shields and other things [private]

“

At the moment, Max wasn't the cleanest person in the world. The sleeves of his orange camp shirt were rolled up to his shoulders, the shirt itself even singed off in some places. His lithe arms were steady as his soiled hands handled the shield he had been assigned to mend. It had a few dents - something that his more muscular siblings could take care of - but what he focused on was the mechanism that compressed it into an innocent-looking bracelet. Apparently, it had been hit a little too hard to properly transform back into its disguise. After spending about two hours bent over it, Max had yet to figure out what went wrong and how to get it working again.

Wiping the sweat off his brow, Max huffed and wrinkled his nose at the smell of burnt metal and smoke filling the armory. He saw his siblings, just as sweaty as he was, every single one too bent on their own projects to keep an eye on everyone else. There were some non-Hephaestus campers around as well, looking at the finished weapons and checking out those that were still being made. A young boy had even taken to testing out his half-finished sword by swinging it around, and one of Max's bulkier brothers rushed to stop him before he could slice someone's head off.

Smiling, Max stretched his arms before tackling the broken shield once more. He kept his ears open all the while, though. He had noticed that he was one of those who had the least amount of work to do. If someone walked in and wanted something done, he would be one of the first Hephaestus kids who could be approached to do the job. He didn't mind. After all, it was what he was supposed to do. And Max couldn't be any happier about it.

Livia ran into the armory shivering, a raincoat bouncing about her hip. She skidded a little, trying to stop on her wet and slippery silver rain boots. It was cold outside, the rain pounding on the roof of the armory, each drop the sound of a never fading drumbeat. Livia shook out her sopping hair as a dog would, each drop flying across the room and landing on everything; campers and their projects and the tables, which all glistened with the tiny droplets. Livia was surprised to noticed that if any of the children of Hephaestus looked up, they didn’t seem to care. Livia looked down at the boy she had skidded into. He was scrawny and just a little bit shorter than herself, which wasn’t saying much. Livia backed up a couple of steps. She was at close proximity with the boy and was lucky not to have knocked him over. “Sorry.” she muttered, wringing out her damp hair. “Hey, do you know someone called Max Grant?” Livia read the name off a little slip on the cover of the book that “Mix Grant” had ordered. Livia assumed that a very dyslexic sibling had written it down, because even she couldn’t mess that up.

“

The sound of quick footsteps snapped Max out of his trance. Blinking, he caught sight of a girl running across the armory. If she didn't stop, she was going to tackle them both to the floor for sure. By the time he had processed that thought, the girl was already an arm's reach and there was nothing he could do but hold his breath and wait for the collision... which fortunately did not result to both of them on the ground. Thank the gods. He did, however, feel the water droplets cling to the skin of his arms and looking down, saw small dark circlets on his shirt.

Letting go of the shield, Max turned to the girl and frowned, concerned, at her soaked form. Was it raining? Now that he considered it, he noticed the pitter-patter of the raindrops against the roof and the ground outside. Damn, he should've brought an umbrella. Maybe he can use the shield as one later...

“Sorry. Hey, do you know someone called Max Grant?”

The name brought Max to reality and he raised his hand, wondering what made the girl sprint under the rain just to find him.

Livia watched the boy curiously, waiting for him to make a move. He seemed to have not noticed it was raining and now he stared at her in surprise, watching the drops of water trickle down her red raincoat and onto the floor. He looked at her as if the name Max had made him notice reality for once. Livia wondered why the boy hadn't said anything by now. It seemed that he would at least express his concerns about her barreling towards him at a high speed. Livia looked at the boy for a sliver of recognition, but none came to her. So Livia used logic. The boy was obviously mute, and there was nothing she could do about that to make it easier to concentrate. He perked up at the sound of his name, so he was probably the Max Grant she had been looking for in the first place. But once she put a name to his face, she still couldn't remember anything about this mute, scrawny son of Hephaestus.
"You're Max right?" She asked, and not waiting for an answer, "Well I'm Livia Malcolm. Daughter of Athena." Livia stood up straighter and tilted her head higher than it had been before.

“

Max nodded, wondering if she had seen that he had raised his hand in response to his name. Smiling, Max punched a few buttons on his watch and a hologram popped up between them, the screen filling up with letters.


He paused, only just noticing the book she held in her hands. Holy smokes, it couldn't be..? As his lips stretched into an grin, Max had to keep his excitement in check as his fingers danced across the makeshift keyboard.

Livia watched as the a look of excitement spread across the boys face while he read the cover of the magazine she had been holding inside her raincoat.
nodded, smiling a white toothed grin. "Yeah it is. You ordered it remember?" Livia nodded, looking at the shield in the boys hand. "It took so long because I brought it to Faye so she could order some models of Greek style swords. They'll be here in a couple of weeks. The delivery guys must think it funny to be bringing greek swords to a strawberry farm." She laughed a high pitched, warm laugh. It filled the well lit forge, making the room seem smaller and less forbidding to Livia. "You can call me Liv." She said, looking around the room.

maximilian grant son of hephaestus

“

Max could barely contain his excitement as he stared, open-mouthed, at the book in his hands. He was so excited that he almost didn't catch what Livia said next. As she laughed, a grin spread across his face and he punched the keys in with his free hand.

"No problem." Livia grinned. She almost felt stupid saying so, after all, she had run through a rainstorm to get it to Max. But he looked so excited, she didn't take it back. Livia wondered why it was raining so hard all of a sudden. The magical border around camp protected it from outside weather, so the only bad weather was what Mr. D. wanted. "Hey Max, do you know why it's raining so hard?" She asked him, looking out at the rain pouring down the armory door.

maximilian grant son of hephaestus

“

Max frowned. He hadn't even noticed it was raining. Still, it was quite weird. Sun always shone on Camp Half Blood. Max had heard that it had something to do with the camp's magical borders that kept everything unwanted out of the premises.