Chapter 18

They were in the middle of summer and there was no denying how scorching hot the weather is as they followed the trail, heading to the tuffcone. The guide at the ticketing entrance said they’ll take around 20 minutes to reached the peak, if, there are no stops being made. But sometimes they tend to forget that they were on a mission. They includes Park Joy who kept pausing at a beautiful scenery and asking for Seulgi or Yeri to take pictures of her, with the intention to make her cabin mates jealous.

They ended up reaching the peak of the tuffcone, 40 minutes later, and Seulgi was quite disappointed seeing how they could not actually run across the green as there were barriers preventing them. Another disappointment is when they could not find any clues or hints of the culprit’s presence. And so they leisurely walked around, enjoying the environment for a bit

Seulgi walked at the edge of the pathway, gripped the bars and observe the beautiful view of the blue ocean as she led the wind swept her hair to the back. She thought she spot a flipping tail crashing near one of the huge rocks at the sea, but when she squinted her eyes to focus more, there was nothing.

“What are you looking at?” A voice resonates beside Seulgi, and she turned to see Irene’s inquisitive look on her.

“I thought I saw…nevermind.” Seulgi sighed and turn her back against the bar, leaning on it. “Where do you think we should go next? There’s nothing here that we can find.”

Irene heave, “I’m still thinking Seulgi. But I don’t know. There’s a huge gut feeling that says that we’re at the right place.”

“My instincts tell the same.” Seulgi shuts her eye, and thought, prayed, hard for her father, who must be somewhere dealing with his usual God errands. Help me dad. Please give me some sort of a sign.

Both of them decided to walk back towards the three went Seulgi halt in her steps, feeling a momentary rush of dizziness. She shook her head trying to gain composure, squinting her eyes upwards where she felt the sun somewhere above. The heat emitting directly above does not seem to affect her much and for some reason it suddenly gave a sudden rush of strength. Irene then shook her hand asking if she was okay and Seulgi nodded before they continue walking.

“Where did you two go?” Wendy had a hand above her eyes.

“Taking a lover stroll aren’t we right no – Oh my Gods!” Joy yelped, as she points a finger ahead in horror.

A gigantic scaly lizard, crawl out of nowhere from the tuffcone, right in front Seulgi. The lizard was utterly still at first. Its greenish yellow hue helped it to blend with the greenery and Seulgi thought it was warming itself but the lizard’s eyes flickered as if it was waiting, signalling for something. Seulgi felt Irene stirring in her movement, as she was about to outstretched a penknife from her pocket. But Seulgi put a hand in front of the girl, halting her advance when she saw the lizard swivelled an eye in her direction like a security camera.

Seulgi froze. All of them froze. The lizard remained where it was for a few seconds and then its reptilian body scurried away, back into the greenery opening of the tuff cone, its back bone snaking from side to side and its tail flicking.

“Sauroktonos,” A voice echoed somewhere. But Seulgi was sure it was only her that could hear. “Follow the lizard, Sauroktonos.”  Without much thought, she climb over the barrier and jumped, landing above the tuff cone.

“Seulgi! What are you doing? We’re not supposed to be down there. It’s prohibited.” Wendy alerts as she grip the bars.

“I got a feeling we must follow the lizard.” Seulgi explains, “Trust me. I think its leading us to something.” For a mere mortal, it must be a silly thing to follow – lizards (?) but they were demigods and this unusual always becomes the usual

The four of them looked at each other, before nodding silently in agreement. They checked if there were any other tourist nearby, and seeing the clear surrounding. One by one they jumped onto the surface of the tuff cone landing with a thud.

The lizard was a few metres ahead, and Seulgi jogged along as the other four trailed behind.  The lizard continues to crawl along in such speed with its stunted feet. They went to the edge over the tuff cone, reaching its rim and the lizard climb above the rim, going downwards over to the uneven ground.

“Are we going down there? It looks pretty dangerous to me.” Yeri look over with a shudder.

“Are you sure this lizard is some sort of a sign from the Gods? Maybe that thing is just heading to a hole or something.” Joy peeks her head over the rim.

Seulgi shook her head, “No, I’m sure this must be a sign. I heard a voice. We must go over the rim quick or we’ll lose sight of Sauroktonos.”

“Saurokwhat? Hey –” Before Joy could oppose again, Seulgi had already climb over the rim and saunter away, “Great. Follow the lizards. Why can’t we follow the butterflies or something?”

The route was not a simple one.  It was really somewhat risky. The ground was uneven and rough, and if one of them tripped, they would most probably roll down off to their deaths. The lizard was also making it quite hard because it was moving in a hurry pace; all of them had such a hard time chasing after it.

They stopped in front of an earthy soil. It was rather distinctive because there were all green and yellows surrounding them and this irregular, small patch of land were the only brown amongst the green. The lizard turned around, its green eyes flashed at Seulgi, giving a trace of hint before vanishing completely.

“What is that? I mean, who is that?” Irene asked, looking puzzled.

“It’s Sauroktonos. Apollo’s pet.” Wendy enlightens the confused atmosphere, “Apollo caught it when he was hunting back then.”

“The Gods sure has a lot of creatures up in their sleeves.” Yeri utters, before enquiring, “Anyway, is this ground supposed to be the lead?”

The five of them took a step back into the green, scanning for any possible signs or clues. And after 5 minutes, Seulgi knelt on the area and rubbed the surface. Her eyes widened up when she feels the surface was not as earthly as it looks. It felt like there was a concrete underneath but it made not sound when Seulgi knocked.

“This must be an underground hideout.” Seulgi continued to hit the ground but with no avail, “But how do we get in?”

“There must be a way.” Joy had a hand over her waist as her eyes stare at the ground, in deep thinking. After a couple of minutes, she suddenly cried out aloud, making everyone flinched.  “Irene! You should do this. This is your expertise! Charmspeak!”

Irene knelt her eyebrows together, “You want me to charmspeak the ground? I don’t know, Joy. My charmspeak usually works for mortals only.”

“But we can try, can’t we?” Seulgi urge.

Irene