Ch. 79: Sharing A Drink Of Vodka (Hermes POV)
I stood alone in the dimly lit workshop, left behind by Hades and Talos. Now, I was stuck with the brute of a god, Hephaestus. Great. If you could imagine a living embodiment of hammers, it was him. His frame was massive, his shoulders hunched over an anvil that looked like it had borne the brunt of a thousand thunderstrikes. I glanced around, wondering how to escape before he decided to use me as a stress ball.
"Cripes," I muttered under my breath, my body tense as Hephaestus finally turned his gaze on me. His piercing eyes, gleaming with a strange, unreadable emotion, locked onto mine for a long moment. He did nothing, just stared. I was almost at the verge of peeing myself, and he could probably tell. His silence was louder than the constant clanging of metal behind him. Then, without a word, he returned to his work, his expression unreadable, though I caught a brief flicker of pain on his face.
