<div align="center"><em>Hephaestus</em></div><br/><hr/><br/>Abigale heard the faint popping sounds of two other people arriving. It was much too hot here and it made her wonder if they were under a volcano. That would make sense. There were many dead and active volcanoes in the United States. They could be under any one of them. Hephaestus was the God of Volcanoes, wasn't he? It made sense that they would be under one. Then again, the Gods were strange in the choosing of homes. She wondered, momentarily, what she was supposed to do. Most of the time a demi-god was summoned so they could complete some kind of task or quest for their parent. A family-friendly visit was hardly ever normal.<br/><br/>As the three demi-gods got their footing back and Vanessa tried to fix her camera lens, the God of Forges was making his way from the back. He was a taller than average man. He was a huge lump of a man with his shoulders at different heights and a huge, bulging, misshapen head and his leg in a steel brace, with a wild brown beard that sparked fire from time to time. He was wearing a jumpsuit smeared with grime and oil with the name<em>Hephaestus</em>embroidered over the chest pocket. He was like some kind of monstrous car attendant. As was the myth, Hephaestus' deformities came from being tossed off Mt. Olympus after birth by his mother, Hera, of all people. It was unknown how ugly he was before the fall down the godly mountain, but Hera had done it because he was bone ugly. It was safe to assume that the fall from Mt. Olympus had only damaged his leg and the rest of his deformities were from birth.<br/><br/>His steel brace creaked a bit as he walked out to the main area of his forge where the children were. He saw Vincent looking around eagerly, Vanessa sitting on the floor working on something, and then there was Abigale. His nose wrinkled a little. While he understood his wife's affairs with mortals, after all he'd had plenty of his own, he disliked when she took immortal loves. Abigale's father had been one of those immortal lovers for a short time. They'd even had a child together. But at least it was no where near as horrible as his wife's affair with the God of War. Everyone expected it of Hermes to fool around, but his wife crossed the line when she stayed with one man for over a thousand years.<br/><br/>In truth, these were the first demi-gods to step foot in his forge in a long time. Hephaestus wasn't exactly a social butterfly. He found it difficult to relate to children. Other than the Big Three, he was likely the most anti-social when it came to his kids or any demi-gods. He was proud of them and showed them affection through gifts and things of that nature, but face-to-face conversations and interactions were difficult, "Vanessa, Vincent, and...Abigale. I'm glad to see you all made it safely," his voice was deep, "I see Hermes finally got those coins working. Last time he sent a demi-god anywhere with one, only half the demi-god showed up," it had been gruesome and Abigale's eyes went wide when she realized her father hadn't told any of them the dangers of using the coins. She'd used them all fall and winter when she worked for him and never once did he bother to tell her that it could kill her!<br/><br/>The god seemed unsure of what to say. It wasn't like this was a common situation for any of them, "Feel free to look around. There is very little here you can break or damage that can't be repaired," as he talked, he pulled a few bits of wires and gears from his jumpsuit pocket and started fiddling with it in his big hands. It was amazing that someone with such big, rough hands could build such delicate things. It seemed to be a nervous habit for him to need something to do with his hands. Hephaestus might have been a God, an old one, with a lot of power...but socially he was a nervous teenager. At least around demi-gods. Within moments, the wires, gears, and small metal plates was transformed into a tiny bird. He turned the key in it's back and it flew out of his hands. Abigale didn't know about the other two, but she was amazed. Even her dad couldn't make stuff like that.<br/><br/>"Thank you for allowing me to come, Sir," the pierced and tattooed demi-god finally spoke up.<br/><br/>The lump of a man nodded, "So long as you keep making your father upset with those tattoos, you're welcome here anytime Vincent and Vanessa come. I believe he mentioned something about a caduceus tattoo on your back that you got on Halloween at the last gathering on Olympus," Abigale's cheeks flushed and she nodded, "He was very upset about it. There was mention of punishment," to which Abigale's already pale face went bleach white, "If you would take your things down the hall there," he pointed off to a cave like opening in the wall, "There are three rooms. Chose which ever one you want, I'd like to speak privately with my children for a moment."<br/><br/>Abigale responded wordlessly with a nod, picked up her bag, and headed off, "Vanessa," she was the one he'd most wanted so see. He'd met Vincent briefly once before, but Vanessa had never met him. Nor had she ever really asked anything of him, "Don't worry about that camera. We can fix it later. I'm sure you both have questions," demi-gods always had questions, "I'd like to give you both the attention you deserve. To keep things even, Vanessa you will be spending today with me and tomorrow you will be able to explore the forge or rest as you please. Vincent, today you can do as you please around the forge and tomorrow we will work on what you've brought with," it wasn't really a question or request, but more of what was going to happen and there was little either of them could say to work around it, "So Vincent, go find yourself a room," he pointed to the cave hallway that Abigale had gone down, "And Vanessa, we'll get to work on that camera. Vincent, you don't have to stay in the room the whole time," the forge was a big place with hundreds of rooms. He was sure Vincent would find something to keep him occupied and there really wasn't any off-limits rooms.<br/><br/>"Vanessa, this way," he motioned towards a small forge room for them to go over her camera. Hephaestus liked cameras and he was interested in finding out everything she planned on doing with it. The small room he lead her to was the main room for his Hephaestus TV channel. There was a whole wall filled with TV screens. The control panel in front of the screens had hundreds of buttons, switches, and panels. There were displays of monsters, demi-gods, the Gods, and one that had the label<em>Embarrass Ares</em>above it. That one had a constantly moving cameras, obviously meant to catch the God of War doing something with his wife so he could air it for everyone to see and embarrass the two once again. There was also a large work area filled with camera parts.<br/><br/>"So, Vanessa, what exactly do you want your camera to do?" he asked bluntly.