……Chapter 21….

Jinki couldn’t get to sleep; he was too hot. He got up from where he rested on the floor near his friends; he grabbed a less bulky hanbok from the wardrobe and stepped into the bedroom area, closed the doors behind himself and changed his clothes. When he came out he noticed they all should feel comfortable, he went back in the room and got out clothes for everyone. He watched over all his friends and his husband. He noticed Kibum was in his sleep, he went to the bedroom again and poured some water from his water jug on his nightstand in to the basin it had been sitting in. The Crown Prince couldn’t find a cloth so he used a clean sock. He wiped off Kibum’s sweat and continued on until he helped everyone.  Taemin stirred awake “Jinki, you should be sleeping.”

“I can’t when you all need me.” Jinki kissed his cheek “Honey, you are burning up. Go change your clothes. It will help cool you off. I got clothes out for everyone.”

Taemin smiled weakly “You looked good in your aqua today by the way.”

Jinki blushed “Thank you, you did too. Sorry we all got sick on our first day as a married couple.”

“It’s fine yeobo.” Taemin kissed him softly on the lips.

The others had woken up from their talking; Jonghyun opened an eye and witnessed the kiss and teased “oooh, Jinki and Taemin, smooch smooch.”

Blushing Jinki threw the wet sock at him. “shh, it Mister.” The 5 sick men laughed but then coughed from laughing. Feeling even more light- headed Jinki groaned and laid down and coughed into his hand; Taemin wiped Jinki’s sweat from his brow before going to change his clothes.  Since they had woken up they all took the opportunity to change their clothes to the lighter ones the Prince offered them from his wardrobe. While they changed Jinki’s personal maiden came to check on him. “Prince Jinki, I came as soon as I heard.” She said opening the doors. Once she stepped in she saw them all settling down on to their cushions after having changed their clothes..“Hello, Prince Taemin, I was hoping to meet you tomorrow and on happier circumstances.” She bowed to him then sat beside Jinki. “I will stay with you five and take care of you. I’ve brought some fresh water and two wash cloths. Looks like I will need three more. Should I also return with tea or anything?”

Jinki moaned “Nuna, you mustn’t be here. I do not want you sick.”

“Nonsense Prince Jinki. I don’t care if I get sick. I vowed to take care of you and I will; including today. And of course your husband and friends.” She looked kindly to the younger prince “Taemin once you are well and settled into your own chambers I will have one of my dongsaengs to assist to you daily like I assist Prince Jinki. So let’s take care of things to get you two back to normal ok?” She smiled.

“That is very kind but I really don’t want you to get what we have. Thank you for the water. We must rest, we’ll see you tomorrow.” Jinki tired again.

His loyal maiden insisted “I’ll leave shortly then but first everyone lay down. I will make sure you all have a cool forehead and you all sip some water ok?”

She helped them all to a cool drink and wiped their faces drenched in perspiration.. she made it to the crown prince last. She patted his cheeks and his temples “You are so stubborn.”Jinki smiled

“And so are you.” She smiled “Now lay down or I will tell embarrassing stories of you to your friends.”

“Nuna..Thank you for helping. Please go rest now alright?” He took a sip of water that she held up to his lips.  He swallowed his refreshment “oh and I have no embarrassing stories.” He weakly smiled as he laid his head down on the pillow.

She smirked and thought the men would like a bedtime story to make them all smile...“Imagine a 2 year old Crown Prince running through the palace... with his chubby royal bottom uncovered because he didn’t want to be bathed.”

Jinki blushed; they all laughed which forced them to cough again; Jinki covered his mouth when he coughed.. “Ok you may leave now.”

She chuckled “I didn’t mean for you to cough. But I am happy you are smiling. Good night princes, Kim, Kim, and Choi.”   Once His chamber maid left Jinki looked at his hand he had coughed in, his eyes widened for he had seen blood droplets on his palm. Jinki closed his fist and his eyes, laying his head down onto the pillowly cushion. “I saw that hyung.” Minho whispered; the 12^th hour began and their human bodies started rapidly breaking down...

“Saw what?” Kibum lifted his head. “Jinki” he gasped once he saw his lip. “Taemin, Jinki’s bleeding!” Jinki wiped his mouth. “I ..I can’t breathe. My chest feels tight.” Jinki panted.

Lying on his back, facing the ceiling, Taemin couldn’t move too see Jinki’s face; he struggled to talk. “I can’t lift my head, it feels so heavy.”

Jonghyun groaned painfully as he sat up to see what was happening. “Taemin? Jinki?” Jinki scooted over and pulled Taemin closer to him. Jinki panted heavily as he tried to breathe, Taemin could only blink as Jinki’s arm snuck its way under the younger’s neck; Taemin’s head lolled to the side, his check pillowed onto Jinki’s chest. He mumbled “Jinki I’m scared, my heart really hurts. I feel I’m going to have a heart attack.” Both their lungs felt tight in their chest. “Don’t be scared, I got you.” Suddenly a few strands of Jinki’s bangs lost its silky onyx shine; the gorgeous ebony pigment faded from the tip of the strands replacing it was a bright white stripe.

“Kibum what is happening to them?” Jonghyun asked nervously “How did that happen?” he looked back to Minho who looked shorter; his feet were no longer sticking out from the blanket. “I don’t think this is the same thing the king and queen are ill with..” He was suddenly hit with pain making him groan loudly in mid sentence “…ooohh uurghh”; Jonghyun hunched forward and gripped his stomach for his belly flipped. “I think I‘m going to lose my lunch” 

Kibum opened his mouth to voice a response to Jonghyun but a tidal wave of nauseating dizziness overcame him. He tried in vain to steady his heavy head, it swayed in a circle; his eyes rolled back into his head; He passed out and fell back onto his pillow. Jonghyun panicked. “Kibum!” Jinki held the paralyzed Taemin tighter to comfort him as they all began to groan horrifically.. Minho tried to crawl on his stomach, using his elbows to inch himself along to Jinki and Taemin to check on them. The pain as he moved made the room spin. “hyung-nim, Taeminah, its going to be ok. I’m still here, I will help you.” Minho flipped the wet cloth on Taemin’s head over so it would feel cooler first before getting to Jinki’s.  Taemin could feel little shaky vibrations “Jinki, you are trembling.” Taemin panted coarsely through a fiery throat.” “Sorry.” “Don’t be.” Taemin mumbled out of breath just from talking. Jinki kissed his head and when he did the crown prince’s hair slipped forward; Taemin and Jinki finally saw his white bangs. Jinki panicked “My..hair!?” They looked at Minho shocked. Minho frowned and sadly murmured breathily “I don’t know hyung. It just happened.” A silence fell upon them as they all looked worriedly at one another….Minho didn’t bother to go back to his body pillow, he rolled weakly on to his back, his head thudding on the hard floor next to the crown prince’s shoulder, too weak to move…

……As every minute passed they got weaker and hotter and yet cold at the same time: sweating profusely with goosebumps; every bone and joint ached as their bodies were transforming rapidly, taking animalistic shape internally and slowly on the outside. The pure hearted men hadn’t even noticed they had fallen asleep huddled up next to one another until one of them would wake up groaning and painfully or randomly tossed or turned. Periodically who ever woke up would try to take care of the others the best they could but eventually the agony was too unbearable that it made them fall into a deep slumber from the excruciating pain before it was even sunset…..

…………

It was midnight when Minho woke up discombobulated under a very heavy piece of material. He felt the weight of something, he opened his eyes; he hadn’t remembered falling asleep under the blanket. He reached up to remove the covers; as soon as his hand was in his eye’s sight he screamed: horrified at what he saw “AHH!” waking Jonghyun up. Jonghyun lifted his achy head and batted his eyes open, he was disoriented as well but he did manage to focus his eyes and saw a tiny lump where Minho should be.  “Minho?”

“Help me! Help me!” Minho panicked from under the blanket.

Jonghyun reached for the blanket and screamed when he saw his own hand too; it was a light golden brown paw. “Woof!” he screamed again at hearing his own voice bark “AHH!”:  startling Kibum awake. Jonghyun scurried backwards seeing a crimson fox lying snuggled in the pile of pillows staring at him. Jonghyun tripped over the clothes he shed while he morphed into an animal as he backed away from the fox. The fox was frightened and scurried back as well all tangled in his light hanbok the prince let him wear before he became nonhuman and tripped over a chubby white teeny bunny that groaned like Jinki, waking it from its sleep. “Ow! You stepped on me” Jinki rolled over but before he could see his friends he saw his own ear flop down in front of his face. The Crown Prince began freaking out, he looked at the ear while panting heavily, he shot his eyes down: scanning his fluffy round body  “ohhh my god! Taemin! Wake up! Wake up! Help me!” he stared at his furry white paws as he yelled for him.. When he looked down onto his chest a sleepy black kitten was waking up. “AH!” Jinki and his husband screamed at one another when they saw the other. “AHH!” They looked around the room and finally saw a dog and fox: they screamed again. “Kibum Jonghyun! Help, there are animals in here!”  Jinki and Taemin were so small they slipped out through the collar of their hanboks while they had been sleeping; Taemin’s tail was still inside his hanbok until it swayed nervously and slipped out in all the commotion. 

“It’s us!” they barked

“What!?” Taemin panicked more. Taemin and the crown prince glanced at each other and before they could ask about Minho…“What is happening? Help me! I’m suffocating!” Minho yelled again. Jinki stood up on his wobbly tiny stubby legs and crept over to the blanket. A shiny blue frog with black speckles darted out and landed on the hardwood floor startling them making them all jump back.

Minho’s round eyes widened farther when he saw his friends were gone and were replaced with 4 animals. He looked down at his hands and felt his smooth body. “What? what happened? I don’t understand? Am I dreaming?”

 “Minhoah? Is that you?” Jinki breathed shocked; the prince crouched down to be eye level and placed his chin on the floor. His pink nose wiggled up and down nervously.

“Prince Jinki, what happened to you? What happened to me? I’m a ...I’m a frog!” He looked away from him and stared at his webbed hands. “Why? How?” Shocked and frightened the five of them began talking over the other in complete chaos...

……

After 10 long minutes of shouting in a panic they all took a moment to try and calm down; stunned and in disbelief they looked at one another: Checking each other out. “Do I have a tail?” Jonghyun asked nervously not wanting to look; Minho nodded and reluctantly answered “Yes.”

Taemin cried “What is going on? Are we dreaming?..This can’t be real.”

“It’s ok yeobo. We’ll figure this out.” Jinki hugged the tiny kitten.

Suddenly a loud cackling laugh echoed in the room. They all looked up and saw Leeteuk towering above them shutting and locking the doors behind himself. “You did this!” Minho growled leaping onto the devils chest but was instantly flicked off. The crown’s defender flew across the room behind Kibum. “Not so intimidating now are you solider?” Leeteuk smirked wickedly.

Jonghyun growled and lunged forward to gnaw on Leeteuk’s leg but was kicked away harshly. Jonghyun yelped as he landed backwards and skidded across the hardwood floor into Kibum. “What have you done?” Taemin bawled and raced to their aid. “How could you?!” Jinki yelled hopping forward in his new little body, bravely. 

Leeteuk picked him up by the scruff of his neck to look Jinki in the eyes. The lord snarkly cooed “aww, how adorable. Well, little bunny rabbit I could because I can. So I did.” Then happily chirped “ Today was such a lovely day. I didn’t think the 7 of you would get so sick so soon. You weren’t supposed to get sick until 12 hours after we shared drinks then be sick for 24 hours then transform but this works out even better. So I didn’t have to wait the whole 36 hours. I was giddy all day seeing you all suffer sooner rather than later.” He smirked and raised a satisfied brow; Leeteuk’s words just as venomous and as hurtful as the toxin in their blood cells.

“Seven?.. My parents.”He gasped then sneered “What have you done with them?”

The elder spat back “Exactly what you think I did!” He changed hands; holding the prince by his ears now, he griped painfully tight: making the prince wince in pain “They have not yet changed but they will be mice, filthy rodents for soiling the kingdom by birthing you and defiling the throne by letting you marry that thing you call Taemin. Your friend a fox, you do know they eat rabbit’s right? Your lowly friend a dog, the king’s solider a puny itty bitty harmless frog.” He laughed “I made everyone resemble the scum that they are and what are you going to do about it?”

Infuriated Jinki grit his teeth and threatened. “I will kill you!”

“I don’t see how” He dropped Jinki to the ground; he landed painfully on the floor.

The four animals raced to Jinki. Taemin cradled his husbands head in his lap, hugging his furry white head, his hurt bunny ears. “How could you do this to your own family?” Taemin stammered through tears.

“Shut up scaredy cat or I will cut off your tail.” Taemin tucked his tail under his bottom and held Jinki tighter.

“I hate you!” Jinki glared.

“I am surprised you didn’t realize you were all poisoned.”

“Why would we think that?” Kibum barked “We have a soul unlike you. What you have done is sinfully unimaginable; no one would do something like this.”

Leeteuk growled sharply. “Well, I did!”

Key barked “No one deserves this, you evil basta--”Leeteuk stepped forward about to kick the fox for what he was about to say when they heard a knock on the window; Kibum flinched and had braced for the impacted but the malevolent man quickly turned away and never kicked him; Leeteuk opened the wooden window letting Heechul in.

“The parents are sleeping we can get them once they morph, but quickly let’s put them in the bag.”  He whispered to Leeteuk but the friends had good hearing now that they were animals. They instantly scatted around the room so they couldn’t get captured…. 

Leeteuk and Heechul ran around trying to catch them, knocking things over as they fell over trying to grab them. The seven souls slipped over the heap of clothes that were shed when the five men transformed. Their pillows they had been sleeping on were being stepped on and kicked around as the animals and humans ran around fighting with each other. Heechul fought with the fox; they tumbled to the ground after the fox pounced on his chest. They landed on Kibum’s gat, the foxes leg got stuck on the long loop of beads that attach to his brim. As he tried to claw at Heechul it tore the beads from the hat sending them scattering, rolling around the floor: causing Leeteuk to fall again. Heechul pushed the fox off him and kicked him; Kibum’s claws dug into the floorboards and scrapped the wood in streaks as his body skidded along the floor from the violent kick to his ribs.  The Dog tried to help the fox by running to his aid momentarily. In his haste he left nail marks in the wood as well…. When the men chased them to the bedroom, they knocked the royal aqua clothes, Jinki neatly folded, off the bed and onto the floor… The animals hid under and behind the furniture in the room while periodically trying to sneak attack the men.  In their chase they destroyed both rooms of the Crown Prince Chamber, running into tables and the wardrobe as the animals escaped their grasp by millimeters. The bunny ran between their feet, making them trip and fall. The cat clawed at the men’s legs once they had fallen but Chief Choi ordered the princes to hide; the frog bounced off the Lord’s face and kicked his webbed foot into Heechul’s eye before leaping away. The dog jumped out from behind a table and attacked Leeteuk again as the fox lunged out from under the bed and attacked Heechul, biting his leg, his sharp teeth cutting deep into his flesh, drawing blood. They had ripped Taemin’s aqua hanbok as they struggled; it landed in the blood. Leeteuk picked up a vase from the side table and hit the canine in the head to stop him from biting his leg for he had drawn blood as well; Heechul punched the fox in the cheekbone; but they growled and bravely wouldn’t let go of the humans. 

Heechul’s robe got torn as he finally was able to kick the fox off his leg a few minutes later…The animals were losing steam and couldn’t keep it up for long, their bodies weak in their new form; they lost as the humans finally cornered them and won the chase. Heechul trapped the bunny and cat behind a wooden chest. The next thing the couple knew they found themselves cloaked in darkness as the bag came crashing down on them. Heechul quickly scooped the bag up with them inside; Minho jumped on him trying to protect the two princes. “I’ll kill you for treason!” However there was nothing his little body could do for Heechul grabbed the frog with ease and slung him into the bag.  Leeteuk had knocked the dog unconscious with the vase he broke on Jonghyun’s temple; Heechul opened the bag and let his evil master dump the limp body into the bag on top of the smaller animals.  Kibum snarled “You won’t get away with this!”

“Oh, but I have.” With a sharp swift kick in Kibum’s gut the fox collapsed onto his stomach. He was scooped up and dumped in the bag with his fellow loyal countrymen……..

 “Remember we aren’t safe until after full transformation. We have to hide them until they lose their human voices. If anyone hears the animals speak, that would give it away. You wouldn’t want the King’s voice coming out of an animal would you?” Heechul whispered as they escaped the Crown Prince Building

“I remember very well” Leeteuk reassured him.

“Shouldn’t we kill them?”

“Kill ‘em? Where is the fun in that? As fast as they transformed they won’t live through the changes anyway so take them away to die where no one can save them while they still have human voices. Now let’s deal with his awful parents.”

…..….

Outside the King’s building the foul man asked “well?”

Heechul looked through the King’s window that had been left open to keep a cool breeze on the King and Queen: Heechul quietly answered “they haven’t morphed yet. They’re sleeping so are the chambermaids...” He ducked down and whispered hopefully “Maybe they are dead. I wonder why they haven’t changed yet.”

“Who cares why? Maybe this is better actually; this will work in our favor: I have a plan. But first I need you to get rid of the five in this sack. I will do the rest while you take care of Jinki and his men. Take them far away, hopefully since they changed more rapidly than excepted, they will keep changing hastily and forget themselves and the animal instincts will take over and they will tear each other apart and eat one another. Oh how I wish could be there to watch Kibum hunt the stupid rabbit and see Jonghyun eat Jinki’s “wife.” That is why I don’t want to kill them, I want them to kill each other in a sick twist of fate.” Leeteuk chuckled.. “But alas there is no time for such pleasure. I must act like I care for the king and queen and be there to pick up the pieces once they pass into the afterlife. Or be ready to stomp the life out of their mice bodies if and when they do change.”

Heechul asked “Where should I take them your highness?”

“hmm, well Jinki’s family believes in that stupid myth about how the 1^st Queen came from heaven and entered through Emerald Fields, that section she came from is also like a part of heaven. Past kings and Queens’s souls rest there they say.. Being disgracefully married to a man; Ha, I wonder what the angelic first Queen and her noble King would think of their heir being a homoual, shaming their name and heaven and all they worked for in building this kingdom. You must take Jinki to them. If it is true heaven is there then let them see the embarrassing spawn the most recent King and Queen birthed… Anyways people respectfully never journey there to not disturb the ancestors at rest. No one will look for them there. It’s where his family goes when they die, he can go there to die.” He said with a sickening smile “I’m still hoping they will eat one another.  Maybe they will just be trapped there and maybe they won’t be able to survive the transformation when they fully form in 3 months and maybe it won’t even take that long.. And if they die trying to find their way back, well…” he smirked “…it will be such a fitting place for him to do so: Ending the Royal Lee line right where it started: Emerald Fields.”

ch 1-3 makes sense now, yes?  We are coming full circle....The  next chapter will blend it all together just in case you forgot those earlier chapters as they will  wake up soon from this long flashback/dream. 

<3<3<3<3<3 Don't forget to comment pretty pretty please!  <3<3<3<3<3