“You’re the spy from last night. I never thought that you’d be this cunning.” He sighed as he closed his eyes with the impression of trying to remember what happened the first time he saw me.  He clapped his hands not to applause me but his gesture was meant for another reason. A bunch of four more black dragons run to our direction and the one whom he called Podo stood in an instant to join the group; it must be the alpha since the other dragons seemed to be smaller than it. Junjin tilted his head sideways as if something is off and then he let go of a sharp whistle and a white dragon twice Podo’s size descended on the grass land. It has blood red eyes and its scales are like that of shining pearls. The black dragons have silver claws but this one stood out for its golden coloured talons.

“It will be hard to explain everything to someone like you. Base from how you look at me now, I am certain that no matter how I try to elaborate things, it will only confuse you but will never push your senses to believe at once.” Junjin’s assessment to my facial expression is so close to what I am thinking. I am lost in my own thoughts but I won’t even take a bite on anything that he’s going to offer as a reality on what’s in front of me.

“Where am I?” I asked this because I am obviously off the grid. I am seriously far from the orphanage where I arrived this morning. I am in a place that never existed even in my wildest dreams. It looks so enchanted. We are surrounded by tall green grasses with linings of gold. They are dancing with the gentle refreshing breeze coming from every direction. It feels like the best place to cherish your last moment on earth. It is so calming, so serene.

“I will answer you honestly. I will not care of what you have to say or object about. I will make it clear to you from now on, that everything that will happen to you here is your fault. You shouldn’t have messed up your life up to this level young lady. What do you think of her Jackson?” He asked the question to the huge white creature snarling beside him. There was an absolute slice of annoyance in his every word. He must have felt burdened that he doesn’t want to get involved with me anymore.

I can’t blame him. I chose this path and I need to face the consequences by myself. I exhaled heavily upon hearing him. My senseless action however agitated the herd; the dragons around him started to move closer to me and stared at me curiously. I can tell from the way they blinked their eyes with a rather concerned manner. Jackson approached me at a close distance and my cheek all of a sudden. Its saliva smelled like smoky lavender, it’s warm and it hit me – the creature is real. It rubbed its head against my hair as it bent to reach my height.

“But since, my pets are so fond of you – it makes me feel that you are a good person.” Junjin retracted his emotions quickly as soon as the gentle creature went up to him and purred like a cat under his arms.

“I’m sorry for throwing away your coffee. I feel offended that I wasn’t able to sense your arrival as you crossed the boundaries of our entrance that I was supposed to guard. Its aroma cloaked your scent and yes I failed for the first time. You just entered a world that you are not a part of – a world that you never even imagined to exist, a place called Vayanhan.” For the first time I saw him flashed a smile on his face. So the articles about him are all true that he has that aura that makes you want to smile too once he does it. His happiness, it is contagious.

The place that he mentioned, I am sure that I heard about it already – NO, I’ve read it somewhere. I think it was the place on my superior’s notes that she described as their hide out. It’s the place that can’t be tracked down by the policemen no matter how hard they try. Now I understand why.

“Going out of this place will not be as easy as how you get in. You are now in my nest, I’d suggest for you to remember this place since we have a maze for a town we call home.” He told me with a pause while he is trying to think deeply.  I am not sure why I am not afraid anymore. He was supposed to be one of the bad guys but his character spoke to me with such sincerity that is hard to ignore.

“May I know why I can’t go out now?” I can’t still believe I get to talk to him like this. Nothing makes sense. I am still in a very delusional state where I’d like to believe that this is all a dream.

“You just acquired a curse. If you are still thinking that this is a crazy fiction, go on and look behind you if you can see a path leading to where you came from. I’d suggest for you to look on your palm too – there you’ll find six dots that weren’t there before you came here. It stands for the time limit that you have in order to reach all the territories in this place until you find the exit. You’ll be in an excruciating pain every time one disappears. If you used up all your time without being able to get out – you’ll be trapped here forever.” He narrated as the smile on his face started to be replaced by a rather worried expression.

I verified what he just said and yes, there were 6 orange dots on my palm right now and which don’t even look like an insect bite. I am still sceptic. My mind is still telling me that this is just a dream, this is not true. I am so convinced that I even decided to slap myself so hard. Junjin got surprised and even gasped upon my absurd action and of course, I regretted it because it hurt so badly.

 “It’s understandable for you not to believe me but it’s totally unnecessary to torture yourself in front of me. We better get going. The Vayanhan plates are about to move and we need to reach Dongwan Hyung’s lair before it disappears on a tricky location.” He grabbed my free hand while the other one is still stuck on my painful cheek. He even blew a flying kiss to his dragons as we ran deeper into the forest at the end of the grassland.

“What do you mean about moving plates?” I asked while catching my breath as we sprint to the path in the middle of huge fully grown trees. It became colder, the place is moist and there are mosses everywhere I look. It’s a rainforest, something that contained various kinds of flora species. The fog is thick and as expected – the sky started to cry with light drizzles. It made it more inconvenient for me. My sneakers spikes aren’t designed for this kind of surface.

“Why do you have so many questions? Ahhh – can’t you just go with the flow?” again I heard an annoyed notion from Junjin as he tightened his grasp on my wrist. His huge hands pulled me strong enough to lift me up and I ended up on both of his strong arms.

“We need to speed up. Since it’s already raining, I’m worried you might slip. Let me carry you from here.” He said as he flashed a smile to my frowning face but as I looked back, I discovered that he was lying.

Junjin didn’t carry me because he’s worried about my stability defect but he is protecting me from the vines which are chasing us in full haste. I can no longer see his territory from here. It disappeared behind the shrubs that hugged each other close. We are in a different place now and moon is already fixed in the sky.

A familiar singing voice caught my attention. It was the same voice that I heard before I got in this absurd scenario. Now that I am in a closer proximity I can hear it clearly. My ears were filled with fulfilment. My soul felt like it is being cradled with peaceful emotion even if it is raining. It was painful but it ironically heals my heart from something that kept it distant from others from a very long time.