The three ran as fast as they could. Minho led the way, cutting bushes and branches that were in their way with the sword he always carried around. Yuri stumbled at times over unexpected rocks and uneven ground but Taemin held her hand and kept her from falling. She in return helped encouraged him to keep going. Taemin had poor stamina due to severe sickness during his childhood and was finding it hard to continue running at top speed for such a long time.

Once out of the forest the three were met by a path going downhill towards the pension house. However, Minho led them to the other side of the trail and into more trees and bushes.
‘Hyung! The trail leads right towards the pension house! And it’s quicker because there are no trees or bushes in the way,’ Taemin huffed, ‘and all the sticks and branches are cutting Yuri’s leg!’
‘The trail leaves us as an open target. In here we’re covered a little by nature. And I know it’s cutting Yuri’s legs, it’s cutting mine too. Just hang in there, I wouldn’t make you guys run like this if it wasn’t an emergency,’ Minho yelled over his shoulder.
The two behind him nodded and continued on, squeezing each other’s hands for support. In the distance they could hear the laughter of the others.
“Good, sounds like if not all then most of them are already there. Saves time,” Minho thought to himself.

Soon they were running through the clearing behind the pension house and up the porch. Minho barged into the back room of the pension house and was glad to see that everyone was there. Yuri and Taemin entered soon after, holding onto each other for support while they huffed and puffed. Seohyun saw and quickly ran to the kitchen to get water for the two.
‘Minho, what’s wrong? Why’d you slam the door and look like you guys ran miles?’ Wooyoung asked.
‘No time to explain. It’s an emergency. Grab all the emergency packs and get everyone out of here and into the safe house,’ Minho said gruffly, heading to the cupboard and smashing the lock open.
It gave way and the door opened to shelves of bags and weapons hanging on the wall. He grabbed as much as he could and the others all followed. The girls didn’t know the bags were even there in the first place or what the safe house was but they carried as much bags as they could.

As soon as the cupboard was cleaned out, the group piled out onto the back lawn.
‘We’re splitting into groups to get to the safe house, we’ll be too conspicuous if we go in a large group. Our aim is to get to the safe house as safely and quickly as possible,’ Minho instructed.
‘Before we came on this small holiday we organised escape routes and escape plans. We’ll go with plan A for now but if anything goes wrong, the guys all know about plan B and so on. So don’t get scared, Princesses, and stay calm at all times,’ Onew said.
The girls nodded solemnly.
‘Alright, Yuri, Taemin, Jonghyun, Jessica, Key and Sooyoung, come with me,’ Minho said.
They all followed him to the side of the house quickly and began running with all the bags into the forest.
‘Taeyeon, Wooyoung, Tiffany, Yoona and Nichkhun, we’re going down the back,’ Onew said, leading the group to the clearing at the back.
‘Come on, we don’t have time to lose,’ Eunhyuk told the others and they all followed him through to the front of the house and down a hidden track covered by trees.

To get to the safe house, they had to go deep into the forest and uphill. It was tiring and nature was starting to get in the way. Minho made his group continue running despite complaining from Jessica who said princesses shouldn’t run and that the bushes were cutting her leg. They ran for what seemed like hours but soon arrived at an old mansion covered in vines and was barely noticeable. Jonghyun whipped the door open and ushered everyone inside. As soon as everyone was safely in the house, he slammed the door closed and locked the several locks on the door.
‘The locks aren’t going to keep anyone out if they really want to get in,’ Sooyoung pointed in.
‘We know but it doesn’t matter. We’ll explain as soon as we get downstairs, come on. Quick!’ Key cried.

They briskly walked down the hallway and Minho opened the door to closet.
‘We’re not going to all fit in there,’ Jessica said.
Minho rolled his eyes and bent down. A sneakily hidden trap door was there and he pulled it open. A ladder led down to what seemed like the basement but as soon as they all got down there they saw that it looked like a basement converted into a small apartment. They dropped all the bags and weapons on a table and collapsed on the couches. Key pushed the trap door to the house closed and went to sit with the others.

‘So what’s the big emergency?’ Jonghyun asked.
Minho sighed, rested his face in his hands before explaining.
‘While we were out on the mountains, an arrow flew at us with a note on it. We dodged it and I grabbed the note. It was from General Chan. He was warning us that there was an attack on the Kingdom. It’s a group of rebels from the Nada continent. They’re not part of the army that plans on attacking our continent but they are still a threat and their army could join them anytime soon now. And even though the King told the Generals to keep half of the army guarding the mountain, they couldn’t. The current monarch and the future monarch are at stake so they have half the military guarding the King even though he is objecting it. The other half are fighting and helping all of the Kingdom’s citizens. We’re completely unguarded. General Chan said that we’re completely surrounded and that our only escape is the safe house until the surrounding Kingdoms’ armies get here and defeat the rebels. We can’t take the tunnel to the outskirts of the Palace wall because they’re also surrounded so we have to stay here for now. They could attack the pension house any minute now so we’re lucky that General Chan managed to get close enough to the mountain to send us the message. Let’s hope he got back to the Palace safely. I wonder how he even managed to get out of the palace walls with all the rebels surrounding it…’ Minho explained while the others sat quietly.

Finally, Sooyoung moved and asked, ‘could that mean our Kingdom could be overthrown? If… if… they get to… if they… h-hurt our parents?’
‘Yes, and if they hurt Prince Leeteuk and you girls, especially Taeyeon and Jessica,’ Minho answered.
‘Wait! Leeteuk oppa? Is he at the palace?!’ Yuri shouted, jumping to her feet.
Minho tugged on her down onto his lap, ‘yes, I did say the current monarch and future monarch. Prince Leeteuk is the future monarch. Apparently he got to the palace three days before the attack.’
‘How long has this been going on?’
‘About a week. General Chan apologised since he couldn’t escape earlier.’
Jonghyun sighed, ‘It was a mistake to take you girls out here. We’re so sorry.’
‘What are you talking about?!’ Sica cried.
‘Yeah! It’s not your fault!’ Yuri said.
‘But if anything happens… we’ll feel responsible…’ Taemin muttered.
‘Well don’t! Because I’m worrying about you,’ Yuri told Taemin.
‘Aww… noona!!’ he smiled and hugged her.
‘Yah, yah, yah! No touching,’ Minho said and pulled Yuri away from Taemin.

BAM!! Everyone’s heads snapped to where the trapdoor was, frozen and frightened. Taemin squeaked and grabbed onto Yuri and Minho, the three hugging. Sooyoung hid behind Key and Jessica grabbed Jonghyun. They were relieved to see that it was only Eunhyuk, Hyoyeon, Sunny, Sungmin, Kyuhyun and Seohyun.
‘You scared me!’ Sica shouted and threw a pillow at Sunny.
‘Shush! Not so loud! We never know if they have spies in the forest! That’s why we’re in a hidden basement! Because even if they found and got into the house, they wouldn’t find the basement for some time! And we’d have time to escape.’
‘Sorry…’ Sica pouted.
The newcomers dropped their bags with the others and sat down. Minho quickly explained to them what the emergency was and everyone soon grew solemn.

‘So… the rebels are from the same continent as the one that was trying to overtake all the kingdoms here?’ Seohyun asked.
‘Yes,’ Key nodded.
Kyuhyun shook his head.
‘What?’ Hyoyeon asked.
‘Well, as a scholar I know one or two things about this and it’s not good. The rebels from Nada have a long history and throughout the years, methods and skills have been passed down from generation to generation. Their weapons and tactics are far more advanced than any other kingdom or continent. Even the army from Nada can’t compare.’
‘That is bad,’ Eunhyuk frowned, ‘really bad.’

‘Hey, um… can someone please explain what the safe house is and what plan A and B are?’ Hyoyeon asked.
‘Before the holiday your father sat us down in his office to devise escape routes and safety plans with us and the generals and officers of the army. If there were any problems, such as being under attack, and we couldn’t get back to the palace safely, then we were supposed to come to the safe house. The basement is the actual safe house, the house on top of it is a decoy. It’ll be hard to find the hidden trap door. And there were a couple of plans and back-ups. There is a passageway leading to a trap door just outside the palace walls but since the palace is surrounded too, we can’t use it. So our back-up is to stay here until it’s safe. There is food that was stored here before we came on holiday, and the bags have more supplies and the weapons are for protection. I think I explain just about everything…’ Sungmin said.
‘Why didn’t we know about this?’ Sunny asked.
‘Because we didn’t want you all to worry. The chances of anything happening was low but turns out… we were that small percentage.’
‘Great…’

The conversation had reached its end and they were now silent. They sat quietly for a while but became restless. They couldn’t sit still but they knew they couldn’t make too much noise for safety reasons. Seohyun stood up suddenly and walked over to the bookshelf that was in the room. She inspected the books and chose a large volume about poetry to read before sitting back down. Kyuhyun followed her lead and went to find a book. He was startled when a sudden blast of horns and traditional drums being beaten sounded loudly in the distance. The group looked at each other curiously, wondering where the noise was coming from and why. The horns stopped and only the beating of drums getting closer and closer could be heard.
‘This is dangerous, what if the last group meets with the people with drums?’ Sungmin asked.
Sunny laid her head on his lap, startling him, and said, ‘so what? They could be good people. Doesn’t necessarily mean they are the rebels.’
‘They could be,’ Jonghyun said, ‘and even if they’re not, they’re still attracting attention so the rebels could come this way to see what it is. Which is dangerous for us because we want them to stay as far away as possible.’
Sunny rolled her eyes and sighed, ‘I was just trying to be optimistic.’

The beating gradually got closer and closer. They sat so silently that a pin drop could be heard in the room. They were rigid and intense, nervous that their hiding place had been found or the others had been captured. Soon the beating was right over them. It was loud and nerve-wracking. After what seemed like years, drums sounded as if they were leaving. The beating getting further and further before it soon couldn’t be heard anymore. It was then that they finally let out their breath and relaxed a bit.
‘Close one,’ Eunhyuk muttered.
‘They probably didn’t even know we were here, relax,’ Taemin said.
‘Says the person who was cowering behind a pillow,’ Hyoyeon teased.
‘Oh, shut up, noona,’ Taemin threw the pillow at her playfully.

They finally began to ease up but they still remained quiet. Their conversations were whispered and their activities were limited but they weren’t as tense as they were before. Eunhyuk, Hyoyeon, Minho, Yuri and Taemin were playing cards and betting with food while Seohyun and Kyuhyun read quietly and tried to ignore the antics of the group. Sunny and Sungmin had fallen asleep. Every once in a while their eyes would snap open and they’d be completely aware of their surroundings because they were too tense to relax and actually fall  into deep sleep. Meanwhile, Key, Sooyoung, Jonghyun and Jessica were rummaging through old boxes that were stacked next to the bookshelf.

The sun had set hours ago and the stars were now out. The group had gotten tired of their activities and they were now all sprawled across the couches.
‘I’m hungry!!!’ Sooyoung complained.
‘There should be food in the kitchen and the bags we carried here,’ Minho said.
‘Nnghh… Key!! Go make me food~’ Sooyoung whined.
Key sighed, ‘fine.’
He walked to the kitchen and opened the pantry. Most of the food there was raw foods or foods that didn’t need to be cooked. There was also a bunch of fruits and vegetables that hadn’t rotted yet since they were only placed there a week or two ago.
‘Omo! YAHHH!!’ Yuri exclaimed and began jumping around the room frantically, ‘Taeyeon unnie and the others haven’t arrived yet!! I just noticed!’
‘CRAP!’ Jonghyun cussed, ‘we all forgot!! And they should’ve been here hours ago!! Where could they have gone? What if they’re in trouble?!’