Chaeyoung continues her walk as she usually does in the early morning. But her eyes are scanning the ground and tree branches up high to get as much trace about the chaser(s) as possible. There is a visible track of one person and a very faint track of another. It stops suddenly without any other trace as if they vanished into thin air… or turned into something too small to leave trace behind. The morning breeze blows through the tree, the rustling leaves making Chaeyoung remembers something: the unusual noise she’s heard is mostly from up high.

It can’t be more than four people; she would have known if there’s a crowd like that nearby. They have been following her and Mina for a few days, and still haven’t attacked them at night. If there’re 4 of them, they wouldn’t wait like this, they’ll outnumber her right away. What do they want? Her mind is running through plans to get them out of this situation. It’ll be the best if they can capture the chasers and find out why they’re following her. But with Mina, Chaeyoung doesn’t want to risk. It’s safer to cut them off. But how?

She stops in front of their tent when the first ray of light is bursting out at the horizon. She should wake Mina up to have a decent breakfast now. They need to do a lot of physical activities today.

They are on their way just a moment after breakfast. Chaeyoung fixes her cloak and Mina's, telling the older to cover her head with the hood. The cloak color will help them blend easily into the surrounding. Still, if their chaser is one of the big birds of prey with incredible eyesight, this won't help much. Chaeyoung initially groans. She remembers none of them stood a chance when playing hide and seek with Dahyun. They lost every match until they decided to switch to an herb picking competition, which ended up with them hiding in the river from a swarm of wasps. Ugh. She hates water. But maybe that can save them.

***

Mina is in a good mood today. Last night was the best sleep she had since they went on this quest. Holding a human size Chaeyoung is much better than cat Chaengie. She loves the cat but it's kind of small for her to hold on to. And human Chaeyoung is just the right size. She admits she's a bit flustered when Chaeyoung comes close to fix her cloak this morning. The younger stands so close Mina can feel the warm breath on her neck. Well, she did hold the girl close last night, but being here, in the daylight out open is different. She notices Chaeyoung holds her hand tight and walks much closer than usual. She would have entertained herself, thinking that the girl like her too, if not for the tense shoulder and alerted look.

When they stop for lunch, Chaeyoung asks Mina to find twigs and leaves for making fire, which is weird. Normally, they don't light a fire when resting for lunch; and leaves create lots of smoke, so they don't use it. But the younger insists, telling Mina to collect lots of leaves, dry and damp one, she needs those. Mina doesn't question further. It's autumn, fallen leaves are everywhere. The cat girl doesn't even use the leaves when they're having lunch, only arranges them around the fireplace.

They eat in silence, as usual, listening to the sound of water gurgling, crashing against rocks. A waterfall is nearby, Mina can tell, just right ahead, possibly in their path. She can smell the dirt, mud, and the fresh smell of water even from here. Chaeyoung pushes the leaves into fireplace as soon as they finish their lunch. The younger looks concentrated and determined, as if she's planning something.

Mina is watching the girl closely, wondering what possibly makes her brows frown like that. When the work is done, Chaeyoung brushes off the dirt and resumes sitting beside Mina. Suddenly, the younger turns aside and hugs Mina tightly.

Mina can't help feeling like air is blasted out of her lung. Her stomach churns, like the cat Chaengie tossing around and tickling her inside with its long fur. Chaeyoung whispers, hot breath against her ears making Mina's knees go weak. No wonder she has hard time focusing on what Chaeyoung is saying.

"Don't panic, Mina."

How can she not? She feels like passing out.

"But there's someone following us."

Yes I will follow... wait what?

"We have to cut them off. I have a plan. You just need to follow my lead and run when I tell you to. Alright?"

What is happening? Mina is so stunned; she can't utter a word. Meanwhile, Chaeyoung has interpreted Mina's silence as fear and tries to reassure her.

"It'll be fine. I promise. I will protect you. We will run and hide under water for a bit. Do you think you can do that?"

It takes a few minutes but eventually, Mina nods, like a rusty robot that hasn't been oiled for years. Chaeyoung lets out a sigh of relief and starts cramming Mina's backpack into her pouch - the magical one that can contain a lot of thing. She takes the pouch from her waist and ties it firmly around her neck.

When Mina comes to her sense, she notices the pile of leaves is emitting a thick, nasty cloud of smoke. Must be Chaeyoung's plan. The air is blowing the smoke toward the waterfall direction. But if they are hiding, they will need a lot more smoke. Mina follows Chaeyoung when she stands up. She still doesn't understand what they're going to do, but she knows she must stay close to the girl. Besides, they're holding hands and Mina doesn't want to let go yet.

Chaeyoung takes out something, which looks like coffee beans - but Mina knows it isn't - from her pocket and throws all in the fire. A series of popping sound is heard and thick smoke spreads out quickly, threatens to envelop them in a dark toxic sphere. Mina eyes start to water from all the smoke. Right at this moment, Chaeyoung whispers loudly.

"Now! Run"

And they do, size by size, since they can't hold hand anymore. They run through the forest, through the thick layer of trees and the giant roots poking from the ground like slithering pythons, threaten to trip them off their feet. They run for around ten minutes before slowing down when they reach the water body. It’s not much but Mina is breathing through her ears right now. She really needs to work out more. In front of them is a narrow but high waterfall with water plunging down, creating a small plunge pool and river, maybe 5 meters in width, not too deep, Mina supposes.

While they stand there, Chaeyoung quickly throws a handful of small pebble-like things down to the lower river direction, away from the waterfall. The pebbles keep rolling, stirring the water up, together with mud and everything in the riverbed. Then, she takes out a bunch of dry twigs, sticks a piece of paper with weird symbols on it, probably a spell. After being thrown to the other side of the river, the twigs start growing and moving on their own, creates a messy trail behind. It's a diversion, the ones chasing them will think they're going that way.

When Chaeyoung finishes with all diversion, the rustle behind indicates that something is approaching. Luckily, the woods behind them is still covered with thick smoke, the chasers cannot see Chaeyoung has set up the stuff. But still, if they don't move quickly, they will soon be caught up. Chaeyoung pulls Mina to the opposite direction of their diversion, to the foot of the waterfall. They jump on the large boulders and cross the water curtain to hide inside the waterfall. There's a cave behind the water curtain and they quickly retreat further inside.

Slowly, Chaeyoung gestures, they need to walk slowly to avoid making sounds that can indicate their place. Besides, they can't go fast on this slippery floor. The water level rises the further they go inside, soon, it has reached their chest. They all agree to stop here, fearing it'll get deeper. And it's a risk to swim in this dark place where they can barely see each other's face. They try to hear, but the deafening sound of the waterfall has drowned all the sound from outside. They can't know if their chasers have made to the bank and see the diversion or still searching around. Nothing else they can do but waiting out.

They stand still for a while when Chaeyoung starts to feel fatigue creeping in. Using different types of magic at a time has taken a lot of her energy, especially the one with twigs. It's a higher form of magic and her body is not built for this. She's not a witch or a sorceress. And now, soaking in water only weakens her more. She's part cat; and cats don't like water. They can get really sick from it. But she wouldn't dare to go out or all her efforts will be blown away, and Mina will be in danger. She tries to ask if Mina is okay, but nothing comes out of except for babbling, which is drowned out by the waterfall. She doesn’t think she can be here for longer. They need to find another way out. She can feel her consciousness slip as Mina's figure turns blurry.

Mina doesn't know how long they have been standing here. Maybe twenty minutes? Or an hour? Time flies different when you're standing chest deep in cold water, waiting for the enemy to go away. She wants to ask Chaeyoung if she can hear anything - cat hearing - but the girl stays still and silent, so she doesn't dare. She likes water and swimming, but soaking yourself in cold water, inside a dark cave is not the ideal scenario. It's so dark in here she can only make out the outline of everything. Chaeyoung's hand holding her is the only thing that keeps her from going full out panic mode. Until that hand slips out of hers and Chaeyoung falls face down on water.

"Chaeyoung!"

She hopes the waterfall drown out her panic yelp too. She quickly pulls Chaeyoung up. The girl seems to awake again, dipping into cold water does the trick. But she cannot stand on her own, having to lean on Mina for support. They need to get out of here before things get worse. But to where? They can’t go out there up front. Going further into the dark cave? It’s too dangerous.

“Chaeyoung! Can you hear me? Should we go out there?”

Chaeyoung just shakes her head weakly and waves her hand toward the other direction – into the cave. Mina shudders, thinking about what’s waiting for them in the dark.

“Are you sure? It’s so dark there and might get deeper.”

Chaeyoung shakes her head again, impatiently. She wobbly raises her hand, pointing at something inside the cave, and Mina must squint her eyes, trying to make out what the younger wants to point at. It takes some time, but she finally sees it, at the right side, there’s a part with tiny rays of light. She would have thought it’s the fireflies or some luminescent creatures if not for the rays, indicating it’s indeed sunlight. She waddles there to check, not without difficulty as Chaeyoung is still leaning heavily on her.

“Stay with me” She whispers. Her instinct tells her they need to be quick before Chaeyoung loses consciousness.

She examines the cave wall and is astounded to find out it’s not a wall. It is a carpet of vines, intertwined into each other tightly to create a natural curtain so thick that hardly any light could pass through. They could go out this way.

The thought-to-be simple task turns out to be quite challenging. She struggles to push the vines up, which is incredibly heavy, and leads Chaeyoung out, whose eyes are tiredly closed. It won’t be long until the cat girl passes out. It’s even harder to push the small girl up to the dry ground and Mina feels like she has used the last of her strength. She scans the surrounding while trying to catch her breath. They can’t go far in this state.

There, just in front of them, is a cave, seemingly dry one – Mina prays. She didn’t see it at first because a big tree with large canopy has covered most of the entrance, and most importantly, shield the cave from eyes up high. Mina wouldn’t know the cave is there if she wasn’t so close to it. If there’s a place they can hide, this should be it.

It takes a while for Mina to coax an almost passing out Chaeyoung to get on her back so she can carry the smaller girl to that cave. Chaeyoung’s frame is smaller than Mina, but she’s heavier than her petite look, probably from all the muscles she has gained from her training, plus the wet clothes. Again, Mina reminds herself to work out more when she has a chance. Chaeyoung is totally out of it when they reach the cave, considering how she drops dully on the ground and doesn’t react when Mina calls her name. Mina swears she tries to put the girl down as gentle as possible, with all her remaining strength allows. She can’t imagine how Chaeyoung can carry her through the whole forest to get to magic world. How can this petite girl have such power?

She can ponder that later. For now, there’s still things to do. Chaeyoung is breathing steadily, albeit weak, but not that alarming. The younger did mention before that it takes a lot of energy to use a lot of magic at once. Mina also specifically remembers that time when the cat accidentally fell into a pond and got sick for days later, making her, for the first time in life, skipped school to tend for the cat. (Her parents reprimanded her later, but Mina thought it was worth it. The cat snuggled into her as soon as she showed up at home.) Now, with two of Chaeyoung’s weakness combines, it’s no wonder she passes out.

The ground of the cave is quite clean, and cold, of course – they shouldn’t lie directly on that. The floor, wall, and roof are hard rock – a naturally formed cave. There must be a stream used to flow through here, but not anymore, considering the dry ground. There’s still more inside but it’s dark and could be dangerous. She should tend for Chaeyoung first. Just to be cautious, Mina throws a rock further into the darkness and waits, nothing but echo returns. They’re safe for now.

They’re both soaked, especially Chaeyoung, as she fell face first in the water. Mina’s a bit better, with only part of her hair is damp, but all her clothes are wet too, from when she carries Chaeyoung here. Mina tries to search inside Chaeyoung’s pouch, but all the clothes are wet. The pouch was dipped in the water when the younger fell, too. Luckily, just half of their tent is wet, and Mina manages to retrieve dry mattress and blanket out.

Now the hard part, getting Chaeyoung out of her wet clothes. It shouldn’t be hard, it’s just Chaeyoung, whom she has been together for years. But in those years, she didn’t even know Chaeyoung was human; a human whom she has developed a huge crush on. Not helping! No, she must focus on what’s important here, if she leave the girl in wet clothes will increase the chance of catching pneumonia, which is pretty dangerous. She can’t risk that. Besides, Chaeyoung did the same when Mina got sick too. The girl wouldn’t mind. Or did she go through the same trauma Mina is going through? Ugh. Mina, focus!

Mina’s hands are trembling when she takes off Chaeyoung’s clothes, from her nervousness or from the cold that’s sipping through her own wet clothes, she doesn’t know. She tries to not look. But taking off someone’s clothes without looking proves to be not as considerate as she wants it to be. It requires a lot of touching. So, she sticks with having her eyes open and scolds herself while (guiltily) admiring the girl’s toned abs and biceps. Those are to die for! Anyway, she quickly wraps the girl tightly in the blanket when all wet clothes are gone. To be honest, this is even more exhausting than carrying the girl here. Mina hopes she doesn’t have to go through this process again. Unless Chaeyoung asks for it, then she wouldn’t mind at all.

After getting rid of her wet clothes, Mina starts to sort out their stuff, seeing if there’s anything useful now, with only Jeongyeon’s cloak wrapping around herself. To her dismay, the matches and lighter are wet, meaning she can’t light a fire right now. She’ll have to wait until the lighter dry up, and no, she doesn’t know how to make fire from stick and stones. Most of their food, thankfully, is covered in airtight bags and still remains in good condition. There’s a bunch of damp herbs – she doubts it can be useful in this state – and a few unlabeled bottles containing liquid with different colours. There must be cold draught in here, but Mina doesn’t know which one and she can’t give the girl random liquid. Why didn’t they bring modern medicine?

She doesn’t dare to go out of the big tree shade, fearing the chasers are still around looking for them. Thankfully,