Bows & Beauty

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