***

Breathing in the scent of fresh air, Baekhyun felt like he was transported into an isolated place where he could escape just for the moment. The feeling was so bizarre and yet, pleasant, that it brought a wide smile on his face. He felt the sun shine brightly over him, as if the star was embracing him, kissing him. The gentle breeze lifted up his own spirit, played with his hair, rushing by as if he was moving along with it.

Trying to forget about his depressed mood, he listened to the sounds of the world, the singing of birds, the rustling of leaves, the urgent whinnying of horses, the spinning of wheels–wait. What?

Blinking his eyes open, Baekhyun nearly crushed them shut again as blinding, golden light blasted around him and he needed a moment to adjust. After the initial surprise wore off, his liver dropped as he saw to his horror that the safety of the forest had disappeared and the clear blue sky surrounded him. Screaming his lungs out, Baekhyun found himself frozen on a solid gold chariot, which was pulled through the sky by four magnificent horses that galloped through the clouds.

Unable to fully comprehend what was happening, Baekhyun held on for dear life as he tried to figure out what had happened and what was going on. Was he dreaming? This had to be some kind of a dream, right? Was he flying through the sky on a golden chariot? He can’t fly! This was madness, this was impossible, this was–he gasped for breath.

I. Can’t. Fly!

“I’m gonna die!” he exclaimed, rushing to grab the reigns of the horses in a blind panic, tugging helplessly at them as he screamed out loud. The horses whinnied at the sudden tug and pull, though they obediently followed his movements, as he cried out with every breath he possessed.

“Yah, yah, YAH! Don’t go too fast! Land! Land, I said–Yah! LAND!” he screamed, pulling a little too hard on the reigns, causing some of the horses to bolt. Suddenly, the ground below was rushing towards him, and still screaming, he tried to pull up, but it was too late. His sudden erratic driving coupled with the velocity of the chariot, caused it to tip over and it crashed with a screaming Baekhyun still in it.

He flung out of the chariot, rolling and skidding over the fresh dirt, shouting louder each time he bounced further away until he slammed against a tree and slowly slid down from it, face planted firmly on the ground.

“…Ow…” came his muffled outcry as Baekhyun painfully flipped himself over, eyes still crushed shut, panting loudly.

“YAH! WHAT WAS THAT?!” he shouted, his voice still strong and loud, despite of the pain. Baekhyun tried to sit up, wiping the corner of his mouth after realizing with mild embarrassment that he had been drooling all this time, and grabbed his head for support.

Still wincing, he stared at the fallen chariot, though the horses who pulled it seemed perfectly fine. They walked right up to him, dragging the chariot haplessly along with them. Startled, Baekhyun leaned back up against the tree, too frightened to scream this time when one of the horses nuzzled the side of his face before it snorted.

“Ew,” Baekhyun shuddered at feeling horse spit spray over his face and he wiped it off with the back of his hand. The other horses made a similar gesture, and it dawned to him that they weren’t wild beasts at all. In fact, they seemed to be concerned about him, nuzzling him gently and even trying to help him get back up on his feet.

“Where the heck did you guys come from?” he wondered out loud, his fear quickly being replaced by curiosity. He carefully their noses as the horses meekly lowered their heads for him. Baekhyun chuckled to himself, though he was still utterly confused. Wasn’t he chilling at the forest just a second ago?

How could he have opened his eyes and found himself riding on a golden chariot in the freaking sky?

Sighing deeply, he rubbed his head and attempted to get up to his feet. He was afraid that he’d injure himself all over again, but the pain he had felt before had disappeared. “What?” he gasped in surprise. His body didn’t hurt, almost as if it had miraculously healed itself, but that was insane.

“Yah, am I losing it?” Baekhyun chuckled, but he was scared, looking around to see if maybe Luhan was around, or maybe Lay. Luhan might have pulled a prank on him, giving him these weird hallucinations, and Lay just made sure nothing bad happened to him, that had to be it, right?

“This doesn’t make sense,” he muttered to himself, looking at the horses and the overturned chariot they were still tied to. Baekhyun looked up at the sky and never saw it so brightly before. The sun shone warmly, fully, emitting a kind of glow that gave Baekhyun the idea as if it was shining for the first time. The pure light reflected off the chariot, making him squint his eyes. He walked towards it, the horses neatly standing in formation as if they were waiting for him to get back on the chariot.

“I’m not going on this thing again if that’s what you’re expecting,” he said, the horses snorting at him simultaneously. Baekhyun took a step back and let out another deep breath as he tried to think about what happened. He gnawed on his thumb while he pondered, but nothing made a of sense to him. There had to be a way for him to have gotten onto that chariot… Hold on. Why was he even thinking about this? He just freaking flew through the sky on a golden chariot pulled by flying horses, how was any of this real?!

“Okay, this is a dream, ha ha, very funny, wake up now, Baekhyun!” he closed his eyes, preparing himself to awaken, but when he opened his eyes again, nothing had changed. Even the horses were staring at him as though they were questioning his sanity.

“Judge me all you want, you’re not real,” he pointed, jolting back when the horses whinnied.

“Baekhyunnie!”

“Chanyeol?” Baekhyun piped up, feeling the relief washing over him like a pleasant spring rain. “Chanyeollie, I’m over here!” he immediately shouted, not caring a bit that his loud voice had startled a flock of birds into flight.

Through the trees, he saw his tall brother running towards him and he smiled widely. Somehow this must have been a prank after all then. “Chanyeol-ah, I’m glad to see you,” he started, but there was a severe look on Chanyeol’s face as he ran right passed Baekhyun to inspect the golden chariot.

“Yah, I’m right here, you can’t see me?” Baekhyun immediately panicked again, quickly pulling Chanyeol’s ear for good measure.

“Hey! What’s that for? I know you’re here, everyone saw your disastrous fall from the sky! What’s wrong with you, aish,” Chanyeol exclaimed, a frown on his face as he shook his head at the chariot in agitation.

Baekhyun frowned as well now, stepping back a moment to properly inspect him. His heart beat a little faster when he noticed that Chanyeol wasn’t exactly wearing normal, everyday clothes. If he didn’t know any better, it looked like Chanyeol was about to go to a fantasy fair or was cosplaying, perhaps. He wore brown leather pants, heavy boots and something that looked like a plate. Both his wrists were adorned with silver cuffs and he even wore a few piercings in one ear. He had known Chanyeol for a very long time, and he’d never seen his ears pierced before…

“What happened to you?” he asked before he realized the question had flown out of his mouth.

He gawked at the tall man when he simply pushed the chariot over so it was facing the right way up. Solid gold or not, that chariot had to be heavy. When did Chanyeol get so strong?

“I could ask you the same question, friend,” Chanyeol grunted, kneeling before the wheel of the chariot as he clacked his tongue. “What happened to you up there? Yah, did you get scared again when a bug flew by? You’re a God, Baekhyunnie, it’s starting to become really embarrassing for you to be scared of lesser creatures like insects,” Chanyeol grinned as his hands emitted a hot orange glow, which heated up the kink of the golden wheel. A hammer magically appeared in his hand and Chanyeol easily straightened out the wheel. “Giving me extra work to do,” he muttered under his breath.

“No, I meant what happened to your appearance, what are you wearing?” Baekhyun muttered, having watched him fixing the chariot with confusion and mild fascination. Then, as if suddenly smacked out of his daze, he yelped again.

“Mwo?! What?! I’m a what?!” he exclaimed as Chanyeol paused his work a moment to gaze at Baekhyun as if he had lost his mind, instead of the other way around.

“Did you hit your head? It was a painful landing,” Chanyeol got up to inspect Baekhyun’s head casually, as the latter was still in the middle of a freak out.

“YAH!” he screamed again, smacking Chanyeol’s hands away. “What are you talking about, I’m a God?”

“Whoa…this isn’t good. I have never heard a God losing their memory from a fall before. Usually that happens to mortals,” Chanyeol mused, worriedly looking at Baekhyun. “I was gonna say that you were lucky the horses weren’t injured, or you’d have to suffer the wrath of Lay-hyungie, but maybe you should go see him after all, considering that there’s obviously something wrong with you.”

Baekhyun didn’t know what he thought was more worrying. The fact that Chanyeol was so casual about all of this without showing any sign of this being one big prank, or the fact that he was absolutely serious about all of this madness. He mentioned Lay, though. Did that mean that all of them were in this weird–whatever this was?!

Running a hand through his hair, Baekhyun shook his head in disbelief. “I’m a…God?”

“Yeah, a bad and clumsy one, obviously, but yeah,” Chanyeol chuckled, going back to fixing the chariot as if that was his job to do.

“But if I’m a God, does that make you my slave?” he tried carefully as Chanyeol’s eyes lit up orange a moment.

“Yah! Just because I’m used to doing you favors and perform invaluable maintenance to your chariot and those horses, doesn’t make me your slave!” he protested, shaking his head and probing his finger against Baekhyun’s forehead. The touch was scorching, but it didn’t seem to actually hurt him.

“Sorry, I just assumed…”

“Hey, I’m a God, just like you,” Chanyeol suddenly laughed at seeing Baekhyun’s bewildered look. “You really don’t remember! Ha! Wait till I tell the others about this,” he grinned.

“Chanyeol,” Baekhyun made sure to remember to breathe as he let all of this simply sink in. “I’m a God?”

“Yes, you idiot, you are a God,” Chanyeol confirmed, grinning widely though empathically, as if he felt sorry that Baekhyun was this confused.

“If I’m a God, then what am I a God of, exactly?” he swallowed, since he was doing his utmost best not to lose his cool.

“You can’t make an educated guess?” Chanyeol chuckled, gesturing at the horses and the gaudy golden chariot. He then patted Baekhyun on the chest, and he only then noticed that he was dressed in a multitude of golden shades, the plate he wore shining almost as brightly as the actual sun.

“You’re the God of Light, my friend. The mortals have a variety of names for you, Freyr, Horus, Helios, but we just call you Baekhyun,” Chanyeol explained as he would a six year old child. The information brought his head to a spin and he sat down for good measure.

Chanyeol smiled at his behavior. “Now, the mortals sometimes call me Ptah or Vulcan, I personally like Hephaestus, because it sounds strong,” he grinned, making sure the chariot was fixed enough for it to be able to ride. “So, chariot is fixed, horses seem fine, but it seems our Baekhyunnie is not. You really don’t remember anything?” the mirth and playful mockery had left his voice as Baekhyun was still in the middle of processing everything.

“The God of Light? Helios? Hephaestus?” he muttered as Chanyeol knelt before him.

“You see the sun in the sky?” he then asked, Baekhyun blinking at him.

“Well, you’re responsible for that. All of this light is here because of you. Every day, like clockwork, you ride this chariot through the sky to pull the sun up,” Chanyeol elaborated patiently, watching him to see if something stirred. Baekhyun was staring right back at him, feeling strange. There was a part of him that still couldn’t make heads or tails of it all, but another part of him thought Chanyeol’s explanation quite familiar somehow…He didn’t know what scared him most.

Suddenly, Chanyeol started laughing. “That fall really scrambled your brain. Come on, I’ll take you back home. It won’t be a bad idea to have Lay-hyung look you over,” he decided, helping Baekhyun get to his feet and dust him off.

The whole journey was a blur to Baekhyun, though he was vaguely aware of having arrived in a heavenly palace that drifted through pastel golden clouds. A river of stars flowed by, bright lights gleaming from high ceilings. Baekhyun gawked in awe at the sight, still baffled that all of this was real. The frightening part was the fact that he truly felt like he had a right to call this paradise home, as if he remembered things he really had no way of remembering before.

What was happening here? Was his brain going to implode soon?

“I’ll take the horses and chariot back to the stable,” Chanyeol told him, “why don’t you try and get re-settled again, huh?” he patted him on the shoulder, still laughing to himself since he thought Baekhyun was faking the whole thing.

Breathing as evenly as he could, Baekhyun studied his surroundings before smacking his own cheeks. “Wake up, wake up, wake up!” he chanted, but nothing happened. “Ah! Someone save me!” he exclaimed desperately, regretting having complained about the Lantern Festival. If anything, he’d rather be there right now, instead of being in this mess he suddenly found himself in.

“Ah, Baekhyun-ah, you’re already home,” a gentle voice sounded. “Thank you again for the light of the beautiful sun,” Lay walked into the room, truly looking like a Greek God. His hair was pushed up, skin healthily glowing, while a perfectly dimpled smile beamed from his face. He wore light clothing, revealing a teasingly amount of his chest and abs. He carried a lyre around as if he had been busy composing all morning.

“Lay-hyung?” Baekhyun asked in a squeaky voice.

“Good morning,” he smiled. “Are you okay, Baekhyun-ah? You don’t seem like yourself today,” Lay put his lyre down, a soft glow appearing from his hand as he touched Baekhyun’s head. Lay frowned as he looked at the younger man before he shook his head in disapproval. “You fell from the chariot again. You have to be more careful next time, we don’t want the sun suddenly falling from the sky, do we?” he chuckled, ruffling Baekhyun’s hair. “I’m glad you’re not too severely injured, though.” He sat down on one of the love-seats, grabbing his lyre.

Baekhyun watched him for a moment, confused out of his mind. This wasn’t a prank. Lay seemed far too relaxed to act this out. He didn’t even look up as Baekhyun kept staring at him, trying to figure out what God he was. He even went so far to poke his cheek, making the older man look up, baffled.

“You’re the God of healing?” Baekhyun started as Lay smiled in amusement. “And of music?”

“Very good, Baekhyun-ah. That fall really shook you up, didn’t it?”

Baekhyun only grabbed his head as his eyes widened in shock. “Apollo,” he breathed, staring at a softly smiling Lay, who nodded.

“Do you want to lie down, Baekhyun-ah? I can sing to you. Music is a great healer on its own, you know.”

Stepping back in shock, he shook his head, nearly yelping when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“I heard someone took another tumble from the sky,” the voice piped up as Baekhyun’s jaw dropped upon seeing a scantily dressed Luhan appear, a lazy smirk on his face, hair unkempt and ruffled as though he had just rolled out of bed.

“Do tell me that a fair maiden was the cause for your fall,” he purred, as Baekhyun was absolutely flabbergasted at this strange Luhan-hyung.

“I-it wasn’t, Lu-hyung,” he managed to mutter as Luhan chuckled.

“You are exactly the reason why only those with wings are allowed to fly,” he jabbed, grabbing a golden bow and arrow from a rack Baekhyun hadn’t even noticed before.

“Wings like mine,” Luhan smirked as he showed off the massive angel’s wings that were tattooed in silver and gold on his back.

“Luhan-hyung, you’re cupid?” came Baekhyun’s baffled outcry.

“Don’t make me shoot you, you know I hate that name,” Luhan warned before blindfolding himself. “Now then, I have a job to do,” he announced. “Eros, out,” he saluted, Baekhyun feeling like he was slowly descending into further madness.

“Luhan-ge! Get back here, you cannot make two people from different times fall in love! It’s impossible! Lu-ge!” Tao shouted as he desperately ran after Luhan who had already flown off. He sighed deeply as he whipped out a large hour glass, turning it every possible way as he made soft calculations to himself that Baekhyun couldn’t follow.

“Tao, you know better than to get into Lu-ge’s way when he’s got his mind set on something,” Lay told him as Tao rolled his eyes, continuing his muttering.

“Tao?” Baekhyun watched him as the golden sand in the hourglass turned into liquid stars, as if he had just contained a bit of the galaxy into that hourglass alone.

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun asked in awe, Tao being too concentrated to answer him.

“Chronos, Helios asked you a question,” Lay spoke, smiling patiently as Tao rolled his eyes again.

“One moment,” he muttered, the hour glass expanding until it was engulfed by the liquid galaxy and turned into a chain that Tao wore around his wrist.

“There, Lu-ge owes me one! Two times turned into one,” he complained before he looked at Baekhyun and sighed.

“If that stunt you pulled this morning by falling out of the sky was some kind of complaint of me not giving you more time to ride around in your chariot, I have ignored it, hyung! You know that I can’t stretch out the morning nor the day for you any longer. There are twenty-four hours in a whole day, and I’ve divided that time evenly between day and night, so deal with it!” he ranted before Baekhyun even realized what was happening. He couldn’t help himself when he imitated an already agitated Tao though, simply because he felt right to do so.

“Ugh, I’m late!” Tao sighed derisively and made his dramatic exit without so much as greeting his brothers.

“Time and tide wait for no man, nor God, funnily enough,” Lay chuckled to himself, strumming his lyre with ease.

“Right…” Baekhyun shook his head. “I think I’m going to go for a walk,” he then decided, looking around to see a path that seemed to lead towards a luscious garden.

“Okay, do you want me to come with you? You seem unstable, Baekhyun-ah,” Lay offered, but the young man immediately shook his head.

“No, it’s fine, really. A walk will make me feel better, I’ll be fine. Okay, bye,” he grinned stupidly as he rushed out of the palace, muttering under his breath to himself as he soon was surrounded by a green, flowery paradise.

As insane as everything was, there was no denying that this place was truly magnificent. He’d nearly forgotten that he was on the verge of a mental breakdown as he gawked at the beauty of nature around him. He blinked when he saw a massive tree standing proudly in the distance and his heart beat faster for whatever reason. He ran towards it and placed his hand on the trunk. For some strange reason he thought of Jae and the blood rushed to his cheeks as he imagined her as a Goddess.

Who would she be? The wise Goddess Athena? Or the Goddess of Beauty and Love, Aphrodite? Baekhyun grinned to himself as he fully realized that she’d probably be the Goddess of the Moon and hunt, the Goddess that was the patron of the fighting Amazons, Artemis. He laughed to himself. Could she really be a Goddess, though? She was a little too clumsy at times, but then again, if just fell from the sky performing a task he was apparently used to doing every day, what would he know?

“Aha! Here he is, Helios, the great God of the Sun, bringing life and light to the world of mortals–if he doesn’t end up killing everyone by falling out of his chariot every so often!”

Baekhyun would recognize that loud voice and even louder laughter everywhere. In spite of the circumstances he couldn’t help but bite his lip to prevent from laughing himself when he saw Chen, donned in deep red clothes, wobbling towards him while drinking from a golden cup.

“Let me guess, Zeus?” he quipped, flinching when Chen dramatically flung his arm, the contents of the cup spilling everywhere.

“Yah, I was only joking about you, don’t insult the Great Dionysus!” he laughed, magically producing another golden cup and offering it to Baekhyun.

“Nectar of the Gods,” Chen announced happily. “When I told you to enjoy life a little more, I didn’t mean racing through the sky like a maniac and crashing down all the time, you know,” he placed the cup in Baekhyun’s hands and the youth relaxed, fully realizing that freaking out about the whole situation wasn’t going to help him much anyway. He needed to keep a level head if he wanted to go back to his real home. He stared down at the golden liquid but wasn’t drinking yet.

“You put that to your mouth and you drink,” Chen then quipped almost drunkenly, big smile on his face. “You can try and flirt with it first, but that won’t do you much good. You’d better find a beautiful woman for that–or beautiful man, whatever you’re in the mood for,” he wiggled his eyebrows as Baekhyun shook his head and took a tentative sip.

The drink was sweet, yet tangy, and it warmed up his body, as if it invigorated him. “Thanks,” he stated, taking another sip. “Speaking of beautiful people, do you maybe happen to know where Jae-noona is?” he then tried cautiously. If all of his brothers were here, then Jae had to be here as well. The drink had managed to calm his nerves significantly and made him think straight. Baekhyun remembered that whenever weird things were going on, Jae seemed to be the exception of the rule, maybe she could help him out.

Chen was staring at him with a goofy grin on his face before he started laughing. “Jae-noona?” he cackled, “who is that? Oh, did Baekhyunnie meet a beautiful mortal lady?”

Baekhyun froze. Chen didn’t know who Jae was? Did that mean that she wasn’t a Goddess after all? If so, where was she?

“You don’t know who Jae-noona is?” he asked for good measure.

“Yah, you weren’t drinking from my special collection before you drove your chariot this morning, did you?” Chen quipped, shaking his head while laughing.

“I don’t know a Jae-noona, Baekhyunnie, but now I wish I did, considering how disappointed you look,” he inspected him further. “Luhan-hyung didn’t hit you with one of his arrows, did he?”

“No, I just–never mind,” he sighed and drank until his cup was empty. “You know what, it’s been a long day. I think I’m just going to rest for a while,” he then said to which Chen raised his eyebrows.

“Our energetic sun is sleepy? Very well, my friend, I think I might sleep right next to you,” he hiccuped relaxing himself at the base of the giant tree. Baekhyun chuckled softly at the laid-back demeanor of his brother and felt himself actually becoming drowsy. Blaming the drink Chen had given him, Baekhyun drifted to sleep.