*****content warning: mentions of de*th***** if you're uncomfortable with this theme, please skip this part! This part is only giving context to where they came from before they were nature spirts. 

Jinki and Taemin normally didn’t go treasuring hunting at night; occasionally though, when the moon was bright enough they would go. Jinki had let Taemin lead today. They moved around until they came across a wreck. It had been taken down in a storm and lay in multiple pieces on the seafloor.

“Hey, Jinki, wasn’t this our ship?” Taemin asked quietly.

Jinki dipped below the water and began searching for the name of the ship on the hull. At the bottom of the seafloor, he finally found what he was looking for. Half covered in sad was a large section of siding with the name Jellicoe written in a showy font. Unwelcome memories flooded into his mind. At first they were pleasant. He and Taemin running around a deck; racing to climb the masts; the smell of pickled foods coming from the kitchen; the sun and the breeze and the joy of being alive. They were followed by the unpleasant ones. They were too far up to come down with the shaking of the ship; their mothers’ screaming for them to come below deck, that it wasn’t safe in this storm; a flash of lighting and Taemin screaming and the feeling of the mast falling into the sea; the surface getting farther and farther and farther away. The sound of a woman’s voice brought him back to the present.

“You’ve been here enough, darling. You remember, so why do you come back?”

Jinki tried to remember why he let Taemin lead him here. He should’ve known where they were headed. He looked around for her, but per usual she kept out of sight.

“I wanted to see you. I have a question for you.” he replied after a moment.

“I told you, darling, when you asked about the wind that you would have no questions. I know you care for the sproutling, but he is no longer yours to ask about.”

Jinki tried to think of a response but realized that she had left. He swam up to the surface yet paused before breaking through. She was talking to Taemin. He waited until she had seemingly gone to come up.

“Did she talk to you too?” Taemin asked.

Jinki nodded.

“What did she say to you?”

“Nothing really. You?”

“Well, she asked me how we were doing. And then I asked her about Minho and why he only half remembers things. With Jonghyun it makes sense that he doesn’t remember but Minho seems to have been there so long. Anyways she went quiet for a second and then she sort of went weird and left,” he trailed off and looked at the island. Out of the corner of his eye, JInki saw a bright flash of light. The lady was on the move.

“We should go, Taemin.”

Taemin nodded and the two headed towards the island. Halfway there, they ran into Kibum. He was stirring up winds but it was obvious something was bothering him.

“Is anything wrong, Ki?” Taemin asked, helping him with a particularly strong gust.

“Yeah. She just came by. Asked me how much I remember of my old life. There was something about Minho and timing,” he explained.

“I think I accidentally reminded her to tell Minho where he came from,” Taemin quietly admitted.

Both Jinki and Kibum looked at him.

“Jinki, love, was he always this way?”

“What way?”

“King of reminders. Was he the one that spurred her to tell me where I came from?”

“Actually, when we were kids he was worse and it was me that asked about you.”

Kibum huffed, vaguely annoyed with both of them. The bright light flashed again.

“Guys, regardless of our timing habits, we should probably get to the island. I don’t know about you but I specifically remember the experience of being told where I came from as unpleasant and awful.” Jinki whispered.

Taemin and Kibum nodded and wordlessly they all hurried, but not before the light disappeared. The waters around the island were unusually void of animal life. When they got onto the beach it was clear that they hadn’t gotten there before she had. The trees around the garden had lost their leaves and the vines around them were developing thorns. Kibum was able to move the vines around enough for them to go inside. The garden itself was different as well; all the vibrant colors had dulled, leaves and petals falling off stems, everything seemingly curling in upon itself.

“All this time I knew the plants were connected to him, but I never realized it was like this.” Kibum whispered.

They all looked around for a sign of the other two. From below a fruit tree came a tail. Taemin was closest and so he wandered over. There was a hiss. Jinki realized that it was Jonghyun. He’d never seen him as a cat before. Taemin crouched down and began whispering to him to try and calm him down. Jinki was about to walk over to them when he felt Kibum pulling at his arm. He looked towards a group of bushes that he didn’t remember. Kibum pointed into the heart of the thicket but it immediately grew and thickened and obstructed any view they may have had. A faint light was coming out of it.

“He’s in there, Jinki, “ Kibum whispered. “They’re both in there.”

He walked over and crouched down, seeing if there was a way inside. Kibum circled around it. The light began to fade, eventually going out. Jinki noticed a small opening and though he wasn’t sure he would fit he tried anyway. After struggling through the branches into the center he found Minho. He’d never seen him look so small and sullen. There were tears on his face. Jinki reached out to touch his cheek but stopped short when the bush began wrapping itself around his hand.

“I remember,” he whispered.

“I know you do.”

The branch slowly let go. Minho moved closer and reached out for Jinki. Understanding what he wanted, Jinki took Minho into his arms just before the younger burst into tears. The thicket around them dissolved, Kibum slowly coming into sight. He crouched down next to the two. Minho reached out a hand and Kibum took it, holding it between his own. Jinki felt Minho try to sit up and moved to let him do so. He wiped tears off his cheeks. Minho began to mumble something.

“What did you say, Minbabe?” Kibum asked, moving to rub his back in attempt to calm him down even more. Minho in a breath as if to try again but shook his head and continued crying. Jinki looked towards the other side of the garden where Taemin had coaxed Jonghyun (who was still a cat) into his lap. It had been a very long time since he’d seen him putting so much effort into caring for another existence. There was a sound like a hiccup and Jonghyun turned back into a person. He wasn’t crying quite as hard as Minho but he was obviously shaken as well. Jinki felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned back to face Minho.

“Jinki, how did you get this way?” he asked. His voice was small and unsure. Jinki sighed.

“Taemin and I grew up together. That’s how we know each other. Our fathers were sailors. My dad was the captain and his was the first mate. We were having to relocate our families from one port to another.  We’d be running around, trying to climb anything and everything we could. It was really the first time we’d been allowed to sail anywhere with them. We were about halfway there when a huge storm hit. We were trapped halfway up a mast when it came. Lightning hit while we were trying to get down. Taemin got hit and the mast broke in half. I was thrown in the water. When I woke up the next day, the lady came to me and explained that since that was where I was when she found me I’d be connected to it. She taught me how to change back and forth between water and person, how to control waves, everything. I was so relieved to find Taemin after that.”

“Taemin? What happened to you?” Jonghyun asked, tears and fears seemingly subsiding.

“Well, like Jinki said, I got hit by lightning. I can’t really describe the place where I woke up. But the lady was there too. Taught me clouds and lightning and storms and flying around. Eventually she told me how to find Jinki. And then I pretty literally ran into Kibum.”

Both Jonghyun and Minho looked at Kibum, waiting for his piece of the story.  He in turn looked at Jinki, huffing before he began.

“I was from the interior, it was my first time at the coast. I’d been saving money for months to be able to come over. They had said that a big storm was coming and that everyone was supposed to evacuate. But I’d already spent so much of my money on getting to the coast that I refused to leave. I thought the storm had passed, but it was just the eye. I was outside when the backside of the storm hit. I got up into the sky and woke up in the same place that Taemin did. Up in the clouds. She was waiting for me too. Taught me how to control and be the wind. Showed me where Taemin was, said that we would make a good team. Met Jinki a while later.”

When Kibum finished, there was a lull. Minho was obviously up next to tell his story, but no one wanted to ask. He seemed to take the cue and gathered himself together.

“I lived on the coast. There wasn’t really anything special about me or the town I was from. I was on the sand dunes one day with my friends. We were just out there playing when I slipped. All of a sudden I was underneath the dune. I could hear my friends calling out for me and trying to dig me out but I was too far down. Apparently, the dunes had formed on top of where a forest used to be. There was the remnants of a tree where I had fallen, it was what made the hole. When I woke up I was still below the sand. The lady helped me out and said this island was mine. She helped me make my garden and told me how to be and grow things.”

“So that’s why you can’t sleep on the ground?” Jonghyun asked. Minho nodded. Kibum perked up.

“I think I’ve been there. Where the treetops come out of the dunes? It’s a preserve now. There’s a memorial for you. Women who’ve lost children in sudden circumstances bring flowers there.” he explained. Minho looked equally touched and pained.

“It’s weird to think there’s a memorial for me somewhere else.”

“If it makes you feel any better, the statue is a terrible likeness of you.”

The two laughed.

Everyone turned to Jonghyun to see if he was ready.

“Jonghyun, if you’re not ready it’s ok,” Taemin whispered.

“No, no, I’m ok.”

While Jonghyun collected himself to tell his story, Jinki took a moment to look around the garden. Everything was starting to rebloom; he took it as a sign that Minho was getting better.

“I was from a poor family. I’d tried looking for a job but all I could find was being a small job collecting entrance tickets for the circus. I wasn’t allowed to go home during the season but since I wasn’t a proper member I wasn’t allowed to sleep in one of the tents. There was a cage of dogs that I liked to sleep in. I wanted a family and I had slowly gotten them to trust me. One night they brought in this wild cat. I don’t even know what it was called but it was huge. It looked so pained. I watched it over a few days, how they beat it to get it to perform how they wanted. I couldn’t stand it. So I set it free after everyone was asleep. I got caught in the cage though, and when the keeper came around in the morning it was pretty obvious that it was my fault. They chained me between railcars the next morning before setting out. Then all of  a sudden I’m waking up to the lady and she’s showing me how to talk to animals and how to heal them and even turn into them. I found it was easiest to live as a puppy; a family had taken me in and we were going somewhere on the ship when there was a breech in the hull and we began to sink. That’s when you guys found me.”

Silence fell among them. The sun was beginning to peak over the top of the fence trees. Minho untangled himself from Jinki’s embrace and walked over to where Jonghyun and Taemin were sitting.

“Do you want to go back to sleep?” he asked, holding a hand out to Jonghyun. Jonghyun shook his head. Minho looked towards the hammock then suddenly at Kibum.

“Kibum do you want to take a nap with me?”

Kibum looked shocked at the request but was on his feet and nearly running to the hammock once he processed the question. Jinki and Taemin laughed, watching the two of them  get in hammock. Jinki stood and motioned for Taemin and Jonghyun to follow.

“We’re going outside, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” he called out. Kibum shot Jinki a glare before Minho pulled him close.