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Madalyne filled up most of her pack with a lot of the golden coins as well as the strange purple gem into her pack as well to, before pulling it up. Her pack was pretty heavy with the amount of gold coins that she had taken, and quickly followed both Niah and Nancy out to the mouth of the cave. She smiled at the thought of getting a flight back to San Fransisco and getting a ride back to New Rome in style would be really nice. "I'm fine with seeing if we can get a flight if you guys want to do that, we just need to get to the closest airport." Madalyne said as she held onto Niah tightly.

It didn't take to long for them to get back down to the ground again sighing slightly she really did hate heights as she looked towards her two friends and hugged them tightly. She snapped her fingers getting a bit of an idea to and looked at her two friends as she thought about a nice place they could rest in and some food. "Ya know we have some cash to spend now we could go to one of those really fancy and expensive restaurants and maybe a really nice hotel to my treat?" She suggested she wanted to treat her closest friends.

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Nancy thought for a moment, wondering just how much trouble the Legion would get into if they all went up to Mount Rushmore and raided the den of a dead dragon for gold. What would the mortals perceive through the Mist? She chuckled slightly at the idea. Whatever it was, it would have to be absolutely insane - which made Nancy want to see what happened, preferably with a cold slushie to sip on as she observed from a distance. "Aww, we can't ride Air Niah the entire way?" Nancy joked, holding onto her friend as Niah brought them safely down the mountain.

When they reached the bottom, Mads told them her plan - a fancy restaurant and a nice hotel. Nancy hesitated for a moment. She had lived inside of a fancy hotel before - and it had been incredibly traumatic for her. She hadn't set foot in any sort of hotel since. The thought of sleeping inside of one made her stomach churn. She'd rather a shitty motel, if she were being honest - or maybe an RV or a trailer or a tent. Any of those sounded like good options to her. "Um, maybe not a swanky hotel... But a fancy restaurant could be fun."

"Well, Air Niah will be open for business again after some food and a nice comfy bed. I don't care where the bed is, as long as it is soft and has pillows and a blanket. Also, preferably doesn't have bed bugs." She really didn't care. As long as it was something resembling safe. She realized now that the fight was over she was bone tired.

Though a part of her was nervous about trusting the armor for that long of a distance. It didn't seem to be cursed. She had been able to remove it and still sort of control it. So maybe it would be fine. But she also didn't want to become too dependent on it.

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Madalyne looked towards Nancy, she remembered the whole thing with the Lotus Hotel and Casino she it had been the same place that she and Nancy had met in the first place. "Okay a hotel is probably a really bad idea then, a motel would be nicer instead." She said gently resting a hand on Nancy's shoulder and giving her a smile, she knew that they couldn't actually rely on Niah's fancy new armor to get them back home really. She decided to start looking around for something maybe a map to the closest motel was, and then she spotted a phone that had been dropped by a hiker and moved over towards it. She knew that phones weren't really a smart thing to use for a demigod, at least talking on it anyway which she wasn't going to use it for.

She knelt down and picked it up and luckily it didn't even have a passcode to get into it, she checked the battery as well to seeing that it was around 73% which was actually pretty good. "I know it's kinda frowned upon, but it'll be useful to use the internet and stuff though." She said and checked there was some reception surprisingly and pulled up the map feature on the phone, seeing that there were a few motels in the area. "There's a motel close by almost an hour walk from here. We can check in there and look for someplace to eat after." She said as Madalyne showed them the screen with directions to a Super 8.

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Nancy appreciated her friends not really pressing her about why she wasn't into the idea of a fancy hotel - of course, it was because they both knew exactly why, but she appreciated their compassion anyways. Not everyone in the world would've been so kind. "Rad - we love a charged phone," Nancy commented, impressed that Mads found a phone and that it was working. "Still, it's so tiny... How does that even work?" she had to ask. She was used to the phones of the 80's - giant bricks that people hauled around, that or a normal landline phone that you twisted your fingers around its spiraling cord while you were on the phone.

She also didn't really understand the internet very much. They had had the internet in the Lotus Hotel, to be sure, but Nancy had never really done much with the computers. She had pretty much stayed with the technology of the 80's in the options available there. The fancy little books with their light up screens confused her - the computers she knew were gigantic, practically took up an entire room.

An hour's walk to a nice shower and some food. Niah smiled. "Best get walking then." She considered taking off her armor but decided against it. She would have to carry it no matter what. Though she laughed when she imagined tying a rope through all the pieces and then having them fly over her like some metal balloon.

"I vote a steakhouse." She had heard that the midwest didn't have good ethnic food. She guessed they could pull of a steak well enough though. "Unless we find a Chinese restaurant. We might have to find a pawn shop and exchange some of our gold for cash before we go to the motel or anything." She didn't think most hotels would take payment in gold coins. They were not in a D&D game.

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Madalyne thought for a moment as she looked through the maps app. "Well there are quiet a few steak places here it seems." Madalyne said as she looked towards Nancy asking how it worked and shrugged slightly. She was kind of amazed how the touch screen actually worked in the first place as well to. "I'm not sure how it works, but it's definitely a lot better than the phones that we grew up that were huge and attached to the walls." Madalyne said with a slight smile.

"We'll figure something out and get to a pawn shop." Madalyne said looking down at the app, the closest town was Rapid City which was an eight hour walk away. "It's like an eight hour walk away from here to the closest town unless you two want to walk there. Or we can try and hitchhike our way over there." She suggested Madalyne didn't really like the idea of having to walk the entire way the hotel was probably the closest thing at the moment. She continued to walk down along the side of the road towards the closest motel.

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Nancy wrinkled her nose at Niah's suggestion of getting Chinese food - not that she had anything against Chinese food, she just somehow doubted there would be anything resembling edible and/or good Chinese food in South Dakota. "I second steakhouse. I don't want to get food poisoning by whatever Linda Smith has decided paces for a good stir fry," Nancy argued. However, they soon had bigger concerns as it turned out the nearest pawn shop was eight hours away, and the hotel was an hour away. The hotel was definitely not going to accept their gold.

"Urgghhhh.... Why is this somehow harder than fighting a dragon?" Nancy complained. "I know no one hitch hikes anymore these days, but I'm voting in favor of that. Even if it's a monster driving the car, we can kill it and take it. And if it's a human monster, we tie them up and leave them on the side of the road," Nancy voiced. She was not looking forward to the idea of an eight hour walk before they'd have a place to shower and get changed, and most importantly, eat.

"We could set up Niah-air again." They'd have to go back and get the boat, but it was better than walking for eight hours. Landing in town might be weird. At least here at the park there hadn't been anyone around. Niah didn't think it'd be a good idea to steal a car. And they'd have to actually run into someone driving to be able to hitchhike. Other than the park she had no idea why anyone would be here. It was the middle of nowhere.

"Problem with stealing a car. I don't know about you two, but I don't know how to drive. I don't have a license." She admitted. She wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know either. Or if they did have driver's licenses they were out of date. Something else the camp maybe should work on teaching. At least the older members of camp. Part of their training should be some survival skills.

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As Madalyne walked she started to think of a good way to try and get back home, she didn't want to have Niah pretty much fly them over to where they need to go that would be really hard on her. She also didn't like the idea of potentially falling to their deaths if Niah did get a little bit to tired after awhile. "Steakhouse works for me then." Madalyne said she didn't really mind of care she was pretty hungry anyway as well to.

When something caught her eye as she heard a car driving up the road, when she noticed the symbol of Camp Jupiter decaled onto the door of a truck. Madalyne knew that Camp Jupiter had quiet a few veterans, and knew that they could help them out if they asked and quickly started to wave to get their attention. "Looks like we got a ride actually." Madalyne said as she smiled making her way over towards the truck, there was a slightly older looking man on his arm was also a tattoo marking his service to the Legion. "What can I help you all with?" He asked looking at the three girls.

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"How hard could it be?" Nancy joked, as Niah pointed out she didn't know how to drive and didn't know if either of them knew how. Nancy's mother had never bothered to take the time to teach her how to drive, not that she had been old enough to do so before she ended up frozen in time anyways. But Nancy wasn't going to think about that place right now - nope, she wasn't going to let it ruin her good mood.

And luckily, the universe seemed to agree. Nancy didn't have huge qualms about hitchhiking, mostly because it had been a fairly common thing to do when she had been growing up - people weren't as scared about it back then. And given that the truck had the decal for Camp Jupiter on it, Nancy didn't let a thought cross her mind that they maybe shouldn't have trusted this random person. "Gnarly. Love this for us," Nancy said, as they walked up to the truck. "We're on a quest for the Legion and could use a lift to the nearest town. Or if you're willing, the nearest train station - we can trade you some gold for tickets."

Well, that was serendipitous. Niah smiled at the guy hoping he would take pity on them. She wondered what he was doing out here in what was nearly the middle of nowhere except for some defaced rocks. Maybe he had seen the dragon.

She pulled out one of the gold coins from her pocket and held it out to him. It wasn't camp money and he'd know that. But he could exchange it for cash at any of those cash-for-gold places. If it was a special coin it might even be more than its weight in gold too.

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"We could use a ride wherever you can take us." Madalyne said to the veteran giving him a smile as the guy smiled at his fellow legionaires, and went to unlock the doors. "You might want to move the tools around and stuff though." He said as Madalyne nodded luckily the truck did have a row of back seats as she went to put the tool box in the front seat and her pack into the back of the truck bed. The veteran looked at Niah offering her some gold and shook his head. "Keep it, set your gear in the truck bed." He said once Nancy and Niah got in he started up the car again and started to drive.

"Was gonna get some food, and then I can take you to the regional airport forty minutes away if you want that." He offered as Madalyne nodded she had taken the window seat. "Some food would be nice." She said as he started to head off to the closest restaurant. "So you ladies finishing on a quest or starting one?" He asked them. "Just finishing and trying to make our way back." Madalyne answered.

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Nancy got into the truck without much hesitation, putting her pack into the bed just as Mads had. She took one of the outer seats, as the middle seat made her feel confined and cornered - a small vestige of her trauma that "blessed" her with its appearance. But she could manage it. It was relatively small as her triggers went. The man seemed pretty friendly, and he was part of the Legion, so Nancy wasn't concerned about him.

Plus, he was driving them for free - she had noted how he had passed up on the gold Mads had offered. "Yeah, we killed a dragon. No big deal," Nancy humble bragged. "If you're taking us to the airport and don't mind trading gold for cash, so we can buy tickets, that'd be rad." Otherwise they'd need to make another stop before getting there. She somehow doubted whatever restaurant they were at would trade cash for gold. "What cohort were you in - and what's your name?"

Niah returned the gold to her pocket with a shrug. If he didn't want some of the gold they had, that was his choice. It wasn't all Roman coins, but if that had been the issue, she probably could have found some in the bags heavy with the gold they had gathered.

Niah didn't mind the middle seat. She took it without complaint. Just happy to be in a relatively safe position. A part of her brain screamed it was a trap. But if the guy answered Nancy's questions, she would feel better about it. Her bag was clunky, but she kept it on her lap.

She felt like the questions they were asking were the ones she wanted to know, so she didn't have anything to add. But because of the small part of her that was freaking out, watched him carefully. She wore a smile, so it didn't seem creepy.

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"I'm Braden Myers it's nice to meet the three of you. And i'm from the Fifth Cohort meself." He told them as he continued to drive them towards the closest town while looking at them. "Hope you three don't mind some BBQ, and don't worry about the tickets I got you covered as well to." Braden said as Madalyne leaned back in the seat she was grateful for his generosity, she wasn't really even expecting any former legion members being this far out really.

"Again thank you so much for the ride, tickets and food." Madalyne said as the drive didn't take much longer as he stopped the truck in town parking in front of a restaurant. He reached in and grabbed a laptop that was in the front seat along with a portable printer and three sheets of paper to. "C'mon and follow me." He said as he got out of the truck, Madalyne did as well to, following him into the restaurant which looked like a typical BBQ place there were a few people that looked like a bunch of bikers inside as well to as he went to grab a booth seat for all of them.

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Braden seemed fairly nice. Most former members of the Legion Nancy had met tended to be pretty helpful. It was one of the things she loved about Camp Jupiter - that everyone, no matter how insufferable, did try to pitch in when needed. There was a community, a support network that extended out of California, all the way here into South Dakota. No matter where they went, a member of the Legion was never really alone. It was like a socially constructed security net.

He had given his name, and answered that he was part of the Fifth Cohort. They were seen as somewhat losers around Camp Jupiter, requiring no letters of rec or anything from the gods to get in. Anyone could be there. And while some people were probably convinced Nancy had inter-cohort prejudice, she honestly didn't care. The only reason she had gotten a letter from Apollo was because he felt somewhat bad or guilty about not noticing she had been trapped in the Lotus Hotel, and it had been his attempts to pay her off more or less. She would've rather been placed in the Fifth Cohort and never spent a minute in the Lotus Hotel. She would've changed the timeline to be like that in a heartbeat.

"What are the machines for?" Nancy asked as they got out and headed on inside - she didn't recognize the sleek looking silver thing that was thinner than some books, or the other bulkier thing with it.

Niah raised an eyebrow at the computer. She could guess the purpose of it and find and print tickets for them to fly home. But computers were on the dangerous side. They had some of the same side effects cell phones had. Maybe the guy had learned how to use one without causing trouble.

Part of her was still really cautious of the guy. Sure, he was Legion...some of her nerves relaxed as she realized he had never broken an oath. That was good. Though it might mean he had never made one. But she tended to trust people who hadn't broken oaths a bit easier.

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Braden looked at Nancy as she asked what the machines were that he had on him and smiled. "A laptop computer, kinda need it with my civilian job, and a portable printer for work orders." Braden answered as Madalyne looked around the inside of the BBQ joint, it looked like a typical western place that had BBQ. There were various cowboy themed things, even a skull of a bull on the far end of the wall in the restaurant, he figured that the group needed to get home rather quickly, luckily there was a bar nearby as he and Mads made their way towards the bar. Braden plugged in the laptop into a nearby plug, and plugged the printer into the laptop, he had been here before a few times luckily the place did have wifi.

There was a set of menus on the table as Madalyne looked it down. "We'll order to go once these are printed out and send you on your way." He told them as Madalyne nodded, ribs seemed fine with her a waiter came up to the group of them and looked at them. "What can I get you all?" Their waiter asked. "Some ribs for me." Madalyne said as the waiter nodded and looked at the group. "Nothing for me, but can it be to go?" Braden asked as the waiter nodded, waiting for Nancy and Niah's order.

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"Holy shit, that thing's a computer?" Nancy exclaimed, completely shocked. Computers were supposed to be gigantic machines that took up entire rooms. She had gotten trapped inside the Lotus Hotel just when home computers were getting popular. She had heard that those were things, but something so tiny and delicate, able to be carted around in a truck? It was insane. "Where's its brains?" she then followed up. There had to be something wrong here. Maybe it was a glitch in the Mist or something - or maybe it was some sort of weird magic item that he was pretending was a computer.

She was still somewhat suspiciously eyeing the "computer" when the waiter came by with the menus and to get their orders. "Uh, I'll have a bacon cheeseburger and a vanilla shake, thanks," Nancy ordered. She didn't look at the menu. She just sort of assumed that they would have those here. What BBQ joint wouldn't be able to grill a burger after all?