25

After a sudden snowball fight (initiated by both Jinri and Xiumin) everyone gathered into the living room. Jinri, due to the enormous amounts of energy she spent, was currently curled up on the couch. Her head was in Chanyeol’s lap and he was playing with her hair as she slept.

“So that was a bit unexpected,” Suho commented. “I knew that a Tamer could tap into the powers of the pack in a small way, but that was unheard of. I mean, she practically was Xiumin for a bit there.”

“It uses up a lot of her energy,” Lay added. “She doesn’t have it fully under control like Xiumin does, so she can’t use it for as long. I think it’s safe to say that it’s just going to get worse with each of our powers she learns to use.” Sehun scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“And of course the Council knew this would happen,” he scoffed. “Just like them to go ahead and not tell us anything and then act all surprised and heroic when something happens.” The others stayed silent, knowing Sehun’s history with the Council.

If the others had a general dislike for the Council, then Sehun had a strong hate for them. He was young, sure, but that didn’t mean he was unaware. His sister had been marked as a Tamer, trained and everything, but then she went missing and their whole family fell apart because of it. His parents, the ever-loyal servants to the Council, and especially Taeyeon, had just accepted the disappearance as a sad and unfortunate occurrence. Sehun, who had been remarkably close with his elder sister, knew that something was amiss, something didn’t add up, and could not accept that her vanishing was the work of the Hadrian. Sekyung had been far to smart and far too cunning for it to happen that way. Yet, no matter how much he urged his family to look deeper, they just wrote him off as some young boy trying to cope with loss.

It wasn’t until he met Luhan and Kris and Suho that things started to seem a little better for him. They trusted the Council just as little as he did, and would rebel against their authority whenever possible. They took him under their guidance, and soon, along with the others, became a pack. It was the best thing that could have happened to him.

And then Jinri came along. At first, he didn’t know what to think of her. He saw that Luhan had taken interest in her almost immediately, and maybe it was because his Hyung trusted her so much that he was able to open up and accept her. She reminded him of his sister; feisty, intelligent, and unbelievable caring for those around her. He secretly wished that it he was her long-lost brother, but he was perfectly happy with being by her side this way. He would, against anyone, protect her with his life, and that was a fact. He couldn’t lose another person close to his heart.

“The Council is always up to something,” Kai chimed in. “I mean, I know they’re supposed to be our governing body, but they’ve been more secretive than usual lately. Even with the Howling in two days, it’s like they are keeping something from us.”

“Let’s look on the bright side,” Chanyeol, ever the optimist, said. “We’re here to protect her no matter what. We all know she can hold her own in a fight. No doubt about that. So lets just focus on getting through the festivities, and coming out on the other side unscathed.” One by one, they all nodded in agreement.

#

“Focus, Jinri! You’ve got to focus!”

“I am focusing!” Jinri spun on her heel, dodging the tree branch that swung out at her. She flicked her arm out to the left, and the branch froze mid-swing. She rolled further to the right as a jet of water burst up from the ground where she just was. Scrambling to her feet, she spun around the back of a tree, narrowly missing the water at it was aimed in her direction.

“You’re too slow! Now you’re just dodging, you’re not even thinking before you move!” Henry yelled back at her. She grimaced; he had been yelling non-stop since training began, and frankly, she was about at her limit.

“I am thinking, damn you!” She growled as she threw her arms out in front of her, conjuring a shield of ice. The jet of water slammed into it, pushing her back a few steps. She was grateful that she woke up early this morning to do a little side training with Xiumin. He’d gone over freezing things with her, and in an effort to prevent another round of horrible looking bruises, how to make a shield out of ice. It was coming in handy at the moment, but she knew it wouldn’t be to long before Henry switched up his methods and started attacking her with fire. Ice would be useless then.

“Alright, stop!” Her trainer called, and the water pressure released from the other side of the shield. She peeked around it for a moment, and once assured that there was no more imminent danger, let the shield melt into water again.

“It’s nice to see that you’ve managed to start controlling the Ice talent,” he complimented, walking over. “But you’re still mostly on the defensive. You need to be on the offensive as well. Hadrian’s, are going to just go away on their own. You need to be faster, you need to be stronger. You need to fight.”

Jinri scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Fight? What is this, the Battle for Narnia? Give me a break Henry; I’m not a soldier.”

“Regardless, you still need to know how to fight,” he pressed on. “Have you ever had any training in martial arts? Any gymnastics classes? Anything at all?”

“I took basic martial arts classes when I was in grade school,” she told him. “The free ones they offer for kids after school.”

“Well, it’ll have to do for now,” he sighed. “Along with doing runs with the pack, have one of them start training you in some sort of basic techniques. You need to be faster and more accurate in every aspect. Now, that’s enough talking, let’s get back to work.”

#

Jinri arrived back home hungry and irritable. Henry, in an attempt to squeeze one last bit of training out of her, dropped her off two miles from the house, giving her instructions to run all the way back. He told he her would know if she didn’t, and not wanting to even think about the consequences of disobeying, she jogged all the way back home.

Her entrance did not go unnoticed as she arrived with a slam of the door, and a great deal of huffing and puffing. Any greeting sent her way was met with a glare and sometimes a hiss of annoyance as she stalked through the living room, up the stairs and straight to the shower. Even after washing the sweat and grime from her body and hair, she still felt like she’d been run over by a tractor.

“Uh, Jinri? Dinner’s ready.”

She was sitting at her desk, furiously scribbling down all the things she hated about Henry, when Luhan came to her door. Seeing him made her feel a little b