chapter.32  »  the march.

The ground was a beating drum.  Soojin's face was being tickled by dry, green grass and so were Mara's and Seungpyo's.  The three of them would have still been laying down if it were not for the irregular heat they felt around them.  Their shirts clung to their bodies, sticky and gross, and their jeans were another problem.  A pebble hit Soojin's face, and she bolted upright.

“Mara?  Mara, wake up...” she crawled over to the immobile bodies around her, shaking them to life.  “Seungpyo?”

“Where... Where are we?”  Mara shielded her eyes from the sun, sweat already pooling on her skin.

Seungpyo was the last of the trio to stir awake, and when everything around him registered—the large trees, the grass, the heat, the distant sound of people marching—he jumped to his feet and pulled Soojin and Mara up.  He knew where they were, and he knew what was happening, but they needed to get away fast or they'd be in deeper trouble.

He looked around and found a large boulder higher up in the hill they landed on.  “Quick, quick!  Come on, guys, hurry!”

The urgency in his voice sent Soojin and Mara scampering up to follow him to the boulder.  It was mossy, algae or some sort of clump plant grew on it, but it hid the three well enough.  The stomping grew louder and louder until the shouts became audible enough for the three of them to make out.  It sounded like nothing more than an army's cry as they marched, but the strength in it was something else.  Mara had to cling on to Soojin's hand.  Soojin patted her and when she looked at Seungpyo, his eyes were closed, sweat flowing down his temples like tears.

“Seungpyo!”  Soojin whispered urgently.  “Do you know where we are?”

“I- I—”

A loud cannon shot stopped Seungpyo from speaking any further.  The three of them ducked, their heads almost reaching their stomachs as if they could hide any better than they already were.  Mara scooted over to Soojin, shuddering in the boulder's shade.  Soojin was terrified, but she felt something else—familiarity: she was sure she had heard heavy, synchronized footsteps before, perhaps when she was still a baby.

“I- I want to go home...” Mara's tear-soaked voice shook.  The marching still hasn't stopped; it felt like it had been going on for hours.

“Me, too.” Soojin put her arm over Mara's neck and rubbed her shoulder.  “And we will.  Don't be scared.”

“Listen, guys.”  Seungpyo's hands were everywhere as he nervously motioned what he was trying to say.  ”I- I know what to do a- and where to go so we could all go home.  But you guys will have to listen to everything I say, okay?”

“No, we are not going to listen to anything you say,” Soojin snapped at him.  “You act like a jerk, you get treated like a jerk, Seungpyo.”

“Okay!”  Seungpyo raised his hands defensively, but said softer, “Okay.  I'm sorry.  I just... I was just tired of keeping it from you.  Of keeping everything from you.”

“Just tell me what it is!”  Soojin's brows formed a straight line, her teeth gritted together.  “Because the longer you keep whatever it is from me, the longer we're gonna have to stay here— wherever this is!”

“Alright, alright!  Alright, just...”  Seungpyo battled it out in his head: should he or should he not?

Seungpyo did.  He got on his knees, turned around, and peeked over the boulder.  Below him Soojin tugged at his arm to get back down, take cover and return to safety, but he swung her hand away and held onto the edge of the mossy boulder.  He squinted at the rows and rows of men marching.

The marching army was endless—all around them, each men, stirred up the ground of dust that created a hazy, brown fog as they stepped towards wherever they were headed.  He knew they were an army, and not just any army, because when he squinted at them, he saw their shields tinted on the edge with bright cyan and lime colors.  Even from afar, the bright colors pierced Seungpyo's eyes.  They cried out a Hoo! Ha! and, occasionally, they would chant something.  Either way, it sent incredible shivers down Seungpyo's spine.

Seungpyo couldn't believe it.  He was on the Under Earth.  In the presence of the Kemwen Army, marching to... war?

His eyes flashed and he returned to the two, whispering hushedly.  “The army is distracted right now—”

“Army?”

“Yes!”  He replied.  “It's an army, the army of Kemwen.  They're marching to war and I don't know, I think I know which kingdom they're marching against but—”

“Army, war, I don't— Just get to the point!”  Soojin tightened her arm around the whimpering Mara.

“They're pretty much distracted right now, all they've got in mind is march march march but we can get away now if we try.”  He looked around, behind him.  There was a thick line of trees that seemed to proliferate behind and beyond the line.  Seungpyo pointed towards it.  “Let's go over there!”

Indeed, the army was distracted.  The three of them padded as silently and quickly as they could, but if one or two of the army men just listened closely they could hear their huffs as they bolted towards the trees.  Thankfully, none of the army men decided to listen closely or even pay attention to the hazes of running figures to their left.  The trio ran past a few rows of trees that reminded them of oaks, cypress, and pines on Earth.  They stopped and collapsed on the ground, breathless.  Back in the open field, a cannon sounded again, but it sounded nothing more like an empty gunshot in the forest where the three of them were.  Still, they fell to the ground as if by instinct.

Seungpyo crawled on the ground.  “Running... Too much... running... Haven't... run... Tired... Ah!  Tired...”

Soojin, on the other hand, was already on her feet.  Her eyes were focused on one thing... or a line of that one thing.  She dragged her feet, one by one, slowly, trying to see what that thing was and where they led to.  She walked, and it didn't take long for Seungpyo to see her walking.

He jumped to his feet.  At first, he looked at Soojin weirdly.  Then, as he followed where her eyes were looking at, he understood.  His jaw dropped open, and so did Mara's.

“What are those?”  Mara whispered.  Soojin had stopped walking by then.

Seungpyo clarified with his brain first.  He had read about those things with Jinki, now he just had to remember what they were.  What were those blue, floating spheres called again?  Oh, right.

Seungpyo reached out at the nearest sphere which was at their foot.  His finger barely grazed the glow of the sphere before it disappared, whistling as it turned into mist.

“They're will-o'-the-wisps.”

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

we're getting to the more fantasy side of the fic, yayuuuuh.  heheheheheheheh.

so i saw Catching Fire over the last weekend (so that's... November 23rd?  A day after it was released here in the US) and wow that was magnificient I wanna see it again it was so epic and beautiful and I love love love the soundtrack.  i'm sort of inspired or something.  like i've seen and heard so many things over this Thanksgiving break that i don't even know what i'm gonna write next.  i don't know if i've told you guys but i actually have another Onew fic ongoing and i'll go back to it after i finish this fic, but wow there are so many ideas in my head.

like i wanna write a Hunger Games-inspired fic (but not, like, made in Panem or any way near that) or another fantasy one because i enjoy it very much.  something tells me to write some sort of a romcom fic because of this one movie i saw (it's “You Got Me!” and it's a very adorable Filipino movie) and... i don't even know.

so yeah, enough of my rants, i'll just leave you all again with another cliffhanger, hahahah.  forgive.

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