𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 || leo valdez

𝐈𝐈𝐈: meeting the fam!

✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩

FROM THE OUTSIDE, Hephaestus's cabin looked like an oversized caravan with shiny metal walls and metal beaded windows. The entrance was like a bank  door, round and a few meters thick. It opened with lots of brass gears turning and hydraulic pistons blowing smoke.

Leo whistled. "They got a steampunk theme going on, huh?"

Inside, the cabin seemed abandoned. Steel beams folded against the walls like high-tech Murphy beds. Each featured a digital control panel, flashing LED lights, glowing jewels and lockable gears. The walls were covered with every type of power tool you could imagine, along with a large number of knives, swords and other instruments of destruction.

Leo picked a long implement from the wall. "A weed whacker? What's the god of fire want with a weed whacker?"

A voice in the shadows said, "You'd be surprised." At the back of the room, one of the bunk beds was occupied. A curtain of camouflage material retracted, and Leo could see the guy who'd been invisible a second before. It was hard to tell much about him because he was covered in a body cast. His head was wrapped in gauze except for his face, which was puffy and bruised. He looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy after a beat down.

"I'm Jake Mason," the guy said. "I'd shake your hand, but ..."

"Yeah," Leo said. "Don't get up."

The guy cracked a smile, then winced like it hurt to move his face. Leo wondered what had happened to him, but he was afraid to ask.

"Welcome to Cabin Nine," Jake said. "Been almost a year since we had any new kids. I'm head counselor for now."

"For now?" Leo asked.

Veronica cleared her throat. "So where is everybody, Be- ah.. Jake?"

"Down at the forges," Jake said wistfully. "They're working on ... you know, that problem."

"Oh."

Will changed the subject. "So, you got a spare bed for Leo?"

Jake studied Leo, sizing him up. "You believe in curses, Leo? Or ghosts?"

"Ghosts? Pfft. Nah. I'm cool. A storm spirit chucked me down the Grand Canyon this morning, but you know, all in a day's work, right?"

Jake nodded. "That's good. Because I'll give you the best bed in the cabin—Beckendorf's."

"Jake," Veronica tensed. "You cant be serious."

Jake sighed and called out: "Bunk 1-A, please." The whole cabin rumbled. A circular section of the floor spiraled open like a camera lens, and a full-size bed popped up. The bronze frame had a built-in game station at the footboard, a stereo system in the headboard, a glass-door refrigerator mounted into the base, and a whole bunch of control panels running down the side.

Leo jumped right in and lay back with arms behind his head. "I can handle this."

"It retracts into a private room below," Jake said.

"Oh, heck, yes," Leo said. "See y'all. I'll be down in the Leo Cave. Which button do I press?" Veronica rolled her eyes at his obnoxiousness.

"Hold on," Will Solace protested. "You guys have private underground rooms?"

"We got lots of secrets, Will. You Apollo guys can't have all the fun. Our campers have been excavating the tunnel system under Cabin Nine for almost a century. We still haven't found the end. Anyway, Leo, if you don't mind sleeping in a dead man's bed, it's yours."

Suddenly Leo didn't feel like kicking back. He sat up, careful not to touch any of the buttons. "The counselor who died—this was his bed?"

"Yeah," Jake said. "Charles Beckendorf."