Caged Lions Always Strike

Chapter 2 

Mountain Flowers in the Dawn

A man with a gaunt, thin face and high cheekbones was lying in the middle of the vines.

The air was thin but he was already used to it with his steady deep breaths in the mountain air.

The forest around him chirped the dawn chorus as the daytime animals slowly stirred and awoke for another day.

The man had his eyes closed and his body was curled up underneath a thick tree with hanging vines that were beginning to bloom.

“Are you going to get up now? We have to gather the chasteberries again this morning before they wither away.” The dried leaves of autumn crunched under his feet as he walked closer to the curled up figure under the tree.

The man on the floor stirred slightly and opened his eyes, facing the other man, “I wouldn’t let them wither, Baekhyun, so we can take our time.” His voice sounded slightly groggy, but not from sleep.

Baekhyun sighed and ran his hand through his fringe, unsticking his hair from his sweaty forehead from the humidity of early autumn in the mountains.

“I don’t want you to use your abilities, Yixing. It’s too dangerous now that the people in the village know you’re staying here.”

The man on the forest floor, Yixing, opened his eyes and looked pensive. “I need to make sure that the deer family I saw last week are doing okay.” He suddenly sat up and began to stand up.

Baekhyun sighed and shook his head as he held out a hand to help Yixing up, “There you go again” he chuckled.

Yixing smiled at Baekhyun after he had finally stood, “They had a little fawn and I know you like baby animals so…”

Baekhyun grinned and patted Yixing roughly on his shoulders, “We can go see them after the berries are picked, Thumper.”

Yixing pouted but nodded and started to lead the way towards Baekhyun’s house. They’d both walked this trail so many times that they were surprised that there wasn’t a worn path with their footsteps.

Baekhyun had lived in this mountain since his parents disappeared and he had been sent to live with his grandma and it had been so long ago that he barely remembered the days when he didn’t breathe the fresh mountain air that was thinner the higher you went up.

“Baekhyun, what do you want for breakfast?” a rough yet affectionate voice called out as Baekhyun led Yixing into the garden behind the old stone house that they lived in.

“Whatever you want, grandma!” he shouted back as he opened the door to the small greenhouse they had in the back.

It was one of the few modern appliances that the house had since they preferred to rely on traditional methods that were proven to work, rather than buy the new modern technology that would have to be replaced every once in a while.

The house was old. Anyone could tell from the mottled front of the house with black stones and mortar occasionally filling in any gaps between the white stone of the house. But it was home to Baekhyun and Yixing.

And so they did what they always did.

Baekhyun picked the chasteberries and put them in a bag to be given to his grandma for her to dry to use later and Yixing would distract himself with the other plants and flowers in the garden or even the beetles that passed the pots where the chasteberries grew.

It was familiar and whilst Baekhyun often complained that Yixing did nothing to help him, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

x x x x x x

Luhan’s day started the same way it always does. (As long as Luhan doesn’t have one of his odd night terrors that he has yet to tell anyone about)

He got out of bed, took a shower, and brushed his teeth with his dinosaur toothbrush that Tao bought for him (“It’s super manly!” Tao had said with stifled laughter).

And then Luhan got his bag ready for whatever class he would have that day.

Today, Luhan had his Magical History class that he shared with Minseok so he made sure to pack some individually packaged biscuits for the both of them as well as his usual notebook and stationery.

Luhan usually woke up early enough for breakfast and today was no different as he prepared an omelette with little shredded pieces of ham like his mother made for him as a child.

And after all this was done, Luhan headed to the lecture hall for his Magical History to find a couple of seats for him and Minseok.

In the past couple of months that Luhan had known Minseok for, they had grown close. And soon, Minseok joined Luhan, Tao, and Kris for lunch every day in the cafeteria.

Magical History class was always Luhan’s least favourite class.

Luhan had always held back his abilities and always ashamed of being someone with such a useless ability. So whenever teachers droned on and on about how each person’s ability is useful and contributes to society, Luhan always feels a small amount of anger.

But the class isn’t as bad as it could be with Minseok constantly making jokes and impressing Luhan with his ice ability. Luhan only wished he’d had such an amazing ability too.

Luhan decides to tune into the lesson and make some notes for the upcoming exam.

“Abilities are used in every aspect of life.” The professor began, “From fire ability citizens powering our cities and heating our homes to teleportation ability citizens ensuring that citizens are transported to wherever they need to be.” Luhan scoffed.

“Abilities keep this society afloat and is even used during wars. Although, wars are a relic of the past in today’s government who employs strong citizens with abilities to keep the peace with their peacekeeping forces.”

This was the reality of many classes that were compulsory by the government. Many classes featured constant propaganda, which Luhan wasn’t fond of.

Many people had prospered from the new government, like Luhan’s family, when they came into power when Luhan was very young after a long civil war.

Many people were killed in the war and the country was in shambles so they government had to step up and reform the country.

Hence the propaganda to shield people from the reality – the purges.

People with certain abilities were purged, or so people thought when people began to suddenly disappear.

Nobody is quite sure what happens behind the thick veil surrounding the government, but people don’t want to end up a target for prying either.

But people did know that there were certain abilities that were more sought after and certain families that the government was fonder of because they possessed that certain ability.

Like Luhan’s family, who possessed the ability of Pyrokinesis – the manipulation of fire.

“There are categories to each ability to organise society. Like the ‘Elemental Circle’ which includes fire, water, wind, and earth. These are widely used for construction, but are most often used as soldiers.”

Luhan had known a boy in his village who had first used his fire ability accidently on a house and had burnt it down. The next day, Luhan saw soldiers at the child’s house and never heard from him again.

Luhan had been young and assumed that he had gone to become a soldier but he was no longer naïve and knew better nowadays.

“There were also several times in the past when certain abilities were shamed and even purged.” Luhan gulped.

“The abilities of telekinesis, time, flight, and healing have often been a victim of shaming and purging because of their rarity as well as uses. We will be having individual lessons on each ability later on in the year.”

Minseok looked at Luhan as Luhan had gone deathly silent and as pale as the pages of his bleached notebook paper.

“This lesson we will be focusing on healing, one of the rarest of all known abilities.”

Luhan breathed a sigh of relief and began to write notes again.

“Healing is often associated with healing people but perhaps ‘healing’ is not a correct name. The ability is usually known by scientists as ‘Energy Transfer Ability’ as the person is able to transfer some of their own energy into an organism, or even remove energy into themselves. It is a very dangerous ability.”

Luhan had never been able to find much information on healing in his books since it was mostly confidential for government officials only – Luhan wasn’t quite sure why.

“Healing ability citizens are often discovered near areas where farmers’ crops thrive from the mere presence of the person with that ability. And the ability is usually used in hospitals to heal sick and injured people but it can be used for farming too, where crops can be grown much faster and produce a higher yield.”

Luhan began to feel nauseous and tuned out his professor’s words at that point. He remembers feeling his hands start to sweat and his pen began to slip through his hands.

Minseok turned to Luhan with a concerned gaze as he felt Luhan move beside him into the back of his chair. He noticed that Luhan seemed a lot paler and his skin was slick with sweat.

“Luhan, are you okay? Do you want to take a breather outside?” he whispered into as Minseok leaned closer to Luhan.

Luhan seemed to only hear, or at least understand, what Minseok was saying a few seconds later and Minseok began to worry. He had never seen this sort of behaviour with Luhan.

Luhan began to turn to look at Minseok as he broke his terrified gaze at the professor and looked straight into Minseok’s eyes with the same gaze.

Minseok felt a chill down his spine at the vines of terror sweeping into Luhan’s eyes and he followed the drops of perspiration down the side of Luhan’s face with his eyes.

Minseok made the decision to take Luhan outside of that class, even if Luhan protested.

Thankfully, they were both sitting at the back of the lecture hall this time. So the privacy they needed was there and Minseok could take Luhan outside without bothering the other students.

So he grabbed his and Luhan’s bags with their stuff inside them in one hand and Luhan’s wrist in the other and dragged Luhan up from his seat and out through the thick double doors of the lecture hall.

Once they were outside and the thick doors had been slammed shut, Minseok could put down the bags and focus on helping Luhan out of whatever state he was in.

So Minseok sat Luhan down on the floor opposite the lecture hall and brought his hands to Luhan’s shoulders and he tried to get Luhan to focus on his face.

Minseok noted that Luhan had looked exactly the same as he had in the lecture hall and probably hadn’t even realised that he was no longer inside.

Luhan was frozen.

His mind simply couldn’t move past the professor’s words and Luhan’s own guilt and demons.

He felt like there were 4 walls around him slowly moving into his space and he had no way to stop them from inevitably crushing him.

He felt like there were weights made of pure iron hanging right on top of him, waiting for whatever was holding them up to snap and crush Luhan under its weight.

It felt like-

“-han!”

“Luhan!”

It felt like shards of ice were being aimed at his neck and Luhan could do nothing to stop them dicing his throat up if he moved the wrong way.

Luhan felt thin and weak, as if he would turn into smithereens and blow away with the wind if someone touched him.

“Luhan! Please! Listen to me!”

Luhan felt scared. And he didn’t know what of anymore.

It wasn’t just the lesson on abilities anymore, but everything coming down at once.

The dreams, his ability, his fears, his guilt, his family, his worries.

Luhan felt his breaths get even faster until he was struggling to get enough air with the speed his lungs were going at.

It took Minseok slapping him for him to finally get back to himself.

“Luhan?” Minseok had wide eyes that were shiny and wet and- Were those tears?

Minseok was crying for him?

“Luhan, I’m sorry for hitting you but I had no idea what to do! You weren’t breathing anymore and I was so scared and-“

Minseok was rambling.

“-Thank you.” Luhan interrupted.

Minseok sighed and looked confused yet sad at the same time, “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”

Luhan gave him a wry smile and scratched the back of his head with his index finger, “Maybe some other day… Sorry.”

Minseok smiled, “That’s okay. Just don’t hold it in forever.”

Luhan wanted to sob.

x x x x x x

Baekhyun was cooking Yixing’s favourite beef stew with his grandma for dinner when it all happened.

At first, Baekhyun had thought that there must have been a wild bear outside since the birds had suddenly gone quiet.

It took Yixing to notice that there were no sounds of bears prowling about yet the birds were still deathly quiet.

And then the peace of Baekhyun’s and Yixing’s lives ended when the old door that Baekhyun’s great-grandad had made long ago was knocked down by a dozen men dressed in camouflage print.

They came in with their loud shouts that made the birds flee and their guns pointed at Yixing mostly, but some at Baekhyun too.

They came in and they dragged Yixing by his hair into the middle of them and put some sort of chain around him that made Yixing fall to the group whimpering, looking pale and sweaty.

Baekhyun had wanted to do something, anything, but he was powerless as another soldier hit him in the head and it all turned black.

Baekhyun had just a second to hear his grandma’s screams. Of agony or anguish, he didn’t know.

It was to be the last time that Baekhyun would ever see her again.

x x x x x x

Bright white light covered Luhan’s eyes and then perpetual darkness that made Luhan feel like he was falling.

He attempted to grasp at whatever he could find but Luhan found no purchase.

Suddenly, a bright white light shone upon him and Luhan was blinded as his eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden change.

As his eyes adjusted to the newfound light, Luhan found himself in a green forest covered in trees and leafy plants that smelt like the rain. In the distance, Luhan could hear a gentle stream.

Luhan felt himself breathe a little harder – the air was thinner here.

Luhan noticed amongst the trees and shrubs a man with his eyes closed lying on his back with various flowering vines wrapped around his body.

If Luhan hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought the man dead.

The vines seemed to be wound tightly around the man’s body, almost as if it were life from the man and feeding itself to feed the blooming bright red flowers that were spread out amongst the vines.

Luhan saw yet another flash of white light and suddenly there was a man with dark eyes standing behind the man on the ground.

The second man seemed to have eyes that glowed amongst the darkness behind the trees and shrubs and he was staring intensely at Luhan with fisted hands, eyes lined with black kohl giving him a predatory aura.

The man on the ground began to stir and open his eyes, which seemed to attract the forest animals towards the pair of mysterious men.

Numerous bears, rabbits, and deer began to walk towards the little group and soon Luhan was surrounded and unable to run away.

The man with the angry seemed to step into the light shining from above the canopy.

His hair reflected the light rays which gave him a halo which Luhan didn’t think he deserved.

But even more amazing was how his eyes seemed to absorb the light and glow as the man was slowly walking towards Luhan.

Luhan took a step back in fear and yet another step as he realised that the man that had been lying down was now stood next to the other man.

Luhan shut his eyes tightly, willing his dream to end before the two men killed him where no one could find him.

He didn’t open his eyes again until he felt a chill surround his body.

His surroundings had suddenly frozen and the two men were nowhere to be seen; gone were the animals, too.

Luhan started feeling the flames of fear at his feet once more but suddenly felt at ease as a familiar hand was brought down upon his left shoulder.

He turned to find Minseok’s smiling face and Luhan smiled back.

Then the lights flashed again and more blurs passed.

Luhan awoke in his bed in cold sweat. He sighed.

x x x x x x

“So, what I was saying is that first we should go shopping because, no offence Luhan, your wardrobe is awful. Who matches pink striped shirts with green polka dot shorts? And then we should go eat!”

The topic of Luhan’s wardrobe choices had come up whilst deciding where to eat out during the group’s free day.

“But we’ll get hungry and then what will we do? Starve and shop?” Luhan had always been the one with the most logic.

“Whilst wardrobe choices is of great importance, Tao, food is higher on my priority list.” But Minseok had the most common sense among them, being the eldest.

“I say we eat a light snack before shopping, go shopping, and then have lunch.” Kris always had the fairest ideas too – he would make a good leader. Luhan had thought that since he first met the dependable and seemingly cold man.

Tao gasped and brought his hand to cover his mouth, “Do you want me to get fat??”

Luhan and Minseok rolled their eyes and hurried to leave the academy building before Tao could hold them back again.

“Honey, I was just trying to find a solution that fit us all!”

Tao scoffed, “So you do want me to get fat!”

Kris brought his hands to his face and groaned, “Let’s just eat and then go shopping!” he muttered through his hands.

Minseok and Luhan were long gone.

x x x x x x

In the background, Luhan could hear the news being read over the TV or radio – he didn’t know which.

“Huge lightning storms have been spotted heading towards the capital leaving technological chaos in its path.” The monotonous voice of the reporter rang through Luhan’s head.

He had been worried about his dreams and had decided to talk to someone about it.

That person was Kim Junmyeon.

Luhan had been repeatedly told by everyone he knew that he could talk to Kim Junmyeon about his problems and seek advice and company from him and that he was particularly gifted in various spells. So he decided to seek his advice.

It wasn’t until Luhan had actually got to where he had arranged to meet Junmyeon that he had begun to get second thoughts.

What if he thought he was crazy?

What if Luhan was cursed or under some sort of spell?

What if he found out about Luhan’s ability?

Was he trustworthy?

It was only when those thoughts had gone round and round his head too many times that Junmyeon finally showed up at the arranged café with a sheepish smile and a wave in Luhan’s direction.

“Sorry for the wait! I had to deal with a few new entrants to the academy. Kim Junmyeon, nice to meet you.” He held out his hand to be shaken as he sat down across the table that Luhan sat on.

Luhan shook his hand, “Luhan, nice to meet you too.” He smiled.

“But, if you don’t mind me asking, why are there new entrants 3 months into the academic year?”

Junmyeon nervously chuckled, “They haven’t told me everything but I think the government moved them forcefully here for some reason. One of the guys is…. Special.” Junmyeon seemed to have a habit of scratching the back of his head whenever he was nervous.

Junmyeon suddenly smiled, “Anyways! We came here to talk about you!” Junmyeon laughed lightly.

Luhan smiled timidly, “Yeah…”

Junmyeon chuckled, “Don’t be nervous, I don’t bite.” He winked and folded his arms onto the table and Luhan did the same with his arms.

Luhan sighed and began to talk, “It all started about 2 months ago and I began to get these dreams full of blurs and faces of people I’d never met and the dreams began to get more and more extensive…”

Junmyeon’s face was serious, Luhan noted, and he really did seem to listen as he nodded every once in a while during Luhan’s explanation.

….

“So you’re saying that you began to have dreams where you met or nearly met Minseok before even meeting him in reality and then you met him and you saw similar themes from your dreams?” Junmyeon reiterated to confirm.

Luhan nodded with a solemn face.

Junmyeon looked thoughtful as he nodded back.

“It honestly doesn’t sound too bad but I can’t be sure. It sounds like premonitions to me.” He shared after a few seconds of silence with an unreadable eyes.

“You mean… Like seeing the future?”

Junmyeon chuckled, “Yes and no.” he shrugged. “Premonitions come in two types. They can predict the future exactly or they can show you a path. It seems like these premonitions are showing you a path and are seem to be getting you to meet these new people.”

Luhan listened intently.

Junmyeon bobbed his head up and down, “It’d be interesting to see what happened if you did gather all the people you saw in these dreams together!” he chuckled.

“But I wouldn’t worry too much, honestly. Just keep doing what you’re doing now.” Junmyeon smiled reassuringly.

Luhan looked doubtful for a second but decided to trust in Junmyeon.

He smiled and shook Junmyeon’s hand, “Thanks for your advice.”

Junmyeon grinned back and chuckled, “No problem. Glad I could help! Keep in touch and if there’s anything you think is weird, come talk to me.”

Luhan nodded.

x x x x x x

That same day, Luhan was heading towards the library with Kris and Minseok to study up on human biology for the exam in a few days’ time.

They had chosen to go the way through the main reception of the academy since there were fewer people.

It happened quickly as Luhan turned to his left to talk to Minseok who flanked him when he noticed a commotion around the entrance.

There were various soldiers bringing in a couple of men wrapped tightly in electrical paralysing chains.

But that wasn’t what shocked Luhan and made him freeze on the spot.

Through the gaps between the soldiers’ bodies, Luhan had caught a glimpse of the men’s’ faces.

A familiar man with glowing, kohl-rimmed eyes and the other man with a thin face and kind eyes.

Luhan gasped.

Why were they in chains?

Why were they being brought in by soldiers?

Why were they here?

But what worried Luhan the most, was that he was positive he had never seen them anywhere since they were wearing the traditional one-piece outfits from rural villages.

Yet Luhan recognised them.

Luhan knew them from his dreams.

**********************

Did you enjoy that? ;)

Sorry for the sort-of cliffhanger but the temptation was too great and the chapter was getting too long. :)

Have you guys sort of realised what the country they’re in is like yet? I would appreciate you guys writing down any theories and what you think you know :)

And for those asking me what sort of academy… No, it’s not like Hogwarts! xD I strongly dislike Hogwarts AUs so no… xD Imagine a stereotypical clean hospital with big windows and white walls etc… The academy is like that but with lecture halls instead of patient rooms and wards. And of course, the dorms and apartments are all on one side of campus, only a small walk away from the main academy, and the ability training grounds are on a field behind the academy. :)

Lastly… Does anyone want to guess who’s coming next in Luhan’s dreams? And in terms of meeting, as well?

That’s the question for today^

I would really appreciate it if people commented! xD Even something as silly as your favourite line or conversation so far. :)

Thanks for reading,

hetacat xoxo