Chapter 2

Surprisingly, their clothes didn't get wet when they landed at a deserted alley in a place God knows where.

Alma slumped against the wall, heaving, "What the hell."

"I'm sorry, it's the only way they wouldn't notice us," Gregory speaks as he scans the area. "We're clear. We can stay here for the night," he points at the sign above.

"The Mud Donkey Shack? Is this even a real place?" Alma glances around, "Are we still on Earth?"

"Yup. I used a lot of energy teleporting us here, plus the ones I lost trying to find you. I doubt monsters can find us here, this is a safe haven for people like us." Gregory motions for Alma to stand up, together they entered the Mud Donkey Shack to check in for the night.


The three scouts are frantically searching for the remaining Pillars, what with Gregory finding one immediately, the rest of them shouldn't give up. Time is of the essence. These are new born Pillars we're talking about, in terms of magic they're still at the beginner level. New born Pillars are like freshly baked bread that gives off a delicious smell that attracts monsters in the area, without anyone to protect them they'll be killed in an instant.

The remaining scouts have separated in order to find the other Pillars quickly. However, unexpected guests arrive.

And it was too late to save the Earth Pillar.

Almost.

"Duck!" one of the scouts rescued her just in time when a ridiculously large sea serpent shot poison on the poor girl. "Can you move?" the scout asked her over her shoulder, "Y-Yes, I think so."

It has been a very tiring day for Marlyn, faking smiles and pretending to be the socialite her parents wanted her to be. See, she just got married to a man of status – a rich, filthy pig who doesn't care about anything else aside from money, power, and women. He didn't even come back for me, the coward, she thought.

She considered dying, but it would be a sad and lonely death, and she doesn't want that. If she dies, it has to be in somewhere beautiful – maybe somewhere far away from whoever recognizes her.

But not here. I won't die here.

She sees the scout struggling in fighting the serpent and protecting her at the same time, so she grabs whatever she can – a plate? This will do. Marlyn throws the plate on the serpent. "What are you doing? It's going to come after you!" the scout yells. "Better than letting you die, let's go!"

That poor attempt actually worked considering that it gave time for the scout to teleport Marlyn to an emergency boat far away from the ship.

"Basilisk?" someone asks as soon as they landed. The scout shook her head, "A regular sea serpent."

Marlyn's surprised by her remark, "Regular? So, you guys often fight these things?" she points to the two scouts – it's easy to determine them actually, they wear matching trench coats.

"Yeah well, you can say that. It's part of training."

"And there are far more dangerous creatures on that ship than you think. I hope he finds the last of you fast."

"There's another one?" the guy sitting beside the other scout asks. He notices Marlyn looking at him, he nods, "My name's Derrick."

"Marlyn."

"So, what Pillar are you?"

Marlyn frowns, annoyed, "What, am I supposed to say CATERpillar?"

Derrick scoffed, "Has anyone told you you're a bitch?" he glares. "This guy here says there are four pillars – fire, water, wind, and earth. Which is yours?"

"I don't know yet. Do you know yours?"

"Wind," he replies. "I was in the casino when it manifested, accidentally created a gale. Scared the shit out of me." Derrick shows his cuffed wrist, "Cops almost got me but then he came, my knight in shining trench coat," he blows a kiss on the scout beside him.

"Have you heard from Greg yet?" the female scout asks, "Not yet. I think he's still on Earth though."

"Speaking of the devil." Both scouts' beeper flashed 'Mud Donkey Shack'. It's Gregory.

"They're safe, thank God," they sighed in relief. But it was too soon to speak of it for they saw something shot out of the ship and into the sky, a blazing ball of fire – and on its tail is a large head of a hydra, then came one more, and then another.

The people on the emergency boat stood gaping, "What is that?" Marlyn's the first to break the silence. "We have to help him," the male scout says. "Don't you remember the rules?" the female one replied, "We're not supposed to leave the Pillars alone."

"Then I'll help him and you get ready to leave at once," he commands.

"Peter – "the female scout wanted to say more but whatever it is quickly disappeared, "Fine. I'll hold the fort but we'll leave as soon as you all return here with Hans and the fire boy."

Let me tell you something about the Fire Pillar. He's nineteen and his name is Jansen, the youngest among all the Pillars. When Hans found him, he was curled up in one of the bathroom stalls. Poor kid's terrified, his power must've unveiled at an unexpected time because the walls on the stall turned black.

"Who are you?" He looked at Hans between sobs.

"I'm Hans. I'm here to protect you," Hans gently walked towards him, "It's alright, everything will be alright, okay? Just come with me."

"Leave me alone!" Jansen shoved him forcefully.

Hans scoffed, "If Gregory found you first, I'm sure he'd knock out a stubborn kid like you."

"The fuck are you talking about?"

"You know, if we don't leave now a hydra will come here soon," he raised a finger as if hearing something, then he looks at Jansen, "It's already here."

Across the hall, they heard a thunderous stomping of – not people – a head, three heads in total, individually searching for the Fire Pillar. One found them, spewing acid everywhere that it melted the stalls. Truthfully, bathrooms are very bad places to gossip and to hide from a Greek monster.

"Quick, grab on to me!" Hans yells but Jansen's already running out the door. "Shit," he curses. "Shit, shit, shit, shit! First bullies then a weird man then a monster, what a fucking life," he says as he limps his way through the deck.

"Gotcha," Hans appeared beside Jansen and grabbed him immediately as he lost the head that's following him. Thank God for teleportation, he thought.

But he didn't know that the other head is already waiting at the deck of the ship and they landed exactly on top of it. "Shit! Fuck!" Jansen cursed as he felt himself burning, as in real fire.

"Oh shit!" Hans looked at Jansen on fire, "What the-" no time for reactions, he shot up the sky with a blazing Jansen holding on to him for dear life. It's a blessing that the scouts' trench coats are fireproof otherwise he'll be burned to a crisp.

"How long are we going up for!" Jansen yelled, still pretty much on fire. He can't control it yet, all he knows is that it comes out when he's feeling a strong surge of emotions.

Then something, or someone, managed to kick all three of the hydra's heads causing them to lose their attention to both Hans and Jansen. Peter quickly grabs them both "Let's get on the boat now!" Then all three of them teleported to the emergency boat.

Jansen still on fire, Marlyn kicked him out of the boat. "There, now he won't burn us all."

Shooting her a glare, he climbs back with the help of the three scouts.

"Let's get out of here."

They made their way to a port in Iceland where Gregory is waiting for them at the Mud Donkey Shack.