Five boys stood around the sparing area, watching as Youngwon and Soohyun sparred each other, landing an equal amount of blows onto each other and Soohyun, used his “short” height to his advantage in the fight, soon the two both collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion. They both sat on the ground exhausted, they both were covered in a thin layer of sweat and both were breathing heavily.

The old man smiled and clapped his hands, “Impressive, really impressive, but you still have a while to go until you hit the level you need to be at when you head into the Shrine in two and a half weeks.”

If you are wondering, it’s been a week and a half since the others left. Even though Daehyun was permitted to exit the sanctuary, he never did. He was working hard and the others were as well so they didn’t really feel the absence of the other three. JeBim sighed boredly from where he sat, the old man had found out that it was just a sprain as the male had predicted, but he was still not allowed to practice until the third week, which meant he’d be behind the others skill wise. He watched as Kris and Min Jun started sparing and stood up, the old man looked at him as did Minseok.

“Where are you going?” asked Minseok, eyeing his hyung suspiciously.

“I’m just going to walk…” muttered the younger male, smiling at the older.

“You should be resting your ankle,” Said the old man, who had yet to tell them his name.

“It’s feeling better already…” muttered JeBim.

 “If you say so…” said the old man, “Be sure to be back before the academy closes the gates…”

The younger male nodded and Minseok looked at his older brother, “Can I go with him?”

JeBim rolled his eyes at his twin’s antics of trying to get out of training; the older male looked at the pouting boy and sighed, “Fine. Seungjun, you are to travel with these to…make sure they don’t do anything stupid.”

The older nodded and followed the two fifteen year olds out of the academy and into the town.

“Daehyun-ah, I’m surprised you’ve become this strong already…you’ve must have learned to control your powers subconsciously.”

The younger male looked at the man who had been training him for the past few days.

“Daehyun-ah...There is only one thing left that I can teach you.” Said the man, looking at Daehyun, “After I’m done with that you’ll be able to be reunited with your friends…”

“What is it?” asked Daehyun, looking at the man casually.

“I’m going to teach you how to track someone close to you using your abilities,” Said the man, who Daehyun knew as Kyu. He knew nothing else about the man though since the older male would avoid all subjects about himself, which annoyed Daehyun slightly, since the person who was teaching him didn’t seem to trust him to the fullest.

“By close do you mean….”

“I mean emotionally close to,” Said Kyu, looking at the boy with a serious expression, “I’m teaching you a technique that’ll allow you to sense your friends and the two who brought you here. It’ll also allow you to sense when danger is approaching them and where that danger is…This technique takes a lot of mental strength, a lot of concentration, and energy to learn. It’ll take, at most, a week to learn.”

The younger sighed.

“I know you want to see your friends, but you have to concentrate well for this lesson. Daehyun, you’re the one who decided not to see your friends again until you finish your training, I’m just doing what I can to help you get back to them faster, however if you aren’t going to cooperate with me it’ll take longer than you want it to.” Said Kyu, “So are you going to concentrate and cooperate with me?”

The younger nodded, “I will.”

“Then let’s get started…” said Kyu.

The younger nodded and sat on his mat, which was a sitting on the level below the on Kyu’s was sitting on. Kyu smiled at his student and sat down on his mat as well, both closed their eyes and started to communicate through their powers, no words were being spoken.

“Once more my boy!” called the sage, smiling as he sent all the lava in the pool below him at the young male standing at the end of the hall, the dragon flew above their heads in the room, observing the battle going on the small bridge below. As the lava (technically it’s still magma) headed towards Minhyuk, the boy closed his eyes and allowed himself to feel the heat of the lava, he wasn’t afraid of getting hit by it because it wouldn’t burn or affect him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and fell the molten rock surround him. The lava flow slowed rapidly and soon it was just rock that sat on the ground, the heat was completely out of the room and the sage smiled, clapping his hands together in glee. He looked at the dragon who nodded.

“He’s worthy of the title now…” said the dragon, “He knows all that I could teach him…he knows both the offensive and defensive parts of being a fire user. He knows how to absorb the heat around him and use it to heal himself and to energize himself…He’s worthy of the title and the responsibility it carries…”

The sage nodded and smiled at Minhyuk, who was still staring at them in shock, “M-My training is complete already?”

The two nodded and the dragon blew fire onto the hardening stone, blowing the rock back into the pit in which it came, the heat returned to the room and the dragon looked at the boy, “There is nothing else for you to learn from me. You were a talented fire user when you came here… you had developed most of the skills by yourself, so there really wasn’t much I could teach you.”

Minhyuk looked at the dragon which landed and headed into his room with the giant lava pit, “Park Minhyun, I dub thee a Master Fire User…”

Minhyuk felt the heat serge through him and smiled, looking at his right hand to see a little red marking on the wrist, which was burning. The small mark on his wrist signified that he knew all there was to know, all the skills a fire user needed to be powerful. A smile graced his lips as he bowed to the dragon, watching silently as the doors to the dragons room shut.

The sage smiled at the boy and Minhyuk bowed to him as well, “Thank you sir.”

The male shook his head, “No, thank you.”

“What for?” asked Minhyuk, looking at the old man in shock.

The man smiled, “For the things you and your friends are going to do…Thank you for bringing your brother back here as well…if you hadn’t we would’ve had to travel to one of the other hidden civilizations.”

Minhyuk smiled, “I did nothing to make him comeback…hyung made the decision himself, he decided that he wasn’t going to hide from it anymore. He knows he had been a coward back then. He knew that in order to protect not only the Miro living on this island, but the humans living here as well he had to come back and strengthen his own powers. He decided that he didn’t want to see his home get destroyed and he decided that he didn’t want to see those whom he holds dear to him get killed.”

The man smiled, “Then I guess I’ll thank you for the great things you and your friends are going to do for this land.”

Minhyuk smiled, “Thank you for teaching me.”

“Get going boy, I know how much you want to check on your brother and I know how much you want to see the others.” Said the sage, “If you ever need help or advice, come to me, ok?”

The boy nodded and changed into the clothes he had come to the temple in and ran towards the academy, wanting to see his older brother and the others, when he entered the courtyard, he was shocked to see it empty. He entered the building of the academy, looking everywhere for the others and found the person he was looking for in the clinic with Soohyun and the old man.

They all looked concerned; Minhyuk felt something in his stomach drop as he looked at them, “What’s going on?” He entered the room and walked towards the bed Minhyun was in, they looked at him in shock, not expecting him to be back, “What is wrong with hyung?”

“There is nothing wrong Minhyuk,” Said the man.

The younger didn’t believe him and moved towards the bed to see that his brother’s head was laying limp on his pillow and that his chest wasn’t moving rapidly, in fact it wasn’t moving at all.  The older’s face showed no signs of pain, in fact he looked a little peaceful.

“What is wrong with him?” asked Minhyuk, he could feel his brother’s warmth and it scared him.

“Minhyun, he temporarily died…” muttered the man, the young man’s back gentle, seeing how the poor boy was looking at hi pale hyung horrified.

“Why?”

“I don’t know, but my guess is that one of the two final gates was in his heart or his brain and it opened up…” muttered the man, hugging Minhyuk, “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.”

“How do you know?” asked Minhyuk, looking at the man before looking at his older brother, “I feel no sign of life in him…”

“Minhyuk, you must calm down…” muttered the man, “He’ll be fine…this is extremely common…He’ll be breathing again in no time….”

“How do you know that?” asked Minhyuk.

“Because this happened to all the light users who had a kei-gate in their head or heart…” muttered the man, “That’s how I know son…”

Minhyuk frowned and watched at the man walked away, probably getting a glass of water for the eighteen year old, who was lying on the bed, when he woke up…if he woke up. Minhyuk sat in the seat the old man was previously sitting in. He stared at his older brother, his face didn’t show it but he was terrified of losing his brother, because if he did what would happen to the island and the people on the island? He grabbed his hyung’s hand and despite the body looking dead, he felt warm coming off the older’s skin and flowing into him. He smiled, why would he even doubt his brother wouldn’t make it? Oh, yea, because many light users have been lost like this.

“Minhyuk-ah?” muttered Kris.

Minhyuk looked up and saw that he was the only other person left in the room.

“What is it?”

“I said I was going to bed it’s getting pretty late and unlike you, I have to train tomorrow…” muttered Kris, he handed the younger a glass of water, “The old man who still won’t tell up his name gave this to me, to give to you, to give to your brother.”

“Ah…okay…g-goodnight…” muttered Minhyuk, nodding at the older male, who soon left him and his brother alone; he didn’t know when Soohyun slipped out of the room. He held the glass in his hand and looked at his older brother, whose chest began to move up and down again.

As he sat there a pain filled moan was released by his brother, who opened his eyes and automatically looked at the sixteen year old who held out the water for his older brother. The older brother happily took it into his hands and swallowed it down, wetting his dry throat before handing the cup back to the younger who smiled and took it.

“Where was it this time?”

The older pointed to his head.

“Where is the final one?” muttered Minhyuk.

Minhyun pointed to his chest, the older had pain written all over his face and looked like he was going to fall asleep again soon.

“Can you not talk?” muttered Minhyuk looking at his older brother, the older nodded, “You’re mute, for how long?”

The older looked at him and used his powers to communicate with the younger, despite his exhausted body protesting, “The one in my brain burst and the side effect was losing my voice, I don’t know how long it will be like this but I hope it will be better in two and a half weeks…The one in my heart will burst next, it’s the final one, as you said before, please know that I’ll physically die then as well…and I will be for a day…”

The younger nodded, “I hope it gets better as well, hyung, sleep, ok? Open the last gate okay?”

The older nodded, his eyes closed but his voice was still heard, “Why are you out of the temple?”

“I finished the training already hyung…” muttered the younger, “Sleep.”

The older nodded and did as he was told, his breaths became shallow again and his face still showed his pain and showed some peace as well. He looked at the older male, before speaking out again, “I thought you said you were going to bed.”

“I was…but I decided against it…” muttered Kris, looking at the younger male, who covered his brother up with the blankets, set the cup in the sink, and walked to the door, wiping his wet hands off on his pants legs as he did so.

“Why?” asked Minhyuk, following the older male out of the room and shutting the door.

“I was going to ask you how your training went…” muttered Kris, looking away from the younger.

“It went well…” muttered Minhyuk, “It was tiring having to be in the heat all day every day for a week and a half…”

“Then why don’t you rest?” asked Kris.

“Because you aren’t hyung…It wouldn’t be polite to let you be up by yourself…Where is everyone anyway?”

“Min Jun and Youngwon ran off somewhere together, I swear something is up with those two. Seungjun, Minseok, and JeBim decided to walk around town earlier after practice and have yet to return. Soohyun went to bed. Minhyuk is in the medical ward, Daehyun at his training in the sanctuary, and the two of us are here,” Muttered Kris, looking at the younger, making him chuckle.

“You didn’t have to point out the obvious ones…” muttered Minhyuk.

“Hey, you never know…” said the older male smiling at Minhyuk who was smiling back at him widely.

Minseok, JeBim, and Seungjun were standing on a bridge that passed over the elemental user training grounds. They stood there in silence watching as the girls and boys below sparred with other elemental users.

“You thought our training was intense…” muttered Seungjun, glancing at Minseok.

The younger groaned, “That’s because it is.”

“It seems easy compared to this…” muttered JeBim, Seungjun nodded in agreement.

“Are you saying that you want to do this?” asked Minseok, looking at his twin like he was insane.

“To be honest, I think it’d be fun to try,” Said JeBim, looking at the others.

“It’s official, you’ve become insane!” said Minseok, looking back at the trainees.

“Minseok, you can’t say you don’t want to try it…” muttered Seungjun looking at the younger.

“Actually I can,” Said the youngest, pouting, “Why would you ever want to do something like that? It’s worse that the crap we’ve gone through during the old man’s training!”

“More like you’re in really bad shape and you don’t want to try it because you know you’ll fail…” muttered Seungjun, only to apologize to the younger when he saw the boys cute pout.

After that, the three headed back to the academy since it was getting late and the gates were going to close soon, luckily the three got there in time.

Please excuse any mistakes made. 

Also, sorry if it's a bit boring, I was going through a major writers block while writing this.

I really hope you all are enjoying this story. ^^ 

-Lane (LCBLuvsKpop)