Artemis Child

Artemis Child Ch41

Two days. Two days of agony and tears. I was too sad to walk, too broken to care. Andrew carried me, not once did I stop crying. It felt as if every thing had become bleak and pointless. I must have sounded horrible, but the sobs didn't hide. 'Cory. You idiot. Why did you have to die?' I asked myself in my head the whole time back to camp.

   When we arrive back to camp, my hair stuck to parts of my face. People stared, and asked what happened, although no one got answers. Andrew brought me to my cabin where my half siblings tried their best to cheer me up. Inside the messy cabin, the sound of motors and the smell oil made my heart hurt less. My bed had blueprints for things that looked like a cake launchers or disco lights. "Sorry the work table had no room." A smaller teen apologised. He had a wrench behind his ear, and he smiled with big dimples. He cleared off my bed so I could sit down.

    The bed only reminded me of the night I first got here. To take my mind off my sorrow, I grabbed one of the blueprint papers. It was a diagram for a spike of some sort. 'If only I could put together emotions as good as my father is at forging.' I thought to myself. "Hey do you have a pencil?" I asked the teen with the wrench. He was trying to stuff the blueprints under his bed.

   "Um." He said and patted himself for one. "Yeah here." He said and tossed me one. My mind blanked while my hands went to work. I worked out extra parts. I'm not usually good at drawing anything other than:

      Jeff the killer

   Although my mind put together a 3D drawn model of elaborite parts. The machine was a compact spiked ball, whose parts consist of: Gears, Time switches, Knobs, and other parts. "Cool!" One of my siblings said over my shoulder. "Oh. Sorry, I'm the second oldest in this cabin. Burtus, but everyone calls me Burt." He said, still studying my work. "I have most of those part, but not the spikes. You will have to make those yourself." He said.

    "Where do I do that at?" I asked, my hands still drawing making adjustments to the plans. "There is one in the back, but it needs a better heating source. The last material that was given to us by our father was unpredictable, only Leo Valdez could work the forge because of his gift." He said with a small amount of jealousy in his voice. "You are more than welcome to use the bunkers that were found by him. They have helped us so much." He said and left.

   Soon I was there with people all around me working on their own projects. Might as well get out of bed and work. My laziness would of usually taken over, but nothing did.

   The forge was in great condition, only the coals that were supposed to be aflame. Unstead they lay a light ember that looked like a childish glow stick. Laying on a anvil was a pair of destroyed gloves. I picked them up. Their creation filled my head. They were made to withstand over fifty thousand degrees. Yet they were black, smoldered and falling apart. "Wow, what a forge." I said and  touched one of the coals. They were cool to the touch. 'Maybe they need motivation.' I said then checked to make sure no one was around.

   "Okay fire, don't fail me now." I whispered and summoned flames. I ignited the coals, which began to glow purple. I felt dizzy, and a little drained, although I shook it off. There are sets of tools on a bench near the wall, which connected to the main part of the cabin. Ingots of celestial bronze were stacked next to the bench, ready for creation.

    I got to work, furiously forging my spikes. It was dificult being my first attempt at this blacksmithing thing. It felt like minutes, but I was called away by one of my siblings. "Hey.....um. Are you gonna eat dinner?" I didn't need to turn around to know it was the teen with the wrench. "Nah, I'm not hungry." I lied. I knew if I went to lunch, my friends would annoy me about how I feel. I hate when people need to ask how I am. If they really cared, they would read my emotions like a book.

   "Well I left a large Pb&J sandwich on your bed." He said. The sound of leaving footsteps, told me that he was gone now. I looked down to my hands. They were covered in forge sut, but in my left hand was my new creation.

   It was a spiked machine of destruction. If you turn the two halves of the sphere, it will set a ten second timer to launch the spikes. Every full turn of the halves was a extra ten seconds. I made the very bottom of the spikes barbed.

    The small amount of success made me a little happier. I turned down the fire in the forge, and headed to my bed. There was a sandwich waiting for me. I only took one bite. "Yuck, crunchy peanutbutter." I said to myself and pushed the sandwich to my nightstand.

   I fell into a dream that made everything fall in to a horrible realization. "Gena!" It was Cory's voice. "Gena! Where are you?!" He called out to me. He was being dragged under the water, his eyes were white as if he was blind. The hands of the underworld grasped his waist, and pulled at him. He was gripping my arm, his face was for once full of fear. "I always wanted this after losing my family." He stumbled over his words. "But, not anymore. Not after meeting you." I could feel his hands gripping me. His hands were so tight, his ring was hurting my wrist. "For you this is a dream, but it's..." The hands silenced him by dragging him under the surface.

   I woke with a jump, and the dream creeped from my mind, and into my heart. 'I have to know what he was saying. I have to see him again.' I thought to myself. A small imprint of a hand was barely able to be seen against my skin on my forearm.