I was awoken by a sudden earthquake. The ground was violently shaking but my stuff weren’t bothered. “Seonbaenim?” I called out. I slowly crawled out of bed, trying not to go out of balance and went out of my room. “Curse the gods! I can’t eat my toast!” I heard Jong-in complain from downstairs. I hurried down and saw Jong-in attempting to eat his breakfast.

I would laugh if I didn’t feel this dizzy. He looked more of an idiot than he usually does.

“Open up!”

I groaned, struggling on my feet. “Get the door, Hyori!” Jong-in shouted. I cussed under my breath before going to the door. “What the heck are you doing to us?” I automatically asked to the smiling guest on the doorstep. He was short and had intense eyes. He was taller than me though and didn’t look Korean at all.

“I’m just shaking up the morning for you,” he answered. I scoffed. “Poseidon’s child,” I labelled him. The stranger laughed. “I’m Wang Ka Yee or Jackson Wang,” he introduced himself and he offered his hand. I almost wanted to punch him if I wasn’t shaking up like this. “Could you put a stop to this?” I asked. Jackson grinned as he snapped his fingers.

“Finally!”

I could hear Jong-in rejoice. I guess he can have his breakfast now. “So what are you doing here?” I asked, narrowing my eyes on the Chinese boy. “I come as a warning. Moros is rising fast, as we speak. I don’t want to have you nor my half-brother harmed,” Jackson answered. “Oh yes, your brother is Kim Jongdae, am I correct? But you don’t have a human scent,” I pointed out. “Nothing mortal about you,” I added.

“I am a son of Poseidon and a nymph. I am sure you know the conditions I am born with if I am an offspring of a god and a nymph,” Jackson explained. I nodded. “Is that all you have to say? After causing chaos in our morning?” I asked.

“Well, my father hates your father so I’m bound to bother you,” he said casually. “Now who the heck disturbed my breakfast?” Jong-in rushed to my side and glared at Jackson. “Oh, nice to meet you,” Jackson greeted with a grin, unfazed by how mad Jong-in looked. “Anyways, I have to go. I hope to see you again,” Jackson winked at me before coolly leaving us by the doorstep.

Jong-in scoffed. “Idiotic,” he said as he gave me a piece of toast. “Eat some. Luhan-hyung called and said there was an emergency so eat up. I know you’ll waste your energy over dealing with him,” Jong-in said before chuckling. I took a bite. “And what emergency is that?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow, slamming the door close.

“Something about… not really sure,” Jong-in said as he dragged me towards the kitchen. “But if Luhan-hyung said it was an emergency without mentioning the reason, that meant it is really serious,” he added as he made me sit down. I smirked before chuckling. “You know him so well, sunbaenim,” I remarked. Jong-in patted my head.

“Glad to be of humour to my niece.”

After getting ready, we went to Luhan’s manor. And it was obvious that his godly parent was Aphrodite. I mean, there were statues proclaiming love and romance. The roses were bountiful. The walk towards the door was clearly for couples. Luckily, all Jong-in and I wanted to do was to get this over with. And I killed the roses while Jong-in replaced those dead ones with wheat.

When we entered the manor, the maids assisted us to the terrace. Aside from Luhan, Yixing was also there and Jongdae. I raised an eyebrow at the beautiful man with his legs crossed. “What did you want?” I asked. “The Cyclopes are approaching. You didn’t know? The balance between war and love is vanishing. There are a lot of things I want but mainly, I want is peace and the prophecy to fulfil,” Luhan demanded.

I scoffed. “You can’t hurry a prophecy, Luhan,” I said with a bitter tone. “I want to get this over and to flirt with you,” Luhan said as he stared into my eyes. I rolled my eyes. “You can’t flirt with me ever. And what else?” I asked. “Kris-hyung is reportedly missing. And you’d expect the child of the god of gods be invincible,” Luhan shook his head as he laughed.

Yixing hissed. “Be serious for once, hyung,” he lectured. Luhan rolled his eyes. “Moros sent us a letter earlier. He wanted you to go to China, Beijing specifically,” he explained. “What?” Jong-in and I reacted. Our eyebrows were raised. “Beijing? The heck, why would I follow the enemy?” I questioned. Luhan scoffed. “Don’t worry. I’m coming with you,” he said.

“Another reason for me not to follow,” I said. Jong-in nodded. “Stay away from my niece, could you? She’s basically your granddaughter or something,” he reasoned. Luhan rolled his eyes. Yixing elbowed him. “Stop distracting yourself,” he hissed before looking at me in the eyes. “Mianhae but Luhan-hyung knows Beijing the best,” he kind-of whispered.

“And why is that?” I asked. “Uh, hyung’s Chinese,” Jongdae answered. “I would guess you were Hello Kitty,” I smirked. Luhan rolled his eyes. “I know I’m pretty in pink but don’t get distracted by my face, darling,” he teased. I almost vomited. “Is that all?” I asked.

“No, so sit down,” Yixing gestured at the chairs in front of them. Jong-in and I looked at each other and I knew what he had in his mind. We shouldn’t have gone here. We sat down and looked at the men in front of us. Luhan opened the book in front of him. Yixing was stopping himself from sleeping and Jongdae was whistling while looking through his phone.

“Cyclops, I’m sure your father gave you a brief summary about them,” Luhan said as he flipped through the pages. I nodded. I could see the pages of the book have pictures of various creatures. I think I even saw a dragon. The words were in Chinese. Sadly, the only language aside from Greek and Latin that was bestowed on me was Korean. I knew a little bit of English.

Jong-in briefed me about the language. And he told me there were more than a hundred languages in the world. Was that what humans did in their spare time? They came up with obnoxious words and tied them with each other to form a language?

Luhan faced the book to me and pointed at a picture. It showed a Chinese creature with a head of a dragon. It had greyish fur and it had a pair of antlers. It had protruding eyes and sharp teeth. It had the feet of a horse, I think. Its body was like of a Chinese lion. It also had a pair of wings.

“And what’s that?” Jong-in asked. “A pixiu, it’s a mythical creature in China. Not really mythical if you consider the fact it exists,” Luhan answered. “It brings good luck to Chinese, especially in wealth. And it is a pixiu that will help us through our quest in Beijing,” he added. “I won’t ride that thing,” I detested.

“But please?” Yixing begged. “We don’t want Moros to win. Zeus, Aphrodite, even Hades would hate it! Moros, doom, would win. Even if he is fate, this is just not right. Even if he is a son of Nyx,” he added. I bit my lower lip. Jong-in held my shoulder and gave me the look.

I heaved a sigh and looked at Luhan. “Alright, I’ll go with you.”