You know that feeling when you get in trouble and the principal calls you to their office as they prepare to call your parents? That's how it feels having a very serious conversation inside a dark, and very creepy cave. The atmosphere was tense, the cold pressing down on their shoulders, the walls looming over as if the cavern was about to swallow them whole.

The only light, that was a small fire fueled by sticks, some timbre and stray plastic bottles. They sat around the fire taking a little respite from all the insanity going on.

She almost misses the sun.

Don't ever tell her dad about that.

Irene then clears .

“First order of business, we want our weapons and gear back.” Irene gives the girl sitting opposite of her, Byul, an extremely disapproving look. The kind of look that you get when your mom scolds you. Byul holds her hands up before unclipping the leather waist straps of Yongsun’s scimitars, she gives it back together with Irene's machete.

“Next we want apologies for damages inflicted.” Irene's glare doesn't cease.

A muscle twitched on Byul's face. Whether she was holding a laugh or a scowl, Yongsun was not sure. 

A tense pause, the two girls staring each other down. Yongsun wondered why this situation awfully reminded her of a court hearing. Not that she has ever been in one. Nope.

“Okay, enough.” Yongsun says, pinching her nose bridge because Irene was being a . “Irene, come on, it's okay.”

“…I’m sorry.” Byul says dejectedly, looking at the three of them before hanging her head low. The trio stayed silent for a moment. Yongsun, surprised of actually receiving an apology, pinches her friend lightly.

“S'okay, kid.” Hower says still nursing the third horn that formed on his forehead. “My head feels like it would explode and birth a mini goddess! You got a nice throw!”

Leave it to Hower to appreciate being smote on the head

“Do you by any chance play baseball?”

Byul gives Hower a weird look, and as if something caught her attention, her eyes widen. 

“You… You have hooves?”

“Yes, kid. I lost my shoes when we fell on the cave earlier.” Hower scowls on his hooves, clopping them against the cold floor. “Those were my favorite shoes too…”

Yongsun looks at the girl’s face, searching for any type of reaction but the dark haired girl just takes the information in a stride. Nodding sympathetically as Hower continues to grumble about his shoes.

Yongsun pats his shoulder. “We’ll see if we can get you a new one when we get back Hower. The staffs of the camp store owes me a favor for all the weekends I helped deliver strawberries in the city.” 

Hower beams a grateful smile. “Thanks, kid.”

“Now, the girl just apologized. All vote of forgiveness say aye! Aye!" Yongsun raises her hands enthusiastically.

"Aye!" Hower raises his hands.

“Kiss ” Irene rolls her eyes and huffs dramatically.

“Hyun” Yongsun bumps her friend's shoulder playfully. Irene muttered an I-hate-you before raising her hand.

“Aye.” She said in a very tired tone.

“You are forgiven kid, well done.” Yongsun turns her attention to the other girl and smiles.

From beside Byul, still lying on the floor resting, came a soft laugh.

“Did I just hear Byul apologize?” Came Seulgi’s breathless inquiry.

“Is she not the type to say sorry?" Irene asks, but the biting tone was gone. It still earns her a glare from the other girl.

“No, she’s a sweetheart actually.” Seulgi replies with a laugh, still on the floor recovering from her injury.

“Shut up.” Byul shushes her friend before leaning and fussing over Seulgi.

She observes just how close the two seems to be and sees how Byul treats the other girl like a little sister. “Well, that's all good and stuff, we still need to talk about you two.” Yongsun says a soft smile on her lips.

“Where are you two from?” Irene quickly follows up.

Byul straightens on her seat, a stone cold look fixed on her face. Suddenly defensive.

“Irene,” Yongsun sighs, “Can you check our friend Seulgi's bandages? Tell me if we need to replace it, please?”
Irene protests a little then they have another stare down. Yongsun knows that Irene’s aggressiveness was because Byul had blindsided her. Irene is a great fighter and that fact that a random girl has managed to overpower her and take her hostage probably pissed her off.

In the end Irene relented, looking at Seulgi with a wary glance. Yongsun was about to mention it but Irene already stood up and went to the other girl. She furrowed her brows for a moment, wondering why her friend is been acting like that but shakes her head. She’ll ask later, for now the main goal is to get to know this Byul person and see if they have any idea what is going on.

Yongsun looks at Byul and smiles. The girl blinks a little.

“So,” Yongsun starts "I’m Solar, my grouchy friend right there is Irene,” She points at the Joohyun, who scowls at her. “and this is our Hower. We're from New York.” 

Byul nods and tries for a little smile.

“Irene and I are both fifteen and Hower is twice that age and some. How about you?” She continued.

“You make me sound so old Solar!” Hower complained with a disgruntled bleat, he sat a little closer to the fire. 

The dark haired girl sighed. "I'm fourteen."

“And Seulgi?”

“Thirteen.”

“We're older then.” Yongsun nods. “Is it okay to asks where you guys are from?”

Byul still looked uncomfortable with the topic, the trio already had a hunch but refused to assume until confirmed otherwise.

Byul purses her lips, brows furrowing in contemplation on just how much information she should give. A moment later she replied,  "We're also from New York..."

Surely, being that close they should’ve... Yongsun thoughts trails off, vaguely aware that Hower who was casually tending the fire a few minutes ago was now listening to their conversation. She could also see Irene talking in rapid whispers with Seulgi, about what she would ask later.

The girl clears . “...I think?”

“You think?” Yongsun softly urges.

“We... Seulgi and I were supposed to be taken somewhere in San Franciso." The girl explains, "We escaped our convoy and headed up the hills, hoping we’d lose them through the wilderness.” Byul looked towards the fire, eyes clouded with memories. Yongsun waited patiently for the girl to tell their encounter at her own pace, just casually examining the girl's face.

Now that Yongsun could see her properly, she could see how Byul’s blue eyes glows brighter with the flames. She didn’t get the opportunity to carefully study the girl’s sharp features early on but now she takes note of the high cheekbones and the pointy nose. 

No, focus! 

Before she could get anymore distracted, Yongsun clears her thoughts and focuses once again on the story. A little embarrassed.

“We hoped we could get away in the mountains, but they caught up. Seul got shot at our last encounter. We got lost here when I dragged Seulgi inside a tunnel.” Byul bites her lip. "I carried her as far away as possible, I don't know how long we walked, where the cave even goes and she was bleeding so much..."

Yongsun feels her pulse quicken. It wasn’t even a surprise, Byul and Seulgi might be feral demigods. They were familiar with stories of demigods capable of surviving outside Camps, but those were back in the days when the gods really don’t pay attention to their children – not that they are any more attentive nowadays – and tend to even ignore them. Today, there are two camps and the Waystation in Indianapolis, the camps have grown bigger with new temples and accommodated a lot more demigods and even legacies. What was surprising is the mention of a convoy.

Questions buzzed inside Yongsun’s head. Why would feral demigods need a convoy? Are there more of them? By how it’s described it sounds like an organized operation. And why are two feral demigods being hunted-?

"By ‘Them’, are you perhaps talking about the mercenaries?" Yongsun inquired, dry. She could feel that they are close to figuring out something.

Byul meets her eyes. "Yes."

Yongsun, Irene and Hower looked at each other. A little too long, that Byul started looking at them too.

“We ran into them too, actually.” Irene says after informing them that Seulgi's bandage don't need to be replaced yet. She helps Seulgi sit up slowly so she can be part of the conversation.

“Where?”

“Rocky Springs.” Irene answers.

Seulgi leans on Byul’s shoulder. “Where is that?”

“Wyoming.”

“Wy