“Leeteuk-ah, do you really think it was a good idea to use direkind on this training?” TOP asked the oldest council member who was intently watching the battle on the training grounds.

            “do you really think the direkind have been completely extinct?” he asked then looked up. “because I don’t.”

Yunho shifted from where he stood. He knew he wasn’t the only one who thought that. They might have not encountered the direkind for centuries but that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist anymore. The last battle they had with them may have crippled their numbers significantly but they doubt if they have been completely wiped out.

            “Chen’s having trouble.” Jia announced as she leaned over the ledge.

True enough, the vampire was backed up against a huge tree with 3 direcrows in human forms. Their hands were transformed to talons. The crows were quick on the feet and very light almost as fast as the vampires. Chen already had deep gashes along his forearm, the long reach of his opponents’ talons versus his circular blades; he was definitely on the losing end.

            “where the hell is Krystal?” Victoria snapped almost angrily.

A few quick search, they found her on a tree fighting a huge crow and Xiumin just below her fighting two.

            “she needs to go to Chen’s aid or he will be in deep trouble.” Said ZhouMi seriously.

            “Krystal!” Chen shouted in a mixture of panic and anger.

She snapped her head towards her mage, thinking fast she flipped off the branch and cast a spell on a huge tree stump and with all her concentration flung it towards the direcrows. Another flick of her wrists before Chen’s weapon now became a broadsword. It looked heavy but with his vampire strength he managed it easily.

The majae breathed in relief but the vampires were getting edgy, especially Heechul.

            “what in the world is YiFan doing?” he growled.

Kris was fighting alright; he was fighting 6 at the same time. He stood in front of Jieun, who looked mad. For some odd reason, Kris was blocking every opponent from ever going near the maja. Luhan was on one of the top branches sending arrows down 3 at a time.

            “that kid went in there with his head on the clouds.” Hangeng gritted his teeth. “he needs to snap out of it.”

            “YiFan, stop blocking every bird, for crying out loud! This is supposed to be a team effort.” Jieun shouted. She just used her sword to stab one direcrow in the chest, finishing off the one Luhan just hit on the wing.

She glared at Kris again but he looked like he didn’t hear her at all. Annoyed and frustrated, she leapt up the tree and caught Luhan’s already outstretched hand.

            “what’s wrong with him?” he asked also wondering with Kris’ odd behavior.

            “I don’t know, but I really don’t want to be anywhere near him when he’s like that.” Jieun caught a thick branch from another tree and lunged herself towards it.

Luhan leapt off his tree and landed beside Kris. Luhan pulled both ends of his bow and it elongated into something like a double-bladed spear and he started swinging it around.

            “YiFan, stop what you’re doing and get yourself together!” he snapped. “this team needs a leader and if you keep on acting like an idiot we’re screwed!”

Kris managed to snap off a direcrow’s head before he looked down on is friend who looked absolutely pissed then his eyes darted up towards Jieun.

Kris tightened his jaws. He also didn’t know why he was doing what he was doing.  He just didn’t feel like Jieun should be attacked.

He took one quick look around; they really weren’t doing a good enough job. Xiumin was limping, Min’s head was bleeding, Lay’s arm looked broken if not dislocated. It was time he acted like the leader he is supposed to be.

His mind reeling of all the things he knew of the direkind. Unfortunately, he realized his knowledge was too little. all he knew was they are very tough and very hard to kill and in addition to that, they are resistant to magic. Direcrows are very light and can use the wind to their advantage in human forms. They cannot speak any language aside from their own, they make take shape of a human but they were all far from humans.

Cutting off the leg of one crow that was about to strike Tao on the nape, Kris used the body as his leverage and jumped to the middle of the battlefield. All he could do now was to use the weakness of all birds. The direcrows were thick, large and very heavy. If his plan would work it will be easier for them to attack and finish them off.

            “it looks like your son has a plan.” Leeteuk commented talking to Hangeng who was still watching intently.

            “he does.” He agreed in a low voice. He knew that look in Kris’ eyes; he was his first-born after all.

            “MAJAE!” Kris shouted and immediately without question all 3 surrounded him then turned their backs from him.

            “what’s your plan?” Min asked wiping the scarlet liquid that was trickling down her face.

            “cast a spell to eliminate air beneath every crows’ wings. If we keep them on the ground we may stand a chance.”

            “you do know they can still transform back to their human forms right?” Krystal said negatively her arms still spread out firing bullets towards their attackers.

Jieun kept silent. If she knew Kris, he already had a plan inside his head. He was, after all, almost always a two-step ahead. She already knew what he had in mind.

            “crows are smart and cunning, with that they are arrogant. If we take away their greatest advantage their minds will be clouded and their prides damaged. When that happens they will be too angry to think. Some might still manage to get their bearings but a lot of them wont and by then we will already have the upper hand.” She said all of this very fast.

she glanced at Kris who met her eyes with a smirk forming on his lips.

            “well then, get on it.” he said before running off to round the others.

Min grabbed Jieun and Krystal’s wrists and yanked them to a safer place to start their spell.

            “those may be able to stand spells cast on them but they can’t take away a military strategist’s brains.” She said letting out a small laugh.

Krystal rolled her eyes unimpressed. Jieun couldn’t help but laugh. Min just really got impressed way too easily what Kris did was just the basics of reading your opponents. Assess their strengths and weaknesses and start from there.

            “stop groveling, Min, it’s embarrassing.” She holstered her guns and got ready for the spell casting. “if I didn’t know you say that to every vampire who comes up with a good idea I’d think you have a crush on Mr. bipolar.”

Min gave Krystal an offended look while Jieun fought hard not to laugh. Even with the dire situation her friends still had the urge to joke around and bicker. No pun intended.

            “come on, girls let’s get to it.” Jieun said focusing on the birds attacking her charge. The other two turned to theirs as well.

all three stretched out a hand and chanted the spell. In less than 10 seconds, the flapping stopped and loud angry squawks were heard. Immediately, the vampires moved to action. They needed to be fast as their oxygen supply was also removed.

            “smart.” Kyuhyun smirked.

            “took him long enough to think of that.” Changmin grumbled handing Kyuhyun a few gems.

Kyuhyun eyed the rock-sized diamond between his fingers.

            “he could’ve figured it out sooner if he wasn’t too busy…minding other things.” He grinned then looked back down at the battle.

Less than half of the dire crows were left now, 4 were still in their bird forms and 3 in their human ones. The majae panted with the effort of keeping the spell and the magi with the loss of oxygen. The spell had been lifted 15 seconds after it took effect. True to Kris’ theory the dire crows were livid at the loss of their flight. The ones that were left were the ones who recovered quickly but their fury still remained.

            “Xiumin, Luhan! With me!” Kris roared. “Tao, Lay, Chen get the other 3.”

Kris leapt into the air and landed on the giant crow’s back. It squawked and almost toppled him off. The other 3 birds started to descend upon him but Luhan and Xiumin got Kris’ back. Luhan raised his bow, 2 arrows already drawn. He aimed for 2 and shot hitting one on its wing and the other on its leg. Xiumin twirled his sai in between his fingers and threw it one after another. It hit the crow untargeted by Luhan, in its body and the other sai on its head and it dropped to the ground with a loud thump.

 A sound in between a roar and an angry caw echoed from the other side of the clearing. Tao was lying on the ground wrestling with on of the humanized crow, his sword was stuck in the tree. Lay and Chen were also busy with their own fight. The majae ran to their air. Krystal raised her guns and shot the one on Tao. Jieun ditched her katana and changed to hand claws. She ran to Chen and stabbed the dire crow on both sides of its torso when Chen managed to throw the creature to the air. Lay got his crow tightly by the neck with his whips and flipped it over a tree when Min took out her throwing knives and with a bit of her magic flung it to the crow instantly ending its life.

Jieun didn’t have the luxury to enjoy their victory. She turned around to look at the others, the one Luhan shot on the wing was already dead and was lying beside the one Xiumin killed. Now two birds were left midair with Kris on one of the bird’s back.

            “he is crazy!” Krystal yelled.

            “always trying to be cool.” Xiumin muttered limping over to the others.

            “can you get them?” Jieun asked Luhan.

            “no, they’re too far up.”

Just as he said it, Kris managed to behead on of the crows and it fell to the ground with a loud crash.

            “he’ll be in trouble of he kills that while on that height.” Lay observed.

            “we’ll take care of it.” Min said confidently.

Jieun didn’t like to wait. The more Kris drags the fight longer the more energy he’ll waste. She bent down and called for her magic before she shot through the air towards the leader.

            “Jieun, look out!!!” Krystal’s panicked yell made Jieun look around. To her horror, there was one crow unaccounted for and it was headed straight for her.

She was too late to dodge and the crow crashed into her and smashed her onto a tree.

The shouts from below alerted Kris, he looked down just in time to see a dire crow tackle Jieun from the air and into a tree. A wave of fury rose within him and a, angry roar he broke the crow’s wings from its back then twisted his katana and beheaded the beast. He used the useless body to propel himself onto the tree.

Luhan and Tao were already there and had already killed the crow. Seeing its body Kris had the urge to maim it even if it was already lifeless. Before he could get to Jieun, however, a bubble formed around her and was transported into the viewing deck. He low growl escaped his throat as he saw the bubble float in the air.

Min and Krystal were fidgeting, worried over their friend. Kris was trying hard to compose himself. Luhan noticed and started towards him.

            “you ok?”

            “no.” Kris replied flatly. His fangs were still throbbing and he felt like he was a volcano waiting to explode. All the dead crows around them just reminded him of what happened to Jieun. It didn’t help with his self-calming at all.

their surrounding started to mist and blur before fading into the familiar metallic walls of the simulation room.

One by one, members of the Council descended and met them for their assessment. They were all serious and very precise, not a single detail was left out. Tao was reprimanded for not taking the training seriously causing him a lot of close calls if it weren’t for Min coming to his rescue. Lay was called out for not paying attention to his surroundings; if he had he would’ve been able to notice the crow to his left before it managed to break his arm.

By the time Leeteuk and the other members of the Council finished half of their assessment, Kris was already only half listening. His mind kept wandering up at the viewing deck where SaeMi and Sunny was tending to Jieun. He didn’t know if she was fine or not and that uncertainty scared him more than he’d like to admit.

            “YiFan, are you listening?” the reprimanding voice of his father brought 100% of his consciousness back into the ongoing assessment.

            “yes, sir.” He said. Hangeng looked at him unsure if he really did listen but the tormented look his son so wanted to hide stopped him from further grilling him.

            “all of you will train again in a few weeks and we want to see progress, understood?” Leeteuk was dead serious, more so than he used to when it comes to their training.

All of the warriors stood straight and gave the head of the Council an affirmative reply. The warriors all filed out towards the exit and waited for Jieun to come out.

            “how was she when you saw her?” Krystal asked Luhan who was one of those who ran to Jieun’s aid.

            “I really didn’t see much. Tao and I took care of the bird first and when we turned back she was already taken away but it looked like she was unconscious.” Luhan sounded really worried and kept glancing back at the door.

            “based on the damage on the tree, she managed to create something to protect her during the fall but not strong enough to prevent any damage to her.” Tao added his usual jester voice now completely gone.

Kris kept his ear alert to the conversation while leaning quietly on the balustrade. The conversation was turned to a hush silence when the door opened and Siwon walked out with Jieun. She was barely conscious but alive. Kris immediately walked towards them.

            “how is she?” he asked.

            “very bruised back and a few broken bones and a fractured skull and shoulder. The majae managed to give her something for her pain but as you can see the effects.” Siwon replied looking down at his niece and sighed.

All of her friends gave a huge sigh of relief.

            “thank goodness it’s nothing serious.” Min sniffed tears streaming down her cheeks.

            “she casted a spell to cushion her fall, not strong but it helped. If it weren’t for that…” Siwon trailed his sentence looking pale.

After that Siwon just started to walk away and they all figured he’d be sending her home. with that the group started going to their homes as well as the sun was rising soon.

As Kris walked towards his home he looked over to the other fork in the road that led to the direction of Jieun’s house and just couldn’t help but think if she will really be alright.

---

a cold feeling suddenly crept up into a dimly lit room and the sleeping figure of Jieun stirred a bit from the bed. Feeling more than a bit woozy, she didn’t want to open her eyes but the cold draft was annoying her too much that she had to wake up.

She blinked and opened her eyes wide, she looked around her room feeling a bit dizzy but then as she tried to wake up a sharp pain from her head and ribs made her hiss in pain. She couldn’t sit up so she dropped back off to bed. A short moment she asked herself why she was in pain before the memory of the training came tumbling down her head like a ton of bricks. Then she realized what happen and she groaned out loud.

            “nice to finally see you back on the real world.” A low, indifferent growl echoed in her bedroom. Startled, she turned her head towards the other end of her room.

Kris was sitting there on one of her wooden chairs, cross-legged and leaning back with a book in his hand. He didn’t even look up when he spoke.

            “how long have you been there?” Jieun croaked. She was surprised at how dry was.

            “2 hours and 37 minutes.” He answered in a bored voice.

            “and why are you here?”

            “because Sulli asked me to look after you since she thought you might wake up tonight.” That stunned Jieun for a moment and she furrowed her eyebrows.

Although what Kris said might’ve been partly true it wasn’t also entirely the truth. He actually volunteered himself to look after Jieun after Sulli asked who’d take her place today as she had healing training.

            “tonight? How long was I out?”

            “3 days.” He said.

Jieun was speechless. After that crow tackled from the air she thought it was the end of her but she managed to cast a spell to help cushion her fall but she couldn’t make it strong enough to totally protect her. She leaned back on her pillows and sighed.

            “I was in big trouble then, wasn’t I?”

Jieun her the soft sound of Kris shutting his book and she turned to look at him again, her eyebrows slightly twitched as she caught sight of the book he’d been reading “Double Cross: True Stories of D-Day Spies”.

            “yes, you were.” He said his eyes looking very serious and a look of slight frustration that Jieun could not think of any reason why it was there. “broken ribs, fractured skull among others.”

Jieun groaned again. At least she had magic in her blood and could easily heal, maybe not as fast as the vampires but still faster than a normal human.

Kris stood up and went to the kitchen and came back with a glass of water, which he set on her bedside table. He helped her sit up on her bed and grabbed some pillows for her to lean her back on. She took the water and muttered her thanks.

When Kris sat back down he opened the book again and started reading.

            “why are you reading that book, YiFan?” she asked out of curiosity.

            “for knowledge.”

            “right.” she rolled her eyes. That’s always his answer whenever she asks why he reads the books he read. “not like we’re getting spied on now.”

            “it’s better to have these knowledge both of preparation and prevention, Jieun.” He said not looking up from his book.

            “spoken like a true leader.” She drawled mockingly. He didn’t respond.

Her stomach made a grumbling noise by then and she conjured up a turkey sandwich to eat. Feeling a bit too selfish she looked at Kris.

            “have you eaten? Or drank?” she asked.

            “not since 3 days ago.” Jieun choked at her sandwich.

            “you do know you’re not supposed to skip drinking for more than 3 days right?” she shook her head and snapped her fingers.

A bottle of blood appeared on the bedside table right beside Jieun’s glass of water.

            “you can have that. I bottled blood the day before our training so I got a few bottles here.” She gestured at the bottle.

Kris looked up and reached for the bottle slowly.

            “thank you.” As he opened it the smell of sweet fruit filled his nostrils and it immediately made him want to finish the whole bottle in one go but he controlled himself not to.

            “can I ask you a question?” Kris raised one of his thick blonde brows and looked straight at the witch.

            “fine.”

            “why do you look so uptight most of the time? I mean I know you have fun with your friends but I’ve never really seen you talk to a maja for longer than needed to be.” Jieun cleared . “and the girls said I’m the only one who you really talk to that doesn’t drop unconscious as soon as the sun is up.”

They both stared at each other for a moment. Her heart was thumping loudly and her face flared up. She would’ve thanked the darkened room for not making the blush obvious but then she remembered Kris was a vampire. His senses was clearly very keen.

As soon as Kris heard the question, his heart started thumping but he didn’t know why. He’d always been comfortable around Jieun more than the other majae but he never gave it a thought before. And as for the loud thumping of her heart and the apparent red tinge around her cheeks, it made her embarrassment unmistakable.

            “errr...forget it. you can not answer.” She said flustered.

And so he didn’t. The corner of his lips gave a tiny twitch and he gave the bottle of blood a tiny swig before clearing his throat and standing up.

            “I’m going to get Sunny for you and tell her you’re up. My time as a nanny is over. Get well soon, Jieun-ah.” He said and leaned over to ruffle her hair but saw the bandages then just gave her nose a soft pinch before he turned and walked out the door.

As soon as Jieun heard her front door close she exhaled and only then that she realized she was holding her breath. Raising one uninjured hand to her chest she felt her heart which was still thumping very hard like it was about to leap out of her ribcage at any moment.

            “what the hell is wrong with me?”

----

for those who have been reading this, thank you so much..:) but i would want to know you you guys are and i'd be very happy to know what you think so i hope you'd leave comments below..:)

ps. unedited..