C H A P T E R       O N E     

    T h e   C h a s e  

    Her bare feet glidded gracefuly as she walked along the forest floor. Stepping on twigs and tiny pebbles along the way, but that didnt seem to bother her. She was practically immune to the pricking feeling of the Earth under her feet. Today, Mirae and the others had decided to split up and meet back at the cabin after doing a perimeter check around their land.  Mirae pulled her brown, waist-length hair out of the hair-tie that held it up befor placing the elastic around her wrist as she continued to roam the forest. She walked through some bushes, her knee-length white, cloth dress occasionaly getting caught in the small branches as she pushed her way through.

  Her slim, delicate fingers glided across the rough bark of a nearby tree as she poked her head around it, using her hieghtened senses to seek out anything that would be 'out-of-order' in their forest. Her eyes shimmered a bright, vibrant purple and her black pupils rimmed with silver as she scanned the abandoned forest intently. Feeling satisfied, Mirae decided it would be time to head back to the cabin to tell the others that there certainly isn't anything abnormal in their parts of the forest. 

 While making her way back to the cabin, Mirae spotted her spirit animal wondering nearby, and she called her cat companion over to her. The large sabertooth rubbed itself against her in an affectionate way, his loud purring filled her ears. As vicious as he looks, he's the sweetest spirit animal she has ever come across, and not only that but he's very protective of Mirae and the forest.  "Have you seen anything, Kika?" Mirae asked the spirit creature, and it gave a simple shake of it's head, telling her 'no'. She nodded in approval and ran a delicate hand along its slender back, making the bone's in his spine move in a wave-like motion to show how good that motion felt. 

 "Alright then, off you go. I'll be at the cabin if anything goes wrong, okay?" she told Kika before sending him off, she watched as her companion walked away and disapeared into the air, leaving nothing in his trail. Mirae began to regret letting her companion go though, because the moment she turned around, she was in for a little surprise that she didn't quite expect...

  "Jesus, why is Kris always sending us out to do perimeter checks?! Nothing has happened in more than a hundred years, and I highly doubt anything is going to happen now" Tao complained.  Him and Baekhyun were roaming the forest on their side of the boundary line as well, making sure everything was in the normal before heading back to their village. Baekhyun groaned and rolled his eyes because out of all the members in their pack, he just had to get sent with Tao, "Just shut up and stop your whinning. What are you, two? The faster we move- the faster it gets done" he scolded, saying the last sentence in a mocking tone. 

 Tao stepped ontop of a large log, his brows furrowed and mouth slightly ajar as he gaped at Baekhyun's back, "I'm just saying! I think Kris is just paranoid if you ask me. Even Jongin, he agreed once Kris decided to send us out, like... what's their deal? I mean, I know what their deal is and why they hate the Aina's so much but-"

 "ZITAO!" 

 Tao shut his mouth instantly upon hearing his full name, an expression of guilt and embarassment crossed his face as he semi-glared at a now fuming Baekhyun, "You are so lucky I'm not kicking your right now for being an annoying little...pup" Baekhyun huffed, trying to keep his 'colorful' language at a minimum. Tao only rolled his eyes, hopping off the log and trailing behind Baekhyun, afraid if he was to get any closer he might flip. Baekhyun averted his eyes to the ground before stepping over a large branch, and the second he looked back up, what he didn't expect was to find a girl only feet away from both Tao and himself, staring at the both of them with widened eyes. 

 Mirae stood there glued to her spot like she was a deer caught in headlights. What were other people doing here in the forest? The fact that they were apart of the elite wolf pack didn't even cross her mind, but instead, scenarios such as; people from the city, or maybe even other possible supernatural beings such as vampires, hunters, or even mages such as herself came to mind. All three of them stayed rooted to the ground for the longest time, staring at one another, waiting for one person to make the first move. The longer they stood there, the more anxious Mirae grew. So without wasting another second- she decided to make a run for it. She threw down a quick explosion spell, causing a huge smoke screen to block the two males view of her as she made a head start further in to the forest. But a little smoke can't stop these two wolves. 

 "Tao!" 

 "Already thinking it," the younger one said smuggedly. The two smirked at one another before they began to run after the girl in the white dress. Her legs began to pick up speed when she heard fast pounding footsteps only feet behind her. Her arms cut through the air in fast motions, her long brunette hair flying in back of her as she dashes across the forest floor. The tattoo around her mid thigh begins to glow, showing that she's in a panic. She's yet so far from the cabin that theres no way she'll make it back, especially with how fast the two males were. They watched the girl swerve and manuever effortlessly around the trees. But what shocked them the most was the second the girl decided to take this chase up into the tree-tops. She jumped up and clinged onto the closest tree branch, dangling there for a second before hoisting herself up onto the large, thickness of the tree and began to run across it like it was some kind of pathway. 

 Both Tao and Baekhyun gave eachother bewildered looks as they still were running on the land down below the girl in the treetops. They craned their necks the slightest bit and saw that she was a few feet ahead. She jumped from branch to branch, and tree to tree. She even swung from vines. The actions were so effortless that it made the two wolves look like complete wimps. And they most certainly won't let a girl show them off like this. 

 "I take top, you stay down here just incase she decides to stop playing monkey and comes down" Baekhyun instructed the younger one whom only nodded his head as he began to pick up his speed. Baekhyun released his wolf-like claws and climbed up the trunk of the nearest tree and began to run across it, gaining on the girls tail. His eyes never left the white of her dress, the only thing that was making her so noticeable in this dark, jade-colored forest that had many colors of copper, gold, and other exotic colors.

 Only for a second did Mirae look back, and the moment she saw one of the males in the tree was when she began to pannick. Dammit! she mentally cursed. With a flick of her wrist she made the vines that intertwined themselves with the trees attack Baekhyun, rooting him down to the spot he was currently in. They wrapped themselves around his biceps, stomach, and legs. He released an irritable growl before plying himself out of the vines, and ripping them apart, causing the magic in them to die down and making them go limp so that he could run after the girl once again. 

 Mirae was looking below her now, and through the leaves and branches did she see the other male running beneath her. With the second of eyecontact, Mirae could see the little smirk the dark-eyed male gave her and it only made her skin crawl. She needed another way to distract them, get rid of them- anything! But her mind was all over the place, and so scattered that she couldnt even think of the right spell to do anything! And even now her mind was so occupied to the point that she didn't even realise the large hole in the aged tree branch, and when she approached it, she fell right through. She hit vines and other branches on the way down, making fresh cuts and bruises on her sensitive skin, and after a few long minutes of free falling, she finaly hit the ground side first. And S