The wind turbine field scared me for a long while, since it was heard to be a myth. Decades before, the wind turbines had powered most of our side of the world, and we had several fields of these giant producers of energy. When we had been invaded and had to build up the walls, we ended up relying on magic to power us, instead of those fields. It didn't really matter in the end, since the outsides of our towns were covered in desert with only scattered gusts of wind and sand flying around.

But the field I was in was still full of life. There was grass under my feet, thriving and almost dancing under the gentle waves of wind given off by the turbines. The turbines themselves looked as if they were forcefully slowed down, and I could only guess that Tao had something to do with it. 

Instead of making my way further into the field, I stood there with my arms parted so I could feel the wind blow around me. I felt at peace for some reason, like I would be perfectly fine with being blown away by this peaceful breeze.

I didn't know if Tao was close, but I felt another excited yet gentle presence and my eyes swept around the field to find it, yet I couldn't see it no matter how hard I tried. I started weaving my way around the turbines that had been slowed enough to keep me from being in any real danger.

When I was in the direct center of this field, I saw what I was looking for. The turbine in the middle had a portion of its base missing, almost forming a window with its shape. In that window sat another box. I was curious about how it sat there so peacefully while the strong winds blew at it, and leaned forward to look at the box carefully. Like Tao's box, it was black and had letters imprinted on it, yet I couldn't understand what word it spelled out. Perhaps like Tao's box, it spelled out EXO.

However, what was EXO supposed to mean?

I didn't want to take the box, for some reason. Like when I had first seen Tao's box, I had been overcome with this feeling- this urge to run away and get as far away as I possibly could.

Yet, at the same time, I knew I couldn't leave this ring- or the person in it- behind. It was Tao's friend, and I had promised Tao that I'd save them, so I could not abandon this one. Before I knew what I was doing, I reached out and let my fingers caress the velvet box, but since it was a dream, I couldn't feel it under my fingertips. I was simply brushing my fingers against air.

...

Only, it was Tao's hair and not actual air.

I woke up the next morning and looked over at what I was touching, since I was so sure it was the box from my dream. However, when I noticed exactly what my fingers were doing, my eyes widened, and I glanced over to Tao's eyes to see he had been looking at me in surprise.

"Sorry!" I practically hollered, scooting away from the male and feeling the fabric of the tent pressing onto my skin.

Tao scooted away in the opposite direction and bowed his head, his cheeks reddening slightly and causing me to smile slightly at his reaction. Just then, I felt a smirk forming on my lips as I scooted back and poked his arm ever so lightly.

"Are you feeling shy, Tao?" I smiled wider as he swat at my hands, yet I kept going around his hands to poke him again, "Surely you've had a girlfriend before!"

Instead of answering, Tao covered his face with his hands and curled into a ball, making me ever so slightly guilty for saying such things to him. Tao was hundreds of years older than me, but was innocent beyond compare.

On the other hand, I was highly amused when Tao, the same kid that had dragged me by the hand for hours yesterday was now too shy to even look up at me.

"Hey! Don't be like this!" I laughed lightly, wrapping an arm around his shoulders in attempt to pull him back up, "If you keep acting like this, how can I tell you about my dream?"

"I don't want to hear it!" He whined, pulling away from my grasp in another attempt of avoiding me.

"Not even if it's about one of your friends?" I knew that would get his attention for sure, and Tao snapped his head towards me so quickly that I feared it would fall off.

"You had a dream about one of my friends?" Confusion was written all over his face, and I couldn't help but grin.

"The night before I met you, I had a dream that I was in a cave with frozen water and a small box." I explained, and his eyes lit up in realization, "I didn't want to believe it was real, but something kept pulling at me until I decided to run towards the caves."

Tao's gaze softened for a moment, as if he was thinking of a million things at that one moment, and then he opened his mouth ever so slowly, "What did you dream of last night?"

"Wind turbines." I answered, shrugging my shoulders, "The ring was in a field of wind turbines."

That made Tao whine and push me down onto the ground, patting my back, "Go to sleep and dream of a different ring."

I looked at him in shock and pushed myself back up, "What? Is that ring bad?"

Tao grumbled under his voice and crossed his arms in a childish manner, "No... it's just that the wind mage is my only rival in cuteness. You'll like him more once you meet him, everyone does."

Covering my mouth with my hand, I held back a snort. Tao was jealous of a man I never even met, by saying he was cuter than Tao. I didn't know if that were possible, and I quite frankly didn't care if the other person was cute. 

I sat back up and lightly shoved his arm, "You're being ridiculous. Even if he's cute, he'll be cute in other ways. Everyone has their charm points, and no two people are completely alike. Even if I do grow to like Sehun, I'll like both of you for different reasons."

Tao didn't seem very convinced for a moment, so I stared on in worry until he eventually nodded and reached out for my backpack, "I'll take your word for it, then!"

I was curious as to what he could possibly want with my backpack, but of course, he was just digging out some more bags of food. I actually did snort at that, because even if he was asleep for 300 years, his appetite reminded me of the way boys in my school ate even when it wasn't their lunch period. He tossed me a bag of food and a bottle of water, then proceeding to take two of each for himself.

Surprisingly, I wasn't exactly hungry, so as he excitedly ate away, I had only eaten a quarter of the bag full of food. Tao noticed that I had stopped eating only when he'd finished his first bag of food, and he looked up at me with worried eyes, "Are you not hungry? You didn't eat much yesterday, either."

"Yesterday was because someone was too excited to let me sit for a while." I said, pretending to be upset with him, though he could probably tell that I wasn't at all serious about what I was saying to him, "And I don't know why... I'm just not hungry."

In the end, I gave him the rest of my bag of food and he in turn gave me the bag he hadn't opened to save for later, so we wouldn't open food if we weren't going to eat it. As Tao ate, I packed up the tent and blankets and other supplies we'd used overnight back into my backpack, and we were soon back on the road again- or the desert.

"Do you know where the field could possibly be?" He asked gently, his eyes sweeping over the desert before us.

"Considering the fact that we didn't get too far away from town, as I am certainly slower than you, I'd say we just need to go for another few hours to get to the field." I replied to him before shuddering, "The turbines are huge, so they won't be hard to miss. I've seen pictures of them and they're honestly terrifying."

The two of us were walking slowly, as if we had all the time in the world to find the rest of the mages; and I laughed as I watched him shorten his long footsteps just so he could stay beside me.

"We need to be careful when we get closer, then." Tao said suddenly, and I stopped walking to look up at him in confusion, urging him to continue, "You said it was a field of these... "turbines", and if I'm right about who's controlling them, the gusts of wind are going to be hard to get close to."

For a moment, my jaw dropped as I chided myself for not realizing it as we moved forward, but then I remembered how the field had slowed to an almost stop, "But in my dream, it was as if they were being slowed down."

Tao turned back to me with his eyebrows drawn together in thought, "Are you saying I slowed the wind? It's impossible for our powers to work against each other's powers. It would create a rift in our powers."

There was no doubting that time had been slowed down when I was in the presence of the turbines, but Tao's words left a mark on my mind. They wouldn't be able to use their powers against each other, so in case one of them decided to go out of control, no one could stop that mage.

I was about to ask him for more details when I was cut off.

"Help me."

Those words were exactly like the ones that brought me closer to Tao's box, and I just knew we were close to the next mage.

"Did you hear that?!" I asked in excitement, grabbing Tao's hand and waiting for him to nod.

Tao's eyebrows furrowed as he leaned his head away from me like I'd gone crazy, "Hear what? You and I are the only ones here."

Ignoring the fact that Tao practically said I was hearing things, I started running and pulled him in the direction the voice came from. It was masculine, though held the faint trace of a lisp of some sort.

"Where are you taking me?" Tao seemed to be both amused and worried as he followed me, probably worried I was going to get us in danger.

"Help me." The voice was starting to get stronger, and I tugged harder on Tao's hand, and pretty soon, we could see the wind turbines peaking out from ahead.

"You've found the field." Tao said breathlessly in astonishment, and I felt my head nod dumbly. We couldn't get any closer, however, because the wind coming from those turbines were too strong, and Tao let out a long breath, "I can't get any closer, I'm sorry!"

I couldn't blame him. Tao was certainly a fragile-looking male, and I was starting to worry that he'd get blown away by the wind coming from the turbines. I stared at the field and felt my shoulders drop; I wished that I had the power to slow the turbines down so I could go and find this mage.

Feeling suddenly courageous, I ran to the field of turbines with Tao shouting at me to go back so I wouldn't get hurt, but I couldn't. The voice was calling- that box was calling out to me.

As I got closer to the field, the turbines actually did slow down, and like in my dream, I allowed the grass to brush under my feet as I walked through the field, stopping to allow the gentle breeze pass me before weaving my way into the middle of the field where the box was supposed to sit.

"Help me."

His presence, whoever it was, calmed yet excited me. It felt like he was as eager to meet me as I was to meet him, yet he was calling for me because he didn't know how else I was supposed to find him.

Eventually, I found the center of the field and panted as I stood before the object of my dream, the middle turbine holding the small black velvet box, and as in my dream, I crouched down to look at it again, smiling widely.

Unlike the dream, when I reached out to caress the box, I was able to feel its smooth edges, and I pulled it out of its resting place to look at it again. Once more, the mysterious word, "EXO" was written in silver lettering, but I was far more interested in the ring it was holding.

I felt that urge to run away again, but I knew I'd already gotten in too deep to run away now that I was holding the second ring's box in my hand. Slowly, I opened it and smiled at the silver ring; it was also littered with gems, and the center gem had been shaped like a hurricane that had me gasping under my breath.

Gently, I pulled it out of the box and scoffed when realizing it was just as big as Tao's ring had been. Again, I wished for it to become smaller, because apparently, my wishes just kept coming true; so I wasn't surprised when the ring contracted and also became big enough to only fit on my pinky finger.

This time, instead of reminding myself of how bad of an idea it was, I simply slipped it onto my left hand's pinky finger and shut my eyes tightly when everything lit up in white again.

When I looked over at the male, he was already on his knees with his head bowed. He had dirty blonde hair, though streaks of various colors were covering his hair; and I could tell that he was tall by the way he kneeled.

"Who are you?" I asked hesitantly, hoping this male wouldn't be as intimidating as Tao was when they first met.

"My name is Sehun, master." Sehun raised his head, and I could only feel my lips stretching into a smile as I saw his own smile. 

Tao was right, Sehun was cute.

"Kim Yun Seung. My name's Kim Yun Seung."