Key woke up to the sound of chirping. With a growl, he took off his sneaker, listening satisfied to the yelp of surprise and pain.

That is, until he realized it was the yelp of a fellow human, as the chirping seemed to only grow louder.

“Seriously Key, thank you so much.” Jonghyun stuck his head into the shrub they had found shelter in, his eyes glaring. A hand rubbing his head indicated Key had hit bull’s-eye on the poor boy’s skull.

“Sorry ‘bout that. Those birds are mocking me!” Key mumbled, arranging his hair in place. He heard Chunji laugh softly, his eyes glimmering with amusement as he poked his head in.

“Don’t worry, Niel shooed them away. Don’t need to burst a blood vessel over tiny robins.” He smiled, while Key groaned in response, sitting up and crawling out. He whined slightly as the intruding sunlight blinded him briefly, as he slowly adjusted to the brightness.

“I hope we can find the others soon. I’m worried.” Niel’s voice piped up, Key briefly catching the brown mop of hair out of the corner of his eyes as he got up to his feet.

The group divided what little left of food they had, before proceeding along the forest trails. But since last night, it was obvious they had become much more wary and conscious of their surroundings. Niel seemed to jump at every sound, even at falling leaves which made Key roll his eyes a bit. Jonghyun kept looking from side to side, as if they were constantly under watch. Chunji didn’t seem any better, often trying to watch where he was putting his feet before tentatively stepping away from odd plants.

“Watch out, poison ivy!”

At Chunji’s call, everyone scattered like startled rabbits. I recognized the poisonous shrub, growling slightly at those white berries that dared get in our way.

“Stupid plant.” I muttered. Chunji smiled briefly at me, his eyes filled with amusement.

“On the bright side, we won’t be scratching for a week. I’m glad we have a science geek around.” Jonghyun laughed, while everyone shot him exasperated looks.

“Jonghyun, the teachers told us about poison ivy before the trip. Even if we aren’t science geeks we should know that; going to mountains and knowing about poison ivy should totally be common sense.” Niel snorted, while Key rolled his eyes much more, Jonghyun chuckling awkwardly.

“But still, I’m still a bit troubled by our situation. I still have the map, but Minho and Taemin don’t have any means of knowing where they’re going. We can’t contact them both since our phones won’t work, and it’s not like we have trackers on them.” Chunji mumbled, his eye narrowed in concentration. “I can’t exactly pinpoint the location where we got lost, but I’d say it’s somewhere close to the river Niel almost fell into last night.”

********

“Let’s go find shelter. The nights are getting colder, especially in autumn it’s kind of hard to estimate. Not to mention there’s snow on the way.” Key murmured softly. Everyone nodded, simply bundling their scarves even more tightly around their necks before going on.

An awkward silence seemed to fall over the boys as they walked on, their eyes searching the dark for any possible places to settle.

Sadly, since they had no source of light but the moon, they felt like blind mice as they took cautious steps through the dark forest.

A sudden splash made them jump.

“Is there a river nearby?” Key gasped.

“I think so, why did it splash?” Jonghyun mumbled. A sense of foreboding filled them when they heard a squeak of alarm, followed by a series of splashes.

“H-help!”

Key almost panicked when he realized Niel had probably tripped into the river. In the darkness, the moonlight barely provided him the light he needed as he made out a flapping figure in the water a few meters away from his feet.

Chunji waded carefully inside, his tall figure silhouetted against the light. Key held onto Chunji’s hand tightly from the shore, afraid that another would be washed away by the current. Carefully, Chunji managed to snag the scruff of Niel’s shirt with his fingertips. As he lugged the boy back to shore, and Niel’s desperate but failing attempts at the doggy paddle, they managed to get to the grass, panting and exhausted.

Jonghyun instantly draped towels over Niel’s and Chunji’s shoulders, his eyes glimmering with concern under the starlight.

“I found a cave nearby, if it helps. We should take a break.”

They wasted no time to head inside. Jonghyun offered a dry shirt to Niel, then proceeding to make a fire with the lighter given to them earlier. Key calmly took charge of drying off their hair; none of them wanted to get a cold or anything worse in the middle of a camping trip.

A soft crackle, and the sudden warmth that filled the cave. Key let out a sigh of relief when he could finally see the faces of his apprentice, lit by the tongues of fire. It turned into a shocked gasp when he caught sight of a bare-chested Jonghyun poking at the fire.

“Kim Jonghyun, I’m not taking any nonsense about this. Wear a shirt or something before you get sick. I’m not dealing with sick people in the middle of a camping trip!” He snapped. Jonghyun gazed up at him briefly.

“I couldn’t let Niel wear a soaking wet shirt. He’d get hypothermia if I didn’t. And besides, the fire’s warm enough. Don’t freak.”

Key gritted his teeth, then rummaged inside his own rucksack. He smiled inwardly that he had actually remembered to grab a hoodie before leaving, though he did wish he remembered earlier. He tossed the red hoodie into Jonghyun’s hands, the boy raising in eyebrow in surprise.

“Wear it, no protests allowed. I will not stand for anyone half at 16 degrees Celsius in the night.”

Jonghyun stared at it for a moment longer, before putting it on. His head popped out, his hair completely out of place, but at least he was warmer now.

Key arranged the backpacks into makeshift pillows, and covered the apprentices up with the remaining blankets they had. The two seemed to have wanted to protested, but at Key’s stern gaze they gave in, and wasted no time to fall asleep.

Smiling fondly, Key got to his feet from crouching so long, finally taking steps away from the young ones. He headed to where Jonghyun was, sitting on a rock by the entrance. His muscled figure was outlined by the moonlight, his head raised as his eyes were fixed on a distance.

“What are you doing?”

At Key’s question, Jonghyun dragged his gaze from the skies.

“Looking out. Maybe Minho and Taemin will walk past, and I can manage to catch them, and let them rest with us.”

Key sat by Jonghyun’s side, their shoulders touching. That small action alone seemed to give them each the comfort they needed. A comfortable silence fell over them, until Jonghyun finally spoke.

“I’m worried about those two. Especially Minho, since I know him so well. He’s a complete idiot out in nature, and I don’t know if he can take care of himself, never mind Taemin. He’s going to mess up and he’s going to get lost…”

Key snorted, “Ha, he’d find us by getting lost. I swear he’s completely bad at directions.”

The two shared a gaze before chuckling softly. But it wasn’t long before the concern for their missing companions won over their fond memories, and the two fell into a more tense silence.

They spent that time pondering their thoughts, watching the stars with distant thoughts.

“Go sleep, Key. Our problems won’t be solved even by sitting here, and you need to save your strength. I have an extra blanket in my rucksack, so take it.” Jonghyun suddenly said. Before Key could even retort, Jonghyun immediately added.

“No protests, Kim Kibum. Go sleep now.”

Key cracked a smile as Jonghyun did a very lame imitation of his ordering around of the apprentices.

“Good night then. Wake me later, and we’ll take turns watching.”

********

“You know, you should’ve woken me last night. Honestly, how could you have stayed up the whole night looking out for those two?”

Key snapped, while Jonghyun returned it with a smile. Jonghyun was the least cautious of them all, honestly, having went through the night without a wink of sleep.

And that made him the most vulnerable as he stumbled on.

“Look out!”

Chunji screeched, plowing into Jonghyun and shoving the mentor aside, just as something leapt out from behind the rock, fangs extended, a reptilian body of dangerous hues making its presence known. It bit down on Chunji’s leg with no remorse.

Key let out an alarmed gasp, unsure of what to do. But before he could even react further, a silver glint shone under the sunlight. The snake let go of Chunji’s leg, its head and body falling separately onto the ground in pieces. Key made out a knife embedded in a tree trunk nearby, and shuddered. “How…”

“I have a Swiss army knife in case of emergencies. Figured it’d be useful in a situation like this.” Niel said, a sinister glint in his eyes as he kicked the diamond-patterned body aside. Key made a mental note never to cross Niel; one should never offend one that can throw accurately with knives. Niel calmly extracted the knife from the trunk, wiping the blood away from the blade.

Jonghyun seemed to be slammed fully awake, going into autopilot mode as he began checking Chunji’s vitals swiftly. He created a loose splint with the first aid in his rucksack.

“He’s breathing is a bit shallow, and he’s a bit pale. We’ll need to get help as soon as possible.” Jonghyun concluded, getting to his feet.

“Niel, you and I will go to the top of the mountain and get help. Key, stay and keep an eye on Chunji. Just keep him calm and still. Oh, and be careful of the snake head. It might still bite after a few hours.”

Key nodded, taking deep breaths while eyeing the snake head warily. Jonghyun disappeared into the undergrowth, Niel blundering after him.

But no one missed the light of fury in the eyes of the young apprentice. It didn’t take much to guess that Niel did in fact care about them. A lot.

*******

Taemin narrowed his eyes, his ears pricking as he picked up the slightest sound of distress and anger. He could sense the others quite close to him and Minho, but he dared not approach them.

He couldn’t bring more danger to them.

He purposely walked in the opposite direction of where they were, leading Minho away from their friends as they took a different route up the mountain.

The road steeped beneath his feet, and he gradually felt the familiar dip beneath it. Trees surrounded them more densely, with unopened buds of small, crimson flowers. He felt something grab at his chest, and he was reminded of a very unpleasant memory. One he didn’t wish to call upon, one he never wanted to go through again.

******

“My deaest!”

Taemin laughed, holding tightly onto the large, smooth hand that enveloped his. He loved the way she was always there for him. The way her beautiful hair swept to one side, those brilliant hazel locks sweeping in the wind.

Despite having black hair, the two held the most similarities by their faces. Having matching turquoise eyes, pale skin and long lashes, it was no doubt that he was her son.

Every time the world shed its snowy white guise and took on one of vibrant colors, they could go and see the beautiful blossoms that dotted the green copse of trees and undergrowth.

With a flying leap, Taemin pummeled his mother, the woman laughing a beautiful melody as she caught her son in a loving embrace, the two landing on the soft, springy grass. Taemin giggled when he felt soft lips press onto the top of his forehead, and warm arms holding him close.

His siblings were quick to follow, their sea-green and aquamarine eyes glimmering with mischief as they joined in.

They watched the flowers bloom every year.

Until this one year his mother told them to run.

 Taemin gathered his siblings in his arms, staring up in horror at the crimson glow that greeted him. He was temporarily blinded, blood dripping into his eyes from the scratch on his forehead.

 “Go, my beloved. Take them to safety.”

 “But -”

 Taemin’s voice seemed to choke when he caught sight of the pure love within his mother’s gaze, so violent and tender, but at the sometime filled with such deep sorrow and grief.

 “I promise we will see the flowers bloom again together. Now go!”

Wasting no time, he sprinted away, his eyes clenching shut as the screeches of agony and fury echoed behind him. He could hear the whirl of teeth and claws as he ran on, his body trembling violently.

He dived into a small alcove, one that was nice and far away from that crimson glow. He coaxed his siblings to sleep, but he could still hear those horrible cries echoing in his head, over and over again, no matter how he tried to clamp his hands over his ears.

It seemed liked centuries had passed till his siblings finally stopped crying and were asleep, while the battle cries had also died. The metallic smell of blood was carried clearly in the breeze, and Taemin tried to convince himself that nothing terrible had happened.

He snuck out, realizing that the scent that brought fear had gone.

At full speed, his feet seemed to eat up the forest trails as he desperately ran on, in direction of where he last saw the one he loved most.

His eyes were wide when he got there.

Her body lay twisted and broken upon the ground, a never-ending tide of crimson washing upon the green floor. Her beautiful hair was sticky with drying blood, her eyes staring sightlessly to the sky. Her lovely face was twisted into an eternal snarl of a mother; one of terrible fury as she fought bitterly to the end to protect her young.

“You promised…” Taemin whispered, as he stared at his mother’s glazed eyes. Upon was a wound left by a predator, a clean killing bite as blood flowed steadily.

He kneeled by her side, just as the flowers bloomed above them. They were no longer the breathtaking fuchsia and pale pink, but were tainted an angry scarlet, the color of his mother’s blood. The petals swirled around them, as if to mourn along with them, forming a picture.

A perfectly cruel picture.

Tears flowed from his eyes, as he yowled his grief to the sky. Rain fell, providing no condolence to the mourning son as he gathered, but to no avail, his mother’s body into his small arms.

She was gone forever. And he could do nothing, as the crimson petals caressed his pale cheeks.