Well, that was… stupid. Glory thought. Crunch. She landed in a pile of... bones? Right then, she had a pretty good idea on whom her dad might be. Maybe Thanatos?

She didn’t know what to do. She ran through the woods behind her house in Toronto’s most farthest non-urban area. The woods were still part of the city. She sighed, and propped some sticks against a trunk of a tree, so that it was a shelter.

Gathering some bark, she used it to make a roof, mainly blocking the open gaps. “If I had a bed…” She pulled out a blanket and a sleeping bag from her pack. “Well, that’ll have to do.”

The sun was setting, she had spent so much time building her shelter. She climbed into her makeshift bed. It was more comfortable than she imagined. She drifted off to the sound of crickets singing themselves to sleep, the soft whisper of the woods, and the lullaby of the wind.

She awoke to a newcomer, a little wolf cub. Next to it, there was a boy, and he had a tattoo on his arm: ♉️. Maybe a runaway, not noticing me in here, Glory thought. Then she looked at her own arm. There was also a sign: ♍️. “Virgo,” she whispered. “Gods.” She thought “Gods” was an appropriate term, since she was branded with her Greek zodiac sign.

“Huh?” The boy shifted, waking up. Then he noticed Glory. “Aaughh!” He wasn’t aware of Glory last night.

“Who are you?” Glory tried not to sound panicked.

“First of all, how’d you get in here?”

Glory sighed. “I made this shelter, thank you very much. I’m Glory.”

The boy hesitated, then replied, “Alex.”

“Alex.” There was an awkward silence. The wolf barked.

“Let’s go. I overheard your conversation yesterday. The myths are real.” Alex walked out, the wolf following him. Glory had no choice but to follow him.

“So, which myths exactly?” There was a pause. “It’s okay if you don’t want to answer.”

They trudged through the forest, and every so often the wolf cub would bark at some berries. There was nothing to do but walk. Not one of them spoke, as they slowly made their way towards the end of the forest.

The clearing they reached was surrounded by a variety of trees. In the middle, there was the biggest campsite Glory had ever seen. Cabins were grouped by style, or so Glory thought. In the middle was a bonfire, surrounded by different stone animals. And the strangest thing was that there were hundreds of kids, all on their own.

And at the entrance, right at a gateway, hung a large sign.

The sign said:

Camp Myth-Blood

New campers welcome.

The sign looked more like an entranceway, a stone carving into rock. Visible cracks constantly shifted, and to Glory’s surprise, Alex walked in under the arch. The surface glimmered, and Glory realized something.

The Mist. That's why I haven’t heard of this place. The Mist was concealing it!

A voice shifted her out of her mind and into reality. “New kid, Alex?”

“She was branded with Virgo, Claris.” Aha! So Alex had seen Glory in her shelter.

“If you say so. New kid! Come over here!” Alex motioned for her to follow him.

Glory walked through the crowd of campers watching this new girl as she followed her guardian camper. As she reached Claris, she saw that she was wearing a black t-shirt with Camp Myth-Blood printed on it. She had long blond hair that was, well, stringy, and had a vicious-looking scar on her left cheek, a scary-looking dagger in her hand, and she was very tall.

“Hey, new kid! I’m Claris, head camper.” Glory couldn’t believe she was so nice, although she was tough-looking and well built. Claris motioned for Glory to follow her. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”

They walked around, with Claris pointing out some things, saying hello to other campers, and pointing some important details. “... and the cabins are grouped by your godly parent’s purpose. Hey, I’m getting tired of calling you new kid, what’s your name?

“Um.. Glory.”

“Glory! Like the legendary Glory of the Dead! She used to be head camper, like

two thousand years ago. Child of Hades, she was.”

“Okay?”

They walked over to a replica of a coliseum, and stopped. Claris tapped on the door, and it dissipated. “Come on, everyone’s waiting.”

Glory gulped. Everyone? Glory thought. She couldn’t stand the idea of a bunch of people she didn’t know looking at her.

She walked inside, squinting at the bright sunlight, and staring at the shadows, maybe so she could disappear in them. She looked around. Each cabin groups had their own spots. She looked at the wisdom group, seeing a daughter of Athena in the crowd. The war grouping caught her attention. Sitting in the front was Alex, with some roman kids, maybe a child of Mars. In the topmost area, sitting there was the kids of Skanda, the Hindu war god. One of them carried a vicious-looking dagger, steampunk style. She looked Glory’s way, as if to say, Don’t make a move on anyone. Glory looked away. Claris was making a speech about a new camper, blah, blah.

Suddenly she yelled, “Let’s welcome our newest camper, Glory!” The crowd cheered, as if Glory was their saviour. “Come on out!”

Glory bent so she was covering her face and shirt. She came out from the shadows where she was observing everyone. Everyone yelled approval, and the council of assembled nature spirits nodded at Alex.

As she finished processing this, Claris yelled something like, “Let the claimage begin!”

Claimage? She thought.

“Ambassadors, come forth!” Claris became very serious at this point. Then one person from each cabin jumped down from the seats, creating a circle around Glory, chanting. Over and over. Whenever Glory thought it was done, they would start a new chant.

The clasped hand in the circle became to glow, but not gold, like you would think. They glowed the deepest, darkest, most treacherous black you could imagine. The ambassadors’ eyes began to glow gray. A symbol began to hover over the circle.

It looked as if the circle of campers around Glory began to spin, faster. The expression on their faces seemed scared, less powerful, less important. Smoke curled at the edges of the stage. The audience stared in fear, the steampunk Skanda girl staring in a mix of disgust and fear. Alex staring in awe. The Athena kid staring in shock.

Then it stopped, so suddenly, Claris took a few seconds snapping out of her trance.

Then the council spoke. As one, they chanted,

This is a very powerful demigod,

The ones you would never seek

This girl is a Greek Big Three

Tartarus, she has that reek.

Child of Hades, she is thee,

Now she is wild and free.

One quest she will take,

In the deepest part of the deathly black lake.

“Whoa, whoa whoa.” Claris said. “We are not sending a new camper on a quest. Especially a child of the Big Three. They have the strongest smells. Glory, go with Alex to your cabin. Show over, move out.”

The audience groaned, for as is was just getting good, they had to leave. Glory could hear Claris muttering, “...deathly black lake, could be Tartarus? What does she do there? So many questions…” Glory turned and followed after Alex.

“So… why are prophecies so important?” Glory asked. Alex seemed to hesitate.

“Well, remember your question on which myths are real?” Alex smiled as they walked towards the Hades cabin. They passed Steampunk Girl, the Athena kid, and some harpies. They passed the thunder gods’ cabins, then the water ones, and approached the death gods’ cabin.

“Um, yeah?”

Alex smiled. They found the Hades Cabin, in the center, next to some Aztec god’s cabin. “Well, to answer your little question…”

Glory waited for an answer. Alex just nudged her towards the cabin door. “What? What is it?”

Alex smiled again, with mock wickedness. “I tend to wait the second day to answer, but this time, I’ll crack.”

Glory waited for an answer.

“All of them.”