Welcome to the New Age

It had been a couple hours after a centurion meeting and the only people left in the room at the table were Cassia Prescott and Liam Davenport. The centurions had split up different files that were given to them from the senators. Things that have come up as possible concerns within the legion and different leads for different quests. They had the duty to process what was needed for each quest and which concerns they could take into their own matters. After that anything that had to be sent out with more man power needed approval from the Praetors.

Liam and Cassia had decided to work together, as it was promoted to work with your partner as well as those outside of that. Cassia knew Liam from various dinners that either of their parents had hosted. The Davenports weren't a traditional family by any means, but they were one of the bigger families in New Rome and they were to be respected. At least that's what her mother Cora had always told her. The daughter of Vulcan sighed before she leaned back in her chair. "Only got two more files left to go through. Want to bet it's the same things about people sneaking into the bathhouse or people staying out passed curfew?" Cassia asked.

Liam yawned, in the past couple hours Liam had come to the conclusion that Camp Jupiter was full of whiny babies. Of course he didn’t actually think this all the time, just when he was tasked to do the filing. Filing sucked almost as bad as paperwork.

He glanced over at the last two files, then two his current work partner. Liam didn’t know the other Centurion too well personally, but from what he had seen and heard she did her job well. Their parents were also friends. Well not really friends, more like, just civil towards each other. Liam’s father had never been one to care for tradition, which is why his family was closer to the Virgos instead of the more traditional families like the Julius’s or Cassia’s family. Personally, Liam didn’t care for being either traditional or non-traditional and never understood why it was such a big deal. Especially since his dad always complained about having to invite them to his parties.

“I’ll make that bet.” He told her, grabbing the file on the top, he opened it. “This one is in fact, about staying out passed curfew. Your turn.”

As she watched Liam grab the vanilla folder and read out loud what the concern was, she could only laugh a bit. Of course it had to be staying out passed curfew. Cassia had seen one about people sneaking into the bathhouse before, and to be honest it happened more than one would think. A lot of teenagers seemed to have some thing about the bathhouse and Cassia knew it wasn't for a good ol' swim and it was more than likely for more "sinful" things. It was for that reason she always made sure a cleaning crew was sent in to clean it out.

The brunette reached down to grab the last vanilla folder, before opening it she looked across the table at Liam again. "For the curfew one, just put something about needing more watch guards and more signs and then file it." After she spoke she opened the last file and scanned the page for any sign of complete non sense.

"Well this is quite different... Not your typical thing." Cassia stated as she read the inside about a possible lead on a place that was inhabited just up in Washington. Apparently there had been rumours about demigods living there. Inside the file was also a drawn map of the remote area. She passed the file over to Liam for him to read himself.

Liam quickly finished filing the Curfew one, as Cassia read off the last file. “Does it say anything about who the demigods are?” He asked as she handed him the file, not really expecting an answer. He scanned the paper, and the map. The map had been drawn as if whoever drew it hadn’t had enough time to draw it properly. It was mostly scribble but it was legible enough to know what it was meant to be. “Maybe it’s fake?” The idea of a group of demigods living outside of Camp sounded weird too him.

The Centurion didn’t know what to make of it, maybe it was someone’s great idea of a prank, there were plenty of people who had pulled pranks before. Anyone could file a complaint, its not like it was tasked to a certain few people. But something, call it intuition told him it wasn’t, so instead of putting he just shrugged his shouldered and gave a short awkward laugh. “I don’t know. Quest pile, maybe?”

Cassia watched Liam as he began to read the file. She knew that it'd end up in the quest pile, but she also felt the urge to go out and look at it herself. Washington wasn't that far of a drive from here, and honestly she wanted to get out and do something, what better than this? Besides that, then they could just put it in the complete file and their filing would be done and no loose strings. Often times Cassia was told she tried too hard by her cohort members, but she wanted to succeed and do great things. Part of her still wanting to make Praetor one day, but in some aspects she was doubtful that'd ever happen.

The brunette began to clean things up on the table before grabbing her bag and walking over to the usually locked cupboard and grabbing a set of keys. "I say we take a drive and go find out. If you got the time." The legacy of Chione stated with a small grin. In some ways it was rebellious to just take a task on and not ask, but it was technically assigned to them to look at the file, so what would be the harm in going out to look at the situation. Especially when it was a job that didn't need a lot of people to do.

She was still orderly and she wrote in the log of where they were going and what they were taking. If she had to she'd get yelled at later for it, but given the recent events with Rowan Davenport almost stabbing a senator, Cassia figured she'd only potentially get a smack on the wrist.

Liam placed the file to the side, so it wouldn’t get mixed in with the other finished files as he helped Cassia clean up. He was contemplating sneaking the file into his bag, and going to Washington by himself. But ended up not needing to, “let’s do it.” The son of Bellona said, not hesitating to answer, as he took the map from the file. They would need it for when they got to Washington.

Usually Liam wouldn’t do something this rebellious, he tended to stick to the rules but he couldn’t fight the feeling that they needed to look into this soon. And if they just left it to be handled by someone else, they risked the possibility that no one would look into it at all. Even if it turned out to be nothing at all at least they’d know. He put the map in his bag with the rest of his stuff as Cassia went to get the keys.

There was a small rush of excitement within the daughter of Vulcan. Something about just taking charge and doing it for themselves gave her this new found appreciation for those who may act on being a little more rebellious. Cassia wasn't the usual type to act on this inclinations, but something within herself just kept telling her to do it, which was very different from the norm. In her family you were raised in a traditional sense and she loved having those traditional values, but she liked to play outside the box more recently.

Cassia began to shut the lights off in the room and left the door open for him to follow through as they began to walk out of the Senate House. The garage that held all the cars was just outside of New Rome so they didn't have to worry about alerting anyone that they were leaving. "I'll drive." She said as she held the keys in her hand.

Eventually she made it to the car that they'd be taking and got in the driver's seat and unlocked the car doors so Liam could put the stuff in the trunk and get in. Once he was finally in she looked over to him, "I'm not sure how well that map will serve us, looked like it was a scribbled on piece of paper, but at least you can tell it's southern Washington."

Liam gathered the rest of the stuff they would need for the trip, then followed Cassia through the front doors of the Senate building, closing and locking the doors behind them. When they finally got to the car, Liam waited until Cassia unlocked the doors so he could pile their supplies into the trunk, then climbed into the passenger and took out the map. “Yeah...” He agreed, taking the map back out. “doesn’t look like it can be used until we reach wherever this point is.” He turned it so she could see where he was looking.

Cassia nodded agreeing with Liam about where they needed to go. She put the car in reverse as she started to head out onto the road. It had been quite some time since she had been driving last, but she was glad that her mother taught her how to drive, it seemed to be a skill that came in handy over the years that she had been able to drive. Unfortunately the drive to Washington would be about ten hours. It was at least closer than some of the other states out there.

"after about five hours we should switch off until we get there. We'll probably have to stop and get gas and then getting some snacks would be decent." Cassia admitted. Part of her also knew that at some point during this roadtrip she was going to need to take her pills again and she was hoping to be able to go into a bathroom at a gas station to do it, the last thing she needed was someone else finding out and ratting her out, especially since she needed them.

“Snacks sound like a good idea.” Liam said vaguely, leaning back in his seat. He hadn’t eaten dinner yet, having planned on meeting up with some friends after he had finished with the filing. Having snacks would at least hold him over until they got home again. Liam was still staring at the map trying to figure out what each landmark on it was supposed to be and what they were supposed to mean, and how they were going to find them, once they got to southern Washington. He had five hours to figure it out, then he would be the one driving and finding them.

After the ten hour drive plus additional time it took to find the right area they came up to a very wooded area of the state. Cassia looked over to Liam who was no in the driver's seat and she sighed. "Looks like we're going to have to go bush whacking. I hope you prepared for this." She said before she undid her seat buckle and got out of the car to stretch out a bit. She could smell the fresh pine trees and hear the birds chirping. It was about seven in the morning and the sun was just about to come up. "What supplies did you bring anyways?" She asked calling out to him.

Liam sighed also, at the sight of the path they would have to take. Yeah they were prepared, didn’t mean he would enjoy it. “I grabbed a couple weapons. Could use a sword to cut the branches out of the way.” He told her, as he got out of the car. He had also packed the basic stuff everyone was required to take with them. Like medical supplies, there was also rope. He wasn’t sure what they would end up needing, so he just grabbed as much as possible, and anything they didn’t end up needing could just stay in the trunk.

Liam walked to the back of the car, and unlocked the trunk, “take your pick.” He told her.

She followed Liam to the back of the car where he had opened the trunk. From there she looked inside and she grabbed a weapon she knew how to use the most and would probably suit her best in this scenario, a gladius. From there she grabbed the rope and the first aid kit. She looped the rope through the handle of it and tied the rope around her waist as a belt. She knew in a forest a rope could come in handy and first aid kit. "Did you bring a flash light by any chance? I don't know if we'll have to inspect any dark areas or not." She said pushing some of her brown locks behind her ear.

“There should be somewhere.” He answers, rummaging through the stuff, until he found the two flashlights he had packed. He handed one to her, he hoped they both worked, because he didn’t have time to check on battery levels before they left. And as per-usual, the storage room had been out of batteries so he couldn’t grab extras in case.

“Ready to go?” He asked, as he pocketed his knife, and attached his twin swords to the sheath he kept on his back. He had the map in one hand, and a flashlight in the other.

After he had found the flashlight, the daughter of Vulcan took it and began to check if it worked. She flicked it on and aimed it in the trunk to test. "Hmm, it works, but it's probably going to die soon." Cass pondered aloud and the flicked the flash light off. "It'll do. If not I'm sure with some tinkering I could get it to work." After that she looked back over to Liam and when he asked if she were ready to go she nodded and shut the trunk and locked the doors to the car before shoving the keys into her pocket.

Cass then began to walk in the direction the map was suggesting to go. Hopefully this wasn't a prank or there wasn't immediate danger near by. The life of being a demigod was one of the most unpredictable.

Liam had tested out his own flashlight also. The battery seemed ok, though it was morning, hopefully they wouldn’t need to use the flashlights at all. “We could just use one of them at a time.” He offered a third suggestion. Once they started walking, Liam let Cassia take the lead. He kept his eyes open for anything that seemed off, and monsters.

Trying to follow the direction of the map that was given to them was almost like clockwork. Cassia figured that it'd be comparable to the enigma back in world war two. Where was Alan Turing to make a machine to decode this map for her? Something had felt off to her about how quickly the map had been drawn, almost like it had been scribbled down and there were signs on the paper that they been dragged off the paper, it was a sign of hastiness in the daughter of Vulcan's eyes.

She used her gladus to chop little branches down that had been in her way and continued to walk through the green forest. There wasn't much around them except for the trees and bushes and whatever the forest had to offered. The smell of pine trees was very potent in this part, but Cass didn't mind the smell. The birds were chirping and flying over the tops of the trees, for the most part it was a peaceful morning. Every so often Cass would mark the trees with arrows point in the direction in which they had just came, something to make their lives a little easy, it'd suck to get lost out here.

Liam followed Cassia as they made their way through the woods. He used one of his swords to help cut branches out of their way. Liam figured it would probably be worse going back, since they didn’t really have an idea of the timeframe it would take to get where they were trying to go. It could be dark out by the time they were done.

After about an hour of walking in the forest they began to see some old cabins, but what divided them from their destination was a fairly wide river. The current had been going a bit too fast to make it plausible to wade in and walk in it. There were a few ideas in her mind of what they could do, one of them involved getting in the river to the other side and making a bit of a pulley system, but with potentially no fire it'd be hard to warm up again and it'd put them at risk for potential hypothermia.

Another option for the two of them would be to walk around and lose day light, and have to potentially fight animals or potentially monsters. It was their safest route in one sense, but the longer route depending how long the river went. There was possibility of crossing a bridge later, or a narrower part in the river, but that wasn't always going to happen.

"Walk around or cross? I'm not sure I see it as up most importance to cross, but I know a way we can if that's what your heart is set on." Cass said.

Liam took in the surroundings, the river was definitely an issue. But he also didn’t see the importance of crossing it, but he also felt it would be a waste of time to try and walk around. “Well... if we crossed it, what did you have in mind?” He asked, figuring best to have all their options laid out in front of them. He also didn’t want to stay still on this side of the river also, more likely for a monster to smell them.

"If we were to cross now, I'd untie the rope from my waist and retie it in a single band, I'd get you to hold the other end while I swim across, and we'd both tie our ends up to a tree or something sturdy like that then you could scoot across the rope using your arms and legs, but I'd need you to bring my things with you, because I'm going to have to go in that water without clothes on, it's my safest bet at avoiding hypothermia. Damp clothes will make it worse. It's not an easy or ideal situation but it has a good chance at working." Cass said and at the end of her long winded talk she took a deep breath in before exhaling.

Liam cursed. He didn’t like the odds, hypothermia could take less than a couple minutes to set in, and he wasn’t sure how long it would take for them to build a fire. But what other choice did they have? There was no guarantee that they would be able to cross from another point of the river, and it wasn’t worth the risk of running into a monster. At least this way, if the cabins on the other side were empty they could use them for shelter... they looked livable from this end at least. “Ok. I’m down for it. As long as you think you can do it.” He tells her.

There was some hesitation from Cass. She knew that she could do it, but there was part of her anxiety that was rising up again and she couldn't settle it down fast enough to reply to Liam. Just the thought of what could go wrong, perhaps a slip of the rope and she'd be sent down the river to die of hypothermia, or she'd just plain out die of hypothermia. "Well, we can walk for ten minutes in either direction first and see if there's anything, if not then we an just cross." Cassia said, hoping that they might be able to find something. This was supposed to be a quick in and out trip.

Liam noticed her hesitation. “We can do that.” He told her, calmly. Part of him wanted to just say that they should just go home. No one knew where they were and if one of them got hurt, they would be in a ton of trouble. It’s one thing to go off on an unapproved trip and come back successful, it was entirely different to come back unsuccessful and injured. On the other hand Liam really didn’t wat to have driven 10 hours for no reason.

When he told her that they could do that, she nodded and then looked to him, "It might be a bit dumb, but did you want to split up, you go north ten minutes and I go south ten minutes. Be less time. I feel like we'd still be within in yelling distance if needed. But we can also stick together too." Cassia confirmed as she looked over across the river. Part of her wondered if it was even worth it, but another part knew it'd drive her insane not to know.