…………Chapter 3………….

The three kept a watchful eye on the sleeping pair who were having strange dreams. Too many questions and the harder the five of them tried to figure it out or tried to remember, the worst they felt as if their bodies were tampered with. Their blood, their every cell was fighting against them making it painful to remember and to even think….

Jinki and Taemin had begun tossing and turning in their sleep……Once Jinki passed out he dreamed of the black kitten from a few hours ago, darting hastily out of the tall grass and landing on his chest. But that image faded to a black haired boy in his early teens in a silky posh hanbok playfully jumping out from behind a bookcase and landing on his chest. But in this dream he wasn’t a rabbit but a young human teenage boy. The two young teens stared at one another shyly with blushing cheeks. Why was Jinki looking out through human eyes? Was the one lying on his back really Jinki? Whoever those humans were, the tokki felt that it was the moment that these two young humans both realized they were in love for the first time. The boy on top of him had beautiful dark brown eyes that sparkled like stars, and long bangs framing the side of his face. With sweet innocent glances and adorable smiles they separated; the younger boy got off him. Was the other boy Taemin?..that question and the others freaked out the rabbit and that shock made him begin to wake…..

The cat was dreaming of how the tokki helped him off the log they walked across earlier and that memory faded to a large room where he saw two human’s in their late teens at a writing table in the middle of an expensive room sitting on the floor. The cat walked closer to them; the humans couldn’t see him. The older boy was sitting rather close to the younger who was writing something with his brush. The older teenager tenderly wrapped his fingers around the younger’s helping him place his brush . The cat smiled as he saw the two human’s smile and blush deeply. The cat could feel their love radiating from them; he felt embarrassed that he was in the room during such a private moment; it looked like they would kiss any moment. But curiosity got the cat wondering: what were they doing? The kitten stood up on his hind legs; with front paws on the tiny writing table he looked down to see what they had been writing. On the paper in flawless Hanja was written: Taemin.  His eyes widened; it scared the kitten; he fell backwards and scurried away from the table next to a chest that was against the wall under the window. Why were they writing his name? Suddenly the kitten and the human’s heard people coming. The elder boy got up and ran over to the chest; the cat ducked down even though they couldn’t see him. The older boy stood on top of the wooden chest then sat in the windowsill and smiled handsomely up at the younger boy “Do you want our first kiss?” Those words made the cat feel lightheaded and soon he was seeing things through the younger teenager’s eyes. The older boy held out his hand, “Then come on Taemin, follow me. Hurry” Placing his hand in his, Taemin let the male help him step out of the window first. The older boy swung his legs out of the window and hopped down and shut his windows then grabbed Taemin’s hand. The young lovers started running and laughing…  Was that really him? And who was that other boy?... The confusing dreams had him the same as Jinki: hurting and shocked; the kitten began to arise from his short slumber before the humans reached their destination for that kiss.…

“They are waking!” Minho announced. “Jinki are you ok?” He patted his furry white cheek softly.

Jonghyun his other cheek “Wake up, please. We are here for you.”

Kibum tenderly rubbed his nose on him tenderly as a happy tear fell from his eye. “Jinki?” Jinki stirred, he winched for he had a terrible headache. The three animals backed up for him to sit up. Which Jinki did slowly and finally opened his eyes. “What happened?”

Taemin snapped open his eyes but despite his dreadful headache he shot up straight; he was frightened by his dream. He couldn’t stop breathing heavily. The tokki hugged him and patted his back. “Taemin you are shaking, are you ok? I’m sorry I passed out. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I passed out too. I had a nightmare. I was watching these humans and they were flirting or something. They wrote my name for some reason then I turned into the younger human. The other man has your eyes and your smile. He called me Taemin. But it couldn’t have been me because I was in a human body. How’d they know my name? Why would that man call that younger one by my name?”

Jinki widened his eyes and pulled out of the hug to look him in the eyes. Even through the kitten’s water eyes, the tokki could see the sunlight making the flecks of color in the cats eyes sparkle like millions of tiny stars just like the young boy in his own dream. “Taemin, I dreamed of two human boys too. I think one of them was you and the other was me.”

“What?” Jonghyun asked. “How can you be humans and how can the two of you dream of the same persons? It was just an odd dream caused by pain. Now we must find out why we all keep getting really bad headaches and why we can’t remember anything.”

“We are getting headaches every time we try and remember. I have a confession.” The frog spoke up. “I had a thought while climbing the tree before you both passed out; it’s why I almost fell. I saw a human man in my mind too. He had your eyes Jinki. I think there is something to this.”

“Me too” said the fox “More than ever we must find out why.”

“But how?” Asked the puppy.

The fox answered “I don’t know but we all have had a moment since we all met today that we thought either someone’s eyes or smiles or voices or words sounded familiar. Three of us had thoughts about humans. We are all forgetful. And it seems the more we try to remember anything before this morning we start to hurt. Something isn’t right at all. I think we all know each other and Taemin before you passed out you said Save Jinki and I think Jinki is the key to our memory.” They all sat there thinking of what to do next…the fox had an idea. “Earlier I said I was smart. I believe I was before I lost my memory. How did I have knowledge of a dart frog? How did I know he was poisonous?”

The frog narrowed his brows “I’m not.”

“I know, Minho. But if you eat certain fruits you can be. Anyway my point is, what if we were all poisoned?”

“Well how did we get poisoned? Was it an accident?” Jinki wondered aloud. “hmm, Kimchi must be a human thing you were talking about earlier, Kibum.” He paused and then asked “What’s a wedding? I think kimchi has to do with a wedding, but what is it?”

They all shrugged not knowing.

“Is there anything that can turn humans to animals? Or was it something that just erased our memories?”  Taemin asked as he sniffled. “Why does it hurt to remember?” it fell silent again as they all sat there sadly mourning their thoughts. “I feel in my gut what we are all thinking right? We are humans aren’t we?” Taemin looked up to Jinki and the elder responded “I’m not sure. But Taemin, I don’t think we are looking for your home but ours. If we are the humans in our dreams then I think you and I live together.”

Taemin looked away to hide his blushing cheeks. “May I talk to you?” he got up and walked away for privacy. The tokki followed. Once alone Taemin nibbled his bottom lip; Jinki waited patiently for him to start talking, which took awhile for the kitten to gain courage. “In your dream did you…like me?”

Jinki lowered his ears and covered his cheeks with them before they started blushing. “Yes, the human liked you very much. He…He loved you. Did the human in your dream like the human me too?”

Taemin mumbled “Yes the humans loved each other more than anything, I could feel it. I was in the boy’s body and the way the human you held my hand made my heart thump so fast. And there is something else...You wanted to kiss me.”

“Oh.” Jinki smiled cutely; they both shyly looked away and giggled bashfully.

“Well, then I guess we did live together. If our dreams were real that is.” Taemin sweetly smiled. Jinki nodded adorably as he uncovered his flushed cheeks.

As they walked back to the others Taemin spoke softly. “You mentioned kimchi and a wedding...maybe if we were human and our dreams were real and meant something…maybe we are married? And maybe that is why we smell the same?”

Jinki laughed “Yeah but why do we smell like flowers?”

Taemin laughed too “I don’t know.” The tokki pet his head as they walked closer all giggly back to the group…

The three saw Jinki and Taemin laughing and that brought all their spirits up that Jonghyun barked happily. “Come on, we aren’t going to find answers just sitting around. Let’s go find out our truth.”

“Yes, let’s!” They cheered.

……….

They had walked all day long and they were getting tired. They kept trying to remember things. Anything. If they had been to this section of Emerald Fields before. Minho hypothesized that they all meet by the tree because perhaps that was the last time they all saw each other before they forgot who they were and were drawn to it somehow unknowingly. Jonghyun had told him they met him later in the day and at a different tree though. Minho said “well, maybe I just went to the wrong tree.” They giggled and stepped out of the tall soft grass and into a clearing with much shorter grass that didn’t tower all around them.

The direction of the wind changed and suddenly the tokki smelled something that made him smile. “I know that scent.”

“What is it? I can’t smell anything?” Taemin pouted.

“Its…its I don’t know. It’s something yellow that’s all I can remember.”

Another gust of wind blew and this time over Taemin; he giggled when he finally was able to smell it “Its...its flowers!” he had no idea why he and Jinki felt so happy but they grinned at each other and took off in the direction of the heavenly scent…

......

It took an hour or so; they had wondered to the center of the enchanted landscape and found themselves in the most sacred place in the entire Kingdom. It was stunningly beautiful; they could see yellow flowers in the distance across the meadow. “Is this still Emerald Fields?” Taemin gasped in awe. “I believe so.” Jinki answered softly as if it would be disrespectful to raise ones voice here in the heavenly beauty.

 Jonghyun cocked his head as the elegant fragrance of the flowers drifted into the air and hit him straight in his senses. “These flowers smell like you and Taemin.”

Jinki and Taemin looked at each other then back into the distance. “We must go there.” Jinki said and bounced away towards the garden of yellow hibiscus’s that blanketed the ground in the distance. As they approached the wall of flowers Jinki and Taemin’s head began to hurt badly. Jinki’s heart was racing and his head hurt even worse, he had a flash of a human man plucking a flower; Taemin had a flash of thought of human men sitting under the light of the moon surrounded by yellow flowers, one of the men placed a flower behind the others ear. Taemin stumbled from the sharp pain pulsing in his head. “Jinki” he murmured. The tokki whispered back “I am having flashes too Taemin. This must mean something. We must carry on. I think we are on the right track.”

The black kitten groaned and grimaced from the throbbing pain in his head. “I think so too.”

The other three followed behind; seeing the two walking side by side in front them and surrounded by the sweet floral scent they too had flashes of memory. In their mind’s eye they saw a man dressed in a lavish yellow hanbok wearing a golden headpiece standing side by side with another man wearing a handsome green hanbok with a regal black headpiece with beads dangling from it. Somehow they knew it had been an image of a royal wedding that popped into their minds. Kibum winched as a pain shot through his brain. The others glanced at him “Are you ok Kibum?” Minho asked as he hoped off Jonghyun and onto Kibum’s shoulder. “I just thought I saw a wedding in my head.” “Me too.” The frog and puppy admitted. “We must catch up. Maybe they saw it too.” Jonghyun padded quickly up to the bunny and kitten.

As they made their way across the short grass and closer and closer to the yellow garden they saw a white light glowing behind the flowers. “What is it?” Jonghyun asked quietly. “I’m not sure” Jinki replied. They walked in silence and entered the flowers.. Jinki and Taemin thought they had been here before or at least a place that looks similar to this one.  The small rabbit led the way, he gently pushed the flower stems out of his way to go between them. Taemin looked up, the bright yellow petals hanging over his head were swaying prettily as they maneuvered through the field of hibiscus’s. “Yellow flowers mean something.” Jinki mumbled. “mm mm” Taemin hummed as he admired their beauty. “I think… I think you gave me one once.”  The other three animals didn’t know the significance of the flowers. Technically, neither did Jinki and Taemin but at least it was a start that it felt familiar to them. 

Suddenly a beautiful and graceful soft feminine voice called out from the light. “Jinki is that you? Where are you? I feel you are close. I’ve been searching for you. Jinki?”

The others were hesitant after hearing a voice call out the tokki’s name but he was determined to find out what was going on no matter what. Jinki hurried his steps but kept careful not to damage the flowers. He saw the light glowing brighter behind the flower stems as he made his way closer to it.  Finally the five lost souls came to another clearing; it was small and round for the tiny animals were still surrounded by the flowers, in circled by them; the area seemed just big enough to fit the five of them and the glowing object that was coming from the flowers in front of them. They paused in the open area and watched and waited anxiously as the light came closer; the tall flowers swayed as whatever it was neared….. The flowers parted and a beautiful glowing humanoid lady with regal snow white skin, elegantly walked out of the yellow flowers and onto the circular patch of grass and cooed softly, overwhelmingly relieved “ooh, Jinki there you are!”  With full lips and long flowing raven black hair cascading down her shoulders, she was clothed in long pure white feminine hanbok robes. The hems of her long sleeves were laced in a glimmering shiny pearl aqua leaf pattern trim. A golden yellow flower, matching the ones around them, was centered in the middle of her belt.

Awestruck by her stunning beauty, Taemin breathed softly “she is an angel” He bowed respectfully. The others followed Taemin’s lead; the tall illuminated lady knelt down and bowed to them. She came up from her formal bow and held her long white sleeve of her heavenly hanbok with her left hand, revealing her right hand; she held out her palm and voiced tenderly “I was frightened for you and Taemin. I’m beyond happy to see you made it out alive.”

Beyond confused and suddenly filled with millions of questions and unsure what to ask first;   Jinki hopped closer after he bowed and spoke softly but yet determined “Made it out? Out alive?”  He tilted his head forcing his ear to flop down; his pink nose wiggled nervously “I don’t understand. You know Taemin and I? Who are we? Who are you?” He hopped into her hand. “Are you really an angel? Can you help us? How do you know us, Angel-nim?”

“I know who you are my dearest.” she said sweetly. “I can see you no matter what your form. I know all of you actually.” She smiled and his ears back behind his head as she brought him close and hugged him into her bosom lovingly. “I’ve been looking for you boys for weeks. I never gave up hope. After I found out what happened to the King and his beloved wife, I went straight to your room to warn you and save you and Taemin from the evil. At the time I had no idea it happened to all of you. You weren’t in your room Jinki; it looked like a struggle had taken place. I knew something went wrong before I had gotten there.  I was too late. Next thing I remember was I was here and then I was informed by the heavens what truly happened and I have been searching for you ever since. But by now you have forgotten haven’t you? I must fix that so you may save the Kingdom. It is dire that you do so.”

With his ear against her heart Jinki lifted his head to see her beautiful face and asked softly “What happened to us? Are you my guardian angel?”

“The answer will reveal itself. I was given the power to save you and your band of brothers. You lot were born to save and restore the throne.”

They all looked at each other confused and mentally said “what?” inside their heads. They looked back up at the angel. Needing to understand more than ever Jinki said bravely. “Please help us. We are ready.”

“Yes, of course. There is no time to waste; it is after all your throne, your Kingdom, your highness.”

Jinki’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped “M-Mine? How can it be? I’m just a rabbit.”

“Free your mind Prince Jinki and the truth will be shown to you.” She placed the rabbit down softly. She smiled sweetly and snapped her fingers; a red flower appeared in her hand “Kim Jonghyun,” she said plucking a crimson petal from it “Please, Lie down.”

Jonghyun tucked his tail under his legs feeling nervous; but did what the angel asked of him. He rested his chin on his crossed paws. She placed the red petal next to him. She snapped her fingers again and a pink flower for her to pluck a petal was suddenly in her fingers “Kim Kibum, please, next to Jonghyun.” Kibum nodded his head and laid down. She placed the petal next to him. Minho was next and his petal was blue. Taemin followed afterward who was honored with the golden yellow petal. She winked at him and it made him smile awkwardly and shyly. What did that wink mean? The angel placed his yellow petal next to him.

“Prince, your turn.” She smiled kindly; the tokki lay close to Taemin.

She picked up the red petal “Kim Jonghyun the playful and tender hearted.”  The puppy’s eyes crossed a bit as he watched her place the petal on his forehead.

Picking up the pink petal she placed it on the red fur of the Fox’s forehead. “Kim Kibum, the honest and wise.” 

She smiled at the frog “You may lie on your blue petal Minho, I don’t want to cover you.” She giggled cutely. The rabbit and the kitten glanced at one another briefly for her light chuckle sounded familiar; Minho jumped onto his flower petal which was the same color of his teeny body. “Choi Minho the brave and loyal.” 

She picked up the yellow follower “Lee Taemin, the pure and innocent” Gently the petal was placed on his forehead making it seem even brighter against his jet black fur.

The angel pet the tokki’s soft white coat and a tear slipped from her eye. “Is remembering going to hurt? All day it has.” The bunny asked softly. She answered compassionately “No, my sweet Prince. I won’t let it. That is what the heavenly flowers are for. They will absorb the pain so you may see your past. You will fall asleep and dream what happened: you will see your life. When you wake up you will know all as I do. You forgotten so much already and we must hurry before it all fades and can’t be returned to you.” The angel snapped her fingers for the last time and a shiny green flower manifested in her hand. After she plucked its petal she placed the emerald green petal upon his head between his long floppy white ears “The man who shares all of the above qualities with his special friends. Lee Jinki, the kind and beloved, the regal and rightful heir to the throne. Prince Jinki of the SHINee Kingdom.” She waved her right hand over their heads; her heavenly power made them close their eyes instantly; they slipped peacefully into a dream-like state where all their memories could be restored......

You'll get to see their human lives next XD