Exoplanet

Chapter 2: Exo and the Elven Prophecy

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For the second time that day, Tao found himself crouching among the underbrush of the forest, leaves tangled in his hair and gravel in his shoes. Behind him, Luhan yelped as a branch hit him above the eye, leaving a thin scratch.

“How much farther?” he whispered, hand over the wound.

Junmyeon glanced back from his position at the front of the line. “Soon. I think I can hear them.”

Tao could hear them, too. There was a constant chattering sound under the sounds of the forest. Bandits were talking, laughing, and cheering together, acting almost as though they had already taken over the village.

The three of them stalked forward a few more paces until they could hear the stomping of footsteps on the ground. The tops of the bandits’ heads were in view, and Tao’s gaze immediately went to the front of the crowd. He saw his target leading the bandits, and annoyance bubbled in his chest when he saw the dagger the bandit chief was wielding.

His dagger.

“I’ll deal with the leader,” Tao murmured lowly, making sure that only Luhan and Junmyeon would hear him.

“Yeah, but help us with the rest after you’re done.” Junmyeon motioned to Luhan, and the two of them slinked off to the right toward the back of the group. Tao headed to the left, carefully following the bandit chief. He was supposed to wait for Junmyeon and Luhan to act first, and then jump on the front line while they were distracted by the ambush.

Soon enough, bellows of surprise and pain erupted from the back of the bandit pack. Tao looked up just in time to see a couple bandits fly through the air, landing in the bushes with a loud crash.

Tao didn’t have time to marvel at the person’s strength, taking advantage of the situation to charge forward. Bandits wheeled around in shock, but before they could react, Tao had already unsheathed his weapon and cut down two of them.

The bandits had recovered now and came charging at Tao, swords raised above their heads and mouths open in an ugly cry. Tao ducked and slashed with his dagger, effectively dispatching two more bandits. There was a flash of silver to his left, and he hurriedly swung his head to the right, escaping with a small scratch on his cheek.

Suddenly, Tao lost his balance. His left foot was planted in wet ground that squelched as he tried to move. The mercenary barely had any time to wonder why there was marshy ground in Halwen – which had mostly temperate forests and grasslands – before he hit the ground. A curse escaped from his mouth, and he instinctively rolled across the grass, narrowly avoiding the blades that came raining down on where he was lying seconds ago.

Unfortunately, the number of bandits surrounding him proved to be a disadvantage for Tao. Hands pinned him to the ground, yanking his dagger out of his grip and tossing it somewhere else.

Tao hissed and struggled against his futilely struggled against his captors. Above him, the bandit chief raised Tao’s dagger, ready to bring it down into the mercenary’s chest. Tao thrashed more strongly than before, but the bandits pinning him only laughed and shoved him deeper into the muck.

However, the blade never pierced Tao’s chest.

Instead, the bandits around him were thrown away by an invisible force, landing several feet away from Tao. Without missing a beat, the mercenary jumped to his feet, taking on a defensive stance. Another bandit jumped at him, brandishing a sword. Tao readied his fists, ready to fight, but before the two of them could exchange blows, the bandit was lifted off his feet and flung into a tree.

Tao froze in shock. He was certain that there was nobody around the bandit to pick him up and throw him. Looking around, he only saw Luhan, who was looking at him with the same unreadable expression as before. Tao’s eyes were drawn to Luhan’s covered forehead, where a faint glow was emanating. Magic.

“Was that you?” Tao asked, voice cracking at the last word.

For a moment, Luhan looked conflicted. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the indecision vanished. “Take care of the chief,” he said before going off in search of Junmyeon. Tao followed Luhan with his eyes and spotted Junmyeon just in time to see the latter summon water from the ground and drench a few bandits.

Tao was beginning to get annoyed with Luhan and Junmyeon for being so secretive and dread what he had gotten himself into. He spun in circles, searching for where the bandit chief had disappeared to. After several seconds of looking, Tao found the tanned man slinking around the outside of the battle.

Without hesitation, Tao went after him, pushing past bodies and delivering a strong punch or kick to whoever tried to stop him. The bandit chief spotted Tao just as the mercenary reached him, lashing out with Tao’s dagger.

Tao dodged to the side and grabbed the man’s arm, pulling him into the jab Tao sent into his stomach. The bandit chief doubled over from the hit, gasping for breath. Tao took the chance to seize the chief’s right arm with both hands, bending it in the direction elbows are not supposed to bend.

A crack sounded and the bandit chief screamed in pain. The tan man dropped to the ground, clutching his distorted arm and dropping Tao’s dagger.

The mercenary reached for his weapon, picking it up from the marshy ground. He didn’t give his target any time to recover. His dagger flashed, and the bandit chief’s head was rolling on the ground.

It didn’t take long for someone to notice.

“The chief is dead!”

The shout echoed through the forest. Bandits stared in horror, some beginning to flee into the trees. Tao, Luhan, and Junmyeon watched them go, forgetting their injuries in favor of savoring the small feeling of victory coursing through their veins.

When the last bandit disappeared, Tao turned to Luhan and Junmyeon. “Are you two magicians?”

“I’m sorry?” Junmyeon blinked in confusion. Luhan stepped in.

“We’ll talk back at the mansion,” he said, shooting Junmyeon a meaningful look. A look of understanding dawned on the latter’s face, and he nodded in agreement.

“Will you actually answer or are you going to avoid my questions again?” Tao muttered dryly, making sure the other two didn’t hear him.

The three of them made it back to the Jungs’ mansion, where Lady Jung greeted them happily. She, along with Lord Jung, insisted for the three men to stay in the mansion overnight as part of their payment for chasing off the bandits.

It wasn’t until after Tao had taken his bath that he saw Luhan and Junmyeon again. The two of them were sitting on his bed when Tao returned, and the mercenary shrieked, not expecting to see anyone in his room.

“Hey, hey, relax. We’re not going to hurt you,” Luhan joked as Junmyeon laughed.

Tao scowled at them, trying to maintain what little dignity he had left. “What are you doing here?”

“To explain us to you. Or are you not interested anymore?” Luhan’s eyebrow quirked up, but the smile playing on his lips told Tao that the other was just kidding around.

The three of them settled down. The playful look on Luhan’s face was gone, replaced by a serious expression. Junmyeon shifted restlessly from his spot.

“So,” Tao started, “what’s with all the magic stuff?”

Luhan and Junmyeon gave each other side-along glances. “We’re not magicians,” Junmyeon said.

“Okay, you’re not magicians,” Tao relented, “Then what are you?”

Tao was expecting some kind of strange response, so he barely reacted when Luhan finally revealed the answer.

“Exo.”

Tao had never heard of a magical beast called an Exo.

“What’s an Exo?”

“No, no, no.” Luhan looked like he wanted smack Tao upside the head. “We’re Exo.” He gestured between Junmyeon and himself. “The two of us are part of a group called Exo.”

“Well, congratulations,” Tao said coldly, “What does that have to do with your magic?”

Junmyeon quickly covered Luhan’s mouth before the frustrated man could say anything. “You’re going about it wrong. Let me tell him.”

Tao was secretly relieved when Junmyeon interrupted Luhan. He felt that Junmyeon would be better at explaining things since he was the more patient one of the two, whereas Luhan acted as though Tao should have been familiar with the basics already.

“Remember when we overheard the men talking about Moltuva taking over Leilan?” Junmyeon asked.

Tao nodded.

“What the men were saying is true. Leilan fell to Moltuva five days ago.” Junmyeon clasped his hands together, interlocking his fingers. “In fact, Moltuva intends to take over all of Exoplanet. The Prince of Moltuva recently became king, and he is amassing an army to invade the other countries.”

Tao thought it sounded as though Junmyeon had rehearsed this story several times before. “How do you know?” the mercenary asked.

“We are from Moltuva, remember?” Junmyeon pointed at Luhan, then at himself. “I used to be a soldier there. I bear firsthand witness to some of the things Moltuva has been doing to prepare for the large-scale invasion.”

“Are you serious?” Tao asked in disbelief. When Junmyeon nodded, Tao let out a deep breath. “Why?”

“Honestly, I never found out. Luhan and I left soon after the Moltuvian king began to grow his army,” Junmyeon explained.

Tao groaned, dragging one hand down his face. “Okay, so what does that have to do with your magic?”

“We were given these powers to stop Moltuva from taking over Exoplanet,” Junmyeon said as Luhan moved the dark-blue headband around his head.

Tao stared at the black mark on Luhan’s forehead. There were seven circles placed in a formation that resembled two diamonds lying next to each other. Lines connected the center circle with each of the other circles in a simple, yet sophisticated way.

“That’s not a tattoo, by the way,” Junmyeon clarified just as the idea ran through Tao’s mind. “He was born with that, just like how I was born with this.”

He lifted the bottom of his shirt to reveal a muscled stomach. A few centimeters above Junmyeon’s navel was a black mark in the shape of a water droplet. A few lines crossed through the mark, and a circle laid in the center of the fat end of the drop.

As Tao examined it, Luhan fixed his headband and said, “We’re not the only ones with marks like these, you know.”

“Who else has them?”

“Ten other people on this planet.” Luhan patted his hair back into place before looking Tao dead in the eye. “And one of them is you.”

Nobody spoke as Tao stared between Luhan and Junmyeon with a look of surprise. Then, Tao scoffed loudly, crossing his arms disbelievingly over his chest.

“Ha ha,” Tao snorted sarcastically, “Very funny.”

“It wasn’t a joke!” Luhan yelped, getting to his feet with a scowl on his face.

Tao looked at Junmyeon, expecting the latter to admit that Luhan was just kidding around. However, the mercenary was disappointed and not pleased to see the other man give him an uncomfortable and apologetic look.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Tao snapped, rubbing the back of his neck in exasperation, “I don’t even have…a mark…”

The fingers running over the smooth skin on the back of his neck slowed as long-forgotten memories surfaced.

Five-year-old Tao sat in the wooden tub as his adoptive mother lathered his hair with soap. Her deft fingers gently ran through his hair, washing out the weeks’ worth of dirt and grime from the black locks. He felt her stop at the back of his neck, pausing over something imprinted there. Her soft voice asked him about a weird mark there, and Tao replied that he didn’t know what she was talking about.

Tao was brought out of his memoir by a shuffling sound. He was met with Junmyeon bringing a small mirror from the depths of a bag. The shorter beckoned for Tao to lean down, which Tao reluctantly did. Junmyeon held the mirror behind Tao so that Tao could see the back of his neck reflected in the glass.

Sure enough, there was a black mark. It was shaped as two triangles connected by a corner. The top triangle was half-filled, and the bottom triangle had a vertical line through it, as though depicting something falling into it. It reminded Tao of an hourglass.

Tao rubbed the mark with shaky fingers, horror growing in the pits of his stomach. The mark wasn’t going away no matter how hard he scraped at it. By the time Junmyeon grabbed his hand and forced him to stop, the skin was already turning pink.

“Don’t,” the shorter male advised, “It’s not going to come off.”

Dropping his head into his hands with a sigh, Tao murmured, “How do you even know about this?”

Junmyeon reached into his bag again and pulled out a small book. He flipped it open and handed it to Tao.

Twelve symbols were spread out in a neat circle across two pages. Tao recognized Luhan’s, Junmyeon’s, and even his own symbols from the twelve. He scanned over the nine unfamiliar ones, briefly glancing at the unicorn head and the snowflake before his eyes focused on the drawing in the center.

A simple tree was sketched in the middle of the circle formed by the twelve symbols. The branches were curved strangely in a manner that an actual tree would not grow in. They bent every which way to connect all twelve symbols to the tree.

“This is part of a decades-old prophecy,” Junmyeon explained, “The elves in Atheria recorded it in art immediately after the planet gave them the vision. A Moltuvian spy had stolen it a few years after it was written, but I managed to steal it from the king before we escaped.”

“What’s the prophecy?” Tao asked, his stomach sinking deeper and deeper with every second that passed.

“Moltuva would go to war with the other countries, and the twelve of us would have to stop the planet from succumbing to darkness.”

The twelve of us, Tao repeated to himself. He was already considered a part of the group, even though he hadn’t agreed to be one of them. Unfortunately, if the prophecy was true, then he had no choice unless he wanted to watch Exoplanet fall to Moltuva.

Who was he kidding? The elves were never wrong.

Suddenly, Luhan was sitting next to him on the bed. “We just want to let you know that we’re not going to force you to believe any of this. It would be better if you choose to believe what we tell you of your own accord. But just know that if you decide to believe us and come with us as we try to find the others, we would really appreciate it. Exoplanet would appreciate it.”

Junmyeon and Luhan gathered their things but left the elves’ book with Tao. “If you want to look through that, go ahead. We will take it back tomorrow since we need it to find the remaining people. Good night.”

With that, the two were gone, leaving the Elven book with a stricken Tao, who didn’t move from his position, sitting like a statue on the bed.

A/N: Yay, back with another chapter! Hope you enjoy :)
Any kind of feedback is always welcome! Don't be afraid to tell me what you think; I don't bite xD

'Til next chapter!