That place badly made Daesung search for a bathroom. Jets of water spurted everywhere as children fairies played around them. They spit in each other’s faces and laughed their head off. It kind of made me want to keep Changmin away from any fairy ever. Some adult fairies would bend their head backwards hard for their mouths to open wide and swallow entire fishes down their throat.

Those were some really nasty creatures. I’d rather party with the reapers, at least they could shake it off better than those sprites.

Green, blue or golden eyes were pointed at us while we followed Yoona down a trail of wet stones. They were slippery and if Daesung and I weren’t holding hands, one of us would have ended up with a lot of bruises.

It was also so damn bright. Every single building was made of glass or something similar. Along with the water, it reflected every single light and made that whole place as clear as crystal. My feet kind of hurt. Daesung offered me a piggyback ride, but I wasn’t about to let those fairies further insult us with their gazes.

What made me worry was Yoona. Most royalties would be looked upon with respect and all that inhabited the Azure Palace should bow down before their queen. That wasn’t the case as most fairies eyed her with disrespect or made faces which further twisted face twist in ways I never knew it could. I went ahead and walked by Yoona’s side. She didn’t mind it one bit.

“Sooo...” I started, unsure if it was the best thing to whisper in a place where most sounds were covered by waterfalls. “Weren’t you their Queen?”

“Our world works different, human.” Yoona rolled her eyes and went ahead again. I shook my head and waited for Daesung before we followed her inside a pair of large gates. They were decorated with blue flowers and other symbols incrusted with blue jewels. I was beginning to hate that color too.

After that, we climbed a set of stone stairs – those wet too – before we finally arrived at a beautiful garden. The flowers’ fragrances made me dizzy, I had no choice but to lean against Daesung some more and let Yoona do whatever she had to.

The water fairy went in the middle of the garden and waited. Out of nowhere, she was circled by other fairies. Strangely, there was only one male with a broad face which made him look ridiculous when you added the flower crown and everything else. That was probably the eldest of them. Daesung covered my mouth in time before I’d burst in more laughter. Luckily for us, I felt too drunk on that sweet smell to react. We were like lovers in paradise, I lazy over Daesung and him resting against a tree while the fairies talked. They completely ignored our presence and I found out soon enough why: they were ghosts.

I could feel them out the energy out of me and that smell was nothing more than the Other World manifesting itself. Daesung wasn’t better. His energy fluctuated along with mine.

Great, we went straight into Yoona’s trap.

Unless it was a harmless mistake, yet how could she not know we were priests?

I believe only a minute or so passed before the ghost council disappeared, but we felt extremely tired.

Yoona came rushing to us, her alarmed expression waking us a little.

“They do not want to help the human race,” she fumbled with her words until she finally spoke clear “but I will. I’ll try.”

“Greaaaaaat!” I yawned with all my might. “Help us get out of here first, will ya?”

“REAPER!” simultaneous voices screeched around us. The commotion was enough for me to get up and sprint down those stairs, out the gate and watch what was going on. Jung Min slowly walked on the wet trail, snarling at every fairy which dared come closer. I ran at his side and grabbed the reaper before he’d fall on his knees.

“What are you doing here?!”

“More of those reapers came and...” he trailed off as more and more fairies gathered out of nowhere.

“You !” I hissed at him before I pushed Jung Min on my back. “DAESUNG, LET’S GO!” the fairies watched in awe as some mere human dared help the reaper. Daesung came right away. Yoona on the other hand kept staring at us. I could sense she didn’t know what to do. In the end, she followed Daesung and nodded in my direction.

The fairies seemed extremely pissed. They grabbed rocks and anything else available, ready to stone us to death. I too grabbed Jung Min, shoved him on my back and held his arms around my neck so he wouldn’t fall off. We dashed towards the door while avoiding everything thrown in our direction. I can proudly say I’m the first human to have a reaper as a cape because I was sure Jung Min’s body was like a flag from the way I sped towards the exit.

We saw that door appear out of thin air.

“WHAT’S THE SECRET WORD?” Daesung yelled on top of the storming crowd. Actually, how did Jung Min enter? He probably read my mind when he cleared his voice and shouted as loud as he could.

“IT’S TINKERBELL.”

I stopped, turned to Yoona who finally caught us from behind and she merely returned the stare.

“What?”

“Never mind...”

We dashed again to the door and while I cried 'tinkerbell', the door didn’t budge.

“It’s Tinker space Bell.” Yoona explained as she tapped the door. It cracked open right away.

Well, you too.

Ignoring everything else, we got out and pushed the door closed shut tight before the mob would catch us and rip our hearts out.

I sighed and passed Jung Min to Daesung. I wasn’t going to carry his anymore. Yoona went ahead and we followed her, eager to leave the cave already. I didn’t notice it at first because we were rushing, but the reapers glued to the wall had hollow eyes and their bodies were hanging like corpses. I shuddered and continued along the path.

Finally out through the waterfall, Yoona was kind enough – that’s too good of a word – to dry us the moment we hit ground. Sweet, sweet soil!

I huffed and puffed to fill back my lungs with fresh oxygen.

“Okay...” I exhaled and watched as Jung Min finally escaped that spell and slowly got up on his own two feet. “What now?”

“Fire...” Daesung pointed his finger in our house’s direction. Thick smoke filled the already chaotic sky.

Jung Min’s widened red eyes as he followed Daesung’s view made me fear once more. I already knew what he was going to say.

“The house... it’s burning.”

My heart dropped.

I didn’t think twice when I ran again.

Yuri... Changmin... don’t you dare die on me.