“Ugh… my head,” Yena groaned as she began to wake up. She knew that she’d gone out drinking with Yujin and Chaewon the night before but didn’t recall how she managed to get home. She assumed it was Yujin as per usual.

Yena proceeded to grab her phone and check the time only to receive a rush of adrenaline thinking that she was late for her classes. That moment was short-lived though as she remembered that one of the things that happened yesterday was her being expelled. When she looked at her desk, she saw the golden ballpen that Professor Lee had given her. Curiously, she reached over and uncapped it, almost impaling herself in the process.

So that all wasn’t a dream after all… She thought to herself, putting the cap back on to sheathe the sword and sluggishly pulling herself out of bed.

“Honey? Is that you?” Yena heard her mother call when she opened the door of her room.

“Yes, mom. I’ll be out in a minute,” she replied. On the inside though, a sharp worry began to rise within her. Yena didn’t know if Yujin had told her mother about the expulsion or not.

~~~~

“Yujin told me last night when she carried you to your room to let you sleep in. Don’t you usually have classes today though?” Yena’s mother asked when she finally arrived at the table. The question was almost enough to make the hangover soup in front of Yena look unappetizing.

“Yeah, mom… about that.” At this, her mother’s brows furrowed.

“Don’t tell me…” The older woman let those words hang in the air for a couple silent seconds.

Yena reluctantly nodded. “Yes… I’m really sorry. I don’t even understand what happened.”

“Did you pick another fight?” Her mother asked sternly.

“Yes and no. It was just a really strange day yesterday.” Yena was now trying to look anywhere but her mother’s eyes. She felt so embarrassed. After hopping from one school to another, Yena finally thought she found her niche. Her eyes eventually landed on their apartment’s windowsill where a couple large-sized pigeons were staring right at her.

“You’ve had a lot of strange days, dear. I need you to describe them for me, remember?”

Yena scoffed. “Mom, I’m not a kid anymore. You don’t have to take notes down in that notebook of yours.”

Whenever Yena would have crazy things happen to her in school, her mom would ask her to describe them in great detail. Yena never knew what it was for though. She’d assumed for the longest time it was just her mom’s way of calming her down when she’d come home upset. For example, in kindergarten, she got in a fight with a classmate when she wouldn’t believe Yena had seen a winged horse clopping around school. She never managed to shake her reputation of having a vivid imagination after that one.

It had been a while since Yena’s mom had brought out the notebook now, partially because she’d elected to not mention any unusual events anymore if they didn’t cause any trouble.

“Well?” Her mother asked expectantly, pretty much ignoring her daughter’s earlier side comment. With a huff, Yena conceded.

“Mom, remember when I was a kid and I got too close to the electrical socket during a thunderstorm? The whole place lost power, and you told me it was just the lightning hitting a circuit.”

Her mother nodded, urging her to go on. “Well, maybe it wasn’t just a coincidence. I remember putting my hands on the socket before the outage happened. I only found out later that it was supposedly really dangerous to do that.”

Yena expected her mother to jump at that sudden admission. Most parents would not be happy with their kids playing around electrical sockets. Yena’s mother though didn’t seem fazed at all by this new info.

“Aaanyway, yesterday at the cafeteria, I was really angry with this bully, and I tried to shove her. After that, things were a bit hazy, but people kept telling me I used a taser on her when I clearly don’t own one. Later in the afternoon, after meeting with the dean, I ran into a classmate. He turned into some kind of wind ghost and tried to kill me! He was going on about half-bloods or something too.”

This seemed to catch her mother’s attention as she stopped writing in her notebook, muttering a word that Yena could barely catch. Anemoi?

“How did you escape? Did anyone else see?” Her mother then asked.

Yena was starting to get nervous, and it wasn’t just because there were now four large pigeons on their windowsill compared to earlier.

“Professor Seunggi… he gave me this ballpen, but, ugh, this is going to sound crazy.”

Her mother shook her head, “No, Yena, this is really important. I’ll believe whatever you say as long as it’s the truth. Seunggi hasn’t told me about this yet.”

“Wait, what do you mean by that? You know Professor Seunggi?“ Yena asked confusedly.

Her mother brushed the question off. “That isn’t important right now, dear. This is a matter of life and death. What happened with the pen, and where is it?”

Those words shut Yena up immediately. She’d never heard her mother sound so serious before.

“It… turned into a sword, and I used it to kill the wind ghost.” On the inside, even Yena would’ve thought she was crazy for that sentence.

It didn’t seem that her mother doubted it for a second a second though. She just moved on to the next question. “Okay, and do you still have it?”

Yena nodded before a loud squawk grabbed her and her mother’s attention. Outside, the crowd of pigeons had doubled again, and now, they were beginning to peck on the window, as if they were trying to get in.

“Mom… what’s happening?” Yena asked nervously.

“Get the sword. Now!” She replied loudly as one of the birds’ beaks finally broke through.

Yena immediately rushed to her room to look for her pen. When she came back out a minute later, she saw her mother whacking one of the pigeons with a frying pan. The bird was definitely not your average city fowl. It had a bronze-colored beak and feathers so sharp and shiny, Yena assumed they were made of metal.

“Yah! Get away from her!” Yena yelled, uncapping the pen to reveal the golden sword. The pigeon seemed to take this as a challenge and decided to switch targets. Yena had some experience with swordplay from a fencing class she once took in middle school (she was kicked out of that one for accidentally injuring her opponent), so as the pigeon charged, Yena took an angled stance with her sword pointed forward. Letting her instincts take over, she waited for the last second before swinging the weapon sideways, slicing the pigeon into dust.

Yena was in awe. It turned to dust like Sunwoo…

“Yena! Let’s go!” Her mother called to snap her out of her daze. The pigeons outside tried to break through now with renewed effort seeing one of their comrades fall, and Yena decided she did not want to deal with them all at the same time. She ran towards the front door where her mother was and shut the door just as a metal feather pierced through.

“Mom, you have to tell me what’s going on!” Yena pleaded, her movements running on pure adrenaline.

“Let’s get to the elevator. We need to get you to camp!” She replied, which only caused more questions to arise in Yena’s head. What camp was her mother talking about?

Yena had no time to pester her though as they continued to run, the birds right on their tail. Once they arrived at the lift, her mother pressed the basement floor button then spammed the close button.

“Okay, Yena, we are heading straight for the car, and I will take you someplace safe.” The way her mother said that though made Yena confused.

“What about you though?” Yena queried.

Her mother shook her head. “It is not a place where I can stay, Yena. Mortals are forbidden from camp.”

“But I’m mortal just like you! What does that mean?”

“This is about your father’s world.”

The elevator quiets at those words, Yena unable to understand what those words meant.

“My father?” is all she could manage to get out.

Yena’s mom looked conflicted in how much more she wanted or could divulge. It was as if it was a taboo topic. Just as it looked like she was going to say something though, the elevator shuddered from the sound of something heavy landing on it.

“Not good…” Her mother mutters before a loud ding signifies that they’d arrived on the basement floor.

The two women quickly ran over to the yellow car they owned as the devil pigeons finally broke through and flooded the underground parking lot.

“Start the car, mom!” Yena yelled once they got in the vehicle.

“I’m trying!” Her mother replied, her nervousness causing her to drop the keys on the ground. The pigeons were now surrounding their car, pecking at the windows hard. There was no way Yena would be able to fend them all off on her own.

She then decided to grip onto her mother’s arm, just in case this was the end for them. That’s when a loud screech began echoing through the basement garage. The pigeons became visibly uncomfortable, dropping to the ground like flies. If they had hands, they’d probably be grabbing at their ears right now.

With the blob of black and silver now gone, Yena could see in front of them where a young woman with a guitar was standing, and if this wasn’t a life-or-death situation, she would’ve thought this new girl was incredibly pretty. She had mid-length black hair and was wearing jeans along with a bright orange shirt that said, “Camp Half-Blood”. She was riffing away the screeching sound on her instrument, and it seemed to be purposeful as with every strum, more pigeons would fall.

“Thank gods…” Yena’s mother sighed.

Gods… not god. Yena took a mental note of that.

When the mystery girl was satisfied with her work, she slung her guitar over her shoulder and walked over to their car.

“Choi Yena?” she asked after knocking on the window.

Yena’s mom spoke up first. “You must be from camp. Thanks for the help. Did Seunggi send you?”

“Yes, and judging from that question, I’m assuming you know where camp is,” the girl replied.

Her mother nodded. “Get in, I can take you both there.”

The girl considered this for a couple seconds before nodding. “Alright, it might be a little less inconspicuous to travel by land than by Pegasi.”

“A what?” Yena asked, still not following anything that was happening.

“She can fill you in on the way. I’m sorry, dear, I didn’t get to ask your name,” her mother said, referring to the new girl.

“Yuri. Jo Yuri, daughter of Apollo, at your service,” she said before respectfully bowing. “Now, hurry. The stymphalian birds will wake up soon.”

Yena’s mother didn’t need to be told twice as she immediately booked it out of the basement.

~~~~

“Okay, so daughter of Apollo? As in the god of the sun?” Yena asked while they were on the road.

“And music and prophecy and a lot more. But yes, the sun’s his main gig.” Yuri replied casually.

“You’re a child… of a god?” Yena asked again, still not quite believing.

Yuri hummed. “Mhm, everyone at Camp Half-Blood has a godly parent, including you.”

“Huh? I call my mom a goddess a lot, but she’s still human, right, mom?”

Yena’s mother chuckled while at the wheel. “You’re right on that, Yena, but it’s also true. Your father is a god.”

“Where is he then? Why has he been gone this long?” Yena’s questions continued to flow out of , partly out of curiosity, partly out of resentment. If her father was some all-powerful being, why couldn’t he just show himself just once in her life.

“Gods are busy, Yena. I’ve only met my father once. He’s always out flying the sun across the sky.” Yuri interjected.

“Yah, you expect me to believe that the sun is being moved by chariot in the sky and not science???” Yena challenged.

“He drives a bus, but yeah, I get your point. Science is just one of many powers that makes the world go around. When my father is busy, the Egyptian god, Rah, picks up the slack.” The mention of an Egyptian god only seemed to throw Yena for an even bigger loop.

With a small laugh, Yuri continued. “Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best explanation. What's important is there are a lot of forces in this world that exist, and you belong to the Greek one. When we get to camp, you’ll probably find out who your godly parent is, same with your other two friends.”

This caught Yena’s attention. “My friends? You mean Chaewon and Yujin?”

Yuri nodded. “I think those were their names. Hopefully they get to camp without being killed though. Multiple demigods traveling together usually grab a lot of attention from monsters.”

“Excuse me? What do you mean killed?” Yena exclaimed as their car began crossing a coastal highway.

“They probably won’t! Chaeyeon and Nako are good fighters. It’s just that every quest is a risk. I cannot guarantee anything.” Yuri’s reply didn’t exactly calm Yena down. If those birds back at their apartment were after her, she could only imagine what would be after her friends.

“In any case, that’s their task. Mine is getting you to camp safely.”

“Okay, girls we should be near soon. Yuri, I’m putting my daughter’s fate in your hands,” Yena’s mother interjected.

“Mom, what if those things come after you instead?” Yena asked worriedly, but her mom shook her head.

“They’ll only be after you two. Monsters only go after half-bloods. I’ll take you as far as I can, but I won’t be able to get through the barrier,” she said.

“What barrier?” Yena asked before realizing that it was probably another question that would be answered soon.

~~~~

After a few more minutes, her mother turned the car off the road. Yena didn’t recognize the place. All she knew was that they were near the ocean right now.

On the horizon, Yena could see a large forest on a hill, but nothing that looked like the camp they were referring to.

“We’re going to have to go on foot from here. Stay ready for anything. There could be monsters waiting to ambush us,” Yuri said before opening the door and heading out.

Yena looked at her mom who had an unreadable expression right now.

“Go, Yena. I’ll be fine. If I’m being honest, I should’ve done this earlier, so you could be safe. I was just too selfish and wanted to keep you around me,” she said.

Those words stung for some reason. Should’ve done this earlier? Yena had already been abandoned by her father. Now, this is what she was hearing from her mother. Despite this, it was the second half of what she said that hit Yena more.

“Mom, all the times I got in trouble, all the crazy stories I shared from school, they were because of my father, right?” Yena asked quietly.

“It’s not like that, Yena. Your father… he does care. He just can’t show it as much as he wants.”

Yena huffed at this. “When I meet him then, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.”

“Just… be careful, dear. I’ll be waiting for you if you ever need me,” her mother warned before giving Yena a big hug.

“Yah, Yena! We gotta get a move on!” Yuri called from outside. Yena let go of her mother, wiping a tear from her eye.

“Take care mom. If you ever need me too. Just call,” and with that, Yena turned and ran off to catch up to Yuri.

~~~~

“You seem really close to her,” Yuri commented as they walked up the hill.

“Yeah, she saved my life when I was sick as a kid,” Yena replied.

Yuri let out a sigh. “Must be nice to have a loving parent…”

Yena looked over to the younger girl who had a guarded expression on her face. Whatever story she had; Yena decided now wasn’t the best time to pry. Instead, she decided to ask about the other thing on her mind.

“So… the camp. You said there were other people like us. How many?”

“Too many to count. I only keep track of my cabin for the most part, around fourteen?” Yuri replied. “There’s a lot of cabins on camp, one per godly parent. There used to be just twelve, but someone over in America forced the gods to diversify.”

“Oh, but I don’t know who my father is yet,” Yena said. Maybe she had a slight guess, but she didn’t want to jump to conclusions and look like she didn’t know her Greek mythology.

Yuri smiled at her, and Yena had to cover her face to hide the sudden blush she got from it. “That just means you’ll stay in the Hermes cabin until you do. It’s a big place, don’t worry. Anyway, looks like we’re in the clear. Judging from the monster dust littered around the place, I assume Chaeyeon and Nako got back too.”

“That means my friends are here too?” Yena asked.

“We’ll find out once we get down there,” The younger girl replied with an air of mystery.

“It’s… just a forest though. I don’t see a camp anywhere,” Yena said, peering over below at the view.

Again, a sly smile grew on Yuri’s face. “Take a step forward and find out.”

Yena nods and tentatively walks forward, a weird feeling overcoming her senses. By the time her vision cleared, Yena thought she was dreaming again as in front of her where it was once greenery, was now a huge camp with crowds of people in orange shirts milling around cabins. Littered around the huge area were other structures too like a climbing wall that looked to be over lava, some stables, an archery range and so much more.

Yena then gets surprised by Yuri’s hand tapping her shoulder.

“Welcome to Camp Half-Blood.”

 

A/N: Hi guys, welcome back to another chapter! This one was a bit on the longer side compared to the length these chapters will usually be, so I hope you enjoyed. It was really fun to write for me! 

We have YulYen's first meeting, and it seems our duck is already taking a liking to her. With the info-overload she's dealing with though right now, she may not realize it yet haha

As mentioned at the end of this chapter, Chaeyeon and Nako have returned, so we'll be seeing how their group's (messier) trip to camp went in the next one.

Thank you again so much for being patient with me in this difficult time. Everything is pretty stressful for me right now to be honest, but writing this story for y'all has been a nice escape.

Thank you as well as always for all the likes and comments! Once again, I'm always open for clarification if there are parts that the people who aren't as familiar with PJO don't really get. For those who do, I hope you get the references I slip in haha.

Hope everyone has a nice day, and I'll see y'all in the next one!