VI

Leo

Being dead sucks, I should know, I just was and was brought back. We landed on Calypso's island and got her loaded, when Festus starts to malfunction. "No not now," I said. Parts started to fall off of his hide. "No, no, no, no, no, no not again." He just kept breaking apart. Calypso put her hand on my shoulder. I started to break apart just like Festus inside. Calypso stayed by my side, and tried to soothe me by singing, but I didn't hear her. "Leo, Leo," she grabbed me by my shoulders and made me look at her, "Leo, look at me." I finally looked away and said "I'm sorry, but this happened all before, but not after I rebuilt him, we beat Gaea, and him saving me."

Calypso just looked at me and said "Come on we have work to do." She took my hand and lead me back to my forge, it looked like it was remodeled, and better than I made it. "What happened to my forge?" "Your father was here, and remodeled it, and he said "Somethings can be made better, and some can't," I'm not sure what he meant by that, and he left you this." She handed me a package with my name on it. I opened it up, and inside was a Archimedes sphere, and a letter.

The letter said "Leo, I know what happens to Festus when he lands, by the time you're reading this Calypso should have showed you the forge I remade for your next project: Rebuilding Festus. I've made time go slower around the island until you've remade him. Also, Leo if you need anything for the rebuild just ask, and I'll send them to you. And remember somethings can be rebuilt better, and somethings can't be rebuilt, this has to be rebuilt better, if you cant survive what happens next."

"Thanks dad," I closed the letter and looked at Calypso, You're right it's time to get to work, lets do this." We searched the island for more Celestial Bronze. We didn't find any, until I said, "Dad we need a lot of Celestial Bronze for the rebuild." The sky grew dark , cloudy, and started to glow like a fire. In the distance a golden glint was seen, and it was moving very fast. As it got closer we could see it was shaped like a comet. It was heading straight for the island. "Thanks dad. Here comes the Celestial Bronze I ordered.

It crashed down near where I crashed the first time. It was huge, about ten feet in diameter. "Holy Hephaestus that's a lot of Celestial Bronze, where did it come from?" "My dad sent it," I went over to check for seams where it would be easier to break apart or melt. "Well this could be a problem, it's solid." "What do you mean by problems, Leo?" "We'll have to melt it, then make the parts we need. I also have to make a mount for the sphere, and I'll have to make molds for some parts I've had ideas about.

"Well we'll just have to work hard and fast then," Calypso said. "I like woman who can go hard and fast. I think we'll be able to do this if we only take breaks when we have to," I said. I looked at Calypso and said "How long has it been since I was here?" "I'm not sure since the time flow is different, but it felt like forever to me." With that she pulled me close to her and said "Leo Valdez I love you," and she kissed me. Not just a regular kiss, but a 'I missed you, and never leave me kiss' and I returned it with the same passion. "I love you to Calypso"

I looked down after we stopped kissing and got a hand saw from my magical tool belt. "Do you mind if I cut some limbs off of some of the older trees for fuel?" "Cut the trees down, once I leave the island disappears forever." I was walking around the island all morning cutting trees down. I cut about ten down in this time. I started dragging the tree back to the beach, when I got within shouting distance I yelled "Calypso, can you help me drag this tree into camp?" "Yeah hold up I'll be right there." She showed up looking like she was getting ready to cook. "What were you getting ready to do?" "I was getting ready to make dinner, we're having stew."

She helped me drag the tree to camp. When we got to camp we set the log down by the forge. "I'm going to start the stew now, it should be done by night fall. I started cutting the log into pieces that would burn the hottest and fastest for the forge. It took ten hours to cut up all the log, and it also took ten hours for the stew to be made. Calypso set the table's, because the servants were no longer around, she told them to leave. The table had a white table clothe, candles, and the plates of food. She said "Leo come and eat, it;ll be there in the morning." "Okay, only since it's you."

So we sat down and ate the stew. "Calypso what did you do differently this time? This is better than the other stews, and thats saying something, because those were amazing." I soaked the beef in salt water for a few hours while you were off cutting down trees. I also put some ginger, and some newer spices I created since you left in the stew."

We finished the stew, and washed the dishes. I went back into the woods around the island to find fire wood, not for the forge, for a campfire. I brought back what little I could find, and built a fire ring near where we'll be sleeping. I Built up the fire till we were nice and comfortable, the climate was very different from the time of year on the outside world. We moved the bed from inside the cave to out by the fire. We got the bed made, and got in and Calypso asked, "So how long do you think it'll take us to leave?" "I don't know, it depends on how fast the forging takes really, because I know how Festus needs put back together. I learned how to build him from scratch, when he got shot to pieces last year." "Oh, is that what you meant by 'Not again'?" "Yeah, I had to rebuild him from scratch, I just finished him when we beat the giants, more or less. The boat crashed when we got back to New York, and he was released. He helped us defeat Gaea, and he also revived me when Gaea died, and took me with her."

Calypso just lied there and looked at me for a while, until she said, "What all new ideas do you have for rebuilding Festus?" "Well I had a idea about adding a hyper-drive converter installed. I pump my hottest fire into the converter and it turns the fire into speed and magic if needed." "Oh, okay that sound like it could be helpful in a bad situation." "Yeah, that's sort of why I wanted to make it." Calypso just smiled and cuddled up next to me and I put my arm around her, and we fell asleep like this.

We woke up to birds singing and the waves lapping up against the beach, the sun was just coming up too. "We'll time to get to work," I said. "Aren't you going to eat first?" "Nah, sometimes when I'm working on a project I can go a day or two without eating, but I will eat dinner though." I started to put wood in the forge to start the rebuild. "You might want to stay back from here, it will get very hot and extremely loud, just a warning." I through the hottest fire ball at what I had in and started adding more wood in. I got the fire going and started hand melting off some of the Celestial Bronze. I collected enough for the first part, and started to shape it. When I finished the first part I attached it to Festus's head and neck units.

I started melting off more Bronze for the next attachment, when Calypso came over to check on me. "Hey Leo, do you need anything?" she handed me a glass of water. I drank it fast, "Not anymore I don't, thank you, I needed that." The next part was ready to put on. I got Festus's neck and head connected to part of his body. I let the pieces seal and went over to Calypso. She was in the process of making lunch. "Mmmm that looks good, what is it going to be?" "Oh, I didn't even hear you stop. It'll be fried fish, if I could find a flat surface to cook them on that is." "About what size do you need this piece of metal to be?" "About a foot, why?" As she was asking that I got a piece of steel about a foot across out of my tool belt and gave it to her. "Here you go. Is this good for the surface you need?" "Yeah, I didn't know it could large items like this."

"Yeah, it depends on how difficult the item is, and if it could be in a shop also." "That's cool. How's the rebuilding going?" "It's taking time, so far I have his head, neck, and the first part of his body connected, I'm also building the Hyper-Drive Converter while I'm rebuilding him." "Okay, but don't forget to stop every now and then to visit me and to get a drink. I'll come and get you when lunch is done, and also when dinner's done." "Okay, I love you." "I love you too." I went back to the forge and put more wood in and shot another fire ball in to help speed things up a bit. I started melting off more Bronze for a larger part of the body. I reshaped it to the right size, and angle and attached it the the two body parts and waited for them to set. The day moved on like this until Calypso came and got me for dinner. I put Festus's body back together, I sill have to fix the wings, tail, and legs.