"Dammit," I growled as a massive wall of water filled up the area. The small brook was immediately swallowed by its father; an immense river. Before I could react, I was knocked off my feet by the river, sending me flying; but before I could register that I was about to drown, I felt an abrupt tugging sensation, as if I was wearing a bungee cord stretched to its fullest length around my waist.

I flew out of the water, completely soaked, and hit a tree. Heavily. I groaned, opening my eyes, and there was the boy, stabilizing me on… a branch? He propped me up by the trunk, letting my legs swing alongside the branch, while he crouched closer to the edge. Needling branches and stray twigs poked at my face.

I hacked my lungs out, spitting out leaves and picking out twigs from my hair. "What just happened?"
He snickered. "Just saved your life," he said, fiddling with a small golden chain.

"How?" I spluttered. He smirked.

"Let's just say I have a really long reach." He laughed. "So… what just happened?" He was nice and dry, much to my envy, and he had somehow reached the high branches of a tree. Below us was a massive river, deep blue, flooding the area.

I took a deep breath. "Naiad. River spirit. You bathed in her water, and she's not happy." I looked down. "And she called her father to deal with it."

"Ghee, she was that upset about it? Well-"

"Stella's normally not that annoying," I said. "But you're a half-blood, so she thinks

you're a camp- she thinks you know better." I frowned. "So you've never been to camp? Never had a saytr guide?"

"Well, like I was saying," he said. "My goat-guy… didn't make it. Since then I've just been making my way from Detroit to New York City." He smiled, revealing multiple chipped teeth. "I'm Tommy, by the way."

"Pretty impressive," I said. "You managed to-"
"Wait," Tommy said. "Is that-"

I turned around. Almost emerging from the tree was another girl, standing right across from our branch. "Hi, erm-"

"Asp," she said. "Anyway, sorry about this, but I am not dealing with Scamander, so-"
"Wait," Tommy said. "Does that mean-"

"Get out of my tree," she said. "Now." Tommy laughed.

"Well, I'm not dealing with-"

"WHERE ARE YOU," came a booming voice, coupled with a sound like the world's biggest wave pool churning. I jerked to attention, trying to find the source as Asp disappeared. Dyrads couldn't detach branches from their trees, but she clearly didn't want us in it.

"MORTALS," came the voice again. "YOU HAVE OFFENDED MY DAUGHTER, AND FOR THAT, I DEMAND PENANCE!"
"So… that's Scamander?" Tommy said. I nodded.

"Yep."

"Give me the short version."

"He's an ancient trojan river god that's taken root in this area because he likes it, I suppose, and we just pissed off his daughter. He's one of the few river gods that doesn't look like a bull, he-"

"Relevant information!"

"He can't be killed. By us," I said. And then I sighed. "And he hates me, since I'm a daughter of Hephaestus, who burned him all those centuries ago." I sighed. I felt like an encyclopedia. "And he embodies the river, so it's only a matter of time until he finds us."

"Even in here?" Tommy asked. We were somewhat hidden in the branches, with the leaves covering our spot."

"I don't think Asp will hide us," I said. My mind was racing like there were components

scattered all across the table; too many things to keep track of at once, and nowhere to start.

"Ghee," Tommy remarked. "Tough. What have you got?"

"Eh?"

"What weapons do you have? Tools? Equipment?"

I frowned. "These," I said, tapping my bracelets. "I explained to him what they were, and

how they worked. "And duct tape." He smiled.

"Can you tinker with them a bit? The ammo, I mean. We can distract him, but can you tinker with your spares?"

I nodded. "If I wrap them together, tinker with the settings a bit," I shrugged. "I'm a pretty good thrower too, so I can do it. You won't have to be super-accurate." Tommy held his hands up.

"Good. I'm not a good thrower at all."

"We'll need to stay out of the water, though," I said, taking a deep breath. The problem was beginning to organize itself. "How?" Tommy held up his golden chain.

"The same way I got you out. When he gets here, we'll go."

"Hit him and run," I said. I frowned. "Back at camp, Chiron said-"

"Chiron?"
"An immortal centaur that teaches us. Basically, with Scamander, there's a treaty that states we can't offend him, but if we do, we're allowed to hit him very hard as long as we get out of the way."

Tommy frowned. "Seems awfully convenient."

I shrugged. "I don't know much about him, but supposedly he's a grouchy old man who just wants to be left alone. He'll take any excuse to show his power, but also any excuse to slink away and not bother."
"That makes no sense! How can-"

"Hey, if you're as old as he is, you're allowed to have some contradictions."

"MORTALS," came the cry again, but this time, closer, and the wave pool got faster. I scrambled for purchase on the branch, trying to stand; it wasn't a very wide branch, so instead of sitting, I tried to crouch, behind Tommy. The uneven branch was a poor work surface, and I was terrified that I'd spill and blow us up, but I had to get this together. I began turning things in, turning things out, building pressure with the power of terror, some components, and a lot of duct tape.

The branches parted to reveal us, and I sighed. Thanks a lot, Asp, I thought as the river god approached us.

Scamander rose out; a pudgy old man floating on a tendril of spinning water that fed into the river. He was naked, with a potbelly and a desperate need to shave… everywhere, especially his long, bushy beard that melted into the water. His scowl, however, made him terrifying despite his comical appearance. He crossed his arms and glared at us, arms crossed.

"After Achilles' bloodlust clogged by waters with the corpses of the city I swore to protect, I have vowed to never again let mortals pollute my waters." There was a pause, like he was menacingly pointing his finger at us. "You have offended my daughter, Stella, and as a result-"

"Wait, what?" Tommy said. "Daughter? So… is every brook of yours a daughter?" Despite my situation, frantically tinkering with little parts I couldn't afford to get wetter than they already were, I couldn't help but snicker. It brought a bit of warmth to the situation, something my still wet body could use.

"Yes they are, you ignorant fool, and-"

"Wait, so do you just… add a rock every single time you want a new kid?"

"Do you have a death wish," the god snarled; I looked up as he menacingly hovered over us and bent down. Almost there, I thought, trying to hide my work from him. The components were almost fully organized, the makeshift mechanism almost entirely in place. I just needed more time. "You," he snarled, directing his gaze at me. "A daughter of Hephaestus, the one who burned me. I'll never forget how-"

"Let me guess," Tommy said. "You did some tricks on it and got him to ease up?"
Scamander's face went from angry to confused. I suppressed my laughter as I fidgeted with the settings; needed to break something I'd already made. I snuck a brief glance up, just to make sure that Tommy had already done his preparation when the god wasn't looking. He had.

"Did some tricks on it? I do not understand-" I wasn't looking, but judging by the sounds,

Tommy had pantomined what the expression referred to. I finished my project, made a duct tape loop to wrap it around my arm, and tapped Tommy on the shoulder. "You fool! Now, I will-"

"Die!" Tommy shouted. He leaped forward, and dove off of the tree. Scamander looked down for a brief second at the insane manuver, before looking back up at me. I tapped my golden bracelets together, and felt a brief jolt of excitement as my weapons began to form. Steel frames began to magically build themselves into my hands as celestial bronze mechanisms formed inside of them, telescoping out into their narrow ends.

"Daugher of He-"

Blam! The God of the Scamander River's head exploded into a shower of water, courtesy of the first ever celestial bronze twin revolvers. His entire body began to slowly dissolve, his solid form disrupted for an instant.

That was all I needed. I leaped from the branch, kicking my feet out to burst through his solid form once again, and swung on a chain Tommy had planted across the bank; what was previously a small little brook had turned into a sunken forest, but that also meant a greater distance for us to travel. I swung into a tree across from us, where Tommy already stood, helping me up into the branches. "I got a good look at him. Aim for his back," he said. I nodded, holding up what I'd been working on.

"Got it," I said. Tommy pulled off his chain again and swung it; it morphed into a single, three-foot length of delicate filament chain. "I'll annoy him some more," he said. Then he grinned. "Can I borrow a revol-"

"No," I said. "Nope." He shrugged.

"Worth a shot," he said. "Whoooo!" he screamed, leaping into the river below once again. He swung the chain as he did, and the bronze filament extended, wrapping around a sturdy branch and letting him swing, kicking the re-formed Scamander in the face. Tommy continued to swing like Spider-Man around the trees, taunting Scamander with insults.

It was almost funny, and kind of pathetic, seeing an ancient god being so pestered by a yelling teenager who was ludicrously swinging from trees. But then again, I thought, so is Scamander's treaty."

My hands were cold and clammy as I readied myself to throw my weapon. A hastily wrapped-together collection of cylinders, I waited until Scamander turned his back on me, and I could see it; a patch where the water steamed, taking a chunk out of his back, as if my father's fire still burned him.

"Hey, Scamander," Tommy called. "Are you-" he spluttered, his swing halted as Scamander caught him in a watery fist, bringing him towards his face like some kind of video game enemy. I couldn't hear what Scamander was saying, but I didn't care; I lobbed my package and ducked, covering my ears.

See, my guns worked by using Archimedes' Celestial bronze sun mirror to concentrate the light of a glowing stone into a super-focused laser in the gun's trigger mechanism. Pulling the trigger uncovers the stone, letting the light eventually shine on the end of a brass cartridge filled with greek fire, firing a .38 caliber rubber bullet covered in a thin leaf of celestial bronze faster than any mortal gun could hope to achieve; and with specialized hepahestus cabin handles, who worried about recoil?
By putting a bunch of bullets together with duct tape, and scratching the ends of each cartridge, I'd essentially created a makeshift impact-triggered Greek fire grenade.

The explosion was deafening, but not as much as Scamander's horrifying scream as my grenade reopened the wounds my father had given him. Immediately, the river began to recede, retreating as fast as it came, leaving the area a much wetter, more chaotic version of the quiet brook it had been before.

I climbed down from the tree and went over to Tommy, who had already gotten to his

feet. He snickered.

"Nice throw, Anna."

"Nice plan, Tommy," I said. "Well, except for the part where it involved you nearly

drowning yourself."

"Hey, I didn't see you coming up with any better ideas." Tommy gestured around. "I feel bad for all the, well, drowned animals, but-" he laughed. "Eh, for the first god I've fought, not-"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" came a scream. Stella had emerged from the river, and she was livid. Not at us, though. "YOU CAN'T EVEN SQUASH TWO LITTLE MORTALS? WHAT KIND OF GOD ARE YOU? YOU-"

She began cursing Scamander out in increasingly creative ways before Tommy stopped her.

"What-"
Tommy socked her across the jaw, his celestial bronze chain wrapped around his knuckles. Her face splashed a bit like her father's, but she was still stunned. Once she reformed, she glared at us again, then slunk off into her brook.

Tommy sighed.

"Is that what all gods are like?" He asked. I shrugged.

"No. Most of the time you don't even see them.