New Place to Begin

The tour

"Is she going to be okay?"

"Yes, she should be fine. She healed fast, even for a demigod."

"That was quite an entrance."

"From what I've heard, she's quite a special girl."

"You're right...I've never seen powers like hers."

"She'll be awake soon. Make sure someone is here when she wakes up, we don't want her to panic."

"Got it."

Yunjin groaned, finally coming back to consciousness. She had a splitting headache, and her back was incredibly sore.

She forced her eyes open, noticing the unfamiliar bed she had been sleeping in. Biting back another pained groan, she forced herself to sit up, noting the bandages now wrapped around her shoulders and presumably covering the injuries on her back.

On the wooden bedside table, a glass of water waited, accompanied by a small plate with two ambrosia squares. Yunjin narrowed her eyes at the glass and the familiar yellow squares, hesitant to take either item.

Where was she, anyway? It seemed to be a medbay of some sorts, but not a single person was there, and the empty beds around her made her nervous. Maybe she was at the camp Sakura and Eunbi had talked about.

Or maybe the harpy had gotten her after all, and she was simply having some sort of crazed hallucination.

Her stomach dropped at the thought.

She had just swung her legs over the side of the bed when someone's voice stopped her in her tracks.

"The ambrosia is there for you, you know." She said, and Yunjin stiffened, turning towards the voice.

Sakura gave her a small smile. "Don't worry," she reassured her, noting just how tense she was. "You're safe. We made it to camp."

Yunjin swallowed, letting some of the tension leave her frame. Sakura approached and sat on the side of the infirmary bed, handing her the plate of ambrosia herself. "Eat." she said, giving her a nod. "It'll make you feel a whole lot better, I swear. I know that concussion can't feel very good right now."

She was right. The headache had been bad when she'd awoken, and it had only gotten worse every second.

Yunjin sighed, taking a square of ambrosia and popping it into her mouth. Once again, an overwhelming feeling of warmth and comfort ran through her, and she couldn't help but smile at the familiar taste of her mom's dumplings once again.

"What do you taste?" Sakura asked, tilting her head.

Yunjin's smile faded and she shook her head. "Why?"

"Everyone tastes something different." Sakura explained, unbothered by how cagey Yunjin was being. "For me, I taste the oranges I used to have nearly everyday back at home. There was a tree outside our house where I picked them."

Yunjin frowned. "So..."

"You taste something that reminds you of home, usually," Sakura filled in. "It's supposed to be comforting."

Yunjin nodded, glancing down at the last square of ambrosia. "I taste my mother's dumplings, the ones she used to make from scratch when I was young."

Sakura smiled softly. "That sounds wonderful." she said. "I'm surprised you haven't already eaten the other one. Most new kids want to eat about thirty in a row when they first arrive."

Dahyun shook her head. "I want to savor it, I guess." she shrugged.

"Good instinct," Sakura said, standing from the bed. "Even though it heals us, if we eat too many, it can burn us up from the inside. A couple people have even died from eating too much."