𝐇𝐄𝐏𝐇𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐔𝐆𝐋𝐘.

It was the first thing Brooklyn realized, and she hated that. She tried her entire life not to focus on people's looks, and it was the first thing she'd noticed about a God. But it was an accurate observation.

His shoulders sat at different heights, making it seem like he was constantly leaning on something. His head was huge, looking more like a wart that was growing between his shoulders. His features were bumpy and red, giving the appearance that he was stung by a million bees. 

Brooklyn wondered why he didn't change his appearance. He was a God. Maybe he liked walking around like this. It definitely made people look away quickly.

"What do you want us to do?" Luke asked, breaking the silence. "We don't have money, we don't have clothes, we don't have food. And we're not even halfway back to Camp yet. I don't think we can really afford another quest right now, Lord Hephaestus."

Brooklyn noticed he added the title a little hesitantly. Although she couldn't blame him. They weren't really in the position to be going out and doing random tasks for the Gods.

"It's not a quest, son of Hermes. I know you didn't have much luck with yours," he said to Luke, his voice booming. Still, no one looked in their direction. "It's simply a task. I need something I cannot reach, and I'd like you to do it for me. If you can manage to do it, I'll give you clothes, food, and transport back to Camp Half-Blood. Deal?"

"What's the task?" Luke asked before Brooklyn could speak.

"It's not a task for you," he told Luke. "It's for her."

"We're a team," Luke told the God. "We started this together, and we're going to finish it together."

Hephaestus made a noise, sparks erupting in his beard. Beneath the table, Brooklyn put her foot on Luke's. Even if he looked like an ugly man, he was still a God. Arguing with him would do no one any good.

"You will finish this together if she succeeds," Hephaestus said, patting out the small flames in his beard. "But this is part of her journey, not yours."

Brooklyn looked between the two of them, for once, embarrassed by having so much attention on her.

"What's the task?" she asked.

Hephaestus turned to her, "I made a sword, one fit for a great warrior. After dipping it in the South Platte River to cool, I heard someone approach. I was forced to leave my sword, and go back to the forges without it."

Brooklyn stared at him, already knowing where this was going. "You want me to get your sword."

"Correct."

"What's the catch?" she asked.

"What?"

"The catch?" she repeated. "It's being guarded, or it can only be touched by someone who's willing to give it blood, or I don't know, something else."

"None of those," he told her. "But there are some monsters still in the park, Commons Park. You may have to fight."

Brooklyn spoke quickly before Luke could, "If I get your sword back, you'll make sure Luke and I can get to Camp safely? You'll give us food, clothes, a place to stay on the road? Everything we need?"

"I swear on the Styx I'll give you two all you need to get back to Camp if you collect my sword before noon," Hephaestus said. "I'll be waiting."

Brooklyn watched as Hephaestus walked out of the coffee shop, no one paying him a second glance.

"You don't have to do it," Luke said to her. "We can still make it to Camp on our own. It won't be too hard if—."

"You said you couldn't change the location on the bus ticket with the Mist, right?" Brooklyn cut in. 

Luke looked confused by the change of topic, but he nodded, "It wouldn't work. But I didn't sleep much that night, so—"

"And Hephaestus has basically been following us from the start of our journey?" Brooklyn added. "He made us get to Denver, and no further. This wasn't a mistake, Luke. If we try to continue, I'm pretty sure we're just going to make him mad. Or he'll bring us back to this city. We're not going anywhere until I get that sword for him."

"There're going to be monsters," Luke told her. "And you might be confident and shit, but you still don't know how to fight with knives. What if you get hurt?"

"I won't," she told him. "I'll be fine. It's just a sword I need to grab from some hiding place. This is the only way we can continue our journey, and you know that."

Luke took a deep breath, shaking his head to himself. "Well, I'll help you plan, okay? He didn't say no to that."

Brooklyn nodded, finding herself okay with that. If she couldn't take Luke with him, she'd take their plans.

Hopefully it'd be enough.

"I'll meet you here at noon, latest," Brooklyn promised Luke. "Okay?"

"Okay," he nodded.

The two stood inside Denver's Museum of Contemporary Art, in a corner of the gift shop. The museum didn't look like a temple from the outside, but as soon as she passed the threshold, Brooklyn could feel the protective barriers in place. As long as he waited inside, Luke would be safe.

"See you in a minute," she gave a two fingered salute.

Luke smiled, pausing as he reached for his sword. He pulled it out, holding it out for Brooklyn. "Here, take it. You need it more than me."

Brooklyn stared at the sword, unsure of what to do. A few days ago, Luke was hesitant to put his sword a few feet away from him. And now he was giving it to her.

"Thank you," she whispered, taking it. She slipped it into a holster, unsure of what else to say. She didn't have to say anything, because Luke just grinned.

"Go get 'em," he told her. "I'll be here for you when you're done."

Brooklyn walked out of the museum, sighing to herself as she felt the cold seep into her bones. It was warm today, but she was no longer in the protective hold of the temple. She didn't realize how dark the outside world really was.

Adjusting her weapons, she walked down the street to Commons park. She had stopped by the museum washroom before, washing and drying her hair in the sink so it was a little less greasy. There wasn't much that she could do with her clothes, but Luke bought some hand cream from the gift shop which she rubbed all over. It didn't smell amazing, but it better than L'eau de Greyhound Bus at least.

She reached Commons Park, the place Hephaestus told her he left his sword, pretty quickly. There weren't many people around, but a few were walking their dogs or taking a jog. It was pretty peaceful.

Brooklyn grabbed a park map from the entrance, making her way down the trails and towards the river. Hephaestus said he'd just finished cooling his sword in the water, which meant it should still be nearby.

"Good morning," an older lady waved at Brooklyn.

"Morning," Brooklyn smiled, waving back.

"Great weather we're having, isn't it?" she smiled. "I love summer in this city."

"I'm more of a winter person," Brooklyn answered honestly. "Grew up in California, so I've had my fair share of summer. But the weather today's nice so far. It's still early though, so it'll probably get hotter."

"Oh, it definitely will. That's Denver for ya," the older lady laughed, walking past and continuing her trek.

Brooklyn watched as she walked away, trying to determine if she was a monster. Luke and Brooklyn discovered early on that she was good at seeing through the Mist. Even better than the average demigod.

But still, she saw no monster skin hiding.

Which meant that it was a regular old lady who wanted to be nice. Sometimes, that was rare to find.

Brooklyn continued down the path, working her way to the water. She poked her head in the community garden, seeing no sword or monsters. Which was disappointing because that would be quick and easy. Instead, she had to go all the way down to the water, doing a double take at the sight.

The river was long, stretching through multiple states, but it wasn't very wide. It didn't look that deep either. But it was beyond polluted. Considering the park was smaller, there was less trash here, but it was still more than Brooklyn wanted to see. She felt bad for the water spirits that lived here. Luke told her many were now forgotten.

Not knowing what else to do, Brooklyn reached into her pack and pulled out a donut. She placed it on the shore of the river.

"Um, I know this isn't much, and I don't really know if you even accept donuts or if this will just be more pollution, but... but I hope you know I'm sorry," she said to the river. "I'm sorry that the people treat you like this, and I really hope they learn how to be better. Also, I hope you like the donut."

Brooklyn sighed, backing away from the shore and continuing down the riverfront path. She felt a warm presence against her back as she walked away, forcing her to stop and turn around.

The river climbed the shore, collecting the donut she'd left as an offering and taking it away. She was pretty sure she imagined it, but it was as if there a girl in the river, taking the donut in her hands.

Brooklyn rubbed her eyes, not surprised when she couldn't see it anymore.

"I'll take that as a sign that you enjoyed it," she grinned.

The river splashed a little more, before receding and once again moving in it's original path. Brooklyn smiled, happy that the river got to be acknowledged. Who knows how long it'd been?

A metallic whirring sounded from down the path, breaking her out of her thoughts and reminding her of her original task.

"Oh shit," she muttered, pulling out one of the knives Luke had given her. 

She continued down the path, the metallic whirring growing louder as she moved closer. The rational part of her wanted to run, but another part wanted to fight it all out. She had no idea why or how she'd even fight, but a small part of her was ready for it.

Brooklyn froze in her path at the sight of a bronze sword poking out of the ground. It was huge, the blade at least four feet long, and who knew how much more was stuck in the ground. The hilt itself was about two feet long.

Brooklyn paled, unsure of how she was even going to carry that back to Hephaestus.

Turns out, she was thinking too far ahead. Because at the next moment, a giant mechanical spider crawled out of the shade structure, and it was making its way right at her.

The spider was six feet tall, each of it's legs moving with deadly precision. Small craters formed in the ground wherever it stepped, and it's teeth whirred, creating the weird sound she'd been hearing.

The world seemed to slow down for once, Brooklyn's brain showing her all the different paths she could take to fight the monster. She knew nothing about using knives, but she watched action movies, and she had a general idea of how to hurt things.

The sword was on her right, and so Brooklyn ran towards the spider from the left, diverting it's attention from the sword.

She gripped the hilt of her knife, throwing it like how she saw in the movies. The knife sailed towards the spider, but it knocked the blade out of the air.

"Fuck," Brooklyn muttered, dropping to the ground and rolling out of the way as the spider made it's way towards her. 

She pulled out Luke's sword, running towards the monster. Following Luke's advice, at the last second, she slid under the monster, swiping her sword against the underbelly. She sliced the limbs of the spider off as well, moving away as it teetered and fell.

Brooklyn panted, the fear she hadn't allowed herself to feel finally washing over her. She didn't realize just how scared she was until the spider was gone—and the fact that she could turn her brain off for that... that scared her more than the giant spider.

Since it was an automaton, and not a monster, it didn't disappear like she hoped. It lay there in pieces, waiting for someone to pick it up. 

Brooklyn had no idea what the humans would see it as, but she didn't care. The sword was here.

As she walked closer, it shrank, until it finally became around her own size. Pulling it from the ground was easy too, just a simple tug and it was in her hands. She stuck it in a sheath, resisting the urge to play around with it.

After fighting the spider, the rest of the journey seemed too easy. She made it out of the park and back to the museum with no hindrances. As soon as she passed the entrance, the protective barriers washed over her, assuring her that she was safe.

She followed the signs to the gift shop, making her way to the place she'd agreed on meeting Luke. Even though it was impossible, her brain kept wondering if he was hurt. After all, he'd given her his sword. Brooklyn wasn't sure if he held any other weapons on him.

She turned the corner, immediately met by arms wrapping around her and pulling her into a tight hug. It'd been so long since she was hugged. She missed it.

But before she could even appreciate the embrace of a good friend, Luke pulled away, scanning her from head to toe.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You're not hurt?"

"I'm fine," Brooklyn promised. "There was only a mechanical spider nearby, and it hadn't even found Hephaestus' sword yet. Your sword helped me kill it." Brooklyn pulled out Luke's sword from her sheath and held it out to him, "Thanks for it, by the way. I had to get close to fight with it, but it couldn't deflect the sword the way it could deflect the knives. Speaking of knives, I lost one of yours because the spider deflected it."

"It's no big deal," Luke shrugged, taking his sword from her. "You got the sword and that's what matters. It's our ticket to Camp."

Brooklyn nodded, looking at the time. "We better head back to the coffee shop. We've got about fifteen minutes until noon."

As they left the museum, Luke slipped his hand into Brooklyn's—the cold feeling of no protective barriers attacking both of them. Brooklyn didn't let go.

They walked down the street to the coffee shop, finding Hephaestus sitting at the same table as before. Luke's grip tightened on Brooklyn's hand, and she felt the anger radiating off of him.

Not wanting him to do something stupid on his own, she marched over the table, taking Luke with her. Brooklyn pulled out the sword, laying it on the table with a clang.

"Your sword," she said. "I got it for you. Now get us to Camp, please."

Hephaestus finally looked up at the duo, his mangled expression impossible to read. Then he looked down at the sword, taking the hilt in his hand and running a finger down the flat of the blade.

He grunted, "Well, you've got the sword all right. As for your trip back to your Camp," he snapped his fingers, "here you are."

A Ziploc bag with multiple tickets and some cash appeared on the table.

"There's a cab outside waiting to take you to your hotel," he said to them. "Rest there for the night. You've been on the road long enough. There're tickets to a flight to New York in that bag. It leaves tomorrow at ten AM sharp. Don't be late. After the plane, a cab will take you all the way to Camp. Clothes and food are at the hotel, but there's some extra cash in case you need it." He got up, his bulky form towering over the two demigods. "Good luck. And Luke Castellan, don't forget to present your apple to Chiron."

And with that, Hephaestus took his sword and left the two demigods.

REY WRITES!

thanks for reading!

THANKS FOR THE REMINDERR <333
i meant to get this out a long time ago...
oops

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