Because he didn't have anything to do, AJ allowed himself to daydream for a while. He thought about Hyona. That girl was crazy. But... AJ had no idea she liked him. He wondered how it would affect their bickering friendship. He should make it clear to her that he didn't return any feelings she had for him. He just had a feeling it wouldn't work out that easily. Well, he knew Hyona.

Unconsciously, not even knowing how, his mind focused on something else. On someone else. AJ felt a weird tingling when Shinmi appeared in his thoughts. As much as he knew it was wrong, he has been thinking of her a lot these days. He was convincing himself it was pity, sympathy or just plain interest – anything, but the L word. She was just a lowly fairy serving their family. He shouldn't even acknowledge her existence. But he would be lying if he said he was indifferent.

“You're just a little fairy. Just why am I so affected by you?” he let himself mutter. “It doesn't make sense...”

“What doesn't make sense?”

AJ turned in horror to see the very fairy at the door with a cleaning rag in her hand.

“Y-yah! H-how long have you been standing there? No! Shouldn't you knock? H-how can you just enter like that?”

Shinmi, who entered just to hear the very last sentence AJ had muttered, was taken aback by his outburst.

“I-I did knock, I-I thought you were not here... I'm sorry...”

“Wha- Uh- Get out for now! Come back later.”

“I'm really sorry-”

“Are you not getting out?”

Shinmi ran out and bumped into Giyeon, who was passing by.

“Yah, what did he do to you?” she asked, seeing Shinmi's distressed face.

“A-ani... well... I don't know... he just... ”

“Damn! I hate pirates more than everything else! They can do whatever they please and bully us and we have no way to defend ourselves. If only I could-”

“Giyeon-ah, don't talk like that, someone will hear... but... you're making progress. You finally understand that trying to beat them up is a bad idea, right?”

“Yeah... it will only cause troubles... but I still imagine hitting them right in their face reeeeally hard-”

“Giyeon-ah!”

“Shinmi-yah. One day, I'll definitely find a way to get us out of here. I won't leave you alone, I promise.”

Eli looked around as he ran carefully and jumped over the rocks. He finally stopped and checked once again the map. This was the place.

I feel the air here is a bit different. If the rumors about this place's extraordinary magnetic field are true... it would be enough to strip that Dongho of his powers temporarily, if the timing is right. But I need to look more into it, it might be dangerous if we don't know exactly how and when to use it.

Eli took out his compass and started searching for the center of the said magnetic field. He was getting closer, as he could see from the way animals all around behaved, and how plants and rocks in this area looked.

A pirate on guard noticed a strange movement in the territory and decided to report it immediately. He climbed down from the flagpole and ran towards Captain Mordney's cabin. On the way he nearly knocked AJ over.

“I'm sorry, sir!”

“Why the rush?”

“There seems to be an intruder in our territory, sir.”

“Intruder? Where?”

“The... the Vast Plains...”

AJ was surprised. This place... he heard a lot about it. It was said to have a hidden power to itself. It had been a part of his family's territory for many years, but not many had been so brave to go there to investigate it. Intruders? Actually, AJ was curious too.

“I'll look into it.”

“Sir, it's dangerous!”

“Don't tell me what to do. Go and tell my father if you want to. I'm off!”

With this, AJ took his sword and set off to the Vast Plains. Although he didn't care in the least for his father's ambitious plans and his other business, he did care for the whole family's property and didn't like the idea of someone intruding the territory either.

While he was passing through the dock, Hyona, who was by chance in the area, noticed him. Where is he going? she wondered. As the curious girl she was, she started discreetly following him.

Eli stopped in front of a huge rock, colored black with a taint shade of purple or green now and there, covered with some ancient signs and ornaments. His compass was going crazy by now. This must have been the very center of the legendary magnetic field.

Just as Eli was about to step closer to it, a voice stopped him.

“So the intruder was actually you.”

Eli turned around and faced once more his enemy, AJ.

“Why are you here?” he questioned.

“I could ask you the same. This is my family's territory. Leave while I'm asking you nicely.”

This is Captain Mordney's territory? How could I forget to look up such an important information? Well, it doesn't change anything. I'm going to use this place and I don't care if they like it or not.

“You think you can force me?”

“Yes, I think so,” AJ said and got ready to take out his sword.

“Actually, this is a good chance to kill you and get rid of your annoying family for good,” Eli took a fighting stance too.

It seemed that the hatred between both of the families suddenly built up and settled in the two young pirates' bodies. Maybe it was the place, but an ominous aura started spreading. Hyona, who was hiding behind a rock nearby, crouched in fear. Who is this? she thought as she watched Eli and AJ start a fight. Wow, but he's quite good at fighting, she stared at the handsome stranger in awe. But she immediately shook her head. He was an enemy and he was trying to kill her AJ right now!

“Are you not going to give up?” AJ hissed as he pointed his sword at Eli.

“Me? You wish,” Eli replied as he dodged it and attacked back.

Suddenly the two boys' fighting auras started to mingle and became really strong. As if they were destined to meet each other, which would be either a very good thing, or a very bad one. The ground started to shake a little bit and there was an odd feeling in the air. It seemed something bad was going to happen.

Meanwhile, Dongho, who usually had the ability to tell when there was something wrong in Neverland, got a very bad feeling. He suddenly stood up.

“What's wrong?” Soohyun questioned him.

“I have a very strong bad feeling.”

“What do you mean?” Kiseop asked, getting worried.

“I need to check it out.”

“Wait. What if it's another trap? Dongho, we're not letting you go anywhere alone like this anymore,” Soohyun said quickly. Hoon, Kiseop and Kevin nodded.

“You don't understand,” Dongho said and flied away.

“Can you follow him?” Hoon asked Kevin.

“Unfortunately, I can't. We fairies only can fly on short distances, moreover, I can't compare to his speed.”

“We can only hope he's gonna be alright,” Kiseop said.

“I really don't like this,” Soohyun muttered angrily and looked at the sky.

AJ and Eli ignored all the ominous signs and continued fighting. As the ground was shaking, little stones started falling down from the rocks first, followed by a bit larger ones soon. It was unavoidable that Hyona got hit by one of them sooner or later. When a medium sized stone landed on her back, she couldn't help but let out a short scream. The two boys stopped fighting. Before AJ could get to the place, Eli beat him to it. He grabbed Hyona and took her out of her hiding place. AJ's eyes widened when he saw who it was. Is she really crazy? Don't tell me she followed me all the way here because she likes me!

“What are you doing here?!”

“Ah, so you know this kid?” Eli asked him. “Then you don't want her to get hurt, right?”

“Let her go and fight with me like a man!”

“Who says men can't use under- ouch!”

Hyona kicked Eli with all her force and because he was not paying attention, she was able the escape from his grip.

“I'll scold you later, now stay aside,” AJ told Hyona and started fighting Eli again.

A big wave of energy built up. It exploded in between of Eli and AJ and threw both of them aside. They could not ignore the changes anymore, this place was getting too chaotic and dangerous. Wind was very strong, the sky became dark gray and there were lightnings striking.

“Are you okay?” Hyona ran to AJ.

“We need to get out of here.”

They stood up and started escaping. Right then Hyona stopped. She noticed her bracelet was gone. AJ looked at her with raised eyebrows. She turned around and ran back. AJ had to stop her.

“What the hell do you think you're doing? We need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“But...” But it the only thing you've ever given to me, she thought.

“Jung Hyona, are you out of your mind? Whatever it is, we need to go now!”

She finally allowed him to drag her out. They ran away fast.

“What about the other guy?”

“Let him manage it by himself, he tried to kill us by now. What, do you want to save him?”

“I don't know, but to leave him there...”

“Look, even if I wanted to, I don't really have a choice. I don't know what's wrong with the place, but the situation's out of hand. If we returned now, we would only die with him.”

Eli was still on the ground, shocked from what had happened. He didn't know what to do, it seemed there was no way out.

“So the trip here was really a big fail after all... I'm sorry, father.”

There was nothing he could do and the big storm was not calming, it was only getting worse. Eli was preparing himself for the worse.

Suddenly he saw a figure approaching him.

“Who-”

“Shut up, you crazy pirate, and hold on tight,” said the stranger and grabbed Eli. They suddenly started floating in the air. When there were random balls of energy flying in their direction, he aimed his hand at them and they burst. This way Eli and the stranger flew away, out of the danger zone.

Hey~ Thanks for EternallyInfinite's comment :)

By the way, I hope I'm right and there's no need to rate this for the fighting scenes. Since I don't really describe it and only say things like "he pointed his sword at him"... I think this wouldn't be really ranked as violence, unless it's described in detail. I hope I'm not wrong.