your arms until the blade is within your vision but not blocking it" she carried out my advice and already was starting to look much more stable. Now I just how to find a way to marry this stance to her graceful flow of battle. Since such a rigid position would contradict her flowing motions.

"Okay that's very good. Now I want you to relax all the muscles in tension and sit into this stance, but maintain the battle awareness" I saw her tensed body begin to relax and as I had hoped, she seemed much more comfortable and flexible like this. While it sacrificed some stability I believed that not to be a problem since she'd likely be constantly moving and this would allow for her to move quickly from a standstill.

"Now I want to see you do a simple forward stab" she nodded and performed the action, I took note of a few things wrong and relayed it back to her. We repeated this for around 4 hours covering things from slashes to even low level assassination techniques using the surroundings. I also taught her daughter a few things, but found myself instantly defensive for her and it was a familiar feeling which worried me slightly, after that we decided to call it a day.

"You have trained well, I am proud to call you my apprentice" I really was, she had fought hard to prove her worth and I was sure her mother would be proud even if her cabin wasn't. She nodded her head in

"Dami, let's head back to the honest hate since It's forever filled with paperwork, the Principia, our headquarters" I already did not like the sound of that and nor did Acanthis who decided she'd sleep through it.

"Also I never asked before, but why is there a bird sleeping on your back?" she finally asked the question I had expected hours ago.

"You have Electrum, a mechanical lie detecting dog. I have Acanthis, a shape-shifting bird" was all I answered trying to keep some mystery in the relationship hehe. We went the rest of the way talking about internal affairs of the camp. Seems even demigod camps could not escape things such as recession and Inflation, how I know those things I don't know, I thought I was an idiot? Seems to not be the case which is awesome.

"Right leave the paperwork to me for now until we find a work around for your wolfish-ness, so just pay attention and watch how I do it" I was not about to complain about not having to do paperwork, I just hoped this work around would never come.

Hours later and the pile of paperwork looked no smaller than when she had started, in fact I was pretty sure it had grown in size from all the new stacks being added every few minutes. I had a new found respect for her dedication cause I would've died from that by now.

"Okay that's it for today, let's head home we need to discuss my research findings" I hadn't lifted a paw and yet those words were still music to my highly sensitive canine ears. The hours of boredom had thoroughly played on my ADHWID and I even found myself chasing my tail once or twice, much to the entertainment of Reyna who I'm certain will use this against me someday like Artemis.. I really wonder who she is...

Once we had arrived at home, Reyna went and sat down at the table in the middle of the room, her "praetor face" on. I followed and sat nearby ready for another overly drawn out lecture that I could problem summarise in a few words.

"So, During my research I realised something, where are the most likely and known places they could go to escape. There was Calypso and her island that couldn't be found by many, but I doubt she'd return to such solitude; Rhea and her old cave in mount Ida, but again rumours are she left to avoid the many men that kept trying to court and or rape her so i doubt she'd return there and then there Leto who, after her kids had left for Olympus, had moved to Thebes to live and was rumoured to have been turned into and preserved as stone in revenge from Niobe for the murder of her 14 children she had boasted about to Apollo and Artemis before. She asked Zeus to turn her to stone and of course he did. The texts here say that Leto may have found a way to escape so I doubt she'd return there. You see there is a pattern all these places are somewhere none of them would return to and I doubt they'd let the others go there to experience that fate either meaning instead of looking for where they would go. We should eliminate where they wouldn't and pretty much all divine locations that were somewhat protected from the gods were crossed off. Basically America was dangerous to them anywhere they went especially as a group, which is actually what made it so easy. A group of titans like that is bound to be easily noticeable by the gods even in places like Olgia So their main focus would probably be finding some way to hide that, and where better to hide a Divine presence than Alaska. It's massive and not only are they hidden from the Gods, but the God is unlikely to go there. It's the perfect and pretty much only spot" I waited.. Hoping no praying she was done.. The silence was absolutely beautiful.

"So basically the Titans are most likely in Alaska cause the rest of the country is dangerous for them and is over 3,000 miles away from not to mention covered in snow at this time of year" I spoke using classic Percy patented sass.

"Err yeah that's about it" She obviously felt the pain of having her lecture shortened down to just a sentence, but still Alaska?

"Well dam this is gonna suck" Acanthis nodded her head only just waking up, she had been lucky enough to not only sleep through the paperwork, but the lecture too.

Well then Alaska here we come.