Xero

THALIA

After Tempest arrived, I was stuck with tour guide duty. Not that I didn’t like talking about Camp Half-Blood and it’s various wonders, but I wasn’t that kind to people on first meetings. I guided the kid through the camp, telling him all about creation and how the gods had colonized on top of Mount Olympus.

By the time I finished it, we stopped at the armory. Xero, was this kid with a less than average muscular tone and a long black mohawk along with limestone green eyes. He was handsome, but the biker look didn’t fit him.

“What is your preference in combat?” I asked. Xero squinted misunderstanding the question. Sighing, I turned. “What type of weapon, do you want to use?” I bobbed my head spelling it out for him.

With a cocky, mischievous smile, he laughed. Could you believe him? He had the guts to laugh at me, a daughter of Athena. “What’s so funny?” I glared.

Breaking his laughter, Xero held a nervous pause. “Nothing. I guess a sword would be best. Based on all the stories Mr. Dynimo told us in class, many heroes of Greek mythology used swords.”

“That’s true, but not all heroes can use a sword.” I glanced at him. “I’m more equipped with a dagger, others are more equipped with an archers bow. Some use spears. You get it?” I replied.

Xero nodded.

Once inside, Xeeo, glanced around the armory, searching for a specific sword. He seemed disappointed after realizing it wasn’t here. “It’s not here.” He murmured.

“You’re telling me that you can’t fight with a sword in here?” I asked, a bit annoyed. Turning, Xero’s face turned seriously pale. He looked ghostly and a bit sickly. “No, it’s just the metal isn’t right. Max had a golden blade that he let me, when I fought the storm spirit, Icarus.”

“Icarus?!!” My eyes widened with fear. Icaris wasn’t just any storm spirit, he was one of the few that bridged the gap between Greece and America, following the Gods everywhere they went. But to think, he would attack a demigod, that was rare. Icaris didn’t ever do anything to draw attention to himself. He never liked being mentioned considering that many forgot about him and looked at Icarus, the son of Daedalus when ever uttering the name.

“Yea.” Xero answered. “What’s so special about him, he’s not that hard to beat.” He chimed. Gazing at him, my eyes narrowed. “You’re wrong. He never loses that easily. If he lost to you, he did it on purpose. Icarus may be a lot of things, but he isn’t a weakling. He was testing you, and you failed miserably.”

“What do you mean?” Xero turned.

“I mean, he wanted to see if you lived up to his expectations.”

“He did call me a child of the eldest. What does that mean?” Xero wondered.

“It means, you must pray to all the gods, that you’re not a child of the eldest. I know one thing. This generation isn’t going to be easy, so hope that your father isn’t one of the three brothers.”

Taking a deep breath, I gazed at him. “Come on. Let’s get you a weapon you could use properly.” With a faint smile, I began to feel a spark. A spark of friendship, almost like we were going to get along.When we arrived at the Hephaestus cabin, I realized that almost everyone had a newly designed bunk, and was working on a new project. The cabin had been redesigned to have an armory added in. Glancing across the cabin, I noticed Tony, the head counselor of the cabin. He wasn’t half bad-looking either. He had thick jet black hair, a thin aftershave and brown eyes that made you take a breath. But aside from that, Tony was just a colleague. He never showed interest in girls- most children of Hephaestus didn’t know how to speak to girl’s much less how they “worked” whatever that meant.

Wiping his forehead, Tony approached us. He now had on workers gloves, a tanktop and a pair of oil-splotched pants.

“Hey, welcome to Hephaestus cabin, or as I like to call it, the workaholic’s club. Where you come to play and I come to make!” Tony smiled, picking up a plastic cup of water. “What can I do for ya?”

“Xero, here wants a sword made out of imperial gold.” I replied.

Turning, Tony glanced around. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have the equipment to produce a sword like that. Most of the imperial gold we had collected has brimmed down to a handful of rings.”

“I see.” Xero gazed at the ground disappointed. “What kind of sword can you make then?”

Tony, dugg into a toolbelt and pulled out a draft of the same sword. “I can remake Max’s sword, but it won’t be pure gold, it will have specks of gold and be primarily bronze.”

Nodding Xero accepted.

Pulling out a board of Celestial Bronze, Tony smiled. “Conner, Tristan. Get me the remains of Imperial gold we have around, I’ll use that to forge a perfect combination blade.”