~I stood, staring at Taehyung with wonder in my eyes.

"You know about Jooheon? However did you find out?" I asked, my voice practically dripping with the astonishment I felt.

 Taehyung sighed, and ran a hand through his fair hair, as if the thought of telling me the story was daunting. Still, I wouldn't relieve him of the burden since I desperately wanted to know. Taehyung shuffled into a seated position that seemed to make him feel more comfortable, and he began his tale.

"After you brought me back to Fiore I had a lot of thinking to do. Although I suspected both you and Jooheon were right I couldn't help but doubt.

 The man is my uncle after all, though it's a fact I've become recently ashamed of," he confessed, looking completely downtrodden.

 Truly I felt sorry for him. It must have been incredibly painful for him to realize the truth of his uncle's character, especially since it had been so carefully hidden from him for so long.

I reached across the part of the floor that separated his seat from mine to take hold of his hand gently.

"Don't trouble yourself on our account," I said, gesturing to my father and I. "We're alright now thanks to you and Kyungsoo aren't we?"

He nodded, and continued.

"I scoured through every book, every history about the wilds that I could possibly find in our library. It was only then that I found something very strange. As you know, such things had never interested me before, and I'd never bothered to read them . But all of the volumes in my uncle's collection are incomplete. They reveal practically nothing about the wilds, and just when you think that they might provide some sort of useful information the pages have been removed. I admit it's been done very skillfully, and I barely noticed at first. I've no doubt now that my uncle has them in his possession, but he couldn't remove the volumes altogether or I'm certain some noble or another would have commented."

"So then what did you do?" I asked when he reached a natural ebb in the flow of the conversation. I could hardly wait for him to continue.

"I came to the only logical conclusion and determined that something was amiss. I was willing to accept that something about my family was not what it seemed, and so I decided to go back to the wilds to give you and Jooheon a fair hearing," he finished.

"You can imagine my surprise when Jooheon met me at the border. He was even angrier than he was when I first arrived in the wilds, demanding I tell him where you'd gone, and if I knew whether or not you were safe. I had no idea that my uncle had even left the city let alone taken you hostage. It was then that he told me everything, about his past and who he really was, and although it was difficult to accept at first I have every confidence that he was telling the truth," he said wholeheartedly.

I had to look at him with a little skepticism though.

"You were so convinced that he was lying before. For all you know he could have been lying about me being taken hostage. What changed your mind?"

"Because I've never seen anyone so worried in all my life. Such genuine love and concern for a person would have been very difficult to fabricate," he answered, the words causing my heart to swell.

 In fact I couldn't help but feel a little bit embarrassed. Surely he couldn't have been that concerned for my safety. We were friends of course, but such a thing seemed quite out of character for him.

"Together we managed to come up with a plan to rescue you. Kyungsoo here was only too happy to offer us his assistance.I have to admit, those shape-shifting powers of the Aryan's come in handy in a pinch. They're a fantastic ally and a terrible enemy. I hope that by working together we can become the former."

Kyungsoo gave a nod of agreement. Though the two men, and even my father seemed rather at ease with our current situation I couldn't help but still feel a little anxious. We weren't out of danger yet by any means.

"I'm glad that we've all been able to find some common ground, but for right now I'd really like to know how you planned on getting us all out of here. Besides, I'm not going anywhere without my sisters, they'll only be used against us if they stay here."

Taehyung looked a little disturbed at the mention of them, perhaps because he'd forgotten about their existence- a fact that would make them miserable indeed.

"You're right, of course. I suppose I could discreetly summon them to my room for a chat, though since I've scarcely spoken with them before I could arouse their suspicions," he offered, but I shook my head.

"I doubt that they'd ever decline an invitation to take tea with the next Prince of Fiore, so I wouldn't worry about that." My father laughed in agreement.

"It's not in their nature to snub royalty," he added, and Taehyung set out at once with the preparations. He called for some tea, and for a manservant to fetch my sisters immediately while my father, Kyungsoo and I hid from view.

It had barely been an hour before they'd arrived, dressed as splendidly as they could have been. Still, there was an air about them that seemed foreign to me. They didn't seem at all like the lovable flibbertigibbets that they had been when I'd left. Even their clothes seemed to have faded. It was as if there was a shroud of somberness between the two, despite the fact that they still maintained every appearance of grace and poise.

While we remained in hiding, the manservant poured the tea and laid out a number of delicious looking sweets on the dining table.

 When he'd finished, Taehyung dismissed him and bade my sisters to sit. While seated they looked as beautiful as a painting, yet their expressions were severe and guarded.

"My ladies, I fear my calling you here has probably come as a shock to you," he began kindly. It was Lily who answered first, her voice stained with false brightness.

"Not at all My Lord. My sister and I are honored. It's just I'm sure you're aware that both our father and sister have gone missing, and we haven't been quite ourselves lately."

Taehyung nodded, sharing a bright smile to keep them at ease.

 I wasn't sure if he'd intended on us coming out of our hiding place right away, but I could barely stand to look at my sisters in such a state.

 I jumped out from where I'd been concealed in with a happy cry, startling everyone in the room.

"I'm here! Iris, Lily....I'm sorry I ran off like that, but I couldn't bear losing father!" I pleaded, and without even realizing it I began to cry.

The two women shrieked, at first in surprise, and then with recognition. I didn't even want to consider how poorly I looked at the moment, a fact that Iris didn't hesitate to comment on as soon as she had the chance to look me over.

"Rose! For goodness sake, you look positively feral!"

I couldn't even let the comment bother me, she was probably right, but at the moment I didn't care, and it seemed like they had no problems embracing me, even in my filthy state.

Iris held me by my shoulders and looked at me square in the face, her eyebrows knitted together in anger.

"No matter how worried you were you should never have run off! Didn't you, even once, consider how that might make us feel? We thought you were dead!"

"But I found him! He's right here!" I urged father to come forward, which he did rather slowly. He seemed both overjoyed and overwhelmed at the sight of our reunion, and there was more embracing and tears.

 Kyungsoo and Taehyung stood together and observed us with mild amusement for a while, and for the briefest of moments I could almost believe that everything was back to normal. But that moment passed quickly and I was again faced with the unfortunate task of telling my sisters the truth of our current predicament.

"However did you survive the wilds Rose? Is it truly as dangerous as they say?" Lily asked curiously, and I couldn't help but laugh at the question.

"Yes, it is at that- but believe it or not, right now it's the safest place for us. We need to leave here pretty much immediately," I admitted causing my sisters to wear extremely puzzled expressions on their faces.

"You cannot be serious! She's not serious, right father?" Iris asked seizing him by his shoulders, though he could barely meet her gaze.

"I'm sorry, but she is. The Duke is not the man he says he is. I've been in the dungeon of this place for ages, and Rose has been locked up with me for over a week. We're hostages my girls, and there is not enough time to explain the matter fully before our escape has been realized," he explained.

To say that I was astonished by their reaction would have been an enormous understatement. I had prepared myself mentally for an indignant outburst, or at least some sort of whiny protest. But perhaps like me, my sisters had changed over the course of my absence as well.

"I assume we haven't time to pack anything," Iris said, taking a hold of my hand tightly.

"I'm afraid not," I answered, squeezing her hand back with a smile.

"Then we're ready to leave right now Rose, just say the word," Lily said confidently.

 It was the first time that they'd deferred to my opinion about anything and I couldn't quite believe what was happening. Perhaps I was more cherished by them then I'd been led to believe.

 I whispered a muffled thank you, and turned to Taehyung and Kyungsoo.

"Shall we go?" I asked.

 Taehyung nodded, though Kyungsoo shot me a look of apprehension. It was clear that he planned on heading back to report the news of our escape to Jooheon, but didn't want to change form in front of my sisters.

I would save the idea of animal transformation for after though, since such a strange power was infinitely more difficult to accept and I didn't have the time to fend off potential disbelief or the shock of