just a short drabble what happened inside the underground forge before tony arrived
Was it fair? I mean he took dozens of monsters and Raven was probably relaxing inside the underground forge because his scent was enough to lure the monsters out. Then again, he didn't fight a cyclops so Raven probably has it worse. She could be dead by now. Malcolm panted from all the hard work from killing monsters. He was covered in sweat, a little bit of blood because one dracaena slashed him with a sword on his arm and there was the dust that made him sneeze.
He went inside the EMPLOYEE'S ONLY door. And there he found a golden elevator that was similar to the one at the Empire State Building. Golden, but there were black markings on the corners that swirled around. He thought it was beautiful but though, needs a little work in putting a bit more design at the center. He pressed the button and went inside, undeniably suffering a long elevator ride with horrible music that would make Apollo scream and crawl into a corner.
The forges were huge and had high ceilings, just enough for an elder cyclops to fit inside and work. There was golden dust everywhere. Malcolm smiled knowing that Raven did her job well.
Or maybe not.
As he explored the place he finally stopped to where the main forges were held. There he spotted Raven, gripping her sword lightly and having an evil smirk on her face. Also,there was the empousai dressed in a cheerleader's outfit. What was she doing? She should have killed the empousai easily by now. Instead, she was smirking there all carefree and evilly at the empousai who was in her true form.
Raven didn't see him. The thick wall that separated the main forge from the other smaller forges that were supposedly for the telkhines prevented Raven from seeing Malcolm's figure. He just had enough to peek meekly on the side.
"Where do we start." She said, smoothly.
And that was when Malcolm charged. He didn't know what was going on. And he hated that. He was a son of Athena! He's suppose to know stuff. But this made him confused.
Has Raven been lured to Luke's side?
So he killed the empousai, slashing her torso just below the tummy. The empousa yelled out a loud screeching scream.
Gahhhhhhhh!and she erupted into fine golden dust.
He panted again and glared at the dust.
"What did you just do!" Raven yelled at him, glaring in the process. Malcolm looked up and saw her, covered in oil, soot and a little bit of ash. She looked even filthy than him. There were more bruises and her grey hoodie was torn a bit, showing the orange camp half-blood t-shirt. He blinked twice before opening his mouth and saying nothing.
"I was gathering some information on what Luke's plan was. And you just stopped me from obtaining it by killing the source!" He never saw her this angry before and —serious. He could practically see the white mist that swirled around her dark green orbs.
At camp, Raven and her brother were labeled as untrustworthy allies that could betray you in less than two seconds flat. They were deprived as mischievous pranksters like the Hermes kids and were carefree and lazy. He saw her as more of the bubbly and giggly type of person who only gets mad when you spill her strawberry sundae.
Poor Clarrise.
He never knew that she would take her job this seriously. There was a lot more to Raven than he though. She was in a way— loyal. He didn't doubt it even for a bit. Malcolm breathed deeply, catching his breath before arguing. "I'm sorry?" Well, apologizing then.
"Ugh! You're suppose to be smart. Didn't you at least figured that I was doing an interrogation?"
"Well, you're doing a pretty convincing job at it."
"wait a second..did you just..apologize?"
She stared at him first, like she was thinking, seriously? "That's it?" She deadpanned."you're not even going to argue? I thought you Athena kids have a whole 'hubris' thing going on. No accusations? No questions on why I did that? No, 'what if you're lying'?" The look in her eyes showed disbelief. This was certainly the first time that someone didn't questioned her for anything else. It was almost like...
He trusted her.
It felt weird to Raven. "You said that it was for interrogation." Malcolm said.
"But...I'm a liar." It came out more of a whine.
Malcolm stared at her for a few seconds with continuous amounts of blinks and an open mouth and a raised pointer finger. His eyes bore into her very green ones as he thought about the situation. He smiled, "you're not lying when you said it." He said.
"How do you know?"
"Because—I trust you." Raven was about to speak up but Malcolm quickly gave her a canteen full of nectar and an ambrosia bar. He smiled at her and chuckled a little understanding what she was feeling right now."here. Eat up. You look way worse than me." Raven gave Malcolm the canteen and broke the ambrosia bar into two, giving the other piece to him. They took a bite, "what does your's taste like?" Raven asked.
"My dad's protein shake with extra carrots and raw eggs."
"Ewww.." She looked at him in disgust." Do you even have taste buds?"
"It full of vitamins and minerals that make's me fit and healthy. Unlike you choice of strawberry ice cream." He shot back.
"I have you know, that strawberry is a fruit. And fruits are healthy. The ice cream is made from milk and all those...other ingredients.—and milk is good for you. End of story." She argued.
"You forgot the unhealthy sugar found in the syrup and ice cream." He said smugly.
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes.
Slowly, they regain their strength back. Their wounds healed and the bruises disappeared. Raven dusted off the ambrosia bits on her hands. "Let's go." She said
Malcolm looked around and noticed the abundance of weapons and shields. He also noticed the golden chariot at the corner. An idea popped into his head,"hey, while we're here, let's at least bring back the weapons to camp. We can use the chariot to load them and transport. You can Mist travel us there.."
"There's the Malcolm I know. always thinking ahead." She took the nectar from his hands and then sipped it, before going towards an empty chair and sitting on it."okay, you do the loading while I sit here and give you orders." She said, lazily.
"Oh no, I knew you were lazy, but I am not letting you sit there and relax while I do all the hardwork." He scolded. "But I hate hard work!" She whined like a 5 year old.
"Raven!"
"Alright." She arose from her seat.
"Good. I'll take the weapons that I can reach while you take those.." He pointed to the ceiling. Raven looked up and saw all the weapons mostly swords that were hung around in hooks. "Ugh ..why me?" She groaned.
"Umm...You've got Hermes's winged sandals." He pointed out. Raven shrugged, "oh, yeah. Forgot about that." She said. "Maia!" She shouted and flew upwards, dropping all the weapons that were hung and almost killing Malcolm with it."watch out." She warned.
"RAVEN!"
"SORRY"
Most of the weapons were loaded, but so far Malcolm and Raven bickered on and on about Malcolm's choice of dessert. I mean seriously, what normal kid drinks protein shakes with carrots and raw eggs? She shuddered at the thought and introduced him to her all time favorite, strawberry sundae.
"I thought girls were all about their figure or something. Like...those Aphrodite kids."
"Do I look like an Aphrodite kid to you?" She looked offended. Her eyes looked to the right as she was thinking I'd something. A small smile form in her lips.
"Did you just say that I'm..pretty?" She mused with a tiny smirk on her lips. But then it quickly subsided knowing the attitude of some of the kids of The love and beauty goddess. Malcolm looked at her, a faint blush on his cheeks. He smiled smugly knowing what she was going to say next when an angry pout replaced the smug smirk on Raven's lips. "Wait a second...Aphrodite kids are stuck up snobs who only care about shoes and clothes!"
"I didn't say anything." Malcolm said in a sing-song tone.
"I am seriously offended!" She placed a hand on her chest, mockingly.
"Would you feel better if I compared you to an Ares kid?"
She gasped, "NEVER! I mean, have you seen Clarrisse? She looks like a really buff girl version of some sweaty football player. Thats even worse."
Malcolm sighed deeply, "my point is...I somehow expected you to be going to 'puberty' and now posses the level of thinking as that of normal pre-teens" he said.
"I just turned 13 last month. I'm nowhere near the level of maturity as of that the 'normal' children of the world. Besides, were demigods. We run a lot—and by that I mean running away from monsters."
"Point taken" he said while giving the same expression of the words.
But they still bickered because Raven complained that her arms were getting tired. They only stopped when Tony showed up.
