"C'mon…someone has to stop," Cole muttered to himself, oblivious to the idea of checking for the beings as he tried to wave down a taxi. They all seemed to either ignore him or already have a passenger though, and he had to try several times before one actually came and he smiled gently. "Got us a ride," He said, nudging Itzal with his arm as he walked to the taxi and opened the door for the god, "Next stop, the state park."
.jpg)
Itzal continued looking for a taxi, but he had about the same luck as Cole. They might just be stuck there until the beings caught up with them, which would not be a good thing. Thankfully, though, Cole managed to flag down someone. "Oh, good." Itzal gave him a smile and climbed into the taxi. "Yeah…" He trailed off, turning to stare out the window. Itzal was strangely nervous about this trip to the state park. It might have been because there were so many answers at stake. And he knew they'd have a confrontation at some point. At least now he could prepare for it… but still.
The driver seemed a little worried about wanting to drop them off at the state park, but Cole insisted and soon they were on their way. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked quietly when he glanced over and saw Itzal…or rather how focused Itzal was on looking out the window. Cole wouldn't deny the fact that he was extremely nervous to be searching for whatever he had seen in his vision, but if it would help Itzal, he would stomach his fear.
"Huh?" Itzal turned towards Cole, his expression worried for a split second before he rearranged it into something neutral. "Oh. I'm, uh… a bit nervous, to be honest." He laughed weakly. "It's just… if we do this right, it could work out so well. But if it goes wrong, or we mess up in some way, then our one chance to figure out what's going on is gone. And I don't know if we would find another chance." Itzal sighed heavily and pressed his hands over his eyes. "Sorry," he added, his voice muffled by his hands.
Cole, being the personal space ignorer he loved to be, gently reached over and set a hand on Itzal's shoulder when he finished talking, mustering up a small smile before saying, "Itzal, don't be sorry for that. It's normal to be nervous about something. It's normal to be absolutely terrified in regards to something as important as this. We'll find whatever we need, and I'll do the best I can to make sure nothing goes wrong." He hoped his words weren't too much, but it was what he would want to be said to him if he was in the god's position, and so he spoke anyway. All he wished was that his words would be correct.
Itzal let his hands drop slowly away from his face, turning to look at Cole. He was suddenly overwhelmed with such a warm, beautiful feeling that his chest felt like it was about to explode– but in a good way. He wanted so bad to pull Cole into a hug and tell him just how much he needed those words. This man was nicer to him than he could have ever expected, or ever hoped for. "Thank you, Cole." Itzal reached up, placing a hand over Cole's and smiling softly at him. "I… I needed that." He wrapped his fingers around Cole's hand and squeezed it lightly.
"No problem," He murmured back, finding himself blushing softly for some reason he didn't know. It could've been the fact that he wanted to do nothing more than hold Itzal's hand, or better yet, scoot as close to him as he could and wrap him in a hug. But he wasn't sure if the action would be appreciated or even liked, and so he stuck to meeting the god's eyes and keeping his hand resting comfortably on his shoulder. Cole would stick to letting him take the first move if it came to it.
Itzal considered letting go of Cole's hand– it would be awkward if he… well. But they were heading towards danger and were really just living in danger all the time, so taking risks would be fine. So Itzal carefully brought the man's hand down and intertwined his fingers with Cole's. It would probably be more comfortable to keep it like this. And Itzal would hold onto Cole's hand as long as he could. It gave him comfort, and it reminded him that he had an ally, a friend who would stay by his side.
Cole wasn't quite sure why he felt nervous holding Itzal's hand, or why he was quite happy to be doing so, but he wasn't going to find out. The action was nice and he didn't want to ruin it, even if it made his cheeks flush ever so slightly. He didn't speak either, just smiled and looked at their intertwined hands before his blush grew and he quickly looked out the window instead. He told himself it was purely friendship that was shown by the handshake, and it showed that he was there for Itzal whenever.
Itzal smiled slightly at Cole, the smile widening when Cole turned to look out the window. The god gave Cole's hand a small squeeze and leaned back against the seat. It was time to do what he had started to specialize in– ignoring his problems to avoid the loads of stress that came with them. It was easier now because Cole's hand was clasped in his. He could probably just focus on that one thing for the rest of the car ride. Itzal let out a small breath to relax and turned to look out the window as well.
(Itzal is being quite the relatable lad lol)
He smiled when he felt Itzal squeeze his hand and he copied the motion in return, focused on the cars and buildings that were slowly turning into woods and hills that surrounded the city. They still had a few more minutes until they reached the park, or at least that's what Cole guessed. But that didn't matter to him. The longer he got to hold Itzal's hand the better, even if he wasn't sure if it was a good idea to be falling for a litertal god. He pushed that thought aside though, it would be easier to deal with the problem of his growing crush later.
(Ha, yeah. :)
Itzal watched the scenery melt from buildings to nature, and for a little while, the mission he and Cole were racing towards had disappeared from his mind. He let out a small breath and let his eyes close for a second. Now all he was aware of was the soft hum of the taxi and the warmth of Cole's hand. Mmm, this worked too. It was very relaxing, and he could have stayed there forever. It would probably be even better if he could lean his head against Cole's shoulder– he opened one eye and peered over at Cole for a second with a bit of longing– but this was just fine. Too bad they would probably be getting to the park soon.
With the soft radio station that the taxi driver was playing, and the calm he felt holding Itzal's hand, Cole could've stayed in the moment forever. He looked out at the trees calmly, his chin resting in his free hand as his arm rested on his leg. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but he didn't care. He was more invested in the scenery and holding Itzal's hand. As his mind wandered, he thought of the cave. What could possibly be in there? What would he have to prepare for? More beings sounded likely, but he didn't exactly want to go about murdering them, though he would to keep himself and Itzal safe.
The car breaking brought Itzal out of his almost meditative state. "Oh, are we there already?" Itzal sighed, eyes opening slowly. If he didn't need all his strength for the inevitable fight with the beings, he would have paused time for just a little, to let this soft moment last a little longer. He glanced out the window at the park, somehow frozen. He wanted to find the cave and the secrets inside it, but he didn't want to face the beings and put Cole in danger. "I guess… I guess it's time to go?" Itzal looked at Cole, trying not to let the uncertainty in his eyes show too much.
He glanced up as the taxi rolled to a stop and sighed, nodding to Cole before turning to talk to the driver. With only a little haggling, he agreed to stay for an hour, but after that he was leaving and they would have to find a ride back. Cole paid then sighed, turning to Itzal and slowly letting go of his hand, "I suppose it is…let's go face us some beings." Somehow, he mustered up a tiny smile and slipped out of the taxi, wondering how he felt so much colder just without the warmth of Itzal's hand in his own.
"Oh, joy." Itzal climbed out of the taxi, already missing having Cole's hand in his. Nothing that he could see was remotely familiar, which probably meant they would have to wander around a lot to find the cave. Itzal took a few steps down the nearest path, then paused. Was it this way? Hmm… yes. Something about it felt familiar. Probably farther along, though. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Cole was following, then continued down the path into the trees. His hand was wrapped tight around the hilt of the sword, knuckles almost white. The anticipation of finding a being was almost too much.
Cole followed after Itzal, glancing around the park before walking to his side. He seemed to have more of an idea of where to go than Cole did, and so he was just going to follow along. At least he could help now by searching for more of those beings. His gut was still telling him that this was going to be a bad situation, and he hoped it was wrong, but there was no way to be sure. They just had to survive this interaction with whatever beings came after them. That and finding whatever Itzal was searching for.
Of course, he found beings around the first corner he turned. It was a blind corner, but Itzal wasn't really expecting things to be around it. That was obviously a mistake. The being was just standing in the middle of the path, and Itzal's heart stopped the second he saw it. He tried to back up, but it had already seen him.
"There you are, traitorous god." The being sounded quite excited to see Itzal. "Trying to stop us?" Itzal took a deep breath and moved to hand the sword to Cole so he could focus on freezing the being.
"How did you get here so fast?"
"We are everywhere." The being started towards the pair, sword gleaming dangerously. "Did you really think you could escape us?"
Looking around, Cole almost ran into the back of Itzal as he stopped, his eyes immediately shooting upward at the sound of another being. No. No. They were supposed to face the beings at the cave, not here. He was thrown into a panic in seconds, taking the sword from Itzal with shaking hands. There was no time to worry though, he had to focus. And so focus he did. He positioned the sword in his hands the easiest he could to swing at the being, though he waited to do so. The last thing he wanted was to try to take on the thing while it was still aware of his movements.
"I can try." Itzal threw his hands towards the creature, freezing it in place. Now that the being was temporarily out of action, Itzal was able to look past it. Something about the path beyond seemed familiar– maybe that meant they were almost there! Hopefully that was the case, because he really didn't want to deal with another being before they got there. If he needed to do any godly things in order to get them in there, he probably wouldn't be able to after freezing a second being.
"You–" The being managed to say, indicating that Itzal had let it slip forward a few seconds. He quickly turned his full attention back onto freezing time. He'd have time to worry about all that stuff after it was dead.
Cole shuddered as he stared at the being, finally mustering up the courage to swing the sword and do like he always did to end the beings. It was getting easier in the motion, but he could tell he would never be used to killing the things. He held onto the sword again as he sighed, shaking his head, "It's dead Itzal, now we should probably hurry on this journey…or we'll have to deal with more of these things."
"Ah, good." Itzal dropped his hands, the being dropping with them to thud onto the ground. "I think we're nearly there." He stepped around the being and continued down the path. After a few minutes of walking– it turned out that they weren't as close as he'd thought they were– they came to a fork in the path. Itzal inspected each of the paths, hit by another burst of familiarity. The cave should be right in front of them, past the wall of thick bushes that separated the two paths "Through here," he said, pushing through the branches. They scratched at him, but that was the worst of it. Behind them loomed a huge rock wall, a hole barely the size of Itzal carved into it. "That's it! Finally."
Cole followed close behind Itzal, not thinking about what had just happened, only focusing on watching their surroundings and holding onto his sword. "Do you think there will be enough light to see in there?" He asked as he stepped alongside the god, pushing a branch out of his way to look at the hole in the wall, "Otherwise…I have a little bit of battery in my phone…we can use the flashlight there to help look." Cole didn't want to be in the dark in there, who knew how many beings there could be, but he also didn't want to use up the remaining battery. There would be no time to charge the phone again in the near future from what he could tell.
"I don't know…" Itzal peered into the hole. It looked rather dark, but he really didn't want to make Cole's phone die. "Let me look. If we're lucky, it'll have some sort of motion-activated magic lighting. If not… we'll figure it out." He squeezed though the hole and took a few steps forward, until he was at the very edge of the light coming from the entrance. Nothing lit up, but he did see a shape that might be a torch on the wall next to the hole. Itzal lit up the tip of his finger and pointed at the maybe-torch. The light proved that it was actually a torch. That would work. The light on his finger turned to fire and he flicked it at the torch. "Alright, we have a torch." He crossed to the torch and picked it up, turning towards the darkness in front of him. It illuminated a long, roughly-hewn corridor, snaking out of the circle of light.
Cole was a little more hesitant as he stepped inside, glancing around the entirety of the corridor before following. Some sinking feeling was settling in his chest and he didn't like it, but he also didn't want to bring it up. They had to get whatever Itzal was looking for, worries he had or not. So, he picked up the sword and started in, a tight lipped smile settling on his face, "Let's get going then. Who knows when the next of those beings is going to show up?" He didn't stop glancing around as he walked to Itzal, sticking close to him and the light from the torch.