The weather during the summer in the Kingdom consisted of warm mornings and blazing hot afternoons, only cooling down later in the day. This, however, didn’t stop the flood of people visiting the kingdom. If anything, it brought more people in for the summer solstice that took place during the first month of summer. There was also the end of summer celebration and MLDC, but those were still a few months away. All the members of B.A.P were excited for the summer solstice; this was the first year all of their families could attend the event.

Yongguk and Himchan were going to help out around the diner their sisters co-owned along with Yongnam, who was being ‘forced’ to play a live concert with his band, making it a ‘dinner and a show’ sort of deal. Jongup and Junhong had been saving their earnings so they could bring Jongup’s family to visit. Daehyun’s family always came to the summer solstice to spend time with him and Himchan’s family. Youngjae and Jaebum finally convinced their mother to come and planned on dragging her to every stall possible along with the rest of Got7. It was going to be pure chaos.

The dragons were going to visit the Matoki Clan with the exception of Kekemato and Jokomato. The yellow masked dragon had been invited to come along but declined the offer saying something along the lines of “it would be like going to a party knowing no one there and who was going to keep Kekemato company.” The white masked dragon was happy that its friend was staying. Kekemato wouldn’t admit it but the summer solstice was kinda lonely because Daehyun was busy with family and the matoki didn’t have any other friends outside of the herd. The two dragons started making plans, mapping out a nice flight route and finding the perfect spot to watch the fireworks show while they ate a nice dinner.

Everyone’s planning was cut short when Yongguk was given a mission brief. He gathered the team and they headed to the supply rooms. Jongup was bouncing on his feet, happy to go on a mission after his arm finally healed. Everyone was in the sky soaring towards the town in need of their assistance. The mission was simple: fly to a town called Iron Blossom and help the townspeople locate their lost grazing animals while they repaired the fencing. The heat made things much more difficult, though. They couldn’t fly long distances without the risk of one of the dragons succumbing to heatstroke. Matoki dragons were made for living in the cold mountains, which was why their team focused on the northern territories. Normally they wouldn’t have been given this mission but the teams focused on the southern territories were all tied up in other more important missions.

“I’m going to fight the sun.” Jokomato grunted, sitting in the shade with everyone else.

“I support this action.” Dadamato was ready to fly into space and blow up the sun.

“You do know destroying the sun would kill everything.” Himchan looked at the overheated dragons, all of them were glaring at him. He shrugged his shoulders and took another swig of his water.

“Are we going to ignore the fact that it’s impossible to get near the sun, let alone attack it?” Youngjae dumped some of his water onto Jokomato’s head, the dragon letting out a pleased sigh.

“Come on, the town isn’t too far. It’s near a river so the dragons can cool off while we start looking for the lost animals.” With newfound energy the dragons took off speeding to the town. The humans were dropped off in front of the town’s entrance as the dragons headed straight to the cool river. A small group of townspeople greeted them and lead B.A.P to the pasture the animals were usually kept. A few animals were still in the large enclosure but it was obvious a lot were missing. There was a huge chunk of the fence gone where the animals must have left through.

“What happened?” Yongguk asked.

“There was a bad lightning storm last night. One struck the fence and must have spooked the animals. We were able to find a few still near the town but a lot of them must have gone into the forest looking for safety.”

“Alright. Our dragons are cooling off in the river, but we’ll start looking.” Yongguk lead his team out the town and towards the forest. “Okay, we’ll split into two teams of three.”

“What about Oldest vs Youngest!” Daehyun suggested, always down for an unnecessary competition. “Losers have to buy dinner when we get home.”

“Daehyun, this is serious.” Yongguk said in his leader voice.

“I know it is, but that doesn't mean we can’t have any fun.” Daehyun argued back.

“I think it sounds like a solid plan to me.” Himchan concluded before Yongguk could counter. Everyone cheered and split up into their teams. Yongguk sighed but went along with the plan. Team YHD took the left side of the forest while Team YJJ took the right. The forest wasn’t thick so it was easy to move around.

Junhong and Jongup happily hopped over logs and climbed up rocks, laughing the whole time. Youngjae was looking for any sign of the herd animals but was distracted by the two younger members, occasionally joining them in their shenanigans. Yongguk had taken the lead while the other two followed close behind. Daehyun pulled out a snack bar to munch on, he broke it in half and offered the other half to Himchan, who accepted it without hesitation.

The dragons on the other hand were splashing around the river, enjoying the cold water. Jokomato showed off its fishing skills to the others, catching enough fish to feed each member. All of them jumped when a few sheep showed up baaing at the masked dragons. Shishimato took this as a sign to lead the sheep back to the town and join their partners. The dragons naturally parted into the right groups, following the partner’s scent and letting the bond pull the duo together.

Team YHD perked their heads when they heard movement, but were met with their dragons instead of some terrifying beast. Daehyun happily greeted Kekemato with a hug, while Shishimato informed them of the sheep they found.

“Well hopefully most of them stayed grouped. It’ll make things a lot easier on us.” Himchan said as he patted Tatsmato on the head. “Do any of you smell the animals nearby?” The next few minutes were spent with the dragons sniffing around in circles until Shishimato picked up a scent and charged after it.

“Why do you always have to run?!” Yongguk yelled at his dragon chasing after it.

“The faster we find them, the better.” Shishimato wasn’t wrong but everyone doubted the animals were in any real danger so they didn't need to waste energy on running. Shishimato came to a stop, sniffing at the ground again.

“Hoofprints.” There were three different hoofprints, Yongguk recognized them as cow, sheep, and pig hoofs and the amount promised a lot of them had walked through here. “We are so going to win.”

“And you said the competition wasn’t a good idea.” Daehyun smirked at the leader. Yongguk rolled his eyes, choosing to ignore the other member in favor of following the prints. At the end of the trail was a large clearing with a stream running through it. Himchan assumed most of the animals were here based on the sheer amount of grazing on the forest shrubbery.

“Okay, so how do we bring them back to town, farmer boy?” Himchan asked Yongguk seeing as he was the only one with farming experience.

“Well… We don’t have herd dogs, but If we're able to lead a few away from the herd the rest should follow. The dragons can follow from behind to make sure none of them wander off.” Yongguk had a sudden idea. He began to dig through Daehyun’s pack, letting out an ah-ha when he found what he was looking for.

He held out a granola bar, gaining the attention of a few animals. Daehyun pulled out two more bars and handed on to Himchan. They went to the other sides of Yongguk, getting more attention from the animals. Soon Team YHD had the whole herd following them through the forest back to the town. The loud stomping hooves attracted a few more groups of animals adding, more to large herd. By the time they reached the town, the fence had been fixed and the townspeople were waiting. They let out a loud cheer when they saw the dragon riders with their herd. Team YHD had been successful in getting all the missing animals while Team YJJ had yet to show up.

“Should we go look for them?” Daehyun asked, he wasn’t worried or anything, but he was totally kinda worried.

“Let’s give them a few minutes, I’m hungry.” Yongguk walked towards a nice looking restaurant. Daehyun forgot about his worry and quickly followed the leader. Himchan laughed at the two before joining them. The three dragons raced back to the river to cool off again.

Team YJJ were completely sidetracked. All it took was Jokomato mentioning the smell of rusted metal and smoky wood before Youngjae took off running after his partner, gleeful laughter leaving his lips. The younger members followed after, curious about what had the others so excited. What they saw had them memorized. It was a small abandoned village worn out from the elements.

“Are these ruins?” Junhong asked looking around with wide eyes.

“They could be. I’ll look for a date.” Youngjae was quick to enter the first building. The two humans followed after him like little ducklings while the two dragons followed Jokomato.

“This is the first time exploring an empty village.” Jongup could hardly grasp the situation. He spotted an old rusted sword and picked it up. “Hey Youngjae, does this help?” Youngjae quickly walked over, examining the sword.

“Hmmm. This is an old style of claymore. It’s a common sword and still used today but this specific design hasn’t been used in decades.” Youngjae handed the sword back to Jongup. He took a moment to ruffle the younger boys hair. “Now the next question is if these ruins were built before or after the great war.” Jongup wandered off to look around some more. Youngjae looked around the room, but sadly, no books in sight.

“Hey Youngjae! I found a book!” Junhong yelled from another room. Youngjae raced towards the room, spotting Junhong turning a book in his hands. “It doesn’t have a title.” Junhong handed the book over and moved to stand behind the older so he could look over his shoulder. Youngjae carefully opened the book, the first page held all the answers. Youngjae let out a cry of joy and pulled Junhong’s head down so he could kiss his cheek.

“I assume I did good?” Youngjae took a moment to calm himself. “You did very good. This is a diary written by a girl named Alexis who was alive during the middle of the great war.” Youngjae skimmed the faded words; some words were to hard to make out but the context easily filled the blanks.

“Are diaries rare?” Junhong asked excitedly, hoping he found something Youngjae needed.

“Not necessarily.” Junhong deflated at the words. “But books written near the beginning or the middle of the great war are quite rare.” Junhong felt better about his find. Youngjae smiled at the younger before continuing. “Diaries are always good to find because it lets us see the world from someone else view during a time we couldn’t experience. Even if diaries aren’t the rarest of book, they are some of the most important. They tell us more about the land and the people who lived in it.” Youngjae flipped through the pages until something caught his eye. A simple drawn map that had a few strange landmarks. He looked at a few pages before and after the map but none of the entries talked about the map or what it lead to.

“Hey Junhong want to go on a treasure hunt?” Junhong’s eyes light up instantly and nodded his head. They walked out of the house and found Jongup in next house over. Youngjae showed Jongup the map and he jumped onto the idea of finding the treasure.

After a quick sweep through the remaining houses Youngjae called over Jokomato, who was disappointed in the lack of valuables, but the other dragons had found some neat things like metal animal figures and shiny rocks. Youngjae loaded ten books into his pack, Junhong showed off his cool looking dagger, and Jongup added the steel dog figure to the figure collection. Jokomato perked up when Youngjae mentioned the map but his partner told him not to get his hopes up, the map was drawn by a thirteen year old.

“Okay, so keep your eyes out for a fox shaped rock.” Youngjae was guessing it was a fox based on the long pointed ears and bushy tail.

“Is this is?” Totomato was sniffing an old headless statue eroded from rain and covered in patches of moss.

“Based on the bushy tail it’s probably the landmark.” Youngjae looked down at the map looking for the next landmark. “There’s a chance some of these landmarks aren’t around anymore but lucky for us this map looks like it goes in a straight line for the most part.” They pasted a few more animal statues remains until they ran into a dead-end. Everyone looked at the waterfall in awe. The water was crystal clear and looked as if it was made from tiny sparkling jewels.

“Even though there is no treasure I still think this was an amazing find.” Junhong said as they all took a drink from the river.

“Let me bestow some pirate knowledge onto you.” Jokomato said before he got up and walked up to the waterfall. “Just because you don’t see anything doesn’t mean there’s nothing.” With that Jokomato jumped through the waterfall. The younger members were expecting the dragon to hit the cliff but instead Jokomato poked his head through the rushing water. “You guys coming?” Jokomato held his wing out stopping the water from drenching Youngjae.

Junhong and Jongup shared a look before following Youngjae. Dadamato and Totomato jumped through the waterfall as well. It was a narrow cave that lead to an open room. Sitting on three pedestals were golden animal figures with small teal diamonds on them. There was a Wolf, Bear, and Deer. On each pedestal was writing that read out “Let the animals guild our blood. To the jewel of the unseen. To lead them a better life.”

“Go ahead and pick one you guys.” Youngjae told the others.

“What, we’re taking them?” Junhong asked with wide eyes.

“I don’t see why not. Someone else might find this place and take them. Plus, don’t you want to find this ‘Jewel of the unseen’?” The two younger members looked at each other in silent debate. It would be fun to go on another adventure; maybe the others could join in too. Before they could make up their minds, Dadamato and Totomato already picked which figure they wanted. Jongup placed the golden bear figure with the others, Junhong examined the wolf figure getting an odd sense of familiarity, and Youngjae happily picked up the deer, shushing Jokomato’s protests of getting the lame one.

“Everyone ready to head back to town?” Youngjae lead everyone out of the hidden cave.

“What about the animals!?” Junhong suddenly remembered why they were out here.

“The others have probably found them already.” Youngjae answered, patting the youngest’s head. “I’ll pay for everyone’s dinner since it’s my fault we lost.” The younger two were going to protest but were interrupted by Youngjae telling them about the ruins guarded (overran) by snakes.

Since the temperature outside started to cool down, they were able to fly back to town without their dragons complaining about the summer heat. Daehyun tackled the three of them when they entered town, he was worried sick and refused to let them go. Kekemato tried to calm its partner but was surrounded by an excited Dadamato and Totomato telling it about the adventure they went on.

“What took you guys so long? Daehyun thought you all gotten eaten by bears or something.” Yongguk joined them, prying Daehyun off the younger members.

“We went on an adventure. We found some cool stuff. Didn’t find any animals though.” Youngjae said.

“It was so cool! We can tell you the whole story on our way back!” Jongup said with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. They took a 30 minute break before taking off again heading back home. Most of the journey back was filled with Team YJJ retelling their whole adventure. When it was over, Daehyun complained about missing out and demanding to be a part of the next adventure. They were able to finally stop Daehyun’s whining by changing topics to the summer solstice. It was tomorrow and their families were probably already waiting for them back at Silmul.

When they returned to the B.A.P chamber after turning in their reports, everyone parted ways. The dragons went to bed early, resting up for tomorrow’s trip back to the clan. Jongup and Junhong dropped their packs into their room before joining Jongup’s family for dinner. Yongguk watched his brother’s band rehearse with Natasha. Himchan and Daehyun ate dinner with their families, chatting about the summer solstice. Youngjae was watching the utter chaos that was Got7 meeting Mrs.Im. Today was just the beginning of something greater.

The morning came too soon for everybody. Last night was such a whirlwind of events, the only ones ready for today were the dragons. Shishimato, Tatsmato, Dadamato, and Totomato had already left for the clan by the time the humans left their beds. Himchan let out a loud yelp when Yongguk slapped his sunburn.

“How did you get a sunburn? Weren’t you the one telling us to put on sunblock.” Yongguk laughed at his friend’s misery.

“For your information, I was too focused on telling everyone to protect their skin, I forgot about myself.” Himchan tutted, turning away from the leader. He had already sent a quick message to Sunhwa about it. The princess had many sunburn cures due to her dragon being an albino. Cress didn’t like any of the cures. often complaining about how it made her scales feel weird. Himchan would have to agree but he had no other options.

“You didn’t do a good job because Jongup has one as well.” Youngjae said lightly poking the boy, watching as his red skin turned white then back to red. Jongup didn’t seem to mind the poking and continued to eat his breakfast.

“Jongup, do you want to come along with me to help it heal?” Himchan asked swatting Youngjae’s hand away from the damaged skin.

“Naw, My mom promised to make her sunburn remedy for me last night. It’s the best for healing sunburns quickly.” Jongup said proudly.

“Oh, I remember that. It left my skin baby smooth afterwards.” Junhong was thinking about putting some on even if his skin was perfectly healthy. Himchan stared at the youngest two, curious about this remedy.

“Can I try it?”

“Sure, everyone is coming along to meet my family so the more the merrier.” With that everyone finished breakfast and made their way towards the motel the Moon family was staying at. Himchan had parted real quick to grab Sunhwa and a grumpy sunburnt Cress before joining back up with the others. Cress wasn’t to happy about trying a new remedy but the moment Sunhwa rubbed on the creamy liquid, she instantly felt better. Her skin wasn’t acing, the cooling sensation was amazing, and her scales didn’t feel weird.

“It’s a miracle, Cress hates all remedies we tried before but this one seems to work well. Have you ever thought about selling this product? You’d be surprised how many people are looking for a good sunburn remedy.” Sunhwa asked Mrs.Moon. The older woman laughed and told her a story about how Jongup suggested it but she didn’t think it would work. Sunhwa smiled at Mrs.Moon and called for Mr.Jason who handled a lot of businesses. Sunhae giggled when she noticed the relaxed looks on Himchan, Jongup and Junhong. Youngjae had slapped some onto Daehyun’s face which started a short war but ended with the two rubbing the remedy into each other’s skin. Yongguk rubbed some on as well, not wanting to be left out.

Soon, snores filled the room as Mrs.Moon, Sunhwa and Mr.Jason talked business. The afternoon nap was over when Natasha came to drag Himchan and Yongguk to the diner to start preparing for the Solstice. Daehyun left to meet up with his family. Youngjae joined Jaebum and Mrs.Im for a late lunch, the rest of Got7 off doing god knows what. Jongup and Junhong took the Moon family on a tour of the kingdom before the streets became packed.

Shishimato, Tatsmato, Dadamato, and Totomato landed on the Matoki Clan territory where they were welcomed. They made it just in time for the matoki’s own version of the Summer Solstice. Food was laid out, hatchlings played freely outside, elders told stories of the past, and everyone was enjoying the relaxed celebration. Tatsmato was curled up against the Monarch’s side, sharing stories of its recent missions, earning a few laughs from Monamato. Shishimato was challenging old rivals to every challenge it could think of, ego boosting with every win. Totomato watched the red masked dragon, silently judging it before taking a part in one of the challenges, beating everyone and making Shishimato proud. Dadamato flew through the sky with old friends, starting random races and enjoying the fact it was still the fastest dragon.   

The sun started to set and the streets came to life for the Summer Solstice. Seas of people traveled through the roads, chatter filled the air, merchants sold their goods, street performers gathered crowds, and restaurants were filled to the brim. All the buildings were decorated with reds, oranges, and yellows making the whole kingdom look like a setting sun when night fell. Himchan and Yongguk were working as waiters as they jammed to Yongnam’s band, sneaking fries whenever their sisters’ weren’t looking. Daehyun held onto his mother’s arm as they walked down the busy streets, eating various foods from the many vendors selling delicious goods. Youngjae walked along side Jaebum, watching as Got7 took turns dragging Mrs.Im to one of the game stalls, trying to become her favorite member. Youngjae finally saved her from the hyper puppies when he offered to treat her to dinner. Jongup and Junhong happily treated their family to dinner at Natasha’s diner as Mrs.Moon told everyone the business offer she accepted, promising them a better life in the kingdom. Kekemato and Jokomato were enjoying a freshly caught meal together when the first firework shot into the sky. Soon the night sky was filled with multiple colored expulsions. Everyone watched,  mesmerized by the beautiful display of shapes and colors. The show ended with a huge bang and slowly everyone looked away from the sky to continue their festive activities. Instead of heading back to chamber, the two dragons decided to stay outside, enjoying the starry sky together. What a great way to end the night.   

(A/N)

So funny thing… This chapter came out different from what I planned… Let me explain. The mission was supposed to be a quick hundred words to set up the original chapter’s plot (the summer solstice). But I ended up going into too much detail and made the mission the main focus of the chapter. So instead the Summer Solstice became more of a added bit of fluff. And I think this works out a lot better for the flow of the story because it leads nicely into the chapter 11.

There are officially 4 chapters after this one before I MIGHT end the story or take a break to think of new chapter ideas and focus on new stories.

Thank you for reading the story so far! I hope you’ve enjoyed it.