Almost as soon as Jonghyun’s eyes settled on the bear-like creature, he stepped in front of me – muttering something under his breath as he raised a hand and the dome seemed to solidify around us. He looked around and groaned, seeing that we were outnumbered by the creatures surrounding us.

“Why are all of these things here?” The question was directed more towards himself, so none of us responded and he sighed, watching as the leader of the creatures walked around the dome – eyeing me hungrily.

“Can we fight them?” asked Youngmin.

“No, did you forget everything I just told you?” asked the mage, turning to face the twins with a cold gaze, “You all are pretty much powerless – you can’t deal damage to that strong of a creature. To be honest I don’t even think you are strong enough to deal damage to even the weakest creature of the dark.”

Youngmin sighed and looked towards his twin brother; obviously the two were feeling useless in the situation.

After another period of silence, the mage spoke up, “I need to get you all out of here. I’m not too sure how long this barrier will last, especially with how the darkness is growing stronger.”

“Should we make a run for it?” I offered, causing the male to turn and look at me.

“That isn’t that bad of an idea,” stated Jonghyun, smiling towards me, he then looked towards the twins, “On the count of three, I want you all to take off running in the direction where there doesn’t seem to be any monsters – the dome will provide you with enough light to see, alright?”

The twins nodded and I looked at him, “What about you?”

“I’m going to cause a distraction so you all can get away without being followed,” stated Jonghyun, “They should still be pretty weak compared to me, so don’t worry, alright?”

I looked at him in concern, “There are almost fifty of them and one of you – how could you possibly get rid of them while keeping the dome up?”

Jonghyun smiled, “You’d be surprised at what I’m capable of doing – don’t worry about me, alright Minki. Right now our priority is taking care of you and getting you away from this danger.”

I sighed, “Shouldn’t you worry about yourself? You aren’t immortal you know, also, if you die how are we supposed to restore the pillars?”

Jonghyun smiled, “I know I’m not immortal, however, I’m stronger than I let on – far stronger than you all and these creatures so do not worry about me just focus on getting out of here alright? Once you get away head to the northeast – there should be a camp not too far away from here. Once you get there, stay there, it is a charmed camp which has a spell around it to keep the creatures of the dark from getting in. I’ll meet you there once I’m finished here.”

I looked at him a little doubtfully, however, I was going to listen to him – after all, it would probably be best to, “Fine.” i

He smiled, “1.”

The bear-like creatures started moving closer and the leader of them prepared itself to pounce while the twins and I prepared to run away.

“2.”

Jonghyun tensed up and the dome seemed to grow stronger and the orb that lit the area grew brighter. The three of us were ready to take off running with the next number that slipped from between his lips.

“3.”

With that said, the three of us took off running, the dome traveling with us, shielding us from any of the creatures that attempted to attack us. However, just as we broke through the creatures, we heard the horrifying roar from the bear-like creatures and I turned to see that the leader had tackled Jonghyun – who was struggling with it. He turned to look at me, sensing that I had stopped moving.

“Get out of here Minki!” Hissed Jonghyun too distracted by me to see the bear-like creature raising its paw – its claws out and ready to strike, “Youngmin, Kwangmin, get him out of here!”

The twins stopped their running after being alerted that I had stopped and Youngmin ran back to me, grabbing my wrist and pulling me along, making me turn just as the bear-like creature brought its paw down.

We only slowed to a walk when we got a decent distance away. I angrily pulled my wrist from Youngmin’s hold, frustrated at him, “Why did you do that?”

“He told us to run,” stated Youngmin, “He wanted you to run.”

“What if he gets hurt?” I asked, “What if he gets killed? We don’t know enough to do this whole thing by ourselves! We need him to help us – to tell us the things we don’t know!”

“I understand that, but you heard him. You don’t need him to restore the pillars – although it is nice to have him because it feels a lot safer, we don’t need him, we need you. Our main priority is keeping you safe.” stated Youngmin, “I’m just listening to what he said – plus he seems like he can handle himself. Sure, he’s probably going to have quite a bit of wounds, but I’m sure he’ll comeback alive.”

I looked at him, sighing, “If he doesn’t I’m going to kill you and you can join him.”

With those words, I took off running with the others again – heading in the direction Jonghyun had told us to go. As we ran, there was a part of my mind that continued to worry about the mage we left behind, there was fear that he wouldn’t be meeting us at the camp and that he wouldn’t be returning.

[Jonghyun’s PoV]

I watched as the three ran and disappeared from my sight, my attention turning back to the problem at hand only when pain surged up and down my spine and the air left my lungs on impact of the giant creatures paw smacking harshly against my stomach, it’s claws digging into the skin and creating four clean cuts that were pretty deep and almost automatically drew scarlet red blood out from under the skin.

The next thing to come down was the creature’s large snout and mouth, its sharp teeth shining in the faint light. Its mouth was wide open as it came down, which brought me to open up my hand and reach for it – only to create a bright ray of light, which caused the bear-like creature to withdraw and remove itself from me and cry out in pain which made those around it angry and get into the position to attack.

With a deep breath, I bit the inside of my cheek, standing up and holding my side in pain – looking down to see that the cuts were deeper than I had previously thought. I pressed one hand to my side, trying hard to summon enough water to heal myself while also focusing on keeping the barrier up around the three who were heading towards the only safe place I knew of in this dark abyss.

The bear-like creatures surrounded me, all looking rather hungry.

There was a surge of power that suddenly ran through me and I saw a flash of red before I heard the creatures yelping out in pain. When the red light faded from my eyes I saw countless of the creatures lying motionless on the ground while others were injured and some unharmed. I looked around, shocked to see that the deep snow around me had melted and that some of the creatures’ fur had caught on fire.

I looked at my hand that was stinging and was slowly turning red. My slowly blistering hand shook as my teacher’s words flashed through my mind in a memory.

“Jonghyun, don’t get frustrated if you can’t summon flames as you wish. Fire is an element that is unlike the others. It like the others has its own special quality that makes is unique. It is the most dangerous element in its own way. It is the hardest to control – it’ll come and go as it pleases. It likes to think it has no master. It’ll submit to you when it chooses – it may be in a couple of days or years from now. You may fear that it never will come, but once it makes its first painful appearance, it’ll mean that it’ll make many more – that it has begun to succumb to you. Fire, the most disastrous element in the world, is not something one should fear. It is nothing for you – a mage born under the flame…the only fire mage whom remains in this ruined land – to fear.”

“How is that I can control the light but not fire?”

“Light is a form of the element of fire –you first must make it trust and submit to you before you can gain the trust of fire. If you become a master over light, you will be able to make fire succumb to you – however, it’ll only come to you whenever you need it most until it fully trusts itself in your hands. ”

A slight smile appeared on my face, despite the pain I felt in my hand, looking towards the slight ruin that surrounded me. I felt oddly pleased at what I had done, from the power that had finally released itself from inside me.

“Well, it seems as though I’m a bit late,” tsked a voice from behind me, causing me to spin on my heels, “My poor little babies, consumed by a the hidden flame.”

I flinched at the words. The responsiblities that were placed on me rose up in my mind again and I remembered that I needed to finish of the enemies and meet up with my charges. 

“You’ve heard of your name from the prophecy, yes?” stated the masculine voice, a figure cloaked in black appearing behind me, “It’s a silly thing that was created to give hope to those in the lost kingdom and those who live around it. The prophecy is not made by fate – it is made by hopeless individuals that are trying to stay positive in such dark, dark times.”

“Who are you?” I asked, my gaze directed towards the figure as I saw both the injured and non-injured creatures move towards him.

The man chuckled, ignoring my question as he suddenly started to sing in an eerie voice,

“Sleep my child, the night has fallen.

The storm moving in brings the snow with it;

a peaceful domain for the creatures of the night will be made.

It’ll be too late when you wake. 

Have no fear; with in the land frozen in time,

there is a hidden flame, 

the key to the four pillars whose location will not be named.

Sleep my child, when you awake, you will be alone with a big journey to take.

Do not fear the dark or  flame,

or else the sacrifices made will have been done in vain.”

The lullaby sent a chill down my spine, the words similar to the ones of the so call prophecy.

“Do you know what that was?” whispered the man, suddenly appearing before me, his face was not visible through the darkness, “Of course you wouldn’t recognize it, he would.”

I looked at him in confusion.

The man chuckled, “It was the song the queen was singing to the young prince the night of his birth and the day of her death. He hadn’t been born yet, but she still sung. To answer your question as to whom I am, young mage, maybe we should think of your lullaby.”

The man smiled, whispering the familiar song into my ear,

“Earth can fall but will never break,

water flows but cannot sink,

the air sings it sweet lullabies,

while the flame makes children cry. '

The four live in harmony;

three resilient while one rests in silence.

Hush my child, and slip into slumber.

You will bring peace with the silent thunder.

The darkness may grow near, but do not fear.

For you are the hidden flames, the hidden key to tales unnamed.

The key to the pillars reside in you, so do not feel shame.

The darkness seeks your intelligence, but also needs the hidden prince.

Seek one the one you choose but please know:

one will lead to light and forgotten hope,

while the other will lead to a downward slope.

Sleep my child, for many responsibilities rest on these small shoulders.”

“You will awaken in the right hour. Only then while you are on your travels, you’ll come face to face with the darkness’ greatest power. The prince oblivious to it all, not seeing the dark seed that could be planted in your heart until it is too late and your face down fall,” I whispered, finishing the sorrow filled lullaby created none other than by my teacher – not my mother.

“Does it make sense now young mage, who I am?”

I nodded, fear suddenly bubbling up in me, how had he know things that I don’t even know about my charge?

“Frightening, isn’t it? To know that you are vulnerable to your enemy right from the start,” stated the male, walked around me, “To know that your enemy knows more about your charge than you do. It is frightening, right? Jonghyun, the lullabies were wrong, the darkness is something to fear because the only way to keep from succumbing to it is by learning to embrace its powers. Let this be a warning mage,” whispered the man, an invisible force clawing at my arm, “No one goes into the darkness without being under my watch – I will see everything you do, I will learn of the location of the books and when the time comes I’ll dispose of you and take the young prince. Young mage, there is no hidden flame – you are just an unimportant piece in a large chess game.”

With that the man vanished and the bear-like creatures ran off, leaving their dead behind. Without knowing, I had fallen to my knees during our conversation – the man’s haunting laughter echoing through the dark abyss. The fear had risen up within me for the first time in years, doubt following close behind it – the two practically attached at the hip.

Will I actually be able to help the prince and restore our land to the beautiful place it was before or will I lead the world to ruin?

Hope you all enjoyed the long overdue chapter! *bowes in apology* I'm goign to apologize a head of time if I seem like I died in May - it is my last month in school, so I have to deal with a stadardized end of the year test, a crap load of homework, studying for exams, and some activities involving my school. I get out on June 4, so after that I should be updating quick than I currently am. 

I hope you enjoyed, also the lullabies and the event at the end with JR actually are important, they aren't just randomly placed in the story line. Also, if the lullabies aren't too fluent - I'm sorry I pretty much made them up off the top of my mind (more like stole them from a piece I wrote for my creative writing class for a free verse poem assignment) since I didn't really want to look one up because if I had it wouldn't really fit the story. 

Anyway, thank you for reading. ^^

Also, the story is always going to be in Ren's PoV unless it tells you otherwise, like it did when it switched to JR's point of veiw.