The summer solstice had came and gone in a blink of an eye. The families had left to go back home. The Moon family planned on moving to the kingdom in the upcoming month thanks to Mrs. Moon’s home remedy for sunburns. Everyone was sitting around outside the gates of the Dragon Guard HQ waiting for the missing dragons to come home. Youngjae was sitting against Jokomato’s side playing cards with Junhong and Himchan. Yongguk was reading a book he found in Youngjae’s room; it was about flying technes old dragon riders would use to get the upper hand in battle. Jongup was tying flowers together to make flower crowns out of nearby weeds. Daehyun was napping on top of Kekemato, who was happily wearing one of Jongup’s crowns.

“Junhong!!!” An excited Totomato dropped right in the middle of the card game. Youngjae and Himchan let out a huff of annoyance but let it go when Junhong embraced his dragon. Tatsmato made a more graceful landing next to Himchan, nuzzling its partner. Youngjae couldn’t help but coo at the dragon. Yongguk set the book down to greet his partner, listening to Shishimato boast about all its victories. Dadamato tackled into Kekemato, knocking Daehyun off. Jongup laughed at his dragon as he placed a dandelion crown on its head to match Kekemato. Daehyun grumbled under his breath before he flopped onto Jokomato’s back to continue napping. Everyone made their way back to the B.A.P chamber, sharing stories about the summer solstice.

“Speaking of adventures, did you get anything from the ruins?” Daehyun asked stretching his arms out, sitting on top of Jokomato.

“I got some more books, Jongup got a few metal figurines, Junhong get a dagger...” Youngjae continued to ramble about other things the dragons got.

“Oh! What about the golden statues we got?” Everyone looked at Jongup. Before the older members could ask, the three youngers went to their rooms. Junhong dug through his travel pack looking for the golden statue. Jongup and Youngjae entered his room with their statues, everyone else following close behind. Junhong finally found the golden bear, pulling it out of the pack to place it next to the wolf and deer statues.

“These are certainly unique. Do you know what they are for?” Himchan asked.

“I planned on reading the books to see if I could find anything but I haven't had time. There was something written on the pedestals they were on though.” Youngjae cleared his throat “Let the animals guild our blood. To the jewel of the unseen. To lead them a better life.”

“So these statues will take us to a jewel that will make our lives better?” Yongguk took a closer look at the golden animals. What a strange discovery.

Before Youngjae could answer their leader, Junhong’s desk drawer started to glow. Everyone stared at it with wide eyes. Without thinking Junhong opened the drawer and pulled out the thing emitting the magical glow. It suddenly stopped glowing, revealing itself to be a teal diamond connected to a gold necklace with smaller jewels dangling from it.

“That must be the Jewel of the unseen!”

“That’s the Prime Minister’s family treasure!” Himchan and Youngjae exclaimed at the same time.

“Wait, what?” Youngjae snapped his head to Himchan.

“That necklace is a family treasure passed down throughout the generations. It’s one of the few artifacts from the great war. It belonged to one of the original dragon rider’s, so it’s very important. The Prime Minister was almost killed. The attacker was never arrested and the necklace gone. So, the question now is how the hell did you get it, Junhong?” Himchan glared at the youngest. He didn’t want to assume anything but the facts are stacked against him. Junhong paled at the question, he clenched the necklace closer to his chest. Jongup gently placed his hand on Junhong’s shoulder while Totomato and Dadamato got into a defensive stance in front of their partners.

“Hey, let’s all calm down.” Youngjae raised his hands in a worried manner. Yongguk sighed and pulled Himchan out of the room as he yelled for a meeting. Everyone slowly followed him out to the main chamber. They all settled down around the dinner table, necklace and statues placed in the middle. Himchan had his arms crossed but had stopped glaring at the youngest. They sat in silence, waiting for Junhong to start explaining. Jongup wanted to help his friend, but he didn’t know anything about the necklace; it was the only story Junhong never told him. The youngest looked around nervously, twiddling his thumbs under the table, he took a deep breath and started from the beginning.

“Well, I don’t know if any of you remember Zelo, but that was me… I was born and raised on the streets until I met granny and Jongup.” Everyone except Jongup was surprised by this; they all remembered hearing the stories about the young thief who disappeared like he never existed.

“That explains a lot. We should use your thief skills to get some late night snacks.” Daehyun joked softly. Junhong let out an awkward laugh but the joke helped his nerves a bit.

“I was happy living on the streets, stealing to survive, always running. One night I stumbled onto a woman would was sitting on the ground. Normally I would have just left but the necklace caught my eye. There was something pulling me towards it so I just took it without thinking. The next day I heard the guards talking about it and I panicked so I left the town. I don’t know why I kept the necklace but thanks to it I ended up finding Jongup’s village, so I guess I don’t really regret it.” Junhong didn’t look up from his lap, too scared to see everyone’s faces.

“You know what this means?” Youngjae looked around the table, slinging his arm around Junhong’s shoulders. Everyone stared at him with confusion. “Junhong is the key to unlocking the secrets of the necklace!” Youngjae looked at the youngest with a bright smile. “We need you to find out how this jewel will lead us to the treasure.”

“What do you mean treasure!? We should return it to the Prime Minister. She’ll probably forgive Junhong since he was a child and didn’t know better.” Himchan glared at Youngjae, ignoring the icy stare and handed Junhong the necklace. Himchan opened his mouth to tell the other off but was cut off by someone else.

“We’ll give it back when we find the treasure. It’s been gone for years now, what’s a few more days gonna do?” Surprisingly it was Daehyun who interrupted, patting the older on the shoulder to calm him down. Jongup was fiddling with the golden statues in silent agreement. Himchan’s last hope was their leader but when they made eye contact, Yongguk shrugged his shoulders. “It could be fun.”

“Fine, but we should figure this out quickly. The longer we have the necklace the more trouble it’ll bring.” Everyone let out a cheer. The four youngest ran off to Youngjae’s room. Yongguk didn’t know why the three of them followed Youngjae, but they’ll probably come back out when Youngjae pulls out the books.

“I hate being the party pooper.” Himchan pouted childishly. Yongguk rolled his eyes and poked Himchan’s cheek.

“The official term is responsible adult and every team needs one.” The dragons interrupted Yongguk to tell him about the plans to train for a bit. Yongguk nodded his head at Shishimato and waved all six dragons goodbye before continuing. “It’s probably the better choice to give the necklace back as soon as possible and normally I would have backed you up, but sometimes you have to take a chance when adventure calls.” Himchan understood what Yongguk was saying. Growing up, he had followed all the rules and surpassed every expectation but doing something against the books was new for him, it was honestly exciting but he couldn’t help the nervous feeling in his stomach.

“I’m throwing all of you under the bus if we get in trouble.” Himchan smirked at the oldest before getting up to join the others in Youngjae’s room. Yongguk chuckled knowing Himchan was lying. He knew Himchan will be sitting right next to him in the jail cell, plotting their escape if this adventure went to . The two oldest opened the door to an unbelievable sight: Junhong was resting his head in Youngjae’s lap taking a nap, Youngjae was using the youngest’s head to prop the book up, Jongup was doodling in one of Youngjae’s many notebooks, but what had them both shook was Daehyun reading a book.

“Oh my stars, Daehyun is actually reading. Did we go to the twilight zone?” Himchan exclaimed holding onto Yongguk’s arm. The leader looked at Daehyun with wide eyes as well.

“Shut up! You guys are acting like I’ve never read a book in my life!”

“Have you?” Jongup asked looking up from his doodle.

“I’ll have you know I’ve read a lot of books.” Everyone continued to stare at him with a blank look. No one believed him until Youngjae awkwardly coughed.

“Umm. We occasionally talk about books we’ve read and he’s read quite a few from what I gathered.” Daehyun gave the younger a sweet smile before smirking at everyone else.

“Huh. I never took you for a book worm.” Yongguk sat down next to him, nudging Daehyun with his elbow.

“Well I have an image to uphold. I can’t look like a nerd.” Daehyun nudged the older back, rolling his eyes.

“What’s wrong with being a ‘nerd’? It shouldn’t be something you’re ashamed of.” Youngjae huffed before barring his nose back into the book he was reading.

“I didn’t mean anything by it!” Daehyun whined at the other, who continued to ignore the older. Jongup giggled at the scene happening before him. It was like one of those plays Himchan talked about, where the girl and guy get into a fight over a misunderstanding, only to get back together anyways. Junhong woke up when Youngjae shifted to turn his back towards Daehyun.

“What’d I miss?” Junhong slurred, rubbing the sleep out of eyes.

“Just Daehyun being an idiot.” Himchan replied in a sing-song voice. Junhong snorted and muttered a “when is he not?” under his breath, earning him a kick from Daehyun. Junhong sat next to Youngjae while he examined the necklace and gold figures. Each figure was well detailed and had similar teal diamond eyes that matched the diamond on the necklace. Junhong placed the golden figure in a semi circle before holding the necklace facing him in front of the golden animals’ eyes. The diamond and eyes glowed brightly as something formed inside the diamond, an insignia of some sort. Everyone watched in awe as the light began to fade. While the eyes stopped glowing all together, the necklace had a soft beam of light that pointed out north. Junhong rotated the jewel a few time but the light continued to point north.

“Looks like we have our guide.” Youngjae whispered, causing the youngest to jump.

“Can I see it?” Junhong nodded and handed him the necklace. The jewel stopped glowing instantly but Youngjae didn’t care, instead focusing on the insignia inside the diamond. He gave Junhong the necklace before standing up to search the bookshelf. Everyone else gathered around Junhong to look at the necklace, taking turns holding it.

“Why does it only work for Junhong?” Jongup asked but everyone stayed silent, no one knew why.

“Probably magic of some sort.” Youngjae said walking back into the room, flipping through pages of a book.

“Magic? I thought magic wasn’t real.” Yongguk watched as Youngjae took the necklace and examined it while looking at the book.

“Well… The history of magic is complicated. It’s believed that dragons were the only beings who could control it because they were so attuned with nature, while humans never had the ability, but some argue that both humans and dragons could control magic. The only thing people agree on is that after the war the ability to control magic was gone. The only evidence of magic ever existing are in very rare artifacts like this one and dragons who are born with unnatural powers. I think dragons refer to them as Sui Generis.” Daehyun froze at the words but no one seemed to notice. Youngjae let out a noise of triumph. “This insignia belongs to a man named Choi Chul-Moo. It was a family insignia and he was one of the first dragonriders. Maybe his dragon did something to the jewel so it would only work if someone from his bloodline could activate it.” Everyone took a few moments to absorb the information. It was a lot to digest and brought up a few questions.

“The Prime Minister’s family name is Rhie and it’s traced all the way back to Rhie Ahnjong, who was also one of the original dragonriders. The necklace is thought to be hers.” Himchan states.

“The necklace could have been given to her or maybe she took it, because the Rhie family insignia hasn’t changed and looks nothing like the Choi family insignia.” Yongguk said, rubbing his chin in thought.

“The ruins we found the statues at... The map leading us to the statues was made around the middle of the war right? But the dragon riders didn't become a thing until the end of the war so wouldn’t that mean the necklace was made before the dragonriders… Why didn’t anyone look for it back then?” Jongup crossed his arms in thought.

“Maybe they did. I mean we stumbled onto it by accident, who knows if they even knew about the statues, they could have just thought it was a family necklace.” Youngjae patted the younger on the shoulder. The sad thing about the past is that no one can truly know what happened unless they experienced it themself. Daehyun groaned, flopping onto his back. “This whole, when, where, who and why thing is getting boring can we find out what this great treasure is?” Junhong picked up the necklace, watching the beam of light point north again. “Let’s get the dragons and head out.”

Everyone stood up to stretch before walking out of the chamber towards the training grounds. Yongguk left the group to inform the council they would be leaving for a few days to work on team bonding. Lucky for him the council didn’t bat an eye and wished them a safe trip. The leader met up with everyone outside the headquarters; Himchan threw a travel pack at him. “Hopefully this place isn’t extremely far.” Yongguk said as he mounted Shishimato, taking to the skies with everyone else.

“Seeing as the ruins are half a day way down south and the light is pointing north, the treasure shouldn’t be too far. I’d guess it’s somewhere in the mountains a few hours away.” Tatsmato concluded. The statement was logical and made sense, during the war it was hard for humans to travel far from their villages without the risk of being attacked. Plus it was common for people to hide their valuable things in mountain caves, it was almost cliché now. Once the kingdom left their sights, Junhong pulled out the necklace to make sure Tatsmato’s prediction was right. The light pointed in the direction of the mountains, making Tatsmato brag about its clever guess. Shishimato praied the light would bring them somewhere else just so Tatsmato would be wrong. Sadly fate was on Tatsmato’s side when they flew between two mountains.

“Do you think we’re almost there?” Jongup shouted over the roaring cold winds. They dragons were fine but the humans not so much. Since it was summer none of them thought it was necessary to bring heavy jackets so they were stuck with light jackets that didn’t keep the cold out. Totomato suddenly turned around and few back, only to turn around again.

“Guys! I think this is the mountain. The light is pointing down now.” Everyone followed Totomato and Junhong slowly descending down the mountain into a large ravine. They pasted a few caves but didn't stop until the light started to point upwards again then straighten out when Totomato landed inside the cave. “Looks like we found it.” Totomato bounced around excitedly. The group started walking down the long passage, keeping an eye out for anything unusual.

“Technically you were wrong.” Shishimato told Tatsmato, purposely bumping into the other dragon playfully.

“What do you mean?” Tatsmato playfully shoved the matoki back.

“You said the treasure would be in a mountain, this is a ravine.” Shishimato laughed at Tatsmato’s surprised look.

“Only you would care about that small detail.” Tatsmato rolled its eyes but smiled at the other dragon. Everyone’s conversations were cut short when Junhong spotted three pedestals. Thank the goddesses they brought the golden statues with them, they placed the statues in the same order as before, left to right, wolf, bear, deer. Junhong walked up to the wall behind the pedestals and placed the necklace into the matching indent. The right wall started to open, leading the group to a secret room.

In the center of the room stood a sword, at the back of the room stood three chests, each one had one of the golden statues on top of it. Junhong picked up the sword and swung it a few time before examining it. The sword was perfectly crafted, it was made out of a high quality metal, with a harmonic balance, and the hilt was comfortable to hold. The fuller had a few things engraved into metal and the gold pommel was shaped like a dragon head with a teal diamonds in its eyes and jaw.

“Hey, I found a note!” Youngjae yelled at the others as he unrolled it. “I desire one day our blood findeth this blade to slay the final dragons from this land. -H.O Choi.” Everyone looks at Youngjae, who is still looking at the note.

“I guess he was a dragon slayer.” Daehyun said out loud, covering Kekemato’s ears.

“Everyone was a dragon slayer during that time period. It’s still a neat find.” Yongguk said looking at the blade in Junhong’s hands. “The metal must be made out of draconium, a rare metal that made cutting through dragons like butter. It works great on armor as well…” All the dragons shuttered in fear. “I don’t know what the engraving are supposed to be, maybe Youngjae knows.” Junhong walked over to Youngjae, who met him in the middle, gently holding the blade in his hands.

“I’m not sure, but it’s probably protection ruins or something. I know someone who's very knowledgeable on these sorts of things. I can copy them down later and have him examine them.” Junhong nodded his head.

“I found the scabbard.” Himchan held it out for Junhong. It was a simple rich brown leather scabbard with the family insignia on it. Junhong placed the sword inside and helped his friends pack the chests onto their dragons.

“So… What are you going to do with the gold?” Jokomato asked Junhong with innocent dragon puppy eyes.

“I don’t plan on doing anything with it. If no one else is going to use it, I guess you can add it to your collection.” Jokomato waited for anyone to object, there were a few mumbles of taking some to exchange for money but it seemed Jokomato was keeping the majority of the treasure. The dragon was already planning the perfect place for the chess to be set down by the time they left the cave. The journey back was slower due to everyone being tired. Somehow they still managed to find enough energy to joke and fool around. Himchan wanted to return the necklace as soon as they were finished but when they finally got back to headquarters, all he wanted to do was sleep. Which he did with no regrets.

The next day, Himchan set up a meeting with the Prime Minister. He dragged everyone along, saying they were in this all together. Junhong was terrified and held onto Yongguk’s hand the whole time Himchan explained what happened; surprised when he lied to the Prime Minister. Instead of telling her Junhong took the necklace off her, he told her Junhong found it laying on the ground, it must have slipped out of the attackers pocket when fled the scene. The Prime Minister blindly fell for the lie and thanked Junhong for taking good care of the necklace. Himchan also informed the Prime Minister of the fact the necklace belonged to the Choi family and not the Rhie Family. She smiled at him and told everyone the story her ancestors had pass down along with the necklace.

The story was about Ahnjong and Chul-Moo, how they fell in love on the battlefield and decided to marry after the war. The necklace had been a wedding gift to the bride from the groom. Chul-Moo took the Rhie family name, believing his family had been killed during the war, it wasn’t until years later he found some living relatives. The Prime Minister welcomed Junhong into the family, the youngest didn’t know what to do but promised to visit sometime. They all ate lunch with the Prime Minister before heading back home.

“That wasn’t so bad right?” Himchan wrapped his arm around Junhong’s shoulders, causing the youngest to bend his knees to match the older’s height. Junhong broke free from Himchan’s hold and ran to his room, grabbing the sword, he came back out and playfully pointed it at Himchan, who held his hands up in surrender. Jongup started to throw random things at Junhong, watching the youngest cut through all of them like nothing. Jongup stopped to restock on useless items and Junhong took this time to look at the sword again. His eyes land on the jewel between the dragon's jaws. For some reason he pulls on jewel, almost dropping the sword when the diamonds and engravings start to glow.

“Guys, my sword is magical!” Everyone wiped their heads towards the youngest, and there he was standing there with a glowing sword.

“Well, that explains the engravings.” Youngjae muttered. The rest of the day was spent seeing what the sword did. Youngjae still sent a letter with the engraving to his friend to know exactly what they meant but he assumed they were nature related. Flowers would grow when it touched the ground, water would freeze, fire would combust when he swung, lightning would shoot out whenever he stabbed. Everyone was now scared of the youngest member, for he held the power to kill them all. Not that he would ever do that but… he still enjoyed knowing he had the power to invoke fear into his enemies.

(AN)

Granny (Mrs.Choi) and Junhong aren’t actually related it’s just coincidence they share a family name (Poor planning on my part.) A chapter about the necklace had been planned ever since Junhong’s intro chapter but the details about the chapter weren't made until I started working on it. I sort of forgot that I gave granny, Choi as a surname because Junhong taking her surname was supposed to symbolize him finally finding a family etc. So when I started writing this I thought Junhong still didn't have an official surname and I was going to reveal his true (irl) family surname but then I went back to read ch2 and realized he already had the surname Choi, so instead of changing the surname I just kept it the same. I mean Choi isn't a rare surname so that's my excuse. It's just a family who happens to have the surname Choi, had access to magic and made a badass sword.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.