"Wooyoung, I think we're lost."

Yunho was frowning down at the map in his hands, not seeing the junction of the road they had halted in. The weathered wooden signs were not helpful, barely pointing them anywhere. Yunho was pretty sure they had crossed the border into the Kingdom of Man, but the roads were unfamiliar to him and the recent rain washed away any tracks in the mud that might have taken them to their goal.

Wooyoung perched atop Mulberry, already grumpy from the day prior when they got soaked by the rain before they could find shelter. Yunho had dismounted, hoping to find any landmarks to orient himself by, but he lost all faith.

They were lost.

"What do you mean, lost? We can't be lost," Wooyoung harrumphed, crossing his arms in expectation to go on. He hadn't been helpful in finding the way, expecting Yunho to know where he was going. And Yunho did promise to lead him to his lands. But they took a different path than usual from the grove and now they were in the middle of nowhere. Thanks to the rain and the soft earth of the roads, no carts or people had come through for them to take a guess on where to go.

"I have genuinely no idea where we are," Yunho sighed, and Buddy whimpered by his feet. Glorious and sweet as Yunho's best friend was, he couldn't read maps. Him searching for the way only found them a rabbit burrow.

Wooyoung rolled his eyes. He hopped off Mulberry's back with a huff and crowded up against Yunho's side to snatch the map from him.

"Gimme that."

Heads tucked together, they tried to figure out where they might be. Wooyoung stared at the parchment as cluelessly as Yunho, turning it a few times in hopes some magical light would shine on their location.

"Well, we are... Um..." Wooyoung began, trying to sound educated, and Yunho pointed out the writing in the corner to him.

"You're holding it upside down. I think we are in this area." He showed him their general location, close to the border still, but lost between fields and forests near the next town. They couldn't make the whole journey within a day, so they needed a place to stay, and the sun had already started its descent. Soon, the wolves and foxes would come out and though Yunho was confident to defend himself, he didn't want to camp outside again. Wooyoung might catch a cold and dark thunder clouds had been sneaking across the horizon all day.

Wooyoung stared at the symbols more than he tried to read the names of towns.

"Isn't it south from here?" He asked, pointing at the small crown next to the title of the capital. The seat of the king they were seeking. Yunho sighed, trying to uphold his patience even when his hips were stiff from all the riding and his throat sore from chasing through the rain yesterday. He wanted a warm bed and a good meal, and he missed his Seonghwa.

"We went so far south that we should have found an ocean by now, I think," he said, but Wooyoung stubbornly shook his head.

"Then we can't be here, can we? How long does it take to cross that small of a map? Hmm... That rock, let's get there. Can't be too hard to find the road near it and follow its line."

"We passed that rock three times. Besides, the map would take us a week to cross. We should still be up here, but how didn't we find a village after all this going south...?" Helpless, Yunho looked at Buddy, who whined back at him.

He never realised how much he relied on the other husbands by now. Back in the day, he lived through his own skill, making his job as a guard work as intended. But that was before the world became so big. Before wars and magic and family and his son. They complimented each other, made up for shortcomings, and each added their abilities into the mix. Yunho liked to believe he also helped in some way, even if just by making them loosen up and get to know themselves better.

But now none of their map-reading people were present.

"Damn it, why are you so bad at reading maps?" Wooyoung huffed, making the map flutter as he threw frustrated hands. Mulberry cawed behind him to underline his point.

"Why can't you do it?" Yunho scowled back, not about to fight with him when they had limited time to mobilise not only the humans wary of the elves but also the lazy gryphon-borns. Seonghwa counted on them.

"Do I look like a map reader? I thought that's all you humans do! Explore, draw maps," Wooyoung scowled, looking only so threatening with the soft grey mess of his hair and those pouty lips, but Yunho didn't tell him what it looked like from his angle.

"You are the scout!" He argued instead. Wooyoung had risen into the skies a couple of times already, but his directions only led them in circles.

Gods, Yunho missed Yeosang. His patience kept them all sane.

"I don't scout by map, or I will fly into a tree!" Wooyoung called him dumb with his eyes and Yunho snatched the map back from him, frustrated that he couldn't unveil its secrets. Hongjoong always made it look so easy.

"Then how do you know your directions?!" He gritted out, keeping his voice low so they wouldn't attract any robbers who counted on their arguing to empty their pockets quickly.

"We just do! Follow the scent of the sea, look at the moss growing on trees, I don't know. Anything but a piece of paper with lines on it," Wooyoung pouted, glaring at the map as if it had offended him personally.

But they could actually work with that. If Wooyoung knew his directions, at least they knew which way to continue going straight to until they found something, either gryphon-borns or humans.

"All right, so based on the moss, which direction is south?"

Wooyoung pointed his arm behind them.

"That one. If we meet an ocean, we went too far, but we can try again from the cliffs," he said easily, shrugging off the schedule they set themselves. They had two weeks and already lost two days to senseless travel.

"We would never be punctual, even less so with allies. What will Seonghwa think of us..." Yunho sighed to himself, but he rolled up the map. This was the best bet they had. They weren't desperate enough yet to contact Hongjoong and admit they lost their way. The mage would never let them live it down. And Yunho only barely got him to trust him enough to grope him subtly when they stood close by. He couldn't lose that.

"He knows I'm innocent. What will he think of you?" Wooyoung squawked, coincidentally almost reading Yunho's mind.

Yunho's thoughts wandered, and he knocked his forehead into Wooyoung's lightly, glaring down at him playfully. The sudden proximity had his breath hitch, but he stood strong against memories of fooling around with each other. They were all alone in the wilderness. And if they weren't late already, there definitely would have been time to fool around.

"Looking to pick a fight?" Yunho hummed at him, putting enough intention into his voice to tell Wooyoung how that would go. The gryphon-born had to giggle.

"It would at least fight off my boredom," he groaned, but he let up, shaking out the tension between them. Their little spat helped centre themselves, and the rage dissipated when they realised how irrelevant it was to fight over something like this. Seonghwa would definitely be disappointed in them then.

"All right, let's try again. South from here, there should be a bridge. We cross and take the next road west," Yunho suggested and Wooyoung gladly agreed. He retrieved an apple from his pouch and clawed at it until Yunho took it from him to break it clean in the middle.

"Thanks, sweetie," Yunho grinned as he bit into his half and Wooyoung clambered back on top of Mulberry, denying the pink of his cheeks as he shared with his gryphon.

They followed the road south, presumably, passing a small creek and a group of deer. No people were in sight for a long time, but they kept their pace steady and confident.

And then, after another hour, a ray of hope.

They found farmland; crops cultivated in orderly patches and tended to with the care of a person. Yunho recognised the human architecture when a small farmhouse came into view, cosy and set apart from the nearby village they had been searching. Two kids ran around outside with a dog and Wooyoung muttered under his breath whether every human came with a dog like his folk and the gryphons did.

Yunho rode up at a slow pace, halting before their land. A woman was hanging laundry outside, and she peered up when she spotted the handsome knight and his friendly companion.

"My apologies, fair lady, but we seem to be lost. Could you point us to the nearest settlement?" Yunho asked from a polite distance and her kids hushed their voices, whispering about his sturdy armour and his good shirt since Seonghwa insisted on leaving a good impression. (He tried the same with Wooyoung, but there wasn't much to save.)

The woman smiled back at him, trusting his posture as a knight. Unaware of his royal status.

"Oh, it's not far from here, just left from the crossing. You must have gone around," she replied kindly, and Yunho bowed his head.

"Wonderful, thank you. Have a nice day." He pulled his horse around to join Wooyoung, who was observed with more nervosity, but since he stayed peaceful and trotted alongside Yunho when they trailed back to the crossing, the kids dared to point out to their mother how fascinating he looked to them.

The two little ones reminded Yunho of Aodhán when he was younger. So small and full of wonder. Time passed so quickly.

"Can you call another woman a fair lady when you are married?" Wooyoung asked him, back to the teasing as Yunho finally found them the right way. There were fresh footprints here and more farmlands in the distance as they paved the way around the village, which was partly obscured by a forest and hiding from their view so far.

"I suppose I can. Either way, we will draw attention with you two, so have to pick our inn carefully. Many people around here dislike seeing anything they are not familiar with," Yunho changed the topic so Wooyoung could memorise the warning before they arrived.

The gryphon-born pridefully flicked his mane.

"Cowards."

"Humans are like that," Yunho huffed fondly. And he understood. They were leery of anyone different, especially after the war. The new king, Richard, who took the throne by controversially honourable means after Albrecht died to old age and disease, had everyone cleansed from their grounds that weren't human. Some elves remained, those who had work or married into human families. The gryphon-borns never made trouble, so the humans wouldn't demand half of their envoy to leave, but Yunho needed him to be on his best behaviour. Charming the king would have been easy with Seonghwa to bewitch him, but Yunho had to make some extra effort. And he wasn't great at politics already.

They made it into the village, and of course, Wooyoung immediately drew all the attention. He ignored it mostly, looking straight ahead and following Yunho when the humans whispered on the streets, not near as welcoming as others. The town guard asked their purpose and Yunho showed them Seonghwa's sigil and the letter he brought for the king. Once their identities were confirmed, they were let through.

Yunho wanted to look around and enjoy the bustle of the market, maybe buy some sweets to bring back home for Aodhán, but he didn't want to risk getting into a fight when people distrusted Wooyoung. Besides, exploration was much more fun with his son. Especially when they got to visit his little crush.

So they found an inn and got a room there. Mulberry sailed away to nest in the forest and Yunho left his horse in the stables before he sat down with Wooyoung for some food. As soon as the maid dropped by, accompanied by the wafting scent of heavenly meat and potatoes, along with some beer, Yunho asked her about the path.

She told them the roads would become bigger closer to the capital and they might make it by the next evening. An audience might be refused that late, but they could sleep in another inn. Just in case Richard would deny them shelter.

Once the maid left, Yunho and Wooyoung toasted their cups over a village well found.

"We'll fly to my place. Then we have time left over to drink," Wooyoung suggested and Yunho was right in on it.

"Since Seonghwa isn't here... Might as well have some fun," he smirked and Wooyoung giggled mischievously.

"You are a man of my taste, Yunho."

They dug into their food and rested from their journey, unbothered by anyone else.