The pair just ran without thinking where they are heading to. Along the way, Jongdae, passed the big pot to Baekhyun. It is too heavy to bring with for this run but, Baekhyun wass too attached to the pot to leave it lying in nowhere. Thankfully, the forest is too thick for the buff guys to spot them. As long as the pair make no noise, they can lose them in no time.

                Baekhyun and Jongdae stopped for a while to catch their breath, especially Baekhyun. Poor wizard physically drained. “Baekhyun, who are they? What do they want from you?” Jongdae asked while scanning his surroundings.

                Baekhyun, who was still catching his breath, finally sat on one of the logs nearby. “I don’t know Jongdae. It might be the guys from the tavern last week, or the bully from the month before or three days ago. These guys just don’t know the word give up” Jongdae stares at Baekhyun. “What?”

                “Nothing” Jongdae brushes off

                “Dae, spill it”

                Jongdae sat beside Baekhyun on the log and put his hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze, “it just, you’re going to get yourself killed someday if you don’t change your attitude”

Baekhyun chuckled while patting Jongdae’s hand on his shoulder. Puzzled by Baekhyun’s action Jongdae asked “what so funny?”

                “It’s just, Soo told me the same thing today. Am I that reckless?”

                Jongdae smiled “you tell me”

                While Jongdae and Baekhyun continue resting comfortably, thinking that they lost the buffed guys. Little they know that a frustrated witch finally killed the mouse to chant a tracking magic in order to find Baekhyun.

                “How about we crash at Kyungsoo’s place today, then we go meet the prince tomorrow and ask for protection? You did nothing wrong but defending people,” Jongdae suggested.

                Baekhyun was playing with a loose thread on his oversized cape. “I was thinking the same thing, but the thing is, Kyungsoo already moved into the castle recently, I’m sure they already close the main gate. It’s impossible to get into the castle ground until tomorrow morning.” Jongdae become silent for a while, thinking the next plan. “You know what, Jongdae. I think I’ll just head to the castle tonight, and see what I can do, how ‘bout you go back home? It’s harvesting season, and you, dear farmer, have loads of work to do

                “No, if you’re going to the castle, then, I’m going too,” Jongdae voice was firm, and it was too firm for Baekhyun’s sake.

                “It’s okay. I can go by myself”

                “No, even if you don’t like it, I’m too involved in this already”

                Baekhyun looked at his friend’s face, smiling, “you just want to meet Sir Minseok aren’t you?” It’s not hard to catch his friend’s one-sided crush because, whenever the prince’s knight came to their neighborhood, Jongdae always, and by all means, ALWAYS has his money ready to pay the tax accompanied by his signature smile. Minseok is the kindest and one of the strongest knight that Baekhyun ever met. Every monthe, he will gather the money from Baekhyun’s neighborhood, which is the farming neighborhood,  then encourage all the people by saying good job, keep up the good work, have a nice day and something along the line. Sadly, he also treats Jongdae the same like all the other farmers.

                “What? I’m not!” Jongdae stands, flustered. His face getting redder than tomato. Baekhyun smiles evil. “I really am not. Who told you that? ”

                “Someone” a foreign high-pitched voice intrudes their conversation. Shocked by the voice, Baekhyun stood up and Jongdae took a thick branch as protection. It’s the witch and the three buffed men standing behind her, smirking. “Someone, told me that the little wizard is gonna sit and chit-chatting”

Jongdae pulled Baekhyun so he stands behind him, shielding Baekhyun from other people’s view “who are you? What do you want with him?” Baekhyun was preparing something behind Jongdae.

                 “Relax. I don’t want you. I only want him,” the witch points her finger to Baekhyun.

                 “This witch is stupid. I asked, who are you? And what do you want. Not WHO do you want. You know what? I’m not talking to you. Hey big guy, what do you want with Baekhyun huh?” All the buff guys did not reply Jongdae’s question, but instead they drew their sword and change their stance into a fighting one.

                Just before they charge to the duo, Baekhyun chants, “O mighty Belisama, lend me you strength and take away their sight. Blind them so they face their life without the light!” After he finished chanting, he blew wind to the salt on his hand towards those people that after him. The salt became mist and blinds them from seeing the duo. After a quick thinking, Baekhyun thinks it’s best for them to split up and then meet again later. Baekhyun doesn’t want to drag Jongdae deeper into this mess anymore, but asking Jongdae to head home is not an option as Jongdae is hard headed too. Baekhyun pushed Jongdae to the opposite direction from the one that Baekhyun is running to. “Run! Their sight is taken away, but it won’t take that long for them to recover back!” Jongdae was super confused. Aren’t they heading to the castle together? “Meet up at your love crush’s place,” Baekhyun tries to send Jongdae away.

                Without thinking much, Jongdae nodded and continue to run away from Baekhyun’s direction.

                Baekhyun continued to run aimlessly. He do not know about this forest that much. After running for a while, and finally, Baekhyun feels like his lung was going to burst, the pot that he was holding was getting heavier for him to bring with. He sped walking and when he was feeling like he was falling down of exhaustion, he arrives in front of a cave. He stopped walking and scanned the entrance of the cave. He can see a ‘no entry’ sign, written in a writing that he used to see when he was a little kid. It’s their country’s old alphabets. He haven’t seen it for so long. The last time he saw such writing was in his parent’s books. Only few people can read it and Baekhyun is one of the few people.

                Without feeling a bit scared, Baekhyun enters the cave. He light up the dark cave with his levitating light ball, and saw the cave’s real size. It’s vast and deep. Baekhyun plans to walk a bit deeper inside the cave and then leave the light out, so, those people will not find him. So, Baekhyun continues walking deeper for few minutes until he saw a glowing river in front of him. Baekhyun was supposed to be surprise by the enchanted looking river but he was too occupied by the thoughts of seeing water to think too well. “Water!” Baekhyun runs towards the river and drank from it. He didn’t realize he was really thirsty until the water touched his throat. He kept drinking and oblivious of his surroundings. Baekhyun didn’t realize as soon as he reach the river, somebody was sitting near the river as well and was looking at him.

                To the stranger, it was complete shocking. He haven’t seen a person for a real long time. He was scared, but curious. He stood up from the rocks that he was sitting from and walks till he is standing right behind Baekhyun. At this point Baekhyun soaked his entire head inside the river to wash his head. The stranger squat and taking a whiff of Baekhyun smell. He smelled like salt and is that a glitter dust on his cape? A wizard?

                “Ahhhh, that was refreshing!” Baekhyun was feeling refreshed after he washed his head and currently using his cape to dry up his head. Feeling something behind him Baekhyun turned and was surprised that there’s somebody behind him. “Gahh!” he flew his still floating light ball to smack the stranger’s face, which is completely harmless. The light ball just dissolves makes the cave a bit darker and not completely dark because the cave was lighted by the glowing river. Baekhyun took his pot and held it in front of his body as a shield.

                He thought the stranger was going to push him to the river, but to Baekhyun’s surprise, the stranger fled behind one of the big rocks and there is a strange sound of metal clanging when the stranger ran away. Too stunned to do anything, Baekhyun stands there and scan the rock that is currently the stranger hid at. Although it’s faint, Baekhyun can hear the stranger hush talking to himself. “Noona was right, they got no manners”

                The voice of this stranger is deep. It’s deeper than anyone that Baekhyun have met all his life, but, he acts like a kid. A kid who his house being intrude at and he is scared. Is this guy afraid of me? “Excuse me? I’m sorry to intrude. Are you the owner of this cave?” Baekhyun want to present the stranger as a completely harmless person. “You see, I am lost, and finding a place to stay, and then I found this cave. I thought it’s nobody’s home” The stranger took a peek and hid again. “I’m not a bad person, I’m Baekhyun” Baekhyun tries again.

                Slowly, the stranger’s head appears and took a peek at the pot that Baekhyun is currently holding and quickly hides again. “You bring food?”

                “Eh?” Baekhyun looks at the pot. “Em, no. I just brought this along. For no good reason,” Baekhyun rambled while putting down the pot. He doesn’t even know why he was attached to the old thing.

                “Baekhyun? Are you alone?” the stranger peek again.

                Baekhyun finally sees the stranger’s eye. It’s glowing in gold colour. What is that? He is definitely non-human. Human eyes don’t glow. Is he one of the magical creature? Can they transform? I thought they were killed until extinction?  “For now, I am.” Baekhyun reaches for his back pocket where the small knife is. Just to be safe.

                “You’re lost?”

                “Yeap”

                “You got nobody?”

                What’s with this guy? No, he’s not human. “I wouldn’t say I got nobody, but for now, I do live alone at my house, if that is what your question is all about?”

                “That’s okay, I’m alone too” the stranger finally went out from hiding, revealing himself.

A/N: I'm sorry, I know its short, but I think it's best to end it here cause I got so many things to reveal for the next chapter. ^^;

Anyway, most of my time were taken by making the poster. OTL I didn't know it will take that long to edit it cause I had to edit different face on different body.

But, I wanna make it anyway so you guys can imagine what I imagine what they look like in this fic ^^

Thanks for reading :D