[Greece] Lemnos

[Bloodedge]

When Athos stood before Hephaestus again, his mood turned sour within moments. The god would obviously not be interested in entertaining his needs, but the statement which came from the gimpy blacksmith did not sit well with Athos nevertheless. His words were strange, stating that he thought he'd told Athos not to return. Turning his head away to his own left, Athos scoffed through a retort. "Obviously. Your brain would have to be as bad as the rest of you if you forgot that sort of thing," was his statement of choice, revealing the notion that he did not fully comprehend the form of speech used by Hephaestus.

[Apollymi]

Deianira was quiet after their approach, mostly she was just letting the waters rest, seeing how Athos handled his secondary meeting with the Smith God. Deianira, found it very easy to understand what Hephaestus meant, though she didn't have the context for the previous conversation between him and Athos. Still when Athos spoke up again, instead of presenting an apology for his previous statements or a plea for the weapon he wanted, what came out his mouth was the single most insulting thing she'd ever heard someone utter to a God in her entire life. It was hilarious and the young demigod's mood skyrocketed in this moment, reaching a point of elation that she hadn't felt in quite a while. Even so, what came out of her mouth was a swift hiss which wouldn't be any discernible language to most. "ATHOS, SHUSH!~" was what she said, but it couldn't have seemed more amused. Aloud she chose to intervene on the side of keeping the Smith God in a calm state as the hammering had stopped once more. "You'll have to excuse him. He didn't mean that the way it sounded~" the young woman said rather quick the hand still up to her lips with a single finger in front of them so he wouldn't say anything cross to this statement.

The Smith God heard a different voice from that of the boy who insulted him already today. He couldn't help but notice a distinctly female voice, and one which didn't hold the lack of affect which came from the boy who initially sought his help all alone. "Another came with him? So, he didn't learn his manners then... but, you seem polite enough to speak with..." said the god as he turned around. His full grotesque visage seemed to face Deianira, and much to the surprise of everyone present the girl didn't flinch instead she seemed to have a bit of a smile on her face. "Oh, don't say that, I'm just here to help~" the lass said those grey eyes of hers seemingly alight with amusement. She knew her abilities didn't affect Olympians, even so, she seemed to behave as if this wasn't the case. "Could I maybe get you a drink as an apology for that earlier outburst?" she asked which made Hephaestus chuckle sending a wave of hot breath towards the girl that she didn't know could exist in such a manner. "What can a demigod do for me?" he asked with the same arrogance most Olympians possessed.

Even fallen and cast aside, he had a bit more clout than the demigods presently before him but unlike Athos, Deianira seemed to be a bit more used to this. "Well, I don't really presume I can get you drunk or anything. That's outside my abilities, you'd need to see Daddy for that~ But, it's pretty tasty~" she offered, as if she expected it to be taken she walked forward and touched a thing which looked like it might have once been used to quench metals in, but instead had it fill to the brim with golden liquid which would taste of spearmint, limes and blackberries. This was meant to simply appeal to the God while also doing something about the horrendous breath which was leaking into the space around them. "Hoh! I can't say no to that..." Hephaestus mentioned as he knocked back the beverage seemingly pleased by its taste while all present would benefit from the lack of his previously foul breath polluting the area. "That was good, I can forgive, so what... do you want here?" asked the man, the young woman was silent for a seconds as she wondered if she could allow Athos to take over for himself in this moment.

[Bloodedge]

Athos scoffed again. All he did was speak the truth of his own mind, but there was apparently some issue with this. He held his tongue after Deianira's interjection, choosing to hear out how Deianira approached the repulsive god. She didn't do much of anything; all she managed to do was offer the god a drink, and all he did was drink it. Athos couldn't fathom how this was meant to quell the conversation as it was at the time. Of course, Athos also had no clue how he would have made things work out... but he also wouldn't have tried very hard regardless. By the time Hephaestus finished the drink that had been offered to him, he seemed to be wondering why Deianira was here, but Deianira herself looked toward Athos. The white-haired lad looked away; he didn't know what this lass expected of him. Surely Hephaestus couldn't be wondering why he was here, as he'd been informed on the last visit. The god would have to be some sort of idiot to not know why he was here, as far as Athos was concerned.

[Apollymi]

Athos was content not to speak, and though Deianira figured this would go this way, she'd held out a bit of hope that she wouldn't have to completely take over this conversation. Though by virtue of Athos having come here before, she figured the Smith God still had no intention of doing what the boy asked previously so, she took a rather relaxed posture and spoke up. "I don't want anything, I just came to help out my friend here. He came here before seeking your aid and I heard it didn't turn out well~" she said rather calmly, which in turn brought a scoff from Hephaestus. "Understatement of the century, but there is no reason I should help this boy on his quest. He has no manners and he insists on coming into my home and insulting me!" the god seemed to still be sore about whatever was said the first time, but Deianira didn't really seem to be phased by this. "Ah.... I see..." she said, this particular god always needed a reason to do things for people regardless of his own status he still felt he was a bit above the standards of demigods and expected to be treated as such. "I get that and all, but... he's just trying to go home..." she said of the young lad with her. "Surely even a god like you can understand what that's like..."

The Smith God's hammering stopped and he just looked at Deianira. She'd hit a nerve but unlike when Athos insulted him in earlier instances this one in particular was a soft spot. He thought about the boy's actions in his previous visit, and what it was like to be left out from his home, or cast aside by those who were meant to care for him. In this regard, the Smith God and the demigod were quite similar and they would as such have common ground. Though this wouldn't take the sting out of the boy's earlier words, it would at least get him something of an answer this time. "I suppose, I can make his weapon as a favor to you, for your hospitality," said Hephaestus. "But it won't be easy, the things needed are each worthy of being considered their own labors and monsters like the ones you need the materials from will likely get him killed. Boy do you understand, what you ask for is just as likely to get you killed as going wherever you're trying to go unarmed?" this was a question to Athos while Deinaira sat in silence beaming. Getting to the unfathomable quest was much easier to do than she'd imagined, she only wondered how few social skills Athos had that he hadn't gotten this far on his own.

[Bloodedge]

During his continued silence, Deianira continued speaking with the god. This all resulted in Hephaestus agreeing to create a weapon for Athos as a favor to the girl. However, he thought the task Athos needed to do for the sake of obtaining this weapon would be more life-threatening to him than whatever he wanted the weapon for. Athos' head sank a few additional centimeters; clearly this individual had no clue what the situation was. "I... disagree. What do I need to do?"

[Apollymi]

"Disagree all you want, the tasks ahead aren't ones which should ever be undertaken lightly..." said the Smith God. He moved about his hand resting under his chin as he began to look at the lad, examining his person and figuring out what would be needed to create a weapon for him. "I need, a basilisk fang... not the normal sort either, the ones with multiple legs found only in the deserts of Persia," said the God who seemed to think more about the necessary materials. "I also need the horns of a Minotaur. Not the garden variety ones you find around here, nor the mostly human ones you'd find in thew Wilds surrounding New Olympus. That simply wouldn't do, you'd have to go north, to the lands of snow and ice, to kill one of the Ice Minotaurs. They are necessary to create the weapon which you would wield," said the man as looked back to his potential work. "One more thing... the blood of a God is necessary for a binding agent, and even your silver-tongued companion couldn't talk me out of mine," the god said as he began shooing the duo away. This caused a chuckle from Deianira as she seemed to find something amusing about the statement. "Oh give me a little more credit than that, I wouldn't have tried it~" she said which only made the god chuckle a little was well. "Go find what you need, and bring it back here if you can..."

Deianira listened to this entire list with wide eyes. She didn't know of these other creatures but the idea that she might get to see them seemed to give her a bit of a stir. Even though the situation seemed to be fraught with peril for them, it seemed like the girl intended to stay along with Athos. "Thank you very much," she said offering a bow to god before them for his kindness.

[Bloodedge]

Upon receiving the list of necessities for his weapon, Athos' expression shifted to one of utter indifference. Nothing Hephaestus said sounded nearly as deadly as the boy's ultimate task. If he was to perish by the hands of these monsters and deities, he would have been unable to accomplish his goal regardless of whatever weapon Hephaestus had in mind for him. Moving on, Athos took the dismissal of Hephaestus, and immediately vacated the forge. He had quite the journey ahead of him, and as far as he knew, he would be making it alone. The only issue he was having was deciding where to go first to collect these items.

[Apollymi]

"Oh, are you going to let him go alone?" the Smith God said as he began hammering out something. Deianira looked at this god and shrugged, "Probably not, I'd be a bad hunter if I let him go see things I haven't seen yet to face them alone~" she said heading to take off. "I could still make you something too.." the God said seeming to find something amusing about the girl. "Nope, don't need it, in it for the thrill of the hunt~" she said with a nod before taking off to catch up with Athos. Whatever else the Smith God had in mind he didn't say anything he simply looked up from his work as the girl left watching her rear move until she disappeared from sight.

Outside of the mountain which housed this forge, Deianira wiped a bit of sweat from her brow nimbly moving along the ground in a quick effort to catch up with the other Demigod. "Athos, wait up!" she said though she made no efforts to look in his direction. "I wanna go with you~" she said knowing the young lad probably expected her to help him and then leave him be, she couldn't really gauge his initial reaction. Of course, she wasn't really normal herself.

[Bloodedge]

On his way to the boat they'd used to reach this island, Athos heard the call of Dionysus' daughter. He turned his head right, not to look toward her, but to let his voice be heard more easily. "I don't need help. But... I guess... we came on the same boat," he said. At this point, he spoke nothing but logic. He'd much rather had gone without a companion even to Hephaestus, but he couldn't exactly accept assistance only to then leave his helper stranded afterwards. At the very least, he figured she could come along until they were properly able to separate. "I'm going to Persia."

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Athos thought the young woman needed to know that he didn't require help. She thought he might in some way but that wasn't really the point of her going along again after doing the one thing she'd offered to do. To be fair, Deianira simply wanted to see the whole of it through, it would have been a negative to her to get Hephaestus to make his weapon, only for the boy to be killed along the way. Besides that she was still quite interesting in Athos as a person, and all the creatures she might get to participate in slaying over the course of the time they spent together. As such she wasn't really apt to let him go alone.

Surprisingly though, the white haired lad seemed to think about the fact that they'd arrived together on the same boat and take that as a reason for them to continue to travel together. "Suppose that is true~ Also I don't think you need help..." she said as she hopped into the boat herself and settled back into the position she'd had while they rode in together. Athos then made it known what his first stop would be, which made Deianira chuckle. "Straight to the desert, all heat and sand in awkward places~ Sounds like fun, lead the way~" the girl said picking up her cup to have a nice drink as a reward for the good things which happened, she also filled Athos' changing the composition so that it'd taste of melons and nectar instead. She'd just keep trying out these different things until they found one which actually made the young man confirm or deny his like of things.

[Bloodedge]

Without further ado, Athos employed his manipulation of the sea once more. In doing so, he pulled the boat away from the island when Deianira and himself were both upon the vessel, and turned it in the direction that would lead them toward Persia. This time around, there was less build-up to the high speed movement he'd achieved earlier. On the way toward land, he would partake of the beverage given to him, but would show no particular favoritism of it or its predecessor.

[Apollymi]

"Ah, still no favorites huh~" the girl said seeming to be lightly amused as she drank from her cup and looked over the edge of their vessel and into the water. "That's cool, gives me a reason to keep drinking and trying new things~" she said with a bit of a chuckle. From the words of Hephaestus she knew their time in the desert wouldn't necessarily be easy-going or pleasant so she decided to use the down time in their travels as such, and perhaps prodding the young man into opening up a bit.

[Bloodedge]

Five days following the departure of the two demigods, the small boat which carried them returned to the shores of Lemnos. Athos departed first, carrying a Minotaur horn under his left arm, while using his right hand to sturdy the Basilisk fang strapped to his torso. More Cyclopes filled the area between the shores and Hephaestus' forge, but they now seemed docile. In fact, the beasts - which now numbered 8 in total - stood in two rows to pave a path toward Hephaestus in the forge. "What does this mean?" Athos wondered aloud as he took a few measured, careful steps forward.

[Apollymi]

Some five days after they'd originally departed the demigod Deianira returned with her companion, Athos. As he walked carrying half of his bounty, she carried the other half, one of the basilisk's fangs was strapped across her back while she carried one of the Minotaur's horns over her right shoulder. It seemed that they wouldn't have to deal with as much this time. The Cyclopes which had previously attacked or tried to detour the young demigods but now they were lined up as if waiting for their return, being completely docile even. The question from Athos would garner a response from the young woman as she carried part of their bounty. "Oh? Seems like a welcome party. I take it then he isn't upset anymore... gods seem to do stuff like this when they are happy with your arrival," she said thinking about it she once had a similar experience when approaching one of Artemis' divinely protected forests. "Well go on, don't keep him waiting, but... shoot for nice, yeah?" she said fully intending to follow the young man down into the forge to see the Smith god again, hoping for a happier moment and outcome for them on the word of Boreas and Camus that all would be taken care of. And from the looks of things so far it seemed that way.

[Bloodedge]

Moving onward, Athos heard that these Cyclopes were forming some sort of welcome group for the demigods on their return. His pace increased to a more normal rate after this clause was shared, and soon enough, he was crossing the bridge within Hephaestus' mountain for the third time. Once he reached the center platform beneath the massive and grotesque god, he placed the horn and fang on the floor in front of himself. "Boreas says to take his blessing instead of blood," he said.