Chapter 20; Hell

Su Min leans back into the net, a loud sigh escaping her lips as she scowls. “I can’t believe that we’re in this mess,” she growls. “Back at my camp, I was regarded as one of the most skilled warriors. Now look where I am!” she shrieks, laughing darkly afterwards. Her laugh his hearty and crooked sounding, and it causes her whole body to shake pathetically. Tao looks over at her helplessly, and her outburst causes Xiumin to wake up.

“Where--” he begins.

Tao gives him a short look, and the older male gets the message and remains silent. Su Min shifts once more, positioning herself so she’s looking at the blazing fire that sits a short distance away from the five nets. “Wow, I just want to throw myself in there. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel like such an idiot.” she curses, hissing inwardly at her own stupidity. Lieutenant Lee would never have made this mistake, and if her father found out about it, she would be shunned for the rest of eternity.

Kai eyes flutter open in a rather dramatic manner; he fell unconscious last, so he has a good idea of what happened. He’s silent--unnervingly so. Kyungsoo snores loudly, and an annoyed Xiumin turns to the younger boy with blazing eyes. “Wake up, Do Kyungsoo!” Xiumin barks, casting a nervous glance around as if afraid that their captors will suddenly appear. Kyungsoo yawns loudly before sitting up, with much difficulty, and cracking his neck.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.” Su Min drawls.

He looks around sleepily before laughing. “Nice job, lovely leader,” he says, smirking at Su Min, his eyes still shut. She hisses in response and watches as the newly awakened boy opens his eyes and looks directly at her. “Any bright ideas?” he asks, tilting his head teasingly. Her eyes narrow as she spots something shiny peeking out of his boot.

Su Min tilts her head upwards before jerking her head towards the object. “What’s that?” she inquires, eyebrows raised. Kyungsoo looks down at his lower half before smirking at her. The action makes her want to tear the net apart and smash his face in, but she refrains from doing so.

“That’s my pen--”

Tao screams suddenly in order to block out Kyungsoo’s next word. “She meant that shiny knife sticking out of your boot, hyung!” the innocent “maknae” of the group screeches. Kyungsoo laughs tauntingly before pulling said knife out of his boot and examining it quickly. He looks from it to everyone else with a light smile--something they would all love to smack off of his face at this point.

“So that’s why my foot hurt,” he sighs. Everyone make short comments in response to this, which seems to amuse Kyungsoo even more. But upon hearing heavy, fatigued footsteps approaching, Kyungsoo quickly tucks the item back into his boot. In comes two trolls, both adequately ghastly and horrid in their own respects. They both seem to be males, but at this point, it’s a bit hard to tell.

They’re clad in leather rags--ripped fabric that should never be used for clothing. Kai is tempted to cluck his tongue disapprovingly, but he refrains from doing so as he watches on in utter horror. They’re skin is rough and splotched with dirt and a fungus of sorts. The pale color of it makes the miniscule scales on their skin nearly invisible, but with a keen eye, one can see them very well.

Beady black eyes occupy the entirety of their sunken in eye socket. A meaty head is covered in a layer of fleshy wrinkles and scum. A wide nose leads to thick, bleeding lips and a set of yellowed, rotted teeth. Wide ears are occupied with hair and wax. A thick neck leans down to a wide chest as well as beefy arms and legs. Huge, callused hands have just four fingers, each tipped with a chipped yellow talon. Their stomachs protrude out from their bodies; covered in the leftovers of past meals as well as a thick layer of grime.

Their feet are nearly the size of a grown human, and the overall sight is so frightening, that even Su Min cringes. The beasts seem to be smiling and talking pleasantly as they approach, but such activities cease as they catch sight of their prey and future meal. “Would you take a look at these beauts!” one of them announces, gesturing a single wide hand towards the group of five. “Look at the meat on that one!” it continues, eyes focused on Xiumin.

“I do not appreciate being called fat--” Xiumin begins, but stops upon seeing the looks his groupmates give him. The second troll narrows it’s eyes at Xiumin before making a single lap around all of the nets. Unlike its companion, this one seems to be a bit more clever and careful. Su Min doesn’t appreciate that in the least bit. It taps her net lightly before continuing on to the boys.

It chuckles loudly. “We had to pull out our special nets for you four. Divine Forces, huh? Tell me, why have you all resurfaced?” the troll demands. They all stay silent, and the troll grows impatient. “Fine, don’t answer me, I’ll cook you up right now!” it announces, causing all of the boys to shriek in protest. The first troll snickers, letting out a light snort as he proceeds to poke at Kyungsoo.

“Meals that don’t chat are no fun!”

Kyungsoo claps his hands together suddenly, causing everyone to flinch slightly. “You’re right, friend,” he begins, causing his groupmates to look at him curiously. “So, I’ll tell you some secrets. Some, urm, human cooking recipes!” he announces, laughing nervously afterwards. Su Min rolls her eyes and leans backwards, slightly interested as to what Kyung-Idiot is up to. “Us humans, we’re impure, you know? If you want us to taste good, you have to let us tenderize. But we must be alive!”

The second troll narrows it’s brooding eyes. “How does something that’s still alive tenderize?” it asks. The creature is obviously suspicious. “Doesn’t meat need to be dead?” Kyungsoo coughs slightly, obviously surprised by the beast’s question. But he quickly recovers from the surprise and thinks up an answer.

“Humans are special,” he says, “Which is why you must cook us carefully if you want the best taste!”

The troll waves it’s hand airly and nods. “Fine, fine,” it growls. “We’ll let you tenderize overnight, and you can finish your recipe tomorrow.” it states offhandedly before pulling up a matt made of tree branches and laying down on it. The first troll follows suit, but does so in an even less graceful manner. The ground and the nearby trees shake threateningly as the troll plops down onto the ground. Su Min lets out a soft breath of air once they begin snoring.

Turning to Kyungsoo, she smiles. “You’re smarter than I thought,” Su Min says. He smiles but quickly frowns upon realizing that she thought he was stupid. Kyungsoo pulls out the dagger, and it flashes brilliantly in the moonlight that seeps through the tree branches above. He moves to throw it but Su Min makes an ‘x’ with her arms and shakes her head tersely. The thick-lipped boy blinks a few times and tilts his head. “Cut yourself loose, idiot!”

His brow furrows suddenly as he looks at the ground far below. He’s never been the biggest fan of heights. “Can’t I just summon a rock to help me down?” he asks quickly. Su Min rolls her eyes at this--the boy obviously hadn’t been paying attention to what the troll said.

“These are special nets. As in, no powers. Like you could use yours right, anyways.”

Narrowing his eyes, Kyungsoo casts a sharp glance towards Su Min before placing the blade against the thick brown twine. “This is scary,” Kai comments. “Su Min, should I come hug you?” he offers. She looks at him, temporarily befuddled before letting out a low growl. Boys are so annoying what with how they love to play with female’s feelings. Psh.

“Shut it,” she snaps. “If you really need a pick me up, why don’t you pleasure yourself!?”

He looks taken aback as she glares at him. Xiumin giggles childishly as Tao places a finger in each of his ear’s in a desperate attempt to block out such evil words. Bang Su Min is not lady-like; not in words nor actions. “Can you just do it already?” Tao requests, feeling his heart clench nervously as one troll shrieks in it’s sleep. If there’s one thing that Tao hates, it’s monsters. And yet, here he is, on a mission to fight those very beings.

The light sound of Kyungsoo’s sawing fills the gap of silence left by the group, and eventually, the twine snaps. So Kyungsoo moves onto the next section, and the next, until he has reached the last section he needs to cut. His grip on the twine--and the blade--tightens as one single thread remains. And then he cuts it. Down Kyungsoo goes, but he doesn’t even make a sound as he lets go of the net and falls to the ground with a resounding thud.

The “stupider” of the trolls shifts in its sleep, says something about human leg meat, and then snores once again. Kyungsoo grabs his chest and pats it a few times, as if to make sure that he’s still living. And then he proceeds to look up at his groupmates, whose eyes shine in the darkness. Their nets are several feet above him, so cutting them down will be much more of a project.

Kyungsoo strides over to the tree that the nets are hanging from. The trunk is thick and the bark on the tree is knobby and peeling. After testing one of the knobs, Kyungsoo is glad to find that it holds quite well. Su Min lets out a low growl from her perch. “Are you going to go”--she pauses to glance over at the two sleeping trolls--“or are you going to wait for our hosts to wake up!?”

He simply grunts in response and begins scaling the tree. It’s no easy task, no, but it must be done. After climbing for several feet, Kyungsoo reaches one hand up to grip the base of a tree branch, and after grabbing hold of it, he swings his second hand up as well. Years of carrying heavy vases around have made Kyungsoo quite strong, so he pulls himself up onto the branch with ease.

Down the end of this particular branch, Kai awaits. His dark brown eyes watch Kyungsoo intently, he looks like the prey, at this moment. At this point, he’s in fight or flight mode. Despite this, however, he remains completely still. His eyes flash like the blade that Kyungsoo holds in his hand, and his muscles tense upon hearing the first section of twine snap. No one moves.

Kyungsoo continues, grabbing the next section and hacking at it for awhile. Until eventually, the whole net collapses and down goes Kai. Unlike Kyungsoo, however, he rolls elegantly upon making contact with the ground, and stands up shortly after. With the first person done, Kyungsoo dutifully moves on to the next person; Xiumin.

The older boy seems almost bored as Kyungsoo approaches him, but his lack of attention to detail results in him falling to the forest floor below with a thud. Next is Tao. The usually composed, warrior-like boy looks frightened and on-edge. He winces upon hearing sections of the net snap. When he falls, however, he lands with cat-like grace. The final person is, of course, Su Min.

“You would choose me last,” she snaps. Kyungsoo smiles weakly in response.

He glances up at Su Min as he cuts the twine. “It’s because I like you the most,” he jokes, but she doesn’t find it nearly as funny. Her eyebrows furrow and she pushes him slightly, nearly making him fall off the branch. “Gosh, fine, I don’t like you at all.” Filled with discontent, Su Min folds her arms over her chest and waits patiently for him to finish. Always the gaudy one, Su Min does a flip as she falls through the air, and the action happens to slow her down enough so that she lands on her two feet.

Kyungsoo follows in, yet again, a much less graceful manner. As he lands, he topples into the standing Su Min, who grunts loudly. They don’t meet the ground, however, and it so happens that Kyungsoo is the only thing preventing Su Min from falling. His callused hands are stationed at her hips, where they press in gently, keeping her in place. The two stay like that for a split second, staring wide-eyed at each other, before standing up straight and brushing their hands off.

“Well, um,” Su Min begins.

Tao slings an arm over her shoulders half hazardly before directing her towards the horses. She glances up at him quickly, but pays no heed to the small action as she proceeds to look for all of her weapons. Upon seeing that all of her metaphorical “ducks” are in a line, she mounts her horse, and the others follow suit.

She glances down at Mirae, who is once again tucked into her robes. Her eyebrows furrow upon seeing the unusual bright hue that occupies the surface of the blade. She’s tempted to touch the blade at this point, however, a loud wailing sound cuts off such thoughts. Her head snaps backwards as she looks for the source--which just so happens to be the mule.

The unpleasant animal is shrieking for some unknown reason, and consequently, the trolls wake up. Su Min’s eyes widen upon hearing one of them let out a gruesome roar. Well. She urges her horse forward as one of them, still clouded by sleep, reaches out blindly with one large hand. The hand just barely grazes the top of her head, and a rough sound arises from .

Looking behind her, she notices that Xiumin has fallen off of his horse, and she scrambles off of her own steed and barrels forward to help him. After boosting the befuddled boy up onto the white horse, she moves to go back to her own horse. Sadly, she collides head first with the fist of the troll, and the whole world seems to sputter out of control after that.

Everything twists and turns, there are bright colors and wild flashes. She teeters back and forth literally, and at the same time, teeters between reality and dreams. For a second, she imagines her father standing in front of her. But then he’s gone, replaced by another male. He’s slim and fair-skinned with tousled brown hair and from the back, he almost looks godly. In his right hand he wields an intricate oak staff. A small orb of light builds at the tip of the staff, the strange ball is so bright it burns Su Min’s eyes, and her mind begs her to look away. But she can’t--she’s entranced.

A firm arm wraps around her waist, and slender fingers grip onto her side as the unknown person urges her along. That’s the last she remembers before everything fades into darkness. It’s a thick, suffocating kind of darkness, the kind that draws you in and threatens to never let you back out. To a degree, Su Min doesn’t know if she wants to be let out. If she had realized the complexity of this journey and the whirlwind it would take her on, she wouldn’t have accepted it. If she had known that every fragment of her being would be put to the test on this epic journey, she would have chosen to stay back at that hell-hole camp.

Because the real world is much worse than hell.