Which road should we take?

Out of fear and panic, I made to run away immediately, but the driver drew my hands back.

"Don't try to run away from them. You just can't match them in speed." Vincent, the driver whispered into my ears, and I nodded in fear.

I didn't know if I was just overwhelmed with fear, or if it were my insecurities coming to play. I just didn't know what was happening.

"Why are those beasts here?" I asked Vincent in a whisper. Honestly, to say that I was scared would be a very fat lie. I was really terrified at that moment.

"Well, they are the guardians of this cave, and they mean no harm." He responded to me, and I nodded my head.

"I just hope so..." I muttered in tiredness, as I didn't know what else to say.

Mere looking at those lions, I could see the fierceness in their eyes, and I didn't need a soothsayer to tell me that they could possibly kill.

On the other side, Karen was unusually calm. She was scared, but wasn't acting the way that I had expected. She was totally very composed than I had thought.

Well, we were face to with those beasts, and I was waiting for the worst to happen at that moment. But to my uttermost surprise and shock, nothing happened. They just walked past us without trying to harm or fight us.

'That was really unusual.' Although I hadn't had any encounter with a wild beast in the past, I knew what they were capable of doing, and I didn't anyone to tell me otherwise.

"That was a very close one." I let out a very long sigh of relief. In my mind, I had already said my last prayers, because I thought that the impossible was going to happen.

"Indeed, it was." Vincent, responded.

I looked at Karen, who looked very lost in her thoughts.

"You look so withdrawn. What is the problem with you?" I asked her, and she finally looked up. Honestly, I didn't know why she was always isolating herself.

"Nothing." She responded.

At this point, I just felt like giving her a knock on her head.

"What do you mean by nothing? We're in a journey together, and your mood is totally off, yet you want us to ignore it like it's nothing. Who does that?" I asked with a raised voice, and she apologized immediately.

I had already lost my cool at this moment.

"I'm so sorry, ma'am." She apologized.

"There's no need for the apologies." I responded to her. "So, what's the next thing that we might need to do?" I asked Vincent.

He had been calm through out the whole time.

"We have to leave here before the sunsets." He muttered. I didn't know why he said that, but he looked very serious.

"How possible is that?" I asked him. "Do you know what the time is, and how long that it might take before we would get to land?" I asked him in confusion.

In as much as I didn't know anything about what was going on, I still knew that it was going to be hard for us to leave this cave before the sun sets.

"If we don't leave here before that time, we would meet the evil spirits, and it would be hard to survive an encounter with them. Even if we survive, we would have to spend the rest of our lives, working for them as slaves." He explained to me, and I scoffed in disgust.

I couldn't imagine myself working for a spirit as a slave.

No!

It was never going to happen.

"So, how do we leave here very fast?" I asked in a very inquisitive manner.

"We would have to draw a map that would give us the direction to the exit, because we need to be careful to avoid going towards the land of the dead." He explained.

Now, the problem was going to be map.

Who was going to draw the map?

"Now, we need to focus on constructing a valid map. I guess you can do that, right?" I asked him with a smile.

Since I couldn't do it, I believed that he could do it.

"Yes, I don't have any other choice other than to do it. Although I'm not really good at map drafting, I'd try my best to create a rough sketch that can lead us through." He explained with a warm smile.

At this point, I was already getting agitated and worried about the nightfall meeting us in that cave.

"I'd do the map...!" Karen finally broke the silence, and we both stared at her I'm shock.

"You would?" We both asked at the same time in unison.

I was just so surprised to the bone marrow. I didn't see it coming.

"Yes, I would. Remember, I grew up in the orphanage, and it was very mandatory that all of us would be able to read and draw a map..." She continued.

I couldn't thank the moon goddess enough, as she had made a way for us.

"So, you can start already. We need to get out of this place as soon as possible." I remarked.

With that, she picked up a stick from the ground, and began to draw some weird lines on the ground. Well, the seemed weird to me, but they actually meant something.

"Going from the south, I think there's a river at that end." Vincent announced, and I froze in shock as I remembered my last experience.

I had sworn never to travel by water, ever again..

"No... Let's go with another alternative..." I replied him, and he paused.

"From the east of this place, is a very windy desert, while there's an active volcano in the west. The north would have been an option, by it has a direct border with the land of the dead. So, which road do you suggest that we take?" The driver asked me, and I paused.

Which road is the best option?