Chen

Chanyeol, Baekhyun and I sat around the campfire outside the warehouse; Baekhyun’s hair was tucked into the crook of Chanyeol’s, resting on his shoulder, their fingers entwined. With his loose hand, Chanyeol morphed the fire, billowing it in and out in circles, swirling in spirals and forming orbits and rings around the column of fire.

“You should’ve seen me, Chanyeol, I just grabbed the guy with both my hands and shone it right into his eyes! It was amazing! And Luhan has gotten so much better; he practically lifted every object in the restaurant! And then Kyungsoo with his pebbles, and….”

I loved listening to Baekhyun speak so passionately. I imagine that listening to this much passion would be like asking Bach to talk about his favourite music scores, or Van Gogh to give a tour of his masterpieces. When Baekhyun talks with this much excitement his eyes sparkle with light, his mouth constantly moves to keep up with the endless string of words rolling off his tongue. His fingers never stayed still, weaving patterns in and out of Chanyeol’s patient longer slender hands, memorising every fingerprint delicately.

It was cute. Watching Chanyeol as he in turn watched Baekhyun, their faces illuminated by the campfire in front of them.

I almost felt forgotten from the other side of the fire. They knew I was there, but they were too immersed within each other to notice me. It wasn’t awkward, or mean, just…. Inspiring, finding love so well.

I knew I wasn’t unloved in the team. I knew I wasn’t taken for granted, or cast aside as a regular member. After managing to drive off Kai, I was labelled as a powerful lighting controller. I had connections with the dark forces; they talked to me in my nighmares. This both scared and intrigued my other members. Countless nights I’ve found myself sitting cross-legged on Suho’s bed, sometime with Kris, and we talk about our night adventures. Our experiences with the higher powers.

“Hey, you know, your fire is light too. Our powers are pretty similar.” Baekhyun opened his palm and the familiar white light glowed softly through his fingers.

“I wonder if I could…”

Baekhyun held his hand up to the fire, putting his hand in the foreground with the flames behind his light. Slowly, with enough concentration, his pure white light started to mimic the orange glow of the flames.

“Woah, it’s the same colour as your fire, Chanyeol. So pretty…” He addressed me from across the fire “Hey Chen, look, I’m you!”

He flashed his white light, mimicking the sharp intense fireworks of lighting.

“Nah Baekhyun, it’s more like this” I let the lighting dance around my fingers. It sparkled and fizzled, running off in different directions, uncontrollable yet out of reach.

Tao walked over with Yixing and started setting up a stand above the fire to cook some meat. I felt relieved as I was no longer third-wheeling.

“Oh, are you guys still talking about your training mission by any chance? I heard it was really cool!” Tao said.

Baekhyun sat up straight to talk to Tao.

“Have you done yours yet?”

Tao nodded.

“We left about an hour after you, but we only just came back, it’s a little difficult returning without a teleporter.”

“How did it go?” Baekhyun leaned forward, intrigued.

“We were helping with a massive crash up on the highway, fire everywhere! It was a bunch of terrorists who crashed while attempting a getaway with a big truck full of new cars. Kris and Sehun worked on the fires and getting people out and Yixing healed anybody hurt.”

“What did you do then?” I asked

“Me? Why, I took out all the survivors of the heist and tied them up. They lost their guns in the crash so it was an easy hand to hand combat against only about five men still stumbling after the collision. Oh, you should’ve seen Kris and Sehun though, they’ve really mastered working together. Kris wasn’t able to make sharp turns quickly with Sehun, but now, Sehun makes these little tornadoes and stray wind currents and Kris rides them like a highway. It’s kind of mesmerising, actually.”

“Chanyeol, when are you going on your mission, the one with Suho hyung and Chen?” Baekhyun asked.

“I don’t know… We haven’t found anything to do yet, and Suho’s been pretty busy. I found him passed out on the couch before I came outside here.”

“I’m sure we’ll be going soon. Anyways, we still have five days” I say.

We sat in silence for a few more minutes, the sizzling of roasting meat over the fire adding to the open-aired atmosphere.

Kai appeared before us, melding out of the shadows.

“Guys, everyone, come quickly indoors, something’s happening with Suho hyung.”

We all rush indoors to find everyone assembled around Suho, clinging to the Tree of Life as she slept on the couch.

“Wake up! Wake up!” He cried, splashing water on her face.

“Suho Suho! What are you doing!” I helped Luhan pull him away from the Tree before he accidentally drowns her.

“I spoke with her! I did!” he let her go in astonishment. He scampered back to her side and cupped her head in his hands

“I was so tired I passed out on her stomach, using her like a pillow and in my dreams I saw the Tree. In tree form! She seemed confused! I think she’s been trying to speak with us the whole time but it’s not working because she thinks she’s still a tree! Wake up! You’re a human!”

“Suho, go back to sleep,” I say, “If you weren’t making up some dream, you’ll probably get to speak with her again. Ask her questions, try to make her wake up”

“You’re right, you’re right…” Suho responded, he still sounded like he just woke up. “I need to sleep. Everyone go away! I need utmost silence.”

We all left as his head touched the girl’s stomach again, falling back asleep.

It was twenty minutes later that we were warned of more Tree progress by the scream of a girl. _­

The tree was awake

We assembled in the main room as the girl sat up in the bed and let out a shrill scream, wide eyes astonished as she looked over her feet, legs, dress, fingers, touched her face.

“Woah, woah, Tree of Life, calm down. People think you’ve gone barking mad.”

We all glared at Sehun for making a terrible pun.

“Tree? It’s me, Suho. We’ve talked in my dreams? You need to calm down.”

The Tree stopped her screams into deep hurried breaths.

“She’s going to hyperventilate,” said Yixing “Get her to slow her breathing, and everyone take a few steps back.”

“Yeah, lets leaf her some more space.” Sehun snickered.

“Tree, you have to slow down your breathing. Can’t you remember? You have been human before, you came and spoke to me.” Yixing said

“Here would you like some water?” Suho arrived with a glass of water.

The Tree took the glass then stared at it for a while. Eventually, she remembered that she had to drink it with .

Suddenly she dropped the glass, letting it smash on the floor. She didn’t bat an eyelid.

“I need to pee. What do I do.” She stared up at Yixing and Suho with innocent bambie eyes. “I’ve never had to pee before. Health, help me pee please.”

Tree grabbed onto Yixing’s hand and he looked back at us pleadingly.

“You heard the Tree, help her pee,” Baekhyun giggled, shooing the two into the bathroom.

We waited outside the bathroom door as we heard terrifying splashes and crashes, accompanied by “Whats this?” from the Tree and “Yah! Put that away!” or “I don’t want to see that!” from Yixing. Eventually peace was found through the trickling of pee splashing into the toilet bowl.

I sighed from outside the bathroom.

“This is going to be –“

“Difficult?” Kyungsoo finished my sentence.

“I was going to say a wild ride from start to finish, but difficult works.” I said.

Yixing opened the door, his hair ruffled and his jumped on backwards. The Tree followed behind him, padding on barefeet and holding the innocent expression only a small child could own.

“Nobody go in there for at least a week.” Yixing said, closing the door behind him. “And don’t ask me. Next time, it’s not my turn.”

The Tree had sat herself on the couch again, her feet dangling but not yet reaching the ground.

“Water, come, explain to me this mess.”

“She means you,” I said to Suho “Water.”

Suho looked a bit shy “Umm... that mess in there?” he gestured towards the bathroom.

The Tree scoffed in impatience.

“No, I know of human waste products. I mean this mess, the situation. Why am I like this.”

“We don’t know, your, uh, your high, your treeness…” Suho stammered. “You turned up to Yixing and claimed to be the Tree of Life and then you passed out in an attack.”

“Hmm… something must’ve gone wrong in the transfer. Anyway, it’s possible this form will advantage me while I am in the mortal plane. So, are you the Protectors?”

She scanned the room and her eyes alighted on each of us. Her young eyes were no older than the seven year old she was, but her gaze held the wise stare of a million years.

“Hmm yes…. Water, health, light, earth, telekinesis, fire, lightning, air, flight, teleportation, time…. Where’s frost?”

“That’s the problem. He’s been trapped in Japan,” Kai said. He pulled out his phone and started showing his photos to the Tree “See, the slimers, they have him surrounded by an army.”

“They’re called the red force.” The Tree said. “Just as I am the light, they are the dark.”

“Does that mean you have your own different coloured slimers too?” Baekhyun asked

“No, the Dark decided to use its power to create the ‘slimers’ and I used mine to create you.”

“I think there’s a lot you need to explain.”

“As do all of you. For one, where am I? Has the Dark been located yet? What stages have your powers been levelled at?”

“Wait… we don’t understand most of those questions either,” Chanyeol said “All we really know is that we are supposed to protect you and we’re being attacked by the slimers.”

“Fine. Someone get me something to eat and I’ll explain it all.”

“I’ll get the fertiliser.” Sehun mumbled.

The Tree ate an entire tray of chocolate brownies. Yixing looked a little distraught to see all his cooking go down the Tree’s stomach without eating a single slice, but we all felt too intimidated by such a large character in a small body to say a word.

“See, I’m the light force,” The Tree started “Usually, I’m a tree. In my world, I manipulate the forces around me to voyage the godly plane. For my entire life, I’ve been one side of a coin, half a balance. The other half of the balance belongs to the Red Force, also known as the Dark. The dark doesn’t take the same form as me, it is less… less tangible. We used to stay in balance, and when the mortal realm started to tip into darkness, I would lighten the world. In turn, when it seemed my powers were blessing the world too much, I would be pulled back by the Dark.”

The tree stopped to chug an entire bottle of lemonade. Suho had to stop her halfway before she drowned herself in the sticky fizzy liquid.

“Ah… so addictive. So, not long ago, about fourty thousand years or so ago, I was poisoned, taken by surprise. I knew I would be defeated by the red force so I started running, and the red force chased me. While we’ve been running, the world has stayed in balance, but with no control. Slowly, the red force has been catching up with me, so I sacrificed most of my powers to create you twelve, in the mortal world. I enlisted you all to protect me as I attempt to hide in your world. My goal is to either defeat the red force or restrain it, and restore balance.”

The tree finished off the lemonade, resulting in a case of the hiccups. When she didn’t continue with her story, we realised she had finished.

Suho broke the silence

“So…. We’re supposed to defeat the red force for you?”

“Yup.”

“How? You said it isn’t even tangible. None of us can fight that!” Sehun exclaimed

The Tree shrugged.

“I dunno… I’m not the protectors. You guys are. I’ve just been running for fourty thousand years.”

“…and sleeping for at least a week.” Sehun mumbled under his breath.

Kai looked up from his phone.

“We’ve had a sighting of slimers at my old school a few kilometres away from us. I think they’re still looking for some of us.”

“You have an app for that?”  Luhan looks over Kai’s shoulder.

“No, but I have the local news. And these people are showing signs of being slimers in disguise.”

He showed us a picture of two business men shaking hands with a school principle. The article headline titled: Construction workers to give free safety tests

“They’re looking for me.” Kai said.

The Tree looked over at the phone.

“Oh god, they’re already looking like you humans. You should stop them. When red forces use that much concentration, they explode.”

“Like…” Chanyeol mimed explosion actions with his hands

“No, I mean, more like…. How do I explain it…”

“Like sticking a lump of C4 in a giant squid,” Tao said. “I saw it happen when I met Kris and he saved me.”

“Exactly! Like exploding goo!” The Tree said.

“And then it reforms into the monster, and it attacks.” Tao said.

“We can’t let that happen,” Kris said. “It’s too dangerous to the public. Suho, Chanyeol, Chen, you guys were looking for a mission. You’re up. We’ll keep finding stuff out from the Tree.”

“I’ll teleport you guys there, but I kind of wanted a haircut,” Kai said “I can’t teleport fast if I can’t see where I’m going all the time.”

He brushed the messy black hair out of his eyes to prove his point.

“Soo, can you give me a haircut when I get back?”

Kyungsoo nodded.

“Alrighty, let’s go then!”