Searching For Serenity

Chapter 11

Percy
Montauk beach
We've been laying here for what felt like minutes, while it had really been hours. I still felt as if this moment could disappear at any time. I was soaking in the moment, twirling Artemis's coppery hair in between my fingers while softly rubbing the smooth skin of her back.
I had thought she had fallen asleep when she raised her towards mine and gaze at me with those other worldly eyes. She smiled brightly at me, letting me know she was enjoying this as much as myself. Just being with her was enough reason to live my life, being the best man I could hope to be for her.
She reached up and slid her hand over my stubble and rubbed my cheek with her thumb. She removed her hand and repositioned it on my chest before using it to push herself up, only for her jump back down on me. She now was sitting upright on my stomach, my hands came to rest on her hips, my fingers dipping down her backside, apparently too close as she looked at me seriously and grabbed my arms, raising my hands up higher.
"None of that," she said strictly, trying to keep her sternest expression, not succeeding, the edges of her thin lips cracking from the stern placement.
I let out a quick laugh, before squeezing her sides, admiring my newfound purpose. Her hair was unruly, from the salty sea and the sand, stunning perfection. It flowed behind her, occasionally waving with the slight breeze. Her features half hidden in the moonlight that shown over shoulder, her milky silver eyes, opened halfway, making way for her cheekbones as she smiled lovingly down on me.
I once again let out a chuckle slip loose, "Artemis, you make Aphrodite look like a dog."
"Oh shut up," she said quickly leaning down and giving me a small kiss," Come on, our times up."
She jumped off of me and offered me her hand.
Yes I definitely have the pants on, I thought hopefully to myself.
I accepted and flexed to meet her resistance, and soon I was on my feet. Artemis walked off towards the cabin, stepping in and walking back out, having donned her uniform.
"Um...Artemis," I started meekly, "I don't have any clothes."
"They're at the river aren't they?" She asked, the expression on her face showing that she clearly wasn't impressed.
"Well you can just summon me something can't you?"
"Who do I look like to you? Aphrodite?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
I stared at her, "Well then I guess you'll just have to flash us to the river so I can grab my clothes."
She rolled her eyes, "Any thing else?" She asked sarcastically.
"Actually yes..," I started, looking up to meet her eyes, "I need to take a trip to Olympus and see Hephaestus."
"What for?!"
"Well I need to have him make me a sword," I said, trying my best to give her the seal pup eyes that I've been said to do so well.
She just rolled her eyes, "Okay, but we'll have to hurry," and reached forward to grab lock her hand in mine and flashing us away to the river.

I quickly unlinked hands the Goddess of The Moon and hurried over and put on my pants, socks, and shoes before turning around towards her, working my shirt over my shoulders. I finished pulling it down over my chest and stomach, and looked up at Artemis to see her staring, a blush forming on her face.
"Your such a perv," I said with a smirk and a small chuckle.
Her faced turned serious, "Shut up," she whined and started walking towards me, "I said we have to hurry."
She reach out and flashed us away before I felt the contact of her hand on my shoulder.

We reappeared outside of a large bronze and black mansion, which had gears clicking all through the framing of the house.
Leave it to Ol Hephaestus to make his house an automaton, I thought, hopefully this one doesn't try to kill me.
"Well I'll leave you here, I might as well restock on some supplies if we're gonna be here for awhile," Artemis said, looking at me with trace amounts of her longing to give a kiss, an expression that I was probably wearing to match.
This is gonna be hard, why can't we just tell everybody and get it out of the way, I thought while watching Artemis stride away from me, not looking back.
I composed myself and turned towards the large bronze door. I raised my hand to knock when the door suddenly clicked and the gears and panels shot back in the workings of the sides of the door. In the gap that had opened a legless bronze automaton appeared. It was like a bronzed torso coming out of a bronze sphere and the torso led to a almost bearded looking face as well as two arms, one armed with a crossbow, while the other held a sword.
Fuck.
I immediately ducked to avoid having to test my arrow healing capabilities on my forehead.
"Who is it? What do you want," I heard a gruff voice ask.
I peeked my eyes above the slip to see the automaton, now with weapons sheathed and a new screen popping out of the gear in it's chest area. On the screen was a misshapen Hephaestus, his face more charred than usual, looking like he'd boughten some illegal fireworks from the local college chemists.
"Perseus, what do you want?" He asked with a bit of surprise in his voice.
I gave an awkward bow, feeling weird showing signs of respect towards an automaton that had just had an arrow trained at my noggin, "I was hoping I could pay you to make me a new sword."
"Well what's the issue with your sword, Riptide?"
"Nothing Lord Hephaestus, this is a sword for someone else, for one of the hunter's birthday."
"Well lets see what we're talking about now, lad. Follow this automaton and he'll bring you to my forge."
I nodded, before the screen cut off. The rest of the doors collapsed in with the previous gears and panels and the automaton rotated on it's spear before leaning forward and rolling down the hall.
As I followed the robot I was left to admire Hephaestus handiwork, not understanding it in the least, or even knowing what it was controlling. Pistons jutting out of the floor and walls, while different types of automatons roamed the halls. Bright lights hung from the ceiling, illuminating every gear within the walls and the hissing steam pipes that ran through them.
Wow, this looks like something you'd see in a game, I thought.
Finally we arrived into an open room that opened up to the size of an aircraft hangar with a large forge occupying the middle. Along the sides sat worktables, material, and any tool imaginable. Sitting at one of the table was a hunched over Hephaestus with back turned to me.
"Come over boy and let's talk over the design of your new sword," he said over his shoulder.
I to his side and leaned over to see what he was working on.
It was some sort of gyrating disk that Hephaestus seemed to be taking apart, removing small panels, allowing taught springs to spring onto the table.
"So what kind of sword do you want," he asked, still not having looked at me yet. "I can you any type of sword you want, anything from a xiphos, like Riptide, to a battle axe."
I thought for a moment, She does seem to like the feel of Riptide...
"Um I think a xiphos would do, if you could make it identical to mine, but maybe silver if possible...," I trailed off.
"Ah so you want a silver Riptide huh, trying to 'whoo' one of the hunters are we?" He said a little mischievously with an ugly sideways grin
"No sir, she's like my little sister," I said with a small laugh, "Besides Artemis would torture me before cutting off my dick and letting me bleed out if I were to even look at one of her hunters the wrong way."
His face grew distasteful. "Yeah I suppose that wouldn't be a good way to go," he said while setting down his sphere, "I probably would've tried 'whooing' one of the hunters if I wasn't fearful of that treatment."
Wow, ol Heph is still out here lookin for love, I thought surprised, although a little worried because most of the girls were the ripe age to catch a charge.
He turned around on his spinning office chair that looked like it had been through a couple house fires. I went to meet his eyes to find his eyes locked elsewhere, on my right hand side.
"What's that sword you got there," he asked as I drew it out for him to see.
He put out his hands, wordlessly asking to hold it.
I laid the grip of the Wisdom in his hand that looked like a catchers mitt.
"This is Phronesis," I said reminiscing over it's previous owner and the first love of my life.
He slid the sword in between his hands, examining every detail, "Wisdom." He held the sword out in front of him, looking at me confused.
"It's made of drakon bone, by Damasen, while we were in Tartarus..." I explained, a sad expression falling on my face, "That and this old yankees cap are the only things of A-Annabeth's that I have left." I pulled out her cap that I always kept with me and showed it to the god sitting in front of me.
He bunched his face, "Well I'm sorry to hear that lad," he let a few seconds pass before starting again, "Say I could have your new blade ready by tomorrow, and if you'd like I could keep Wisdom here along that cap and try to combine them into a magical item, like your pen."
I just stared at him with a blank face, internally debating if I should let Hephaestus tinker with Annabeth's sword and cap.
"Uh...I don't know.. I don't want something to go wrong and end up losing them," I answered, hoping not to insult him.
"You need not worry 'bout that. I've been doing this for awhile you know?" He said gruffly, with a small boom of laughter.
I considered it and decided to take the risk.
I reached out the cap and dropped it onto the table, "Okay, I'll take your word for it."
He nodded his head and grumbled, while turning back to his work.
"Alright, I need to start work on Aphrodite's requests, I'll have both your items ready by the same time tomorrow."
"So what about the..uh.. payment?" I asked, worried that I didn't have enough drachmas to pay the olympian.
He waved his hand over his shoulder, "Don't worry about it, you've done enough for all of us."
"I owe you one Hephaestus," I said gratefully.
"Mhm," he grumbled, "Follow the automaton back, wouldn't want you to get lost and end up having to pick pieces of you out of my gears," he ordered with a small chuckle.
I nodded before spinning around to the way I had came.