Helen Brave and The Sun Titan
Chapter 5: Forging and First Jobs

The rest of the night passed quickly, Achilles escorted me back to my dorm and I ended up entertaining her and my friends with stories about ma and momma. Eventually all of us were given rooms and headed up to them, Achilles heading off for her own dorm. The dawn of the next day came quickly and I was torn from my dreams by a rough knock on the door of the dorm. “Get the door!” I groaned, rolling over and burrowing deeper into my bed.

“I don’t want to,” Amanda whined before I heard shifting. Rolling onto my back, I looked to Amanda and found she was opening the door, frowning up at Dragon, who looked down at her with wide eyes. A light blush dusted his tan cheeks and it took a moment to remember that Amanda barley wore clothes when she slept.

“Not decent!” I called, watching as Amanda blinked sluggishly before shaking her head.

“Oh yeah. Underwear is not decent. What do you want…” She grumbled, waving her hand since she didn’t know who Dragon was.

“I’m Dragon. Helen’s mentor,” he said after clearing his throat and giving her a wink. She ignored him before turning and heading to my bed, jumping on it and flopping down on my lap.

“All yours,” she said in a muffled voice. I shifted about then pushed her off before grabbing my prosthetic and pulling it on. Shifting, I pushed myself up before limping over and rubbing my shoulder since it was stiff.

“What’s up Dragon?” I asked, Dragon’s eyes slowly leaving Amanda and focusing on my deadpanned expression. He blushed a bit more before rubbing his cheek and frowning, his gaze hardening.

“I’m here to give you your schedule and inform you that for your bravery you’ve gotten the three of the pelts from the Nemean Lions and two jobs,” he said before passing me a box. I blinked in surprise and took it, opening the top and gasping when I found the golden fur lining the bottom.

“Jobs?” I asked, closing the box and watching as he nodded.

“Remember, the students of the Hephaestus dorms help out other students, like creating or fixing weapons for them. Achilles and Atalanta personally requested you,” he said with a bit of a frown.

“Atalanta?” I questioned limping over to my bed and placing the box on it.

“Zoey, Artemis dorm,” he said, following after me and to the left of me. I looked back and found he was sitting down at my desk and yawning. I thought for a moment and he rolled his eyes before looking to Amanda. “Twin with Ginger, really, really hot and has the Native American thing going on?” He said, my face heating up when my mind caught up with me.

“Oh! Her. She wants me to make her a weapon?” I said lightly, more surprised than anything. He snorted and nodded, leaning back and grinning at me when I tossed him a frown and took a seat on my bed.

“She wants a shield with her dorm symbol on it, hers got screwed up last night. She has the material for it,” he said and I frowned before rubbing my neck.

“I’ve never forged anything before,” I began, but he waved his hand and grinned.

“Don’t worry. I’ll help you,” he said before pulling out a paper and passing it to me. “Here’s your schedule, we all still have normal classes, but if you’re contracted for a job like you are then you get time off,” he said before pushing himself up. “Get some food into you and I’ll meet you at the Forge,” he said before heading out of the room. I placed my schedule on my bedside table before slapping Amanda’s leg and getting a grunt from her.

“Come on, we need to get ready for school,” I said, pushing up and heading over to my dresser to grab my uniform, excited and nervous to get started.

Two hours later, I was seated next to Amanda on the cable car, Amanda fixing her make up as it rumbled along. “Excited to fix weapons?” Amanda asked as she finished her lipstick and winked at her reflection. I nodded and kicked my good leg, humming softly as the cable car slowed near the Forge before stopping completely. I had managed to choke some food down and n that we were here, my nervousness had left and I was now really excited. I climbed out of the cable car and Amanda gave me a smile before wiping away a fake tear and grinning. “Make good choices sweetie!” She squealed while some of the other kids laughed. I blushed and flipped her off as it rolled away before turning back to the Forge and blushing redder when I saw Achilles and Atalanta standing behind me. Achilles was grinning while Atalanta was frowning, the Artemis rep rubbing her head before awkwardly looking to me.

“She your girlfriend?” She asked curiously. I shook my head before rubbing my cheek and laughing. Amanda and I, That was crazy to think about.

“Nah, we grew up together, she’s like an annoying older sister,” Was all I said before opening the Forge door and leading them to Dragon’s workstation. He was drooling over something and I looked to the two larger girls, finding that they were rolling their eyes.

“Come on Dragon. I want the newbie to start on my weapon today.” Achilles snapped out. Dragon jumped then scowled at her before giving me a smile and waving his hands.

“Alright! Time for you to start learning about how to make weapons!” He said brightly. I couldn’t help, but grin excitedly and took a seat as he stood, balancing on one leg before he pointed to the large blacksmith’s forge at his workstation. “Ok newbie, so we’re going to start by getting the shield pieces cut out from a regular sheet of metal. Those pieces will end up as our template then we’ll work on the denser parts at a later time. Where’s the stuff Atalanta?” He asked, grabbing his work apron then a smaller one and tossing it to me. I fumbled with the apron and looked over, watching as Atalanta pulled off a thick backpack then pulled out a box and tossed it to him before taking a seat, Achilles fiddling with a knife at her side. Dragon opened the box and pouted before pulling out two large horns, both coming out comically, like a clown car. He sighed before placing the horns off to the side then looking to me. “Okay. These need to be melted down so I’ll do that, how good are you with a pencil?” He asked drawing a shrugged from me; I was decent, but not prize worth. “Alright, sketch out what she wants while I get this sliced down,” he said before grabbing his arm crutches then heading over his forge.

I awkwardly pulled out a notebook and pencil before turning to Atlanta and grinning. “Alrighty, so what do you want the shield to look like?” I asked, looking up and watching as she rubbed her chin and looked up.

“I have a picture of the old one and wanted it to look similar, maybe add a tribal looking dear and make the moon larger. I made the mistake of asking a different newbie to do it. The shield was still pretty good so I didn’t want to waste it,” she explained while Achilles snorted and covered her mouth with her hand.

“The moon looked like an ass crack,” she said before snickering and crossing her arms over her chest. I bit my lip to keep a smile from crossing my face and she winked at me, causing my face to heat up. “I’m here because I need a secondary weapon, like sword or another smaller axe. I have supplies for it too,” she said before pulling out a box from a pack on her side and passing it to me.

“Right,” I mumbled, taking the box while Atalanta pulled out a picture and passed it to me.

“That’s what my old shield looked like,” she said before brushing her hand through her hair and leaning back. I opened the picture then snorted, biting my lip and giggling while Achilles laughed and Atalanta blushed. “Like I said, I wasn’t happy with the look, but it worked well,” she grumbled before giving Achilles a glare. “It’s not that funny,” she huffed. I smothered my laugh before beginning to sketch, leaving the shield surface blank before beginning to sketch out the tribal moon and deer underneath. The work around us was still loud and Achilles moved over, leaning on my shoulder to look and whistling.

“Nice! If you can make that on the shield then I want a vulture on the handle of my sword,” she said. I blushed again since she was practically draped onto my shoulder and Atalanta shifted about before she leaned over me and gasped.

“OH COOL!” She squealed, moving back. I looked to her in surprise and found she was bouncing in place, excitement on her features. I grinned and looked back to my notebook before frowning when a sharp pain lanced through my head. It was over before I could process it and I swallowed, blinking black spots out of my vision. I glanced up to the now silent Achilles and Atalanta and noticed they were now frowning at one another.

“Did you feel that?” Achilles asked Atalanta, her eyes glancing at me before focusing on Atalanta.

“Yeah. We should go check it out,” she grumbled, giving me a tight smile before nodding to the Forge door. “Hey we need to head out for a short while. Something’s…come up,” she said lightly before grabbing Achilles and pulling her out of the Forge. Frowning, I watched them walk away then turned back to my picture, wondering what had happened. Shaking my head, I sighed before beginning to work, closely watching Dragon.

The next few hours passed quickly and I groaned as I moved back and away from the open furnace to think, my head pounding in tempo with my heart. I had been working slowly, but steadily on the shield, but ten minutes ago my head had begun to pound and now I couldn’t focus. “Come on kid. Go get some food and I’ll handle some of the other stuff,” Dragon said. I nodded and shuffled off, walking over to the food area and grabbing some black food baggies. I tiredly walked back over to Dragon and found he was flirting with another student, the girl giggling as he flexed. I rolled my eyes and placed one of the baggies down before heading out of the Forge and relaxing when my headache faded a bit. Dragon had slowly been working my nerves as time passed, more interested in if Amanda was single. Yeah he helped me on the shield, but it was actually more of me figuring it out on my own. Shaking my head, I walked over to a bench and took a seat, humming tiredly as I opened the baggie and found some fruit, chips and a bottle of cold water. I took out the water first, taking a quick swig before sighing and beginning to eat, humming a soft tune as I did so.

It was nice and warm, the sun blazing just enough to keep the cool air from being too cold and off in the distance I could see some students on a boat. They all resembled fishermen and I laughed lightly when one of them fell off of the boat and crashed into the water. My headache was mostly gone by the time I finished eating and I moved to stand, but stopped when I heard arguing. I sat silently, listening to the two voices grow closer, holding my breath a bit when Atalanta and Achilles rounded the corner of the Forge, both of them glaring at one another. “You’re not seeing the big picture here Zoey, you should know as well as the others that broken chains aren’t a good thing,” Achilles hissed lowly.

“I know, but we can’t do anything. He’ll be found soon enough. There isn’t many places you can hide in the underworld,” Atalanta snapped before shaking her head. “They told us to leave it alone Elei,” Atalanta hissed before looking up then at me and tossing me a tense smile. “Helen!” She called out in greeting. Achilles looked up and gave me a small frown before grabbing Atalanta’s hand and tugging her towards her chest. Atalanta stumbled back off balance and Achilles leaned down, whispering something into her ear before releasing her and walking over with a bored expression on her face.

“Hey Helen, taking a lunch break?” She asked before sitting down at my side and slouching into herself.

“Yeah. I was having a bit of a headache, but it started to go away after I ate,” I said while rubbing my head. Achilles lifted an eyebrow, but remained silent as Atalanta walked over and took the empty seat at my side.

“Don’t stress too much over the shield. Is it difficult to make?” Atalanta asked curiously. I shrugged before rubbing my cheek in thought. It felt unusually right to work with the metal and shaping it was actually fun.

“It feels…right to work with the metal. It’s actually really fun,” I said cheerfully. Atalanta gave me a grin while Achilles grunted before standing.

“Well let’s go back in and finish up Atalanta’s shield. I want my sword before next week,” Achilles grumbled.

Dragon and I managed to get most of the shield done before the whistle sounded and Dragon nodded to Atalanta then Achilles. “Aright. We can work on the rest tomorrow. I’ll see you three later! I have a date!” He called out before rushing off. I raised an eyebrow before shaking my head and beginning to gather up my things, Achilles and Atalanta waiting around for me. We headed out of the Forge and Atalanta nodded to Achilles before giving me a gentle smile and jerking her head towards the cable car.

“I’ll see you two later, the Huntresses are having a meeting and I need to go over see it,” she said before heading off. I waved and Achilles yawned while leading me over to the cable car, helping me up before climbing into it after me.

“Well tell me about you,” she asked as the cable car started to move. I looked to her in confusion before shrugging and looking away, humming lowly.

“Nothing much to tell. Amputee, two parents, inventor, nerd, and straight A student. What about you?” I asked, looking back and finding her frowning at me with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Really, nothing interesting?” she asked, yawning a bit before slouching in her seat. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the FindNʘᴠᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Nothing really. I was surprised that I had been chosen by Hephaestus. I always knew Amanda was going to be chosen and was planning for it, but I’m glad I got to come here too,” I said with a smile before sighing softly and looking up. “Everything’s going pretty fast though. I never expected my parents to be some kind of famous alumni,” I said before grinning slightly and rubbing my head. “Ma and momma have always just been my parents,” I said before shrugging again.

“Never knew my parents. My mom and dad gave me up when I was born and I was accepted here as a child,” Achilles said from my side. I blinked in shock and looked to her, finding that she was frowning and looking at the passing scenery. I frowned slightly and looked down before shifting in place.

“Children get accepted?” I asked, looking over and finding that she was nodding.

“Yeah. You can get accepted at any time. I was five I think. I got accepted and Ares personally came to get me. He’s like a dad to me,” she said before sighing and looking at me tiredly. “Well whatever. You’re...interesting,” she finished before rubbing her nose and looking away. “Different from the other Hephaestus students and its really bugging me,” she said lowly before shaking her head. “Whatever,” she mumbled, shutting her eyes and resting her head back. I frowned at her deeper before looking to my hands and rubbing them together in thought.

“Yeah different,” I mumbled before shaking my head and running my hand through my hair. The cable car moved along for a short moment, both of us peacefully quiet, before stopping in front of the Hephaestus dorms and I climbed off. Achilles tossed her hand up in my direction and I waved before heading into the dorm and blinking when Joshua grabbed me before I could head in. He looked excited and was beaming, something that made me mildly nervous. “What’s up?” I asked, pulling myself from his grip.

“Your friend was chosen as a Hero,” he said lowly and I blinked in shock before looking up and around. It was then that I realized the whole dorm was celebrating.

“What? Wait where is she?” I asked weakly. I felt the usual jealously rear its ugly head and ground my teeth until I noticed Joshua looked uncomfortable. He shifted in place then shrugged and tossed me a concerned look while Wilma rolled herself over, Harold bouncing along at her side.

“I stole your do-Are you okay? You look a little pale,” she asked suddenly, looking a bit uncomfortable. I shook my head and looked down as Harold moved over, pushing his head into my stomach.

“Where is she?’ I asked, looking up and watching Wilma rub her neck aggressively.

“Aphrodite came by earlier and took her to the hero dorms. The student Pantheon and her are going to be getting acquainted,” she said before frowning. “Maybe you should sit,” she suggested, but I shook my head, sighing tiredly.

“I’m fine…just…tired,” I grumbled, heading for the stairs.

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