Saving Suho

The Stream Is Contaminated

*Minseok's pov

We had been walking side by side for 30 minutes. I looked at my watch, it was currently 7:30pm. We couldn't not go to Jeju Island by plane, because the sky was never safe to demigods, except for Jongdae, as it was his domain. Monsters that could fly were the worst. And as Jongdae said, we would be outnumbered if we encountered those monsters.

Therefore, we would have to take the bullet train from Seoul train expression to Jeju Island. Our camp located 20 minutes away from Seoul, so we would go there by bus. If we had Jongin right now, he would teleport us to Jeju Island.

"Hyung," Kyungsoo broke the silence. "What do you think about the first line?"

"Fireflies – Isn't it an animal?" I double checked with Kyungsoo, although being sure that a firefly is an animal.

"Yeah, the one that glows in darkness." Kyungsoo said. "Even the smallest, most vulnerable thing could shine."

"Well, the prophecy said that we would find our first clue in somewhere that had fireflies. To the best of my knowledge, fireflies usually live at the margins where ponds, river, lakes meet the forests. We are in the forests now."

"Hmm water – the domain of Poseidon. Maybe some messengers of Poseidon would appear in the lake and give us clues?" I pondered. As we analyzed the prophecy with our hypothesis, I didn't realize that the first prophecy would refer immediately to Junmyeon. "Should we head somewhere near water now?"

"Yeah we should. There are 2 lakes in this woods. One towards the West, one towards the East" Kyungsoo said. I believed him, because he knew this forest like a back of his hand. Kyungsoo guarded the forest quiet frequently. "Which one should we go first?"

Now that was another challenge. I stood there doumbfounded.

"Eeny meeny miny moe, catch the fly by the toe, East or West should we go?, Eeny meeny miny moe." My finger pointed at the West. "Guess we are going to the West." I said casually.

"Are you sure?" Kyungsoo doubted

"With pure luck, yes. Remember what Irene said."

Kyungsoo chuckled, and headed to forward. I followed him.

"What do you think the first clue will be about?" Kyungsoo asked me.

"I don't know. I don't want to guess either. Usually what comes up in the quest is very surprising. Surprising to the point that you would be too disappointed."

"If it is disappointing but helps us find Junmyeon, then that's ok."

"Did Junmyeon say something to you before he went on the quest?"

"No," Kyungsoo answered. "He only said goodbye to me, and told me that he would go toG Gwakji beach first."

"It seems like he doesn't know that he would be kidnapped. It was too sudden for us too. How long have he's gone until the first monster attacked our camp?"

"He left in November 22nd, and the Laomedon attacked us on the 30th."

I didn't realize that it was almost the end of the year. Today was December 3rd. Christmas was less than 2 weeks away. Last Christmas, all 8 members were unboxing their gifts under the Christmas trees, joined by other demigods, in the Common Hall. I hope I could bring Junmyeon back by Christmas.

"Well, I think on our way to Jeju Island, we will confront a lot of Poseidon's enemies. They could be the one who captured Junmyeon as well."

"Hey Minseokie, look" Kyungsoo shouted excitedly, and I tilted my head up to see what he was so excited about. In front of us was a stream. But where were the fireflies? It was probably around 8 pm. There was nothing except for darkness and ice surrounding us now.

Kyungsoo came closer to the stream, while I stood still, sipping water as my throat had been burning, giving my mouth quite a bitter taste. Nevertheless, I didn't feel tired. The ground was partially covered in snow, from which I regained my energy.

"Hyung," Kyungsoo called, but sounded like something went wrong. "The water is dirty. This is strange. I guarded the forest the day before yesterday, the water was still crystal clear. I even washed my face with it."

I came closer to verify Kyungsoo's statement. Indeed, the sides of the stream were contaminated with a greyish black liquid substances, which dissolved lightly as it reached the center of the stream. It emitted a rotten egg smell. There were some kimchi leftover and plastic bottles here and there.

Someone must have been near the river recently.

Suddenly, a bush near us rustled, and some leaves flew away. It stopped abruptly, then, muffled again, making a crackling sound. Kyungsoo and I approached closer to it. It was dark, so we could not see everything clearly. But I was pretty sure that I could see a small curve, covered in a navy puffed fabric hiding behind the bush.

I glanced at Kyungsoo, who then gave me a look of caution. We both hesitated for a moment, deciding whether we should come closer to find out what was going on. I took my dagger, Tan, out, putting my guard up. Suddenly, a strong wind blew at both of us, which knocked us down.

"Ouchhh," Kyungsoo winced. "What is going on? Why there is a tornado during winter?"

"Kyungsoo," I shouted frantically, due to a back pain, but also, due to the fact that my dagger was suddenly being carried away so quickly. My jaw dropped to the ground.

Before we could stand up properly, a boy suddenly came out of the bush, staring widely at us. He swerved to the left side of where he had been standing. We stood up and chased him. My precious dagger.

We ran until we reached an area that had some caves. The stream was not far away from here, as I could still hear the sound of water flowing. I looked around to check where the boy was, and so did Kyungsoo. Nevertheless, from far away, we then heard some gigantic footsteps approaching. Kyungsoo ran towards me, standing against my back. Suddenly, two hands grabbed us by the shoulders from behind, and dragged us into the cave.

There was the boy I was looking for. Although it was much darker in the cave than in the forest, I could tell that he was very tall, around 183cm, so I had to looked up to observe the dagger stealer carefully. He looked quite young, around 17-18 years old. His face was oval and elongated, his skin as pale as the snow, his jaw was sharp. An aura of deities sparked around him. From my fruitful experience of sensing demigods, I could tell that he was a demigod. But who's his god parent?

"Give me back my dagger," I gritted my breath.

He quickly covered our mouths with his big hands. His eyes then darted towards the outside of the cave, and we followed. Behind the trees, about three pairs of gigantic legs were walking, crushing some branches. The skins were gray, terribly flaky and covered in tiny bumps, as if they hadn't been washed for weeks. 

If they weren't the Cyclopes, I'd recommend them a good body lotion. Some Cyclopes were good, some were bad. But currently, we couldn't figure it out.

We looked at the boy again with wide eyes. Kyungsoo's sclera looked more prominent right now, because this was the first time he had ever seen Cyclopes for real. As for the boy, he put his index finger in front of his thin lips, signaling us to stay quiet.