I eye the sword tip, inches from my face.

Holy crap.

Didn't expect them to turn up so quickly.

I miss my own sword.

"Who're you?" I ask rudely. He doesn't answer and slashes the sword, barely missing me. Impolite jerk.

He slashes the sword again and I duck and roll over. I remember something Tao taught me just yesterday and I decide to try it out. While I'm still in a squatting position, I stick my leg out and sweep it towards his shin. It works and he topples backwards. Not missing a beat, I jump up and kick him in the stomach, hard. His arms flail wildly and falls down with a thud. I give him a good kick in the balls--- not what Tao taught me, but hey, it's super effective.

He yells out in pain and I hit him in the temples, knocking him unconscious. My eyebrow has been twitching like mad and I've never been more thankful. I prise the sword from his fingers and I twirl it in my hand, getting the feel of it. I decide that I like this sword and I jog off, feeling triumphant. This is easier than I thought it'd be.

The temperature suddenly drops dramatically and a wide grin breaks across my face. Xiumin! He must be near. I don't dare call out his name though. He's most likely fighting and I don't wanna mess up his concentration. With a smug spring in my step, I look for Xiumin. The air's getting colder and colder with every step, so I should be getting close. I reach a beautiful meadow.

All of a sudden, a blast of ice shoots towards me and I jump aside, narrowly missing me.

"Hey!" I protest. "It's me!" I hear footsteps crunching but it turns out it's Elise, not Xiumin. Oh god not now.

"Oh, it's you," she scowls. "It's okay, come out," she calls out, and her two minions--- I've forgotten their names ages ago--- come clambering out of the bushes behind noisily.

I try to forget the fact that she hates my guts for absolutely no reason and ask her, "What the hell is going on?" Whoops, didn't sound too friendly. Oh well.

"What do you know?"

"Kris told me EXO-K was attacking us." I notice her eyes widening ever so slightly and her fingers curl up into a fist at the mention of Kris. She eyes the sword in my hand.

"Where did you get that sword?" she asks casually. I've come to learnt that the more innocent she sounds, the nastier she's gonna become.

"Some dude back there," I say carefully, shifting my hold on the sword subtly so I have a better grip. "He attacked me so I knocked him unconscious and took his sword."

"I need a sword," she tells me sweetly. "I don't have a single weapon."

"Oh, good luck finding one," I say lightly and innocently. In other words, no you can't have my sword. It's MINE. But maybe I said that too smugly, because Elise walks up to me and glares intensely into my eyes.

"Maybe you didn't understand. I said, I need your sword."

I raise an eyebrow and reply calmly, "no can do, Elise."

She makes a grab for my sword but I'm ready for her and I step back neatly so that she almost loses her balance. She snarls and I hold my sword in combat mode.

"Look, Elise," I say, trying to put some sense into her, "I would love to kill you, but maybe right now we should just work together for the moment? Call a temporary truce?" Truth is, I don't think Kris and Tao would be pleased if I killed someone on our side in the middle of a battle. She snorts.

"Oh no, I don't think so," she laughs nastily, inching closer. I smirk.

"Thought as much." I make a run for the cluster of trees at the side.

"RACHEL!!!" Elise shrieks, her annoyingly high voice stabbing into my eardrums. My sword is flies out of my hand buries itself into a tree behind Elise.

"Oh, no you don't," I mutter, but before I can think of anything my eyebrow spasms so hard I nearly topple over and time is stopped. I grin to myself and wrench the sword out. One look at Elise's wide-open screeching mouth gives me a very, very nasty idea.

I pick up some leaves from the ground and stuff it into . I giggle to myself and run off. A few moments later time unstops again...

"AAAAAA---" a bloodcurdling scream from behind chokes up. I almost trip over my own feet, I'm laughing that hard. A hilarious prank, but totally harmless.

By the time I've done with laughing, I'm starting to suspect that I'm lost. I mean, everywhere looks the same: just trees and more trees, with just the occasional meadow---

Wait. This meadow looks remarkably familiar... isn't that the tree...

Upon closer inspection, the hole in the tree matches perfectly with the size of my sword, which means this is the tree Rachel--- is it Rachel? Okay, Elise's zombie minion--- made my sword stab into.

Which means this is the meadow where we had that fight.

Which means I've been going in a circle.

Which confirms my suspicion that I'm lost.

Now, normally I don't really care about getting lost--- I mean, if I walk in a straight line, I'm bound to get somewhere, right? But here, in the wilderness, where I have no idea how big this forest is and a war's going on somewhere near, well, I don't really fancy getting lost right now. My stomach rumbles and reminds me that I haven't even had breakfast yet. Oh, how I wish I could fly like Kris. Then I could just fly up and look for civilisation from above. Much easier.

An idea occurs to me. Even if I can't fly, I can still get to higher ground, can't I? I mean, I'm surrounded by trees, and some are easily over a hundred years old and therefore huge and strong. I bet I can climb up one and have a better view there.

I choose a big tree with rather low branches, but even so I can't reach the lowest one. So I stab my sword deep onto the highest point I can reach and I hold onto that to clamber up the trunk. Then using the lumps on the trunk as footholds, I yank my sword out and stab it back into a higher position. In this way, I reach the first branches pretty quick. The rest of the way, I pull myself up using the sturdy branches. I don't know how to climb up with a sword, so I just continue to stab it higher in the tree.

When I finally reach the spot where the branches are thinner and more likely to snap under my weight, I stop and look around. I haven't thought about this... I still can't see anything except for the trees. And I finally remember that the building is shorter than the trees.

"I am such an idiot," I mumble to myself. The bigger problem at hand now would be climbing down. How the hell am I gonna do that when I have a long- sword in my hand? I almost cry when I realise the only way is to throw it down. That, or hold it between my teeth like a pirate. Actually, the second option seems pretty cool, but on second thought I want to keep my face intact.

With a sigh I throw the sword down and I start my slow descent. I'm going to regret this.

Footsteps. I freeze. I'm practically invisible among the leaves, but the sword. I peek at it between the layers of leaves and silently groan. The stupid metal blade is reflecting sunlight so brightly you'd have to be blind not to notice it. Damn.

"What's this?" someone says in surprise, strolling over to the sword. I curse inwardly. Hands off my sword, !

"Hmm, a sword," he muses. I can't see his face but he sounds so familiar. He suddenly tenses. "Is anybody here?" he calls out.

I shrink against the tree, hoping against hope he'd just walk away and leave me and my poor sword alone. Ha. Fat chance. Given my luck, I accidentally brush against some loose leaves and I watch in mute horror as they flutter down onto him below. His head snaps up.

"Who's there?" he calls out. I stay silent and completely still. He his head and I suddenly recognize him.

It's Luhan.

"Hannie!" I yell happily. He looks up and laughs.

"Where are you, Adrienne?"

"I'm at the top!" I shout down.

"What the hell are you doing up in a tree? Is this sword yours?"

"Yeah! I'm coming down, wait a moment!" I swing my legs down and climb down quickly, but in my haste my foot slips and I plummet down.

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yeah I know, crappy cliffhanger, I bet everyone knows what's gonna happen anyway /_\

and that thing with Elise and the leaves..... I've always wanted to do that. >:3

Now, my exams start tomorrow and ends on June 13th... poor me T.T which either means I won't update as much, or I'll update more. depends on how bored I am with studying. But given my personality I think it's the latter... which basically means I'm gonna die horribly in the finals. Again.

also, I wanna do a proper thank you, here, cuz @CatAttack1020 wrote me a review, can you believe it? :') AND she wrote a totally long- comment <3 so...

~THANK YOU CAT~

YOU ARE THE MOST AWESOMEST READER I'VE EVER HAD. :3 

also I forgot to tell you... that gif at the top is one of my favourites how did you know *v*

the review's here--> http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/187511/30/i-m-in-desperate-need-of-your-fanfiction-fanfiction