This is the start of a new generation.
I want a dog. I've asked Mom and Dad about a million times but they keep saying no.
"We have you three animals already," Dad said once. I mean, sure, Sammy and Rose can be classified as animals, but certainly not me!
Actually...you know what, never mind. Anyway, doesn't every ten year old deserve a puppy? Right? I mean, Luke has a hellhound. I'm just asking for a regular puppy.
Anyway, I was sitting alone at the kitchen table, daydreaming about dogs when my dad approached me. He slid into the seat next to me, a contemplating look on his face.
"I think you're old enough now..." He murmured to himself.
"Old enough for what?" I asked, instantly enraptured.
He smiled mysteriously. "You know the stories about the Prophecy of the Seven?" He asked.
I scoffed. "Of course I do."
"And the ship I built?"
I couldn't help the swell of pride at those words. My Dad was one of the greatest demigods of the age. He built a huge warship for the quest. I nodded eagerly.
"You wanna see where I built it?" He asked. My jaw dropped and my eyes went wide. I nodded vigorously.
He laughed, rubbing his hands together so they steamed a bit. "I'll tell your mother where we're going. Put on some work clothes."
I scrambled to do as he said and ran to my room. When I came back down wearing old jeans, a white t-shirt, and some old suspenders I stole from Dad's closet(I'd seen pictures of his typical work outfit), I hurried down the stairs.
Dad was waiting for me in similar attire. Mom came from the kitchen and sighed at our matching appearances. She hugged me, kissing the top of my hair, all the while I squirmed to get away. "Have fun. And be careful."
"Oh always careful, Mom. All the time." She raised an eyebrow and turned to my dad. "I know the state of that bunker. You make sure you watch him."
"Yeah, yeah," Dad said, smirking. He kissed Mom(ew) and pushed me along out the door.
"So where are we going?" I asked.
"It's at Camp Half-Blood," he answered.
When we were passing by the Emily's house, we saw that Frank, Hazel, and Emily were all outside in the front yard, five year old Emily splashing around in a kiddie pool.
"And where are you two off to?" Hazel asked.
"Bunker 9," Dad answered secretively. Hazel raised an eyebrow.
"Aright, well have fun. Make sure to build something awesome, Milo," she said.
My eyes lit up at the prospect of building something awesome with my dad in a secret 'Bunker 9'. Today was shaping up to be the best day ever!
"You'll love it," Dad was saying as we passed through the portal. Instead of going into Camp like usual, we veered toward the woods and a shiver of fear shot through me.
"Aren't the woods dangerous?" I asked.
"Yes," Dad said and kept walking. I hastened to keep up. Dad had his hands on fire to light the way and he didn't seem frightened in the least! I was reminded how brave my dad is. I grabbed hold onto his hand(it was still burning but it didn't bother me) and he seemed to realize for the first time that I was scared.
"Oh, Milo, nothing will ever hurt you while I'm here. You don't have to worry. And when you're old enough to go to Camp, they'll teach you how to defend yourself."
I didn't let go of his hand though. I figured if anything was safe, it was my dad.
After walking for awhile we came to a cliff face. Or at least that's what I thought it was until Dad put his still burning hand onto the surface. Fiery lines spread to outline a huge door. Dad pushed it open and it swung, silent.
"Perfectly balanced," I muttered.
And then I caught a glimpse of the inside. It. Was. HUGE! There was so much tools and half finished projects. Blueprints and sketches, some in Dad's handwriting, some not. I ran from place to place, eager to take everything in at extreme speeds.
"Whoa!" Dad said, catching me by the suspenders. "That will explode if you touch it."
"Explode, whoa," I whispered reverently.
There was a metal sign propped against the wall, 'Leo and Calypso's Gara' blow torched into it. Dad came up behind me and sighed. "Guess I never finished that," he said, grabbing it and laying it across a work bench. He let his pointer finger catch fire and dragged it right through the metal, writing 'ge'.
There was a creaking groan behind me and I turned to see a big lump of bronze. Dad didn't even turn around. "Ah bud, how was your slumber? Don't give me sass, you're the one that wanted to hibernate a few years. I tried to talk you out of it."
My jaw was most likely going to hang open permanently after today. Turning back to the pile of bronze, it started making more creaks and whirs, and then it shifted slightly. I ran back to Dad's side, nudging him frantically. He turned from the sign and laughed at the bronze.
"Don't try to blame your stiff joints on me. A simple oiling will fix you right up."
"What is that thing? You can understand it?"
"That thing has a name, Milo."
"Well what is it?"
"That, son, is a bronze dragon. I named him Festus."
"A bronze dragon?! Whoa!"
"Festus!" Dad called and the lump of bronze began to unfurl. I watched with wide eyes as the dragon spread his wings as though stretching, different metal joints and parts whirring and spinning. And then the dragon untucked its head, roaring at the ceiling, blowing fire.
"He's just being dramatic," Dad whispered.
Festus bounded off the podium he rested on like an excited puppy. He came right up next to us, nuzzling my dad affectionately. Then his big ruby eyes settled on me and his teeth all whirred in a circle before settling again.
"This is my son Milo," Leo told the dragon. I held out my hand. I wanted to touch the dragon. I was curious how such a thing could exist, but being a legacy, I figured a lot of things were possible in this godly world. I realized then just how excited I was to be able to go to Camp Half-Blood when and learn more.
Dad nodded at my outstretched hand and I reached forward cautiously. Festus didn't move, just watched. My hand rested on his snout and I could feel the vibrations. "How does he work?" I asked in awe.
"Mind if we take a look at your brain, bud?" Dad asked.
A couple creaks. "I'll get you some motor oil and Tabasco sauce," Dad offered, like it was some great thing.
Festus whirred in what sounded like a sigh and lay down. "Shutting you down for just a minute," Leo warned. He reached up behind Festus's head and pried open a hatch with his fingers. He stuck it between his teeth, reaching into the wiring and flipped some sort of switch and Festus's eyes went dark.
"Alright," Leo said, trying to talk around the piece of metal between his teeth, finding it didn't work, and removed it, slipping it into is toolbelt.
"Alright," he repeated. "I'll show you how he works."
I stepped closer as dad's fingers moved effortlessly over the wires, disconnecting a few, replacing a few others, and then removed a disk. He frowned at it, rubbing his fingers in the divots, attempting to clean it.
He paced back to a workbench and grabbed a pre-prepared cleaning solution and a rag, working at cleaning out the grime. He explained as he worked, "Some genius Hephaestus campers many years ago made him with a blessing from Hephaestus. This disk is a piece of brilliance. It needs to be replaced, it's old, but I haven't figured out how to duplicate it yet."
Satisfied with his cleaning job, he went back over to Festus. "They created him to guard Camp before Thalia's tree existed. Apparently Percy and the past head-counselor, Charles Beckendorf, found him in the woods and fixed him up. After Beckendorf died, he went haywire. When I first got to Camp, all my siblings were trying to find a way to capture him."
There was a click as the disk slid back into place and Leo started reconnecting wires.
"I found him and freed him from the trap he got himself into. He led me here and I found his wings and attached them. Then we rode back into Camp and I told Jason that I had transportation for the quest and that was that."
I was amazed, the way he talked so casually about the war. It was rare any of us kids got stories, so we formed a secret society where we all get together and exchange any information we obtained.
Riley's getting good at getting information from his dad with charmspeak. It doesn't work on his mom, of course.
Dad messed around some more and then Festus whirred back to life. "He got blown up on the quest, but I found a way to save his head and use it as the masthead of the ship. And then in secret, I rebuilt his body. And then when I died--"
"You DIED?!?" I shrieked.
"Yes," he said, unbothered, "he stayed with me and gave me the Physicians Cure. And that's how we flew to find your mom. The rest's history."
"I want you to explain to me the fact that you died and didn't tell us. And how are you alive if you died?"
He seemed a bit frustrated with himself for letting that detail slip, but he sighed. "There was a prophecy. You've heard it, yes?"
I nodded. Of course I've heard it. "An oath to keep with a final breath," Leo said, finding another project to dive into, needing something to do with his hands. "I promised to come back and rescue your mother, and we all knew that one of us would die, so we had a side quest to make the Physicians Cure, which can cure death."
He ran his hand over his face, leaving a trail of oil and grime, but he didn't seem to care. "I knew it was going to be me, but I didn't tell anyone. I worked in solitude to build Festus and make a plan. When the time came, and the Argo II crashed, I had the Cure and Festus and I grabbed Gaea and we flew her into the sky. Jason and Piper were there too, it started with us and that was how it was going to end too. Pipes charmspeaked her to sleep and then we blew her up. And I died."
He wasn't looking at me when he talked, trying to distract himself, absentmindedly slipping details. It was like he was lost in the past, not quite realizing he was telling these things to his ten year old son. Oh, I'm going to have so much information for our Secret Society.
"And then what?" I asked eagerly.
"I told you. I came back to life, got your mom, and then we came back to Camp. Helped Apollo on a quest, started our garage. Then we had you, Sam, and Rose and then moved here end of story."
I decided then that I better stop asking questions or else he'd be extra careful to keep information from me in the future.
"Dad, I want a dog," I said instead. He groaned. "Milo, we've talked about this--"
"A metal one," I interrupted. He started to say something, but I kept talking. "Well, you have Festus, a super-freaking-cool metal dragon! I just want a dog."
He thought about it for a second, a smile crossing his lips. "I think we might be able to do something about that."
I grinned too.
Throughout the next week, we returned to the bunker every day to work on my metal companion. Most of the reason it took so long was because Dad was trying to teach me how to build things and letting me do most of the work.
At one point, he smiled at me. "Clean hands, dirty equipment, Milo."
Towards the end of the week we started working on a disk. Dad was experimenting different tactics and trying to recreate something like Festus's disk.
He took a break from the disk, frustrated, and went to add better detail to the dog's body. It looked like a metal Labrador. I peeked to make sure he was distracted, then grabbed the disk.
I examined it, hoping that maybe I could crack some kind of code by just looking at it. I don't know where my bravo came from since I wasn't nearly as experienced as my dad, but I felt I had to try.
And it sort of came to me. I grabbed a carving tool and set to work. I didn't even know what I was doing or what it meant, I just sort of did it. It wasn't until about an hour later that I realized Dad was watching me work over my shoulder.
I jumped when I realized he was standing there. He grinned, then nodded at the disk. "How'd you know to do that?" He asked. I simply shrugged. "Well keep doing it."
So I did. I filled it with a sort of mysterious code. When I was finally done another hour later, we braked for snack.
"Are you ready to test it?" Dad asked. I nodded eagerly, smiling widely.
When we got back to the workstation, Festus was watching quietly from his podium. The dog was up to my waist standing up. He had some wicked teeth and glowing ruby eyes.
"Have you figured out what to name him?" Dad asked me.
"I'm still thinking on it," I said.
Dad was eyeing our creation thoughtfully. "Alright, I want you to be on the catwalk when I start him up. Just in case he's violent. I don't want you in the path of destruction. We can always tweak his settings, but for the first test run, you stay up there, okay?"
I agreed, though I wanted nothing more to be right there when he started for the first time.
Dad waited until I was away safely on the catwalk before starting to hook the control disk into the dog's head. It only took him thirty seconds, and then the eyes started to glow and he let out a metallic growl, clanging about deep in the dog's throat.
The dog twisted it's head around and took a few tentative steps forward, testing its movement. Then it barked happily and bounded around Dad's feet like a puppy. My heart swelled. This was my dog! I made him!
I ran down the catwalk and onto the floor and the dog stopped and fixed me with a stare. He seemed to recognize me as his creator because he bounded towards me. Dad let out a shout, but the dog only nuzzled my hand. I got down on my knees, letting him lick my face with his smooth bronze tongue.
I was giggling uncontrollably and my dog was barking happily.
"I know what I'm gonna name him now, Dad," I said.
"Yeah?" He asked.
Talking to the dog now, I said, "Your name is Ajax. Just like the Greek warrior. You're a warrior too, aren't you Ajax?"
He barked his confirmation.