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Tree. Twelve. Fire. Bird.

The medallion has been giving you dreams.

Ever since Kai gave it to you and you placed it around your neck, it’s been trying to tell you something. The weekend flew by like nothing and every night of it gave you the same dream; one that you'd almost immediately forget when you'd wake up in the morning.

Last night, after it happened again, you decided to write it down in your journal; every detail before it vanished from your memory.

At first, you only scrawl four words down: Tree. Twelve. Fire. Bird.

Then, you expand on it, making sure you write down things you think could be important. When you are done, you go back to sleep, and the second your alarm wakes you up, you text both Kai and Sungji and tell them to meet you in the library. It would be the first time you’ve ever missed class, but it’s definitely for a good reason. And the library has always been a comfortable place to be for you. A nice, quiet place to share secrets.

You make your way down the familiar hallways and a sudden blanket of relief covers you as you approach the library doors.

Pushing them softly so as not to disturb other students, you quietly shuffle your feet towards the back of the library, to the area which Kai suggested would be best to talk without interruption.

As you turn the corner around a wide shelf of books, a small table comes into view. It is positioned right next to a window, with no other tables around it and only a few people passing to look at the nearby books. This really is the perfect spot, you think, smiling to yourself. 

There are four cushiony chairs placed around the table, and seated in one of them is Sungji. You saunter over to the table and Sungji’s eyes meet yours. “Hey.” She nods her head at you. “You look terrible.”

You grimace at her and throw your backpack onto the table. “I haven’t exactly been sleeping very well.” You start digging into the largest pocket in your bag and retrieve the journal containing the events from last night’s dream.

Throwing your bag onto the ground, you place the journal in the middle of the table. “Where’s Kai?” You take the seat opposite of Sungji, closest to the window, and look outside.

You feel someone breathing on your neck and snap your head away from the window to look beside you.

Kai is seated next you, casually leaning back in his chair and fixing the sleeves of his leather jacket.

“Smooth.” Sungji has been trying to maintain her unimpressed attitude with him, even though you both know that she is anything but that. It doesn’t seem to bother Kai either way, and he plays along with her game most of the time.

He pauses his movements and immediately looks up from where he’s sitting, and you both lock eyes for a few seconds. It’s hard to tell why he’s looking at you, given his usual stoic expression. But in that moment, your brain functions cease and you almost forget why you’re in the library in the first place.

“Hey, I’m here too,” the tiny person on the opposite side of the table whines. You tear your eyes away first, although you can still feel his eyes on you. Turning your attention to the journal, you scoot your chair closer to the table and slide the journal in front of Kai.

“It’s the first few pages,” you say, pointing a finger at it. “I think you might understand it better than I do.” Kai’s eyes haven’t moved from their position, but he makes the exception to transfer their focus to the journal. He slowly reaches out and picks up the spine, opening the front cover to the first page. “You should read it out loud so I can hear it too.” Sungji leans forward on the table, clutching her bag.

Kai steadily grips both sides of the journal and takes a breath before he starts reading.

♦♦♦

DREAM SEQUENCE

The dream begins, and you’re sitting in the shade under a large, leafy tree. The wind is blowing tenderly between its branches and it wisps your hair around playfully. The grass you happen to be sitting in is comfortable and dry, and in your lap is a book.

You immediately recognize it: the book from the library.

Picking it up, you flip each page and the first one that catches your eye has a picture of a tree on it. A tree, surprisingly enough, that is very similar to the one you are now sitting under. Its trunk is twisted and unscathed, with not a scratch or touch of erosion disturbing it; a thin layer of brown bark covers it like a thin, silk dress.

You push yourself up from the ground and circle around its trunk, looking back and forth at the picture and the real thing, not seeing any differences.

You walk a bit closer to it, and extend your hand to touch its bark.

Right as your skin meets its own, the tree seems to light up and around the middle of the trunk appears a ring of symbols, a strange golden glow outlining each of them.

You again make your way around it, inspecting each symbol, and you finally recognize one of them. It’s the triangle with the circle in it; Kai’s symbol.

Instinctively you turn your sights away from the tree, into the distance, and see Kai standing a few yards away from you. If you were to trace a line from the symbol to Kai, he’d be directly in line with it, and from here you can tell that his hands are folded together in a prayer-like position in front of him.

You’re just about to walk forward when out of the corner of your eye, you spot another figure.

And as you turn slowly, there’s another.

And another. And another.

They have encircled the tree, and are standing roughly the same distance as Kai, each in line with a symbol and with their hands in similar positions.

A realization hits you, and you walk around to look at their faces. They are the twelve.

You don’t recognize any of the faces other than one, and you suddenly become overwhelmed.

I have to find all of them…?

Suddenly, you feel something pulling you back towards the tree and as you gaze up, you see another symbol glowing, just under the branches, above the other symbols and right at the top of the trunk.

The glowing symbol is yours; it is the same one from the medallion. Unlike the rest of the symbols, yours glows a bright blue, and is significantly larger. Without warning, the tree suddenly bursts into flames and a shrill wailing pierces the silence. You look around to find the source of the noise, but you’re not sure where it's coming from.

You crouch down with the book against your chest, and swing your hands up to your ears to guard them from the deafening sound. Looking up from your position, you realize the flames have started to move together and form some kind of profile, similar to a large animal.

Your eyes search around the tree to look for the others but it seems that the twelve have disa