“Sowon, you have to be the Wood Yang.” Joonmyeon sat down with a thump on the chair beside her, the one that Kris had previously occupied.

“W-What?” The news was not only unexpected, but so was how Joonmyeon said those words as soon as he saw her. She had expected at least a ‘How are you?’ before he jumped right into things. The serious set of his eyebrows was unnerving her.

“You know, I’ve thought about it and there’s no other reason the Yin would try to track you down after destroying your house unless they realized that Chaewon wasn’t the one. I did see traces of a portal within a mile from your home – made by Wind Dust, possibly – and it’s obvious enough that Chaewon was taken to the Other World. Wait, Kris told you about the Other World and everything else, right?” Uncertainty clouded his gaze.

Sowon nodded. “Then do we go to the Other World to rescue her?” she asked, eagerly. At least now she knew exactly where her sister had been taken.

“It’s not as simple as that.” Joonmyeon heaved a sigh. “If you go anywhere near a portal, the Yin are sure to know, especially since we suspect they have some sort of tracking device. For now, Chaewon is safe, although she probably is a hostage. If things turn out worse, the Yin might actually threaten to harm her if you don’t comply with their demands.” A chill ran up Sowon’s spine.

“No! That’s worse – we need to go to her pronto!” Sowon slammed her hands on the table as she stood up, making the others jump. Chanyeol studied her with surprise in his brown eyes – was this the quiet, frightened girl he took care of when Joonmyeon first brought her into their home?

“Calm down!” Joonmyeon roared, making Sowon flinch. Sehun and Chanyeol gaped – it was their first times seeing the serious, collected Joonmyeon lose his cool. The older boy ran a hand through his hair, his frustration evident. “We need to take everything one step at a time. Do you know the consequences if the Yin end up capturing you? They’re going to use you! You’re vital to this rebellion right now……”

“Because of my supposed power?” Sowon cried out. “I don’t care! All I want is Chaewon to be out of their clutches and safe.” The girl bit her lip hard to prevent herself from bursting into hopeless tears. Her teeth drew blood.

“Sowon.” Joonmyeon’s voice was much gentler. “Thousands of people are suffering because of Xiumin. If they do manage to catch you, you’ll become a tool to continue their suffering. Knowing you, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to cause anyone pain. And it won’t do anything to go and recklessly try to help Chaewon. Also.” He paused. “You yourself with get hurt in the process.”

Sowon tasted blood. The sharp, acrid taste seemed to be as bitter as her swirling emotions. “Fine. I’ll wait for now. But first, I want you to prove that I am the Wood Yang.”

Relief brightened Joonmyeon’s eyes. “Follow me.” He stood and walked out.

“What’s with Joonmyeon? I’ve never seen such anger coming from him – he always seemed so calm, no matter how much I annoyed him,” Chanyeol muttered as Joonmyeon left.

“I say we just Brand her,” Sehun said.

“Shut up.” It was Chanyeol’s turn to give the other a glare.

The three followed Joonmyeon outside the cabin and to a small clearing in the woods. There were baby trees, patches of wildflowers, and shrubbery growing in the circular area, which was surrounded by huge trees that made up Reok Woods. Sowon didn’t notice Kris had joined them until she felt the older boy’s arm brush against hers, making Sowon nearly jump out of her skin. How could he appear out of nowhere just like that?

“Here.” Joonmyeon motioned to the clearing in front of them. “There’s plenty of greenery, so you can start trying here.”

Sowon stared dumbly at the small plants. “So, what now?”

“You need to access your power. Try to find the potential inside of you. It might take a while. When you find it, try releasing it.”

“How?” Sowon frowned.

“We can’t go inside of you and show you. You need to find it yourself. The first time isn’t that easy,” Kris said with a note of impatience.

“Usually, the first few times, it’s provoked by a series of powerful emotions. Why don’t you think of you sister?” Joonmyeon’s voice was careful.

Sowon hesitated. The most recent memories of her sister were too painful to dwell on. However, she closed her eyes and with a grimace, began to think of Chaewon. She had always been a bright girl whose smile always lightened up Sowon’s days. Sowon loved how she would open the curtains every morning and greet the sun like a young girl. Chaewon would grin sheepishly at her every time she made a mistake, for example, when she had burned the casserole a year ago. Sometimes the clean freak inside of her would show and she’d start cleaning the house from the first floor to the tiny attic with a rag and a mop. She never complained and seemed to mature quickly, the fact sometimes bringing a heavy toll on Sowon’s heart.

And then the bad memories came swarming in. How frightened for herself and her sister Sowon had felt when she spied the men in the van. How her safe, little world seemed to crumble when the explosion slammed her against the wall. How hopeless she had felt when she saw Chaewon being slung over the shoulder of one of the Yin. All these terrible emotions boiled into a single one: anger. Anger towards those who had made her life miserable.

She saw a glowing light deep inside of her. With anger fueling her, she dug into the light. A surge of both icy coldness and fiery heat burst from the light, making her gasp. Strange emotions she could not name rose inside of her, rushing blood into her head. With all her willpower, she tried to get all of the new feelings out of her system.

A breeze began to blow from behind her. She could not feel it on her skin, but inside her mind. As the power seemed to surge out of her, the breeze grew into a full wind. She could feel the wind growing and growing, like a hot air balloon. When the cold and heat completely escaped her, the wind soared from behind her to the clearing in front of her. The wind avoided her, but it flowed across the clearing with much power, ravaging and flattening the tiny plants. The effort left her knees shaking, and her legs gave out under her. Sowon slowly opened her eyes.

Dumfounded, she stared at the up-rooted shrubs and young saplings while making no move to get off the ground. Flowers were laying everywhere like an invisible hand had strewn them all over the ground. Even the grass was flattened, as if something heavy had been dragged around. She felt a huge drop in her energy, and lifting a limp hand to her forehead, even found cold sweat on her brow. She was exhausted, as though she had run in a marathon. She heard a sharp intake of breath and realized that the others were still behind her. “So you really are the Wood Yang,” Chanyeol whispered breathlessly.

“Yet she doesn’t have a mark!” Sehun exclaimed. In a flash, he was crouching beside Sowon, with his hand on Sowon’s jaw, surprising her. He moved Sowon’s face from side to side to make sure that the silvery mark really was absent. “She doesn’t have either a Yin or a Yang mark!”

“That’s a mark that appears on our cheeks when we release our powers,” Joonmyeon explained, hurriedly. “The Elemental Yang have a silver mark appear on their right cheeks while the Elemental Yin have a black mark appear on their left cheeks.”

As Sehun removed is hand, Sowon gingerly touched her cheeks. She felt nothing there; neither did she see a faint silvery-white light coming from her face from the corner of her eyes. She remembered the brilliance of Joonmyeon’s Yang mark when he had crouched down above the pit after he had battled with the Fire Yin. Why she didn’t have one when she unreleased her own power?

“Maybe she’s undeveloped. I’ll have to look into it,” Sowon heard Kris’s serious voice say in a low tone. From his worried expression, Sowon knew that this wasn’t a normal situation. It wasn’t something the others experienced when they found their powers.

She took one more look at the devastated landscape about her. “You need to learn how to control your power – it could be dangerous for both you and innocent bystanders,” Joonmyeon said from somewhere near her. “If you use too much of your energy, you could even die.”

Sowon shivered, suddenly cold. She felt almost lifeless from the lack of energy. But the shock from what she had wrought overwhelmed all her other thoughts. “If I’m supposed to be Wood, how come there was a wind?” she asked, confused.

“Some of our ancestors who were Wood actually evolved into two powers: wood, which involves controlling trees and other greenery, and wind, which controls the air. I guess you’re the wind evolution of the Wood. They’re known to be really powerful,” Joonmyeon said. He went over to pull Sowon off the ground, supporting her with an arm. “Let’s go back. You should rest,” he said, his voice becoming gentler. The girl allowed him to support her all the way back to the house.

Chanyeol placed a little item on the palm of Sowon’s hand. She gazed at it in wonder. It was a small, clear sphere that seemed to sparkle not from the light, but from something inside of it. It was as small enough to be hidden in her fist. It was beautiful. She rolled it around her fingers, enchanted by the sparkling. It felt cold, like ice. “What is it?” she asked, curiously.

“It’s a Marble. If your element isn’t nearby to use when you unreleased your power, you can throw this and break it in order to summon your element. It takes the same energy as when the actual element is nearby, though. I’m pretty sure you won’t need it since air is everywhere, but in Joonmyeon’s or my case, for instance, we can’t depend on fire and water to be everywhere we need it.” In a blink of an eye, Chanyeol snatched the Marble away from Sowon and pocketed it with a teasing smile. “Careful; it breaks quite easily.”

“Where do you get these things?”

The tall boy tapped his chin as if thinking. “Well, Joonmyeon gets them for us. I guess he barters with the Natives in Market Street in the Other World. The Natives treat these as decoration jewels. Who knows when he decides to use a portal to slip into the Other World for a short moment.”

“But it is easier to summon your power with a Marble,” Sehun butted in, leaning on the armrest next to Sowon. “You should give her a couple just in case. She’s just a newbie.” He glared at Chanyeol with stern eyes, making Chanyeol put on his “What did I do this time?” look again.

He opened Sowon’s satchel that was attached to her waist and dropped in a few Marbles inside from his pocket. “Until you get the hand of it,” Chanyeol said as he tightened the drawstrings with a grin. “Now you’re officially a gifted Yang and part of our Team. You’ll help us on our missions. Wait – you need a code name first.”

Sowon blinked, dazed. “A code name?” And when exactly did she volunteer to join the Team?

Kris came over. He seemed to have a habit of appearing at the most unexpected moments. “Yes. When we go on missions, we communicate with Communication Amulets, like the one Joonmyeon sent you,” he said. Sowon looked down at the Amulet that was still hanging around her neck. “But when we refer to another person in the Team, we call him or her by code name, for precaution. I am Boar.”

“I’m Serpent. Sehun's Dragon, and Joonmyeon is Fox,” Chanyeol piped up. “What should we call you?”

Sowon become uncomfortable under Sehun’s, Chanyeol’s, and Kris’s scrutinizing stares.

“Since you're the Wood Yang and birds represent the element of wood, you can be a bird!” Chanyeol suddenly piped up. A smile of delight formed on his face. “Your code name can be Dove!”

“Dove,” Sowon heard Joonmyeon murmur, as if trying out her code name. Sowon looked up in surprise to see him pass by.

“Wait!” Sowon called. Joonmyeon glanced at her questioningly. “Where were you this morning?”

The older boy paused. “At the ruins of your old home. Kris and I wanted to find some clues on your sister’s whereabouts. That’s when we found the traces of the portal nearby. We also found out what made the explosion: a Fire Ball. Its wrapping was lying on the ground.”

His stare directed towards her was unnerving; Sowon felt like Joonmyeon was searching her face for any traces of fear or panic. “You’re lucky one of the Elemental Yin didn’t seem to be present; you and your sister might’ve been long gone and your house would be mere ashes, if anything was left. I guess the broken table hid you from view when you slammed into the wall – for we saw your outline on it – and the men who were sent to get you weren’t informed on exactly who to kidnap. They probably didn’t even know two girls resided in that house.”

Sowon bit her lip, swallowing back the suggestion that they try going through a portal at the same spot. She understood that the Team wouldn’t do anything rash for the time being.

Joonmhyeon was starting to leave again, but Sowon rushed to him and grabbed the edge of his shirt, surprising him.

Sowon hesitated when Joonmyeon's deep brown eyes stared into her own. However, the urge to ask him was great, and she opened . “Why did you refuse to live with Chaewon and me when you were living with Kris, Sehun, and Chanyeol? We could’ve been safer if we were here also.”

Joonmyeon turned away from her. “I’ll tell you sometime later.”

“Joonmyeon!” Sowon cried out, exasperation coloring her voice. Joonmyeon didn’t look back.

“Don’t worry.” Sowon heard Chanyeol’s voice next to her. “He must’ve had a good reason to separate his best friends from himself.”

He put a hand on his chin as though thinking. "The first being that he probably didn't want you in a house full of boys."

Hey readers!! Please comment on how the story is going so far!!! :D