CHAPTER 5

Hyukjae stood dumbfounded, jaws hanging low in sheer astonishment of what lay ahead of him.

When, earlier, Kyuhyun had been successful in breaking off Saeun’s death gripped hug on Hyukjae, he and Sehun had stood on either sides of the Zeta, waiting for the two heads of Magic Maniacs to leave- along with the Zeta’s family. Hyukjae was confused and was about to question ‘what they were waiting for?’ but his words died right in his mouth and Hyukjae was surprise to find that the entrance to the so-called hidden Guardian lair was just a few feet away from them… Kyuhyun had simply walked toward a fern covered random boulder before tapping an irregular shape on it and in no time the stone had moved away on its own. Hyuk could only blink in surprise as Kyuhyun and Sehun had ushered him to get his rooted feet to move and enter the damp and smelly small cave behind the big boulder while both Guardians had kept looking around; like trying to find some unwanted company spying on them. The cave had been long… a little too long since Hyukjae’s legs had started to feel strained because of walking through the elongated path… but once the Zeta had seen a small opening at the other end of the lengthy tunnel, bright light visible even from distance, he had never imagined to find what he had found after emerging from the clammy and reeking cavern.

Acre and acres of lush land stretched so far that Hyukjae’s eyes could hardly make out the dull and miles away boundary of trees around the vast land… and an enormous fortress like white Mansion stood proud and erect right in the middle of the vast land. Now Hyukjae understood why the Guardian’s lair was called, Lustrous Grotto. But the thing that left Hyukjae gapping was the unbelievable number of men and women that seemed to occupy the great amount of land that lay in front of his eyes and they all appeared to be training hard.

“What is this place…?” Hyukjae whispered, eyes following the move of a lean, spiked hair female werewolf that seemed to be mock fighting with a male werewolf thrice her size but the lean and lither body of the girl was easily dodging the blows of the man while delivering her own sharp punches at any available opportunity. “Who are these peoples?”

“This is Lustrous Grotto,” Kyuhyun declared, voice delimited yet full of pride as a small smile lifted the corner of his lips.

“And all these people are our army,” Sehun was the one to enlightened the Zeta about the mystery of people before him, knowing quite well that Zeta was expecting to see eight more like Kyuhyun and Sehun, since the actual Guardians are 10 in number.

“Army?” Hyukjae cried, turning to share at Sehun in a baffle manner.

“Well you can’t expect only ten of us to fight for you if a war was declared by our enemies, right?” Sehun asked back, amusement visible on his features. “We nearly have an army of 500 werewolves who diligently train each and every day… ready to fight for you if the situation calls for it.”

“So… so… so you are saying they are my army?” Hyukjae squeaked so loud that a few of the trainees even turned to stare at the commotion going around at the mouth of the tunnel that was the entrance and exit of Lustrous Grotto. The training wolves were quite far from them thus Hyukjae knew they couldn’t hear him… as long as he kept his voice down.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Kyuhyun snorted, making the Zeta to flush slightly. “These fighters doesn’t know anything about you… they hardly know anything about us, the Guardians.”

“But then how…?”

“They are paid to work out and fight for us,” Sehun shrugged offhandedly. “They think we are some underground rebel group that would soon be standing against the Golden Alpha to get our rights back or something like that.”

“Oh…” Hyukjae’s confused mind couldn’t come up with what to reply as he blinked blankly, eyes fixed on a young boy who would hardly be sixteen as the young boy fought with two female werewolves at the same time… of course the boy was losing badly.

“Yeah, and we would like them to keep thinking that,” Kyuhyun muttered while giving a side glance to Hyukjae, who nodded rapidly. “It’s safer that way.”

“Besides, you are gonna pretend to be one of the trainees as well,” Sehun chuckled at Hyukjae’s alarmed expression. “Relax; it’s just a precaution so that no one can know about you. You will easily blend in that way.”

Hyukjae nodded slowly, eyes again drifting toward the training arena and with a slight fear he realized that most of the trainees were men, quite beefy and broad chest men. If my enemies don’t kill me soon, I am sure these people will, Hyukjae thought and gulped painfully.

“Kyuhyun! Sehun!” A loud shout brought Hyukjae back to his current surrounding and by instinct he turned his head left and right to find the source of shout and immediately his eyes located a beautifully smiling, warm brown eyed and tall boy jogging toward them, his smile getting brighter and brighter as he neared them. In a flash the boy had rushed toward Kyuhyun and s his arms around the taller brunet’s broad chest, and Kyuhyun returning the gesture with a happy smile of his own. “I am so glad you guys are back!” The newcomer exclaimed in an excited voice as he turned to firmly hug Sehun as well. But he broke away speedily as his eyes settled on an awkward looking Hyukjae and he clapped his cupped hands on his mouth in a dramatic gasp, “Oh Lord! Is that the ZE-?”

Sehun moved with a rapid speed and slapped shut the young boy’s mouth before he could shout the words he had intended to let out, “Jaehyun!! Not so loud.”

A sheepish expression decorated the face of the young boy, known as Jaehyun apparently, who gave a quick nod, clearly telling Sehun that he would keep his lips lock and Hyukjae’s secret safe.

“This is Jung Jaehyun, one of our younger Guardians,” Kyuhyun enlightened the Zeta in a near whisper.

“The youngest, the sweetest and the cutest among all of us!” The excited whelp shouted, his dimple smile more prominent as his grin widen. Kyuhyun laughed at the youngest among them before motioning everyone to start making their way toward colossal Mansion of the Lustrous Grotto while waving away the curious trainees who stopped to stare at them.

“Sweetest?” Sehun scoffed before turning toward silently smiling Hyukjae, who seemed to mentally cooing at the cute Jaehyun who, Hyukjae was sure, was younger than him as well. “He might look cute and sweet but don’t fall for his innocent miens because he is an Omicron (o).”

“A rather strong Omicron,” Kyuhyun added helpfully while loosely flumping his arm around Jaehyun’s shoulder. “He can burn down anything he touches or looks at.”

Maybe Kyuhyun was expecting Hyukjae’s eyes to balloon out and mouth to drop in surprise at that piece of information but surprisingly the Zeta had completely different reaction to give. Swiftly, Hyukjae moved forward and latching a hand on Jaehyun’s forearm, startling the young Guardian as much as the other two.

“Really?? I have the same power,” Hyukjae told the other wide eye werewolf, his gummy smile bright and full of glee. “But it’s not fully developed yet… I can only make that place heat up but not burn… you have got to help me!”

The Guardians shared a brow raise look among them before their eyes came to rest on the Zeta, making Hyukjae conscious of his being.

“Zetas don’t have powers… right?” Jaehyun asked cautiously.

“No,” Kyuhyun shook his head before Hyukjae could utter a single word. “I read something about it, something about the Zeta possessing all kind of powers known to wolf-kind but thought it was just a speculation since our history says Zetas are powerless.”

“Yeah,” Hyukjae quickly nodded, it’s the exact same thing Saeun had told him a few years back. “But apparently my powers are on a lock down and need a trigger to be unleashed.”

“Wow… really?” Jaehyun exhaled in awe and had just opened his mouth to ask a few more details when the second in command Guardian spoke.

“Jaehyun, go get everyone to gather in the common room and don’t shout anything about Hyukjae,” Kyuhyun commanded in a low voice, his eyes skipping around to see many of the trainees abandoning their task and openly gawking at them. The young Guardian gave a quick nod, his face serious, before he started to jog toward the Main Building of Lustrous Grotto.

“Come,” Sehun mumbled, placing his hand on Hyukjae’s lower back and urging him to walk faster. Hyukjae hardly had time to admire the beauty around him before he was being ushered inside the gigantic Mansion. But rather than moving toward the luxurious looking circular sitting area- visible through the roof high glass wall- the Zeta found himself being steered toward a dark and old looking cupboard placed at far corner of the main hallway, hidden behind an unused couch. Sehun opened the door of cupboard and it was stark empty… not even the mop and cleaning buckets occupied the space, like Hyukjae had wondered. The Zeta was about to voice out his confusion when Sehun stepped forward easily, slid away the back of the cupboard and a gaping hole greeted them.

“What the…?” Hyukjae gasped in shock when he peered inside the hole and found a spiral staircase leading to deep darkness below them.

“Just go,” Sehun advised but Hyukjae looked back at him with suspicion.

Was he doing something erroneous? Did he make the wrong decision of trusting these guys? What if they were leading him toward his death? Hyukjae’s mind conjured such questions. Sehun sniggered at the alarm sheening on the Zeta’s face before he brushed pass him to head down first while throwing a soft ‘I would lead the way’ at the frozen Hyukjae.

“Trust us Hyukjae; we are here to protect you.” Kyuhyun’s muttered, reassuringly, from behind him, giving Hyukjae enough courage to confidently start descending into the darkness beneath him.

O-o-o-o-O

Donghae tread with the speed of snail, just returning from the main office in the Castle, sorting through the number of problems a King of Wolvotaria has to go thro