Naeun groaned, sitting up carefully. Her whole body felt stiff as if she’d slept twisted in bed. She sat up slowly and immediately regretted the action. Her head was spinning and she was forced to bow over, head between her knees. After a moment, the dizziness subsided and Naeun opened her eyes…

                …the ground beneath her was dirt.

                Not caring about the unease in her body, Naeun whipped her head up and stared at her surroundings. Trees lined up all around where she was standing on the dirt road. Birds and insects chirped and sang in the wilderness while the sun shone down from high above.

                “What…What?” She whispered to herself as she got to her feet and spun around, taking her surroundings.

                “Na…eun?” Minjung’s disoriented voice called out nearby. Scanning the area one last time, Naeun found Minjung on the ground, propped up on her elbows, looking around in confusion as well. The eldest girl slowly got to her feet, brushing some dirt off her clothes, “What the hell just happened?”

                “I don’t know,” she responded, trying to recall the events that led up to this moment.

                After a moment Minjung’s eyes widened and she began to look frantically from left to right.

                “Hyunok! Jangmi!”

                It all came flying back to Naeun: following that little pinpoint of red light, the book, and how Jangmi read aloud the words. And then she realized much like Minjung that they were missing their two friends. Hyunok and Jangmi were nowhere in sight.  Minjung called out again a couple of more times, but they received no response.

                “Where we?” Naeun wondered aloud after they ceased calling for them.

                “Who knows,” Minjung continued to look about in distress, “I’m more worried about the others. Where could they be? What if they’re hurt?”

                “Shh!” The younger quickly shushed Minjung.

                There was a beating sound in the distance. It was steadily growing louder and louder. Finally they were able to see the distance down the road a small dust cloud. Slowly it grew larger until they were able to make out some horses rushing towards them. Before either girl could react they heard someone chuckle behind them.

                “Well, this is a pleasant surprise,” Naeun yelped when some hands grabbed her from behind. She struggled to free herself from the large man’s grasp, trying to kick him. Minjung immediately moved into action and the man shouted in surprise when her fist met his face. She grabbed Naeun and readied them to run off but another man, a thinner, older one, appeared next, smirking at them sinisterly. They tried to run a different direction but the horses were already upon them.

                Trying to hide Naeun behind her, Minjung growled at the men who leered at them.

                “Their clothes are weird,” the fat one commented, rubbing his nose where Minjung hat hit them. Sure enough, their modern era clothing clashed with the archaic apparel these men were wearing. They looked like something they would see in a period drama.

                “But look how pretty their skin is,” the older man reached out to grab Minjung’s face only for her back up defensively and grit her teeth, “and so full of spirit. They’ll make us a good profit in the brothels.”

                “Touch us and I’ll-“ Minjung didn’t get to finish. The horses stopped next to them and more men dismounted, “Crap…”

                “Perfect timing gentlemen.”

                “Put them in the back with the others,” the horses were attached to a wagon, the back a cage where a few others were currently sitting or in some cases, crying.

                The fat one moved towards them, but the moment he laid a hand on Naeun, Minjung struck out again. However this time the older man reacted much faster and smacked Minjung across the face with enough force to send her falling back into Naeun.

                “Minjung!”

                “Get them in the back with the others.”

                Despite their struggles, eventually the pair were thrown into the cage and locked in. Once they started moving, Naeun checked on Minjung, hissing at the angry red mark forming on her face.

                “Bastards,” Minjung growled.

                “Damnit,” Naeun heard someone mutter near her. A young man maneuvered his way to them, gently urging some of the other prisoners out of his way. The cage had about ten people locked in, including the two girls. Most of the prisoners looked like women and children, though there were a couple of crippled men as well. Unlike the others, this young man seemed perfectly healthy, and didn’t look sad or hopeless in any form.

                “Are you two okay?” He asked, leaning down to inspect Minjung’s face, “eesh. They’re sinking real low hitting defenseless women,” after a pause that Naeun could see that he was inspecting their appearance, he continued, “you’re…not from around here, are you?”

                “…more so thank you think,” Minjung muttered, “Where are we anyways? Where is here?”

                “You’re, unfortunately, stuck in the outskirts of the Yeonsa Empire,” he sighed before having a seat near them, stretching out his long legs even in their cramped conditions, “and in the grasp of ‘evil’ slave traders. Wherever you’re from, you picked a bad place to drop in at,” he looked at them curiously, “where are you from exactly? You’re clothes are…weird.”

                “Seoul,” Naeun replied. Immediately his expression turned to realization, “Uh…”

                “Ah, sorry. Don’t mind me. Well ladies, consider yourselves lucky you were picked up by this particular happy bunch. I’m Sungyeol.”

                “Naeun, this is Minjung,” Sungyeol began to stand again, stretching his arms through the bars of the cage, “uh…”

                “I was hoping to wait until we got to their camp since it was the plan, but now is as good as ever I suppose.”

                “Good for wh-AAAHH!” Naeun exclaimed in surprise when the wagon suddenly stopped, the force shaking the people in the cage around like rag dolls. Sungyeol looked to them apologetically before closing his eyes.

                “What the hell is going on back there?” A slaver up front shouted.

                “The wheels are stuck!”

                “Well then get down there and dislodge them!”

                “Oh !” A surprised scream came from another.

                Curious, Minjung and Naeun both looked out of the cage and gaped at what had stopped the wagon.

                Two massive hands made from the dirt road had emerged and were holding the front wheels of the wagon. Almost inaudibly both girls could hear something seemingly humming near them. And then there was a rumble. Naeun looked up at Sungyeol, having discerned that the sound was coming from him. His eyes opened finally and he laughed.

                “Alright! Get’em fellas!” The grpund trembled and shook and the hands withdrew back into the ground before two very large, but stout humanoid creatures shot out of the ground. They looked like they were made of the very earth itself. Sungyeol’s eyes seemed to glow with an unnatural glint of gold as he next motioned to the very surprised and stunned slavers. The automatons rushed the slavers and in very rapid succession began to beat and otherwise throttle them.

                The few that tried to fight was quickly swatted away.

                “Witchcraft! Run!”

                After their failed attempts to defeat the creatures, the slavers all scrambled and ran off, the creatures following after them.

                “Haha, that’s right you better run you…you…” Sungyeol speech slurred a little and Naeun got to her feet to help steady him, “I’m fine…just dizzy…”

                “That was…” Minjung gaped at him, “I don’t even know how to describe that-“

                “Sorcery.”

                “He’s a witch.”

                “Mommy I’m scared…”

                The whispers from the other occupants around them kept going, very low and barely audible.

                “…you ingrates,” he grumbled, leaning heavily on Naeun. She could feel his pulse racing (though if it was from the strain of whatever he did or anger, she couldn’t tell), “this is why I only do this for profit.”

                “Really? You couldn’t wait until the end?” Another male voice asked.

                Standing outside of the cage, near the locked door, was another young man, very handsome from what the girls could tell. He shook his head before rummaging in a bag for something.

                “How did you expect to get out of here without me?”

                “Luck?”

                “Aish,” the new young man sighed before producing what looked like small tools. He then proceeded to work on the lock, “I was planning on waiting for you at their base of operations so we could bring down the whole place. You’re lucky I happened to turn back.”

                “Myungsoo, you’re great, you know that?”

                “Yeah, yeah,” and with those words the lock clicked and the door swung open. The prisoners were quick to push past Sungyeol and the girls to escape their prison. They didn’t even wait before running away from the cart in the opposite direction the slavers had gone. The only exception was a small girl who tugged on Minjung and looked at her then to Sungyeol with big worried eyes.

                “Oh…he’ll be okay,” the little nodded to her words before moving to leave the cage, Myungsoo helping her down.

                “Did you get rid of your pets?” Myungsoo asked after setting the little girl down on the road and then offering a hand to help Minjung down next.

                “Yeah…I don’t think they’ll be around for…for…” As he moved, he stumbled a little and Naeun had to catch him again…but even though she managed to steady him, her own foot tripped on his…

                Fortunately for Minjung she was already out of the cage when the pair came tumbling out of there, landing on the road with an ‘oof!’.

                “Ow…”

~~~

                Jangmi couldn’t believe how tired she was. Since waking up in the forest, which only happened since Hyunok was shaking her and calling her name frantically, she’d only felt more and more tired. She was lagging behind Hyunok who was calling out for Minjung or Naeun. The older girl finally noticed that Jangmi was far behind her and paused to allow her to catch up.

                “Are you okay?”

                “Just…so tired…”

                “We can rest a bit if you need to.”

                “We have to find the others.”

                Hyunok nodded reluctantly and slowed her pace so Jangmi could keep up. She still didn’t understand why she felt so tired. They’d awoken deep in a forest so thick that sunlight seemed to barely break through the foliage. Hyunok commented that she could tell it was around noon or some other early afternoon time, but that was only because she got lucky and found an open patch in the canopy. After their initial panic, both girls had decided they needed to find help.

                “You don’t look good,” Hyunok commented after they’d walked a bit farther. Jangmi was looking paler and sweat aside from the normal perspiration was beginning to form on her face, “here, sit a for a little while.”

                “We have to find the others.”

                “You need to be able to-“

                A thundering roar echoed all around them, forcing the girls to cover their ears. They began to search for the source, fear and panic pouring out of them. Somewhere in the distance they heard something snap. Staring at them was a large creature on four legs, larger than any big cat or bear they’d ever seen, and was slowly walking towards them. Its eyes glowed with an unnatural green fire.

                “Slowly,” Jangmi instructed Hyunok, “very…slowly…”

                But it was for naught. The creature roared again before beginning to run towards them. Hyunok grabbed Jangmi and the pair ran as fast as they could through the forest, branches snapping at them as they went.

                “Ah!” Jangmi cried out when she tripped over a root and went to the ground. She tried to get up, but her arms gave out under her. Her body felt like it was on fire and she was too weak to move. Hyunok was by her side, trying to get her to her feet but Jangmi’s vision was beginning to blur.

                “Stay quiet,” Hyunok said to her quickly before standing and running in a direction away from Jangmi, “Hey!” She whistled, “Here!”

                “No!” Jangmi tried to protest, but her voice came out hoarse and quiet.

                Hyunok kept running, strangely happy that she could hear the beast following behind her. It meant that it missed Jangmi. Unfortunately for her, Hyunok was not the most athletic of her friends, an she was beginning to stumble herself in her fatigue. She kept running though. There was no plan aside from leading the creature away from Jangmi.

                Eventually Hyunok stumbled into a small clearing. Out of breath and her legs burning she couldn’t stop herself from collapsing to the ground. Gasping, Hyunok scrambled up and searched the area for her next path. Unfortunately for her, the next sound she heard was a low growl.

                Stepping into her view was the beast. She swore it looked like one of the guardian lions she’d seen at Shinto shrines. It was at least twice as big as any bear or tiger she knew about. She backed up slowly as it advanced on her until her back hit a tree. The creature growled and began to bring itself lower to the ground, looking like a cat getting ready to pounce.

                Terrified, Hyunok braced herself as it finally launched itself at her.