Comissioning the Hephaestus Cabin

[Lysandros Evermore, Camp Half-Blood]

As I made my way towards the dining pavilion, I spotted Thalia, who was alone, also on her way there. Feeling extra mischievous today, I casted a couple stealth spells upon myself, and sneaked up on her. Soon she was at arms reach from me, and I covered her eyes with my hands, about to ask her to guess who it was. Just about to do so, as I was surprised as she got startled into releasing a small wave of electricity. Next thing I knew, my hair was dry, and was even affected by static.

"L-Lys?!?" - She cried out, as soon as she understood what she had just done. Let me tell you something, even if you are resistant, such a shock still hurt quite a lot. Enough for the surprised Thalia to turn around and start checking up on me, to see whether or not I was fine.

"I'm sorry... I did not sleep well because I stayed up all night doing all that homework from Chiron, so I have become a little jumpy since the morning." - She explained with an apologetic look on her face.

Releasing a sigh, I pulled her into my embrace. - "It's okay. Did you at least finish everything?"

"Ugh... not really... those stupid books seem to just never end! I even feel there are more of them left than when I had only just started! How does that even makes any sense!?!?" - She complained, glued to my chest, feeling both frustrated and tired.

"How about I help you later? I can at least help you understand things quicker." - I offered, waiting for her to think things through.

"Really?! Then you can't go back on your word!" - Seems she was really desperate.

Swiping my hair backwards, trying to rid myself from all the static, I say - "But we should really go now, least we end up skipping lunch..."

Thalia agreed as we both went towards the dinning pavilion. Arriving there, I saw a scene that really put a smile upon my face. Lee and Trika were both arriving together, faces a little flushed, as they seemed to notice some gazes sent their direction. Thalia, noticing where I was looking at, asked - "Did something happen?"

"I guess you could say so... it's just that I seem to have a knack as a wingman! I got to know that guy, Lee Fletcher this morning as I went to the archery range to learn how to use a bow. We talked and we soon became friends, so after he taught me the basics, I helped him meet that adorable girl from the Demeter Cabin." - I explained to her.

"I see... they do look great together..." - She nodded - "Good job!"

"Right? It's also some good training for when I want to hook up with some more girls!" - I said, earning me Thalia's glare as she rolled her eyes at my antics.

"What? I heard girls feel greater attraction towards someone who is similar to their father! Ain't it right?" - I teased, causing Thalia to start stretching my cheeks in may different directions as I laughed and hugged her.

"That doesn't count when my father is such an asshole!" - Thalia protested as she stretched my cheeks as a punishment of sorts, even though it did not hurt a single bit. She seemed to be having fun.

That lasted a couple more seconds, as someone interrupted our goofing around with a fake cough.

"Ahem... while it is nice to see you two have such a great relationship, Mr. Evermore and Ms. Grace, do mind your surroundings before doing such public displays of affection." - Berated Chiron, with Mr. D lagging a bit behind him, sipping onto his famous diet coke with a displeased scowl upon his face, as he tried to ignore our very existence.

We stopped teasing each other and both went towards the Zeus' table, as I was already tired of having my meals with the others staying at the Hermes Cabin, and Thalia was always alone un her big table, so some days ago I thought - "Why not stay with her and have our meals together?" - What a stroke of genius! And so that's what I have been doing.

After burning some food to the gods, we get seated and dive into the food. Afterwards, we bade each other farewell with a little kiss, and went our own separate ways.

Thinking about what to do, I decide to pay a visit to the boys in the Hephaestus Cabin, to see what can be done regarding my new bow, so that I can practice using it.

Arriving there, I can't help but notice how busy most of them seemed with all the ongoing remodeling and all the construction going on, but mainly the construction, as most of the remodeling would have to wait until Artemis arrived.

I look around and soon find Charles Beckendorf resting in a corner, so I approach him.

"Sup, Charles?" - I ask in greeting.

"Lys? How are you doing, buddy?" - He comes over and we fist bump.

"I'm doing great! It seems you guys are having quite some fun in here, huh?" - I ask playfully.

"Haha... you could say that... it's a bit tiring, but nevertheless a lot of fun..." - He agrees.

"Bro, could you spare some time to take a look at something for me?"

"Sure, spill it out already!" - He urges me.

"It's like this, have you heard of the Firefly? A bow some campers from Hephaestus created some decades ago?" - I start recounting what happened.

"The Firefly? Hmmm... that name seems familiar for some reason...Firefly... Firefly... Oh! Is it some Phoenix bow?" - He asked, as if recalling the incident, as I nod my head in confirmation.

"You see, this morning I headed towards the Archery Range, to try and learn a thing or two about archery, and they took me towards their armory. There, I started testing how I felt using many different bows, but they all felt too light in my hands, so they asked me to try Firefly, it seemed just right in my hands, so they gave it to me. The problem is, this bow is too powerful to use the normal targets, as the arrows would just go right through them, endangering those nearby."

"I see... so, you wanted to ask for a special target, or training dummy to use the bow without worrying about injuring others?" - Charles seemed to understand where I was going, and asked.

"Yeah, something like that." - I nodded - "Is it feasible?" - I inquired.

"Sure, you are even doing us from the Hephaestus Cabin a huge favour using that bow. You see, Chiron got rather pissed at us after we 'wasted' so much materials into an useless bow, so he prohibited a lot of the cool things we used to make, saying there were a waste of resources. With this, we might be able to plead our case, and maybe create a couple more cool trinkets!" - He said, a little excited at the prospects.

"The problem would be with enchanting the item with some auto-repairing enchantment, so it would not get destroyed. I don't know too much about such enchantments, as they are a bit hard to create, so only the seniors can do them."

"I can try to do something on that regard!" - I said - "I have been creating some enchantments I call runes on the side, leave that up to me!"

"Really? That would be great! I will try to create your item in the next 3 days! You can come back again by then!"

After chatting with him a while longer, he told me his break was over, so he went back towards the forge, with an excited look on his face. Having nothing more to do there, I also took my leave, while brainstorming what runes I should use on the target Charles would make.

On my own, I had experimented quite a bit on the limits of runes, and many possible combinations. I also tried different materials. And got some interesting results. First, I had confirmed several of my hypothesis. The very same rune would have varying degrees of efficiency depending on the material it was carved into. The materials had different limits to the amount of mana it could countain, like my previous use of wood and metal to create the lightning bombs. And the things we use when carving the rune, would determine it's potency, but they should have some magic property to work. Not too bad, right?

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Author's notes:

Sup guys? Hope you are having a great weekend! Thank you all for the support!

There is not much to say on my part other than that, so, have fun!

Peace out!