“Alright children, let me introduce you my friend, Taecyeon.” Teto introduced her friend with a wide smile. The man – Taecyeon smiled – or grinned at them. Taecyeon was a handsome tall man, with great body – despite his layers of clothes. Taecyeon bowed to them, and they bowed to him also. “Hello children,” he started with a thick Northern accent. “I am Ok Taecyeon, a dragon mage. Lightning is my element. I must tell you first that dragon mage is entirely different than dragon slayers, understood?” They all nodded. “Any question?” Hyoyeon raised her arm. “Yes?”

“Can you explain the differences? You see, me and Taeyeon are forest elves, so we don’t know anything about it.”

Taecyeon tapped his chin and nodded. “But I must warn you this is quite complicated, ah, for children I say,” they all nodded. “Well. How do I start? Hm… you see, dragon slayers obtained the powers through three sources, am I right? Lacrima, bloodline, and dragon or dragon slayer parents. Dragon mage is different, though the moves are quite the same. I along with some of my dragon mage friends obtained it from real dragon, which died by the hands of Kim Taeyeon.” Taeyeon gasped at this. Taecyeon quickly noticed and corrected himself, “I mean it’s a man, you know, almost the same age as me.” Taeyeon sighed in relief.

“I only make this understandable for you. We can only activated our powers when we are in our dragon form, and when we are like this, we’re pretty much powerless,” he chuckled. “But aside from that, I’m a Lightning mage.”

“Cool.” Yoona and Jessica chorused. “Kuwl!” Krystal squeaked from her stroller, and everybody laughed.

“Then,” Taecyeon clasped his hands together. “Shall we begin our training on the dragon’s realm?”

As soon as he asked it, there was a sound of glass breaking followed by an angry Teto. “DRAGON’S WORLD?!” She growled, baring her chimera teeth to the nervous Taecyeon. “THIS IS MADNESS!”

“W-well you m-must be mistaken, Teto-chan!” Taecyeon waved his both hand. The kids snickered at the ‘chan’. “Dragon realm is my home! It is a place on Han’ei! On North Province! Naagaer Alley!”

“NORTH?!” Teto’s voice boomed. Jessica and Krystal cringed painfully. It badly hurt their sensitive ears. “JUST WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO WITH THEM YOU PEDO?!” She bellowed and stomped her way to Taecyeon who backed off instinctively.

“Teto-chan!” Taecyeon wailed. “I’m already married!”

“WELL I DON’T CARE!”

“OH COME ON!”

In the end Teto gave in.

Mostly it was because of the kids’ and Taecyeon’s combined effort. Teto couldn’t bear to see Taecyeon sulking pitifully at the corner because he was useless without his dragon form, and the kids were displaying massive cuteness and determination to become stronger.

“In one condition,” The kids cheered and Teto couldn’t help but to smile. “I haven’t finished yet!” she joked and they laughed. “Please do return in seven years, alright?”

They all smiled and nodded, though they were a bit bewildered by the ‘seven years’.

“How ‘bout Krystal?” Taecyeon looked at Krystal carefully and nodded. “A bloodline slayer. I know when I see one. Well she’ll need to reach four years old to begin her training as a dragon slayer, actually. Right, Jessica?”

“Yeah,” Jessica nodded. “I started training on my fourth birthday.”

Although Jessica heavily objected the idea of using train as transportation to North, they couldn’t do anything but to use it. “Plane is out of our option,” Taecyeon calmly explained. “Although yes plane is the latest technology, north part of Han’ei is out of bounds, do you hear me? Too many mountains and thick clouds, even the atmosphere is full of freezing cloud.”

“Then anything else aside of trains!” She cried desperately, after having experienced using an underground train when she and Teto wanted to explore the city without car. She was absolutely pale right now, in front of the station. Sooyoung snickered, and Yoona laughed at the pathetic state Jessica was in. Taeyeon and Hyoyeon merely facepalmed. Usually, the ice dragon slayer had always been the ‘cool’ one, on their circle.

“Jessica,” Taecyeon sighed. “We have bought the tickets and tickets to North are very expensive!” Jessica stubbornly glued herself to the bench, ignoring Taecyeon thoroughly.

Hyoyeon suddenly had an idea and said, “Then transform to dragon and we’ll ride on you!” Her suggestion triggered a burst of laughter from the other kids, while Jessica merely smirked in satisfaction. Taeyeon immediately refused the idea, stating it was impossible for him to fly with five girls on his back for more than an hour.

In the end Jessica agreed on riding the train, in exchange of Taecyeon will have to find her an exceed; that is a legendary cat species known as a dragon slayer’s companion, no matter what. Taecyeon didn’t bother to think twice to accept the deal, because he knew that exceeds are the wing of any dragon slayers that taught by dragons.

Just as the others predicted, as soon as Jessica entered the train, she became grin and all wobbly. “Troia…” she whimpered, and looked at Taeyeon who knew the spell to remove motion sickness. Taeyeon merely shrugged her shoulder and sat beside Yoona. “Sorry Princess,” she said while shaking her head. “Mrs. Jung told me you’re quite allergic to troia…” Jessica groaned in exasperation.

“I am not!” She managed to growl, then she became green again. Sooyoung chuckled and pulled Jessica beside her, rather having her harassing Hyoyeon who waited Jessica to quickly sit down.

“Come on, hime-sama. How about sleeping across the journey?” She suggested, patting her lap. Jessica blushed and Yoona raised her eyebrow at the reaction. Interesting, she thought. Yoona had to bit her lip to prevent herself from smirking when Jessica made herself comfortable with her head on Sooyoung’s lap. She was too busy on holding herself that she was completely oblivious of the forest elves beside her were frowning. It was obvious Taeyeon and Hyoyeon didn’t like the idea of having Jessica’s head on Sooyoung’s lap.

Taecyeon who sat beside Sooyoung, wasn’t at all oblivious of the situation. He chuckled quietly and made himself comfortable on leaning against the window, feeling absolutely contented to have such peace. Perhaps this was the last time he had quite a peace, as he knew in seven hours they would reach North Province and get off on Wenhu Old Town then rent a car/taxi or walk to Naagaer, which was a very rowdy and barbaric modern village.

The ride was surprisingly enjoyable for them all as they could rest quite peacefully. All of them were peacefully napping. On one side, Taecyeon was leaning against the window, Sooyoung leaning on him, and Jessica peacefully sleeping on Sooyoung’s lap. On the other side, Yoona was pretty much the same as Taecyeon, but with arm crossing and a slight frown, while the forest elves were leaning against each other—snoring quietly.

Yoona was the first one to wake up, and chuckled at the cute sight before her. Taecyeon’s position was the same, but his mouth was slightly opened. Sooyoung’s left hand was placed on Jessica’s shoulder, with her own head leaning to Taecyeon’s shoulder. Jessica was smiling on her sleep, looking very peaceful.

“Cute,” Yoona giggled and looked at her watch. Her eyes widened as she noticed they would be arrived on WOT in an hour. “Guys! Wake up!” She whispered harshly to them, to no avail. Taeyeon and Hyoyeon both did twitch, but still chose to sleep.

Yoona groaned in exasperation. The passengers were also sleeping, as it neared nightfall. If she yell or such, it would be certain she would receive glares and scolding from the other passenger, and Yoona didn’t want that.

“HEAVENS!” By the time they reached land, Jessica quickly kissed the ground, earning herself few stares and facepalms of her comrades. “Weirdo, we need to look for taxi!” Yoona facepalmed when Jessica looked at her as if she had committed a heavy sin. Annoyeod, Taecyeon grabbed her by her collar to make her stand. “Walk!” Jessica glared at Taecyeon, who flatly hailed two taxis.

“Naagaer Village please,” with the magic words, the taxi drivers nodded vigorously and placed their luggage to the two taxi’s trunk. “Side by side with that taxi, okay?” The taxi driver gave a thumbs up to Taecyeon. Apparently, he was mute.

Taecyeon entered the first taxi with Taeyeon and Hyoyeon, while Sooyoung was with Yoona and Jessica on the second taxi.

Unlike the first cab, the second cab was chaotic.

Apparently, after they were half-way through the journey, Mark—the taxi driver suddenly began talking about his hatred towards mages. He began telling them some false stories about dragon slayers — or as he referred as human fire breather, and King Sooman, the three’s role model.

Yoona was trying to act like she didn’t care by looking at the window, Sooyoung was trying to keep smiling and showing that she did listening to him (although she was ready to blast his off with her celestial blast. Seriously, he’s too infuriating), while Jessica simply didn’t care. She was too preoccupied by her motion sickness to deal with a peon known as non-magical-human-mage-hater-taxi-driver. But she did take a note to give him a revenge later, when they had reached their destination.

Which sadly she had to cancel, since Yoona shot her a glare as if knowing what she was going to do. Perhaps next time when she’s going to do some evil scheming she needs to wipe that hideous devil smirk from her face.

In an hour and half they reached the gate of Naagaer. The guards put the cabs to a halt, and began inspecting their luggage. People of Naagaer were known as a powerful mage clan, but very friendly to strangers outside of the village.

The taxi driver snorted in disgust as the magical dogs—called Segawon, sniffed the taxi’s body. The three tried to control their amused face, to no avail.

“All set!” One of the guard bellowed to his partners, and they nodded. “Welcome to Naagaer, Strangers.” He bowed politely, followed by his partners and the dogs. The taxi driver rolled his eyes before pressing the pedal, hard.

Hmm...

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