“Taemin. It’s me, Onew. You’re friend.” The eldest approached him slowly trying not to startle the younger, but he backed away from them.

    Kai looked up taking note of the stream of light coming in from above. The tree was hollow, and if they scared Taemin too much, he could easily fly out of there. He back away, they had to play this smart, or Taemin would be lost to them forever. He grabbed Onew’s hand and pulled him back from the younger, “Give him some space.” He noticed the way that the sun hit Taemin, accentuating his pale skin and showing off the glittering dust that was now a part of him.

    Minho looked around and took note of the rope that Kai had on his bag. He got Onew’s attention and pointed to the rope. He had a plan.

    They left Taemin inside, making sure that he was preoccupied with examining a small thimble.

    Minho drew them into a tight circle and laid out their plan. “We have to catch him before he can fly away. Onew, since you were a boy scout, you’ll be the one to tie him up.” He turned to Kai, “The two of us will wrestle him into submission. Since, I figure he can carry one of us, but not two. We will have to be quick and decisive about this. There’s no way that this can go wrong.”

    They got into position and waited for Minho’s signal. Onew had the rope coiled in his hand, and Kai had set his bag down in order to be flexible and quick.

    Minho watched as Taemin turned his attention to something else before they pounced. When he saw the younger turn away from him, he gave them the signal.

    Kai launched himself at the youngest and made a move to secure his arms. He felt the other try to take flight in the small room, but then Minho stepped in and grounded them.

    It took them a few minutes of wrestling and some painful jabs, but they finally got the boy tied up.

    “Unhand me!” Taemin yelled. He had to get away. There was no way that he would let some humans make him give up. He tried to break free of his bonds, but they were too tight.

    “Taemin, you don’t know what you’re saying. You’re sick, but you’ll be better once we get you to the Chief.” Kai knew that trying to explain this to Taemin in his present state wouldn’t do any good, but he had to try.

    Taemin just stared at them.

    They grabbed some food from their bags and had a small meal before setting off toward the tribe.

~

    Jonghyun had walked for a while trying to let off some steam, and when he had done so, he decided that it was time to turn back. However, as he looked around, he wasn’t sure which way was the right way back. He wandered too far from the tribe, and had gotten lost. Thinking of all of the survival shows that he had seen on TV, he climbed a tree hoping to find the smoke plume from the tribe’s fire. He looked for what felt like an eternity, but he couldn’t spot it in the dying light. As he was about to climb down and wait until morning to try again he spotted a small stream to the north of him. He climbed down and set off in that direction.

~

    Their trip became much longer than intended with the ever-difficult Taemin trying to escape every five minutes. He would agree to walk with them, but then he would try to fly away when he thought that they weren’t looking. By the fourth time that he tried to fly off, the others had finally given up and tied the rope to their waists. This, however, did not deter the youngest. He tried sitting on the ground, but they would just pull him along, resulting in a pretty intense wedgie. He tried fighting them, but Minho and Kai were bigger and stronger than he was. He tried screaming and yelling, but there was no one around to hear him. He eventually screamed himself hoarse.

    Tired of Taemin’s childish antics, Kai wheeled on him and punch him in the face. The impact was so strong that the white-haired boy was knocked unconscious. Kai picked him up from the ground and piggy-backed him the rest of the way.

    They arrived at the tribe just before midnight. Onew dismissed himself to go find the Chief.

    Minho and Kai had just secured Taemin to a tree, when Onew returned with Jaejoong. The former grabbed a bowl of water and threw it on the glittering boy. He awoke with a start and struggled fitfully, but he found that he was tied securely to the tree.

    Jaejoong stepped forward and looked at the boy, “Taemin? Do you know who I am?”

    Taemin smirked, “A feline wannabe?”

    The elder sighed, “He’s not in his right mind. His memories are locked away inside him. We will have to cure him of this, somehow.”

    Onew looked at the boy questioningly, “How? He doesn’t know us. How are we supposed to reason with someone that has had all of the information of us erased from his being?”

    Jaejoong let out a belaboured breath, “We’ll have to reason with him, we must find a way to unlock these memories from the depths of his mind. They must be true memories, something that Taemin knows in his heart to be real.”

    Onew stepped up, “I’ll give it the first try.”

    The others backed away and watched as Minho began to speak, bringing out the deepest of secrets.

    Onew took a deep breath as he began to speak to the other, “Taemin, do you remember when you were fifteen, and you asked me about girls? You asked if they were as ugly to me as they were to you. You said that you didn’t find them as attractive as any of the other boys at your school did. You were scared that day because you didn’t know if being gay was a bad thing. I knew long before you did, but you never mentioned anything after that about it so maybe you started to like girls. Anyway, I always supported you Taeminnie.” He looked at the boy, but the story seemed to not have fazed him. He got up and walked over to Minho your turn.”

    “Taemin, you are the most stubborn thing that I have ever seen. I remember when you had found me in that brothel. You had stumbled in there thinking that you were in a hotel, but when you found out what it was, you didn’t leave. You stayed. You found me, beaten and , in a dark corner where I had been left to die. You didn’t pass over me like all of the others. When you requested me, I thought that you were just another customer who would use me and throw me away like the trash that I thought I was. You didn’t though. You called me to the bed where we sat and you offered to liberate me from that godforsaken place. I don’t know where you got the money, but that was the happiest day of my life. The day that you took me from that hell. I will forever be grateful to you Taemin. I will always look out for you and protect you.”

    Taemin looked at Minho. A cruel, mocking sneer spread across his face, “You were a e?! That’s hilarious!”

    Minho looked as though he had been slapped. He had just bared the most vulnerable part of him, and the boy that he loved and admired threw it back in his face like it was nothing. He felt a hand on his shoulder, Onew.

    “Don’t take it to heart Minnie. It’s not Taemin.”

    They all turned to Jaejoong. Onew looked at the elder, “What now? Neither of us could bring him back.”

Jaejoong looked at Kai as they shared a knowing look. “Summon her,” he said to the younger.

A/N

Hey guys. It's been a while! I'm so sorry for that. There's good news and bad news. Bad news, I'm now a working citizen and thus all of my time will be devoted to earning money (not really ^-^). Good news, I will be continuing to update this fic. I can't leave you guys. You're so faithful and the support that you have given me throughout this fic, and through Two Princes, has motivated me to keep this fic going. Thank you, and I hope you enjoyed this newest chapter.