Son of Love and Fire

Chapter 4

The sun rose early this morning bathing the clearing in bright early morning light filtering through the trees and illuminating the still burning flames of a warm campfire and Percy and Hestia leaning against a log beside the camp fire asleep within each other's embrace. Hestia had fallen asleep last night with a family beside her for the first time and a smile on her face that hadn't graced her features in such a bright way in many years.

Percy's eyes flickered open as he blinks the last of his sleep away and a smile graced his face as he found himself waking up in the embrace of his new-found family. He eased himself away and heads off into the woods to go and hunt breakfast. After a short while he had finished catching three birds from the trees and returned to the clearing. As he broke through the trees skirting the clearing, he found Hestia had recently awoken and had set up the pan he had fashioned from a monster's shield over the fire to cook breakfast. Smiling, Percy approached Hestia and began preparing the birds for cooking, despite having not spoken a word there was a comfortable silence between them.

"So, what do you want to do today Perseus?"

"I've been planning to start a mine in the mountain side (The island is basically a mountain that flattens out into about 3-5 kilometres around then joins the sea) then I want to use the metal and craft my own weapons. I don't know how but with enough time I should be able to work it out." Perseus responded with a smile.

"That sounds like hard work, if you want a weapon, I might be able to bring one here for you." Hestia answered although she felt bad that this was something such a young child had to go through and wished there was more, she could do.

"It's ok auntie, I like to learn new things, it'll be fun being able to make something like a sword for myself." Percy responded with a cheerful smile.

Hestia smiled back, seeing someone so enthused over something so simple that many others around her would just find a chore or get someone else to do for them made her happy. She found that almost all her 'family' on Olympus were only becoming more arrogant and filled with senses of superiority as time went on which disappointed her. Seeing her young nephew like this made her realise that there was now someone new in her life, someone that she is growing to love more and more and that he is a better person than she believed was still out there.

As the day continued the two trekked up to a point on the mountainside where a sheer rock wall was exposed, there Perseus began to hack at the wall of solid rock with the rusty pick he had acquired from yet another monster that was sent to end him, whilst the monster attacks were troubling at least they brought him so tools regardless of their decrepit condition. Hestia came up with an idea on what he could do to help him mine and voiced her thoughts seeing as in the hour he had been going Perseus had only made a small dent.

"Perseus" Hestia called out and continued once he turned to her, "There is a method some mortals use to mine, it's dangerous for them but given our powers it should be quite easy."

"I'm open to any ideas auntie." Perseus answered with an enthusiastic smile despite the sweat that was only just beginning to fall from his brow after the hour of hard work.

"They would start a fire in their mines and keep it up to heat the rock then toss cold water on it which would crack the rock veins and help them mine faster, this is dangerous for them as they have to be close to apply the water which puts them in the way of the collapsing rock but given your powers over water you should be able to do it from afar." Hestia explained.

"Sounds good, lets give it a try." Perseus responded with a smile as he stepped away from the 30 cm or so beginning, he'd made in the mineshaft. Hestia then stepped forward and blasted fire far hotter than any mortals had against the rocks. Hestia focused and quickly heated only the rocks that were in the path of the shaft using her powers.

When Hestia stopped Perseus took a step forward and summoned water from the air before chilling it to temperatures that would make it solid if not for his powers then threw it against the rocks which caused a huge cracking sound to erupt before the broken rocks that now made up a shaft about 3 meters into the rock face angled down slightly fell down. Percy moved forward and began to move the rocks out and threw them to the sides of the mine entrance.

After about 10 minutes of Perseus working at his fast pace all the rocks were cleared and for such short effort the results were impressive to say the least. Perseus turned back to Hestia and ran over and gave her a hug, "That was amazing, thanks auntie."

"It's a pleasure nephew, I see what you mean when you say it is satisfying to be able to do things for yourself." Perseus smiled in response, for the rest of the day until the sun began to fall the two worked on the mine using Hestia's method only taking a break for eating some berries that Hestia had collected from nearby. As the sun began to fall from the horizon the shaft was an impressive 20 meters deep and 2.5 meters wide with a clearance of 3 meters.

Both Perseus and Hestia were proud of what they achieved as they walked back to the campsite, as they were walking Perseus spotted a deer in the distance which he shot down in a single fluid movement with the bow he had brought with him. The two then carried the deer to camp where they prepared dinner and put aside some of the meet for breakfast and Perseus left the rest for the wolves that came by occasionally knowing when he had extra food from a hunt, he would leave it out for them. After eating Hestia turned to Perseus with a smile.

"Today was really fun Perseus thank you for doing all that with me, I'll be here tomorrow morning for breakfast." Hestia said as she leaned over and kissed Perseus on the forehead.

"Okay auntie, bye, I love you." Perseus said with a smile as he went over and slung his bow across hi back and picked up the pick he had brought back from the mine.

"What are you doing Perseus? Shouldn't you sleep? I'll be back and we can work on the mine tomorrow." Hestia asked confused.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I barely ever sleep, when the sun and moon changes over the skies in the morning and night I am refilled with energy, I found I don't need any sleep."

"Are you sure, I don't want you to hurt yourself." Hestia said lovingly, cupping one of his cheeks in her hand.

"I'm sure, before you came it had been many years since I had ever slept and that was often only after I had over-trained with my powers and never lasted too long, I'm alright, have a good night auntie" Perseus reassured her.

"Okay then, so long as you're okay. I love you, good night Perseus" Hestia said before flashing away in a burst of flames.

That night Perseus had returned to the mine and continued digging in the dark but given his wolf like abilities he was able to see quite well in the dark. Over the night he had gained another few meters on the shaft before retuning to the camp with some breakfast he had hunted for his aunt and himself.

The next few weeks went on quite the same as the two enjoyed each other's company whilst making great progress on the mine they were creating which they both took great pride in, by the end of three weeks the mine was a bit over half a kilometre long and had flattened out to a level tunnel after about 30 meters of decent. Many ores had been brought from the mine and Hestia was surprised to find that most were of godly properties meaning the island was probably raised by Poseidon and not just chosen by him.

Now began their task of crafting the weapons, both of their excitement for this had grown tremendously as they had watched the pile up of ores build up. The mining became more difficult as to avoid damaging any ores Perseus had mined them out by hand, but it didn't do anything to quell his enthusiasm.