<div align="center"><em>Abigale, her Father, and the Forge</em></div><br/><hr/><br/>The pierced girl was glad when Vincent finally showed up. It wasn't that she had anything against Vanessa, but small talk was obviously not working. Though when Vincent started in on Mr. D, she felt her jaw drop a little. She wondered if they would all find themselves wrapped up in vine coffins here in a few minutes. Abigale was tempted to smack Vincent over the head and ask him what the hell he was thinking. Mr. D was not someone to be joked with.<br/><br/>Thankfully, for the three of them, Mr. D seemed either not to hear or care about the diet coke comment or that Vincent was a little late. Instead he looked at them all with bloodshot eyes. It was amazing that he could have gone so long without wine and still managed to look drunk, "Since it will be impossible to get you three to the Forge through any mortal means of travel, we've arranged an immortal travel for you. As I told Amelia and Valeria, feel free to toss yourselves in to the forge fire and do us all a favor."<br/><br/>Abigale thought for a moment and then stood up quickly, "Wait. Immortal travel? You don't mean...my dad, do you?" oh she hoped not. That was the last thing she needed. They hadn't ended the summer on good terms. Her father had wanted her to continue working in his New York office instead of coming back here. He said she was too old for training. Defying your godly parent never had good consequences. A god didn't simply bend you over and spank you or give you a time out. They could make your life a living hell. While Hermes was a bit more relaxed about punishments, that didn't mean he didn't know how to give them. He even admitted that he was the one who had sent the cops after her for hot wiring that school buss when she was thirteen.<br/><br/>"Who else would it mean?" he snipped at her and before she could respond a middle-aged man with an athletic figure-slim and fit with salt-and-pepper hair with Abigale's slightly upturned, elfish nose came in through the door.<br/><br/>Gods always seemed to have the worst timing or perfect timing. He was wearing nylon running shorts and a New York City Marathon T-shirt. In his right hand was a caduceus with two snakes wrapping and unwrapping themselves around it. They hissed in Abigale's direction, "<em>Abigale, got a rat?</em>" one of the rats spoke up and the other snapped at it for speaking, "<em>Leave her alone. No one brings rats for you. Stop asking demi-gods for rats.</em>"<br/><br/>"If you two start up already, I'm turning you back into a cell phone," the God snipped before turning his attention to the three demi-gods. Despite being one of the 'relaxed' gods, even Hermes was rather intimidating. At least for Abigale, likely because he was her father, "Abigale," he spoke her name with that fatherly tone and she felt like crawling back to her cabin and hiding under the blanket, "Vincent, Vanessa...I am the only current God that has access to Hephaestus' Forge, other than Hephaestus himself. It's actually rather simple to get to if you have the right means of transportation. Since I do not actually have a delivery scheduled for there till the end of tomorrow, you'll just be using the quick way," which made Abigale wince just at the mention of it, "These coins will transport you there much like Poseidon's Pearls that transport whoever smashes them to the sea. Just think of where you want to go, flip it, and when it lands back in your hand you'll be in the Forge. They only work twice, so don't play with them. Keep them safe till it's time for you to come back to camp and do the same thing to get back here," he held out three coins for the demi-gods, "I'll see you all tomorrow night. I need to go now. Ares gets upset when his deliveries are late," the winged shoe god started back out of the Big House before turning back to Abigale, "I'll speak with you tomorrow night," his eyes flicked over to Vincent for a moment in a slight glare before he disappeared out the door.<br/><br/>Not wanting to think about or talk about the small, quick encounter with her father, Abigale grabbed her bag and flipped the coin up in the air. The 'teleporting' was mildly painful. It felt like someone was grabbing her spine and pulling it as hard as they could. It was rather unpleasant. When her feet felt solid ground again, she also got a blast of hot air to her face.<br/><br/>When she opened her eyes she saw a giant fire barely ten feet away and quickly stepped back. The whole room was made of stone and smelled of Earth, fire, steel, oil, and leather. It smelled like Vincent after he was done working in the cabin forge. She saw anvils, hammers, tongs, and molds all over the place. Even through her tennis shoes, the ground felt warm. The ground looked tiled and the fire came out of a giant pit in the flooring. There was hardly a tile without a crack in it that lead to the fire. There was rack, after rack, after rack of weapons of all kinds along the walls. Most impressive were the automatons that were standing around. There were a few that looked like giant humans in armor, but there were many that were animals. She even thought she saw a bunny automaton hopping around near the back of the fire. Abigale was in awe of it all. She'd never been in a god's home before (except her father's). She also hoped that the other two made it here safelt and soon.