Areum POV

Shouts and hollers disrupted the silence enveloping the forest. I moved cautiously, eyeing the three people sitting bored against a tree. The neon green bandana sat on the ground in clear vision. A smirk made its way across my face. They’ll never see me coming. If I grabbed it I won. Simple.

“Let’s play a game” Chen grinned, mischief running wild behind his eyes. If I didn’t know better I would think he was a madman.

“Capture the flag.”

“How do we play?” I asked truly clueless. I never heard of capture the flag before.

“Seriously-“ Lay cut Chen off with a warning glare. Oh how protective Lay was.”…I mean…um…SO we split into teams and each get an object to hide. The opponent team has to try and find the other teams object before they find theirs. Simple right?”

“Yea”

“Okay so the teams are, Kris, Chanyeol, Luhan, Tao, Xiumin, and Kyungsoo. And Suho, Lay, Chen, Baekhyun, Sehun, Kai, and Areum.” A mix of groans and cheers ignited from the group. I turned to Lay, who was smiling happily to himself. He looked so peaceful, so content. It dawned on me, in this moment, that Lay was my brother, not because we were blood related. But because I lov-

“Ugh my head hurts…” Kris complained loudly rubbing his temples harshly. Effectively snapping me out of my memories. He didn’t look well but I’ll deal with that later. I’m not losing. Tao was rubbing his back, concern painting clear on his face. I don’t want to disappoint Lay. I had to win.

“Stop. Leave me alone.” Kris groaned. Sweat shined off his skin. He was shivering as if it were freezing- which it wasn’t -and sweating a ton.

“We should head back, he’s really pale.” Chanyeol said, equally concerned for the haggard giant. The two of them hooked a arm around Kris’s shoulders and cautiously helped him to his feet. He stumbled, almost collapsing to the ground. By instinct I darted forward to help but Tao caught him.

“Who are you?” Kris questioned, his eyes closed tight. He was seizing up, I held onto his arms, pinning them down as to stop them from lashing out. Chanyeol did the same with his legs.

“It’s Tao and Chanyeol, we’re friends Kris. Areum is here too.” Tao was surprisingly calm when he spoke, as if this was normal for him. When he said my name Tao’s gaze lifted, locking with mine. I gave him a quick, sure nod. Which he returned lips tightening as he did. Kris murmured again, sounding distressed this time. I could make out a few words, ‘Exo’, ‘no, ‘not them’. The words turned to groans and small shouts. Kris’s face scrunched up in pain. Chanyeol spoke up, eyes as big as saucers.  “What’s going on-“

“DON’T TOUCH THEM!” Kris roared, a red light waving off him kicking Chanyeol, Tao, and I back. He spoke in the language of my dreams, and although I was not dreaming I understood the language I had never learned. I stared up at Kris. His eyes glowed gold and he hovered above the ground. The red glow continued to wave off of him. The ground shook and I heard screams in the distance.

Kris’s painful scream echoed across the valley. Pain and desperation ripped through it. The red waves grew brighter and hotter, imploding the poor plants and trees that came into contact with it. Thankfully, we did not. They ground was torn from its place and compressed into a ball around the pained giant. Far from us a pillar of water shot into the sky.

“KRIS!” His name tore at my vocal chords. The last few chunks of earth flew towards the sphere encapsulating Kris. As they flattened the red glow stopped abruptly and everything went silent, went calm. I ran forward before Tao and Chanyeol had the chance to stop me. My hands were clawing at the globe of earth. Immense heat radiated from it and small frequent tremors ran through it. Silver rippled across the earth, sparkling in the sunlight. I cautiously put my hands on the globe of silver again. It was smooth and cool to the touch. It was metal.

 Black, red, and silver wings broke out of the sphere, what I thought were rubies glistening on their points. Next the fearsome head I could only assume belonged to the wings cracked through its brilliant red eyes glaring at me. It was the dragon I saw the day of the choosing ceremony. In my dream it was hovering, surrounded by metal arrowheads. It roared revealing a jaw full of sharpened metal fangs. It was then I realized a second to late that I made a fatal mistake. A blizzard of metal shards came at me. The rest of the silver globe crumbled, revealing a tall boy with bright hair.

 A boy I recognized as Kris.

The shards cut through my skin, tearing at it. The force of the metal tornado sent me flying back.

My name being yelled by a familiar voice, one that sounded so much like Zian was the last thing I heard before drifting into a darkness I welcomed with open arms.

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Sehun POV

“Stupid” I grumbled under my breath. Suho was walking in circles. Literally. He was thinking aloud I guess.

“But they will find us-No they won’t. We are safe.”

Scratch that-he was talking to himself. Great. I was stuck in the bloody forest with a lame grandpa that was starting to go bat crazy. Suho continued to argue with himself, it seemed he thought people were coming after us. I sighed, a scowl plastered on my face. He was paranoid and it was annoying me. Why was I paired up with this paranoid old man? I mean he wasn’t that much older than me, maybe a year or two but he acted like an old man that was trying to be cool and ‘hip’. I was about to walk away and abandon him when a shout- that sounded a lot like Kris –echoed across the forest. Followed shortly by a painful scream I knew was Kris’s. I jumped around and tried to look for him but the trees blocked my view. Suho froze and, finally, stopped walking in circles. His eyes went round.

He darted towards the sound, faster than I expected. I sprinted after him, albeit reluctantly. He was pretty fast for a short guy. I had to push myself to catch up with him.

“SUHO STOP!” I ordered but it fell on deaf ears. Suho did the opposite of what I asked. He ran faster. The forest raced by and wind hit my skin in a cool breeze, I would have enjoyed the feeling if I weren’t chasing a paranoid Suho. “Well me.” I muttered, scowl deepening. Being in Exo was supposed to be great, something amazing. But I got this.

“The veil has fallen! They have found us! I must protect my people!” Suho spoke to himself. Again.

“Suho you need to-“ I halted; if I hadn’t I would have fallen into a pond. vSuho however, ran full speed into the pond, sending a giant pillar of water into the sky. The amount of water that splashed was too much for Suho to cause.

“SUHO SUHO! Are you ing kidding me?! How of all ing people why did I have to be with the paranoid idiot?” I rubbed my face, plopping down at the waters edge. When Suho and I had first started searching for the flag he was all r