the winemaker's daughter [ percy jackson & the olympians ]

chapter thirty-one

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙸𝙽𝙴𝙼𝙰𝙺𝙴𝚁'𝚂 𝙳𝙰𝚄𝙶𝙷𝚃𝙴𝚁༉‧₊˚.[𝙿𝙴𝚁𝙲𝚈 𝙹𝙰𝙲𝙺𝚂𝙾𝙽 & 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙾𝙻𝚈𝙼𝙿𝙸𝙰𝙽𝚂]

chapter thirty-one: we meet hephaestus & percy makes a freaking volcano explode

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ASHANITI WAS absolutely sure they'd lost the mechanical spider due to them stopping to play with the sphinx, but tyson had heard the metallic arachnid, and eventually, after a few turns, and a couple of backtracks, they found the spider banging its tiny head on a metal door.

the door looked like one of those old-fashioned submarine hatches like in an episode of courage the cowardly dog that once haunted her nightmares. the door was oval-shaped, with metal rivets around the edges and a wheel for a doorknob. where the portal should've been was a big brass plaque, green with age, with a greek eta—h in greek, a symbol of hephaestus inscribed in the middle.

they all looked at each other. "ready to meet hephaestus?" grover said nervously, sinking his teeth into his bottom lip.

"no," percy admitted squeezing ashanti's hand uncertainly.

"yes!" tyson said gleefully, and he turned the wheel. as soon as the door opened, the spider scuttled inside with the cyclops right behind it. the rest of them followed, not quite as anxious.

the room was enormous. it looked like a mechanic's garage, with several hydraulic lifts. some had cars on them, but others had stranger things: a bronze hippalektryon with its horse head off and a bunch of wires hanging out its rooster tail, a metal lion that seemed to be hooked up to a battery charger, and a greek war chariot made entirely of flames.

smaller projects cluttered a dozen worktables. tools hung along the walls. each had its own outline on a peg-board, but nothing seemed to be in the right place. the hammer was over the screwdriver place. the staple gun was where the hacksaw was supposed to go.

under the nearest hydraulic lift, which was holding a '98 toyota carolla, a pair of legs stuck out. the lower half of a huge man in grubby gray pants and shoes even bigger than tyson's. one leg was in a metal brace. the spider scuttled straight under the car, and the sounds of banging stopped.

"well, well," a deep voice boomed from under the corolla. "what have we here?" the mechanic pushed out on a back trolley and sat up. ashanti had seen hephaestus many times before, but the most memorable was briefly on olympus, so she thought she was pretty well prepared, but his appearance made her cringe.

her only guess was that he'd cleaned up when they seen him on olympus, or used magic to make his form seem a little less hideous. here in his own workshop, he apparently didn't care how he looked. he wore work a jumpsuit smeared with oil and grime. hephaestus was embroidered over the chest pocket.

his leg creaked and clicked in its metal brace as he stood, and his left shoulder was lower than his right, so he seemed to be leaning even when he was standing up. his head was misshapen and bulging. he wore a permanent scowl. his black beard smoked and hissed. every once in a while a small wildfire would erupt in his whiskers then die out.