Jaehwan thought it would be over when they reached the village. But he was wrong.

The four of them rushed towards the village, the tracking spell revealed Wonsik and Hongbin ( he gave him the navigational crystal for helping out in the old witch’s house)  were there. They did not know what happened but it was not something good.

They arrived at an empty village and even though it was deserted, seeing a new place gave excitement to Jaehwan who had always stuck in his house under his older brother’s protective care.

“Where’ s everybody?” Sanghyuk asked with confusion.

“ I hear a lot of noises from that direction”, Hakyeon said, pointing forward.

“ That’s the main hall. The people usually gather there for an emergency or a special meeting”, Taekwoon said, rubbing the bracelet on his wrist. Jaehwan knew he was worried about something but his poker face was still strong in place.

At least, he did not freak out when Hakyeon told him of being a half-vampire. They made their way to the hall and peeked from the window.

They watched the whole thing and they could not take it anymore when they saw Wonsik being forced to transform.

They looked away but Hakyeon had a different idea. He lead them to an empty shop and asked them to sit down. He could still hear the discussion but he stopped and faced them with a serious expression.

“ Okay, we need to think fast. The hunter is going have the villagers enter the woods to find clues and kill any supernaturals they find. About the missing children, I think he knew something more than he let on”, Hakyeon furrowed his eyebrows, looking like he was thinking deeply.

“I think I know where they are”, Sanghyuk said with a soft voice, still shocked from seeing Wonsik’s ordeal. “ We moved here because he lost his slaves to some rich lady and he need a new place to start over and run away from debtors. Just in case he get back to business, he built a cellar under the house so he can keep any slave there”.

“Who?”, Jaehwan asked,trying to avoid looking around the interesting-looking shop that sells candies. Candies are interesting so don’t blame him for eyeing the lollipops in a jar.

“ M..my...f..fa..father”, Sanghyuk stammered, Hakyeon gave him a pat of comfort. Sanghyuk took a deep breath. “ He used to work as a slave trader. Anyway, his act just now flared up the villager’s anger and I suspected he was working with the hunter”.

“ So, the hunter kidnapped the other children and kept them in the cellar under Sanghyuk’s house so they can urge the villagers to enter the woods and hurt other supernaturals and do what excactly? I don’t know what the hunter can get from the plan except getting more followers”, Jaehwan summarised what he heard and was happy when the others agreed with him.

“ We need to save other children so they can tell the villagers the real kidnapper and stop whatever tha hunter is  planning. We need to go now”, Taekwoon stood up but Hakyeon stopped him.

“ We can’t rush on like that. We need to distract the hunter so he can focus on something else other than the children. Hmm...” Hakyeon thought for a moment before grinning.

“ How good are you in acting?”                                                         

Jaehwan followed Sanghyuk to his house and tried to remember the plan repeatedly so he won’t forget.

They both had to check out the cellar to make sure the children are there.

Taekwoon would pretend to side with hunter so he could unsettle the hunter while passing his golden bracelet to Wonsik as a reassurance.

Jaehwan tinkered with it to make it smaller and he could not wait when the right time comes for it to work its real function. Taekwoon was in for a surprise.

Hakyeon was going to supervise Taekwoon and tried to make contact with the head villager to alert him about the real situation. They did thought on saving Wonsik and Hongbin but Hakyeon suggested that Wonsik need to stay out of this so he had the advantage of denial over what would happen. As for Hongbin, it was risky because of his position as the hunter’s slave.

Jaehwan and Sanghyuk ran up a hill and he spotted a normal-looking house down below. Sanghyuk gestured him to hide behind the bushes as he looked at the house with a mix of anger and fear.

“ So how are we going to know for sure that the other children would be there?”, Sanghyuk asked.

“ A worm will do the trick”, Jaehwan said with a grin as Sanghyuk chuckled at his statement.

Jaehwan muttered a spell while doing what he thinked an expression of a worm looks like ( just imagine Ken doing an impression of Lava  during Weekly Idol ). Sanghyuk laughed at him but then he stopped when he saw a worm emerged from the ground. Jaehwan muttered some enchantments and the worm just nodded before going underground.

“ Well, our little friend is going to take care of the matter”, Jaehwan said, trying to not laugh at Sanghyuk’s shocked expression.

“ But it is a worm. Can’t it get there fast enough?”, he asked.

“ Oh, I forgot about that”, Jaehwan let out a low whistle and the worm returned. He chanted another spell and the worm glowed blue and it zipped around the ground and went underground in an unnatural speed.

“ Ok, magic is weird”, Sanghyuk mumbled.

“ Magic is weird and fun”, Jaehwan said with a grin before the two of them made their way to Taekwoon’s house.

They decided the easiest way to rescue the other children was to sneak in at night when ‘ the monster’ ( Sanghyuk suggested that name) sleeps. They will open the trapdoor and led the children out as quietly as possible.

Jaehwan would only use his magic when there was an emergency. Hakyeon met up with them but he could not stay long becuase he need to check on Wonsik for a while and he need to keep an eye on Taekwoon just in case Jeowook was planning to harm him or do anything stupid.

So Jaehwan and Sanghyuk were on their own. When ‘the monster’ went to bed, drunk like how Sanghyuk expected every night, they sneaked in with the key Sanghyuk pulled out from under the bear figurine beside the door.

They found their way in the dark with Jaehwan’s light spell and they found the entrance of the cellar. He unlocked and opened the door and the children in the cellar gasped when they saw them.

“ Sanghyuk, is that you?”, a boy with an athletic build like Taekwoon asked.

“ Yes but we have to be quick and quiet. You need to go one by one and.........”, Sanghyuk was stopped by a tall boy from the back.

“ Why do we have to listen to you, wimp?! Your father is working with that guy who kidnapped us. How can we trust you?”, he shouted with contempt.

“ Shuuuusshh. Don’t talk too loud. I am going to bust you all out from here so be quiet”, Sanghyuk hissed quietly.

“ Yeah, listen to him. He’s going to save us. Now everyone get in one line and.....”, the first boy tried to stop the other rude boy but he did not stop.

“ Shut it, Doojoon! We can’t trust some wimp and his wimpy friend to save us. We need to stay put so the adults can save us”, another voice speak up, probably the rude boy’s sidekick, Jaehwan thought.

“ That’s ridiculous. The door is open now and we need to leave before...” Doojoon said only to be cut off by a gruff voice from the door.

“ Before what? You ain’t going anywhere”, a drunked man stood at the door, pushing Jaehwan roughly and grabbed Sanghyuk by the arm soon after.

“ I thought you are dead. But maybe it’s better you are alive. I will send you over to Jeowook tomorrow morning after I have fun with you”, the man dragged Sanghyuk away who vainly struggled against the grip on him. Jaehwan could only watch with shock and when the lock clicked it was then he realised what had happened.

“ Sanghyuk! Sanghyuk! Sanghyuk!”, Jaehwan shouted desperately, pounding on the heavy door. When his hands were tired, he stopped but it was a mistake.

He heard Sanghyuk.

“ NO! NO! NO!  I will not do it for your satisfaction anymore! You cut me yourself if you want too!”, Sanghyuk shouted with defiance but soon Jaehwan heard crunching blows and the continous thump of punches hitting a body.

Sanghyuk’s cries and screams sent Jaehwan into another round of pounding the door. He could not let the monster hurt Sanghyuk again. Not the sweet, innocent boy who was always amazed watching his magic.

Magic.

That’s it.

Jaehwan focused on the door and muttered a spell to unlock it like he had done earlier.

He turned the handle but it won’t budge.

He tried a fire spell to burn the door but there’s no flame coming out from his hands.

He tried the telepotation spell but when he opened his eyes, he was still in the dark cellar with the other children staring at him.

Sanghyuk’s cries and screams did not stop and Jaehwan continued to pound on the door, screaming Sanghyuk’s name repeatedly, cursing himself for being a failure.

“ I know you and your brother inherited great power from your parents but you are a fool to let me in. I do not need to curse you. You are destined to fail anyway from your stupidness. So undeserving for such great power”, the witch spoke into his mind after she paralysed him and his brother.

Jaehwan sobbed as he remembred the dreadful night years ago. He’s supposed to be a great soceror but he failed to perform any spells to save his friend. He let panic get in the way. He’s a failure.

After what seemed like hours, the door opened and Sanghyuk was thrown into the celler with blood all over his body. The door closed quickly and Jaehwan was left to find his friend in the darkness. He muttered  a simple light spell and to his surprise, it worked.

He found Sanghyuk groaning in pain and Jaehwan wished he could unsee every wound he saw on the boy’s body.

“ Pocket...”, Sanghyuk muttered weakly.

Jaehwan searched his pockets and his hands felt a very thick yet small bottle. He pulled it out and poured the liquid into Sanghyuk’s mouth.

Under his light, he saw the wounds on Sanghyuk’s body fading, turning into scars and soon disappeared completely.

“ Tell Sungjae that his drinks are awesome”, Sanghyuk said with a smile.

“ I thought I lost you”, Jaehwan hugged Sanghyuk, feeling relieved. “I thought I fail you. My magic, my magic, I fail to use my magic”, Jaehwan stammered out his words, only for to recieve a light pat on the back.

“ It’s ok. I’m fine now. About your magic, you are a soceror and I had seen you do amazing stuff with your magic. You can do it if you believe if you can do it”, Sanghyuk  said with sincerity.

Jaehwan kept quiet, thinking how he was always afraid to fail in performing the right spells, how his brother encouraged him to work hard as best as he could. He thinked that the witch was right. He was destined to fail so he can learn and come back up.

Then, an idea came into mind.

“ So let’s call our little friend, shall we?”.

“ Let’s go everyone! The tunnel exit is not far away”, Jaehwan shouted, Sanghyuk and him leading the way as millions of worms paved a tunnel for them in lightning speed.

“ Cool”, Dojoon muttered as he watched with awe like the other children behind them. The rude boy and his sidekick also the other boys who still did not want to cooperate followed silently at the back. Their mouths were magically shut as Sanghyuk requested.

When they reached the surface, the sun was rising. They were all about to celebrate when Jaehwan asked them to be quiet. He remembered something and it was not good.

“ Guys, we need to hurry. We have to stop an execution”.

When the children reached the square in the middle of the village, Jaehwan saw Wonsik in chains was led to a small flat stone and there’s a man holding an axe near it.

He turned to the children and reminded them of what they had to do.

“STOOOPPP!”, they all shouted. The villagers turned around and the execution was forgotten as the parents ran for their children.

“ It’s the hunter who kidnapped us, not the supernatural creatures”, Doojoon shouted and his statement was supported by the other children.

The adults gasped and turned towards the group of hunters behind them who were readying their rifles and guns. The executioner walked towards the weak Wonsik while brandishing his axe.

“ Wait!”, Taekwoon shouted and kicked the executioner at his legs. The man grunted in pain but he managed to push Taekwoon away.

As much as Jaehwan wanted to save Wonsik, he knew he got it covered. However, he need to focus on protecting the villagers from the other hunters.

He opened his arms wide and with a chant of a spell, a large wave of darkness emerged from the shadows of the buildings and hit the hunters. They all yelped in surprise when they could not see anything. Jaehwan grinned as his shadow-blinding spell worked.

“ MEOOOOWWW!!!”

Jaehwan and the villagers turned their heads towards the sound and saw the executioner, now unconscious, on the ground with a familiar black cat on his chest.

“ Thank you, cat”, Wonsik thanked the cat before passing out, probably from exhaustion.

Taekwoon took off the chains with keys he got from the executioner and laid Wonsik down on the ground. Sanghyuk and Jaehwan ran over and the former took out a bottle and poured the healing drink into Wonsik’s mouth.

“ You had a lot to explain, Jaehwan”, Taekwoon asked as he watched the cat purred at his leg before transforming back into a golden bracelet on Taekwoon’s wrist.

“ You are his master so he will follow you anywhere”,Jaehwan replied as Wonsik began to heal, thanks to his rapid healing abilities and Sanghyuk’s potion.

“ Not me. To the villagers”, Taekwoon gestures at the shocked villagers.

“ Ok”, Jaehwan grinned. He can’t wait to tell them about magic and the good supernaturals living in the woods.

He thought it was over when he rescued everyone. But again, he was wrong.

“ Ummm, where’s Hakyeon and Hongbin?”, Sanghyuk asked.

“ More importantly, where’s Jeowook?”, Taekwoon added another question.

Jaehwan looked up and saw a huge smoke coming from the edge of the woods.

When there’s smoke, there’s a fire.

“ This won’t be good”, Jaehwan muttered.

A/N HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!! 

Hope 2016 will be better than 2015 for everyone!!

smallbear99

A/