“Xiumin, it is time my child,” the oracle held his hands as she drew a snowflake onto his forehead. “Protection,” she ties a ribbon onto his bag, “Identity,” she finally gives him a hug which he hugged back as well, “farewell.”

 

“Have a safe journey my son,” Xiumin’s father pats him on the back once and hugged him. Xiumin glances at his mother, he held her a little longer and bid his farewells, leaving the cold land that he called home. He was an adult now and it was time to search for the other whom he can call brothers.

 

“Finally,” Xiumin arrived at the edge where the grass meets the snow. He looks back one last time before setting foot onto the grass. The warmth that flooded his being was astounding, all his life he only knew of the cold ice, the grass never looked so green to him before. He enters the forest that leads him further away from his tribe.

 

***

“Xiao Lu, a human has trespass into the forest, should we scare him?” A water sprite asked the boy. Luhan thought for a minute, the older spirits would get angry if he scared away another visitor, but what if this human wanted to harm the forest?

 

“I’m not sure its a good idea Lamia, the tree spirits would get angry and you know how they are,” Lamia the water sprite giggled and flew to Luhan’s side.

 

“They don’t have to know, we’ll be extra sneaky!” Lamia laughed and Luhan agreed. Who was he to deny a wonderful prank?

 

Swiftly gliding through the branches, he spotted the human that had entered their forest. The boy was cute, in Luhan’s opinion. His cheeks were puffy and Luhan practically smelled the frost coming off of the boy.

 

“He smells of the frost Lamia, lets get Jinki to help us,” Luhan whispered to Lamia who nodded back. She flew in front of him as they made their way to the grass spirit sleeping away in the sunlight.

 

“Jinki! Catch!” Lamia jumped onto him and he woke up as the grass grew to catch Lamia mid fall. Luhan appeared right after her and Jinki knew exactly what was going on.

 

“Let me guess, you want me to help you prank a human?” Jinki asked with an eyebrow raised, Lamia nodded as Luhan laughed.

 

“I smelled the frost off of him, so this might be interesting,” Luhan said, he walked over to the other two and they began planning.

 

***

Walking aimlessly was not what Xiumin wanted to do. The forest looked the same from all angles as he walked, he couldn’t have gotten himself lost so soon. He looked around hearing rustling in the bushes. ‘Someone is following me,’ he thought as he quicken his pace. This was a forest, whatever that is following him is a predator and he was not going to be an animal’s meal when he only just started.

 

Reaching a small clearing he found a river. “Yes!” He ran over and looked at the glistening water. ‘Mentor always said that where there is water, there is people. Just follow the river and there will be people nearby,’ he smiled as he thought he is saved now. Settling down he opened his bag to get a snack.

 

The rustling got louder as Xiumin stood up he was held down by grass. “What is this?!” He shouted ripping the grass off but it only grew more.

 

“The more you resist, the more it grows,” a voice behind him spoke, Xiumin turned around and saw a creature with branches sticking out from everywhere. He looked closer and it looked like a boy.

 

‘This is a prank,’ He thought to himself as he realized the boy was holding back a giggle as he walked menacingly toward Xiumin. ‘Lets see what happens,’ Xiumin stayed still as the other boy came closer. When he was within reach, Xiumin blew at his feet where ice appeared and trapped the other boy who fell backwards screaming for help.

 

“Luhan!”

 

“Xiao Lu!”

 

Lamia and Jinki appeared from the bush behind Luhan and ran to their friend. Jinki commanded the grass to leave Xiumin as he realized that Xiumin was the one responsible for the ice.

 

“Get it off! Its so cold,” Luhan was on the verge of crying now, Xiumin got up and willed the ice away when he saw that Luhan was truly about to cry.

 

“That’s what you get for trying to prank me,” Xiumin told them as stared at them.

 

“We’re sorry, we only wanted to have fun,” Lamia cried holding Luhan.

 

“We didn’t mean any harm, honest!” Luhan confessed as both he and Lamia hid behind Jinki. Xiumin felt bad for scaring the two. He turned to Jinki for help as if asking him to calm down his friends.

 

“Guys, he doesn’t look mad, look. Stop crying, he’s not scary,” Jinki rubbed Luhan and Lamia’s back calming them. Luhan was the first to look at Xiumin, this time a closer look. His eyes widened.

 

“The Ice warrior!” Luhan shouted pointing at Xiumin. The other spirits were starting to gather as they felt Luhan crying earlier. “Yay we found one! We found one~!” Luhan sang as he ran to Xiumin and hugged him.

 

“Who are you? Are you a warrior too?” Xiumin asked. Luhan nodded as he lifted himself up into the air.

 

“I’m the mind, my name’s Luhan what’s yours?” Luhan went to Xiumin and held his hand.

 

“I’m Xiumin-”

 

“Baozi! You are like a baozi,” Luhan interrupted Xiumin’s sentence. Xiumin felt a presence around him, sending shivers down his spine. He looked around in alarm.

 

“Something’s here,” He said, as soon as those words left his mouth they were attacked. The trees moved to block the oncoming blow from the shadows but were too late. Lamia was hit by an energy ball, Jinki pushed Luhan out of the way and got hit with a dagger. The shadows were closing in on them as they ran. The trees move to help Xiumin and Luhan run, but the dark flames began to consume the forest.

 

“No!!! Lamia! Jinki! Let me go!” Luhan was pushing himself away from Xiumin but he could not beat the older boy. Xiumin heard a voice in his head telling him to save Luhan and don’t look back. He knew that this was horrible, but they had to leave the forest to burn.

 

They ran and ran until they reached a fork in the road. Xiumin had no idea where he was going, Luhan was still crying and resisting him as well. ‘This way,’ Xiumin heard as he looked at the road with tiger woods scattered along the path. He decided to trust the voice in his head as he ran.

 

“Kill them!” One of the shadows shouted and the closest one decided to send energy ball hurling at the two. Luhan saw this and with his mind he stopped them mid flight and flung it back at the shadows. Four shadows attacked their sides, Xiumin was cut on his arm as Luhan escaped with a scrape. They were running when Xiumin saw that in front of them was a dead end.

 

‘So much for trusting that voice,’ he thought and turned around ready to fight. Using his powers he created an ice shield  to block daggers thrown at them. Luhan waved his hands at the shadows, they paused as if thinking he was a fool, but not when they were flung to the side.

 

“Stop! Why don’t you two give up and we might kill you faster so you would feel no pain?” The Shadow with a cross on its hood spoke.

 

“Not in this lifetime or any other!” Luhan held his hand out as if grabbing onto something and squeezing. The shadow crumbled onto the ground holding his chest. The one on his right aimed multiple energy balls at Luhan who released his hold to dodge. One of them hitting his shoulder and he cried out in pain. Xiumin stomped on the ground as ice shards shattered the earth under the shadows’ feet.

 

“We need to get over this thing,” Xiumin said as he looked at the wall that was blocking them. “Can you get us over?” he asked Luhan who shook his head. He could lift himself off the ground but that was pretty much it. He could not go any higher. Xiumin mentally slapped himself, why did he need to listen to the voice? Now they were trapped. The shadows were getting back up and coming toward them with wicked smiles on their faces.

 

“Look out below!” BOOOM The ground was hit by a huge fire ball that landed right in the center of the shadows. There was a boy on a bird that was coming for them. The boy extended his hand to Xiumin who grabbed Luhan and caught the boy’s hand to swing him onto the back of the large bird. They quickly flew away as the shadows did not fly to catch them.

 

“Three have emerged. Assassinate the Prince, this is an order from the King!” The leader of the shadows sent a message to the Order.

 

He stood on top of a cliff that hung just over the forest. Removing his hood revealed a man with the face of an angel that contrasted his actions.

“You will not survive this time, mark my words.” He walked away from the scene as the other shadows retreated back to the Order.