(a/n: I just want to thank those of you who are still following me thus far.  It really means a lot to me and I appreciate it very much.  <3)

                As the next day began, they cleaned up their site, making it look close to new, and resumed their trek.  With the memory of the attack still close behind them, they continued onward, perpetually wary of another such attack.  As if they didn’t have enough to worry about already without another group to worry about.  If nothing else, the day passed by uneventfully in one long stretch of marching, a handful of travelers and small farmhouses and villages in the distance from the main road.  In direct contrast to the simple event of moving forward, Mount Balaron continued to grow larger and began to loom to above them, dark and foreboding.

           Into the second day, things did not get any better as a steady stream of smoke trickled up and wreathed the mountain top ominously, casting everything nearby in shadow when the sun passed overhead.  Small villages in the distance lived in its shadow, the presence something they were apparently used to, but as the elementalists approached, it began to feel as if something else were watching them.  They became edgy, like one does when they have an itch they simply can’t scratch, and the feeling only got worse throughout the day.

           Not long after their midday break, when the sun was hidden behind the smoke, Kyuhyun snapped, “Would you quit it?!”  He stopped mid-step to glare at Eunhyuk who was immediately taken aback.

           “What’d I do?” he asked, genuinely perplexed as he looked at Kharin.

           “Just stop with your…wind,” he muttered, gesturing ineffectively before he swiped at the hair that had tickled his ear for the umpteenth time.

           “I haven’t done anything,” Eunhyuk defended himself.

           “It’s just the wind, Kyu,” Kharin muttered, annoyed for Eunhyuk as she stepped closer to the other man.

           Kyuhyun grumbled something under his breath and kicked at the dirt.  He felt Summer place her hand on his arm and he looked over crossly.  “None of you have done anything,” she explained softly, admitting she had felt no power stir recently.

           He shrugged her hand off in annoyance.  “Just calm down,” Leeteuk soothed, rolling his shoulders as he felt the tension too.

           “I am calm,” Kyuhyun muttered, a frown on his countenance.

           “Not now guys,” Eleanara gestured nervously.  “We’ve got a lot of daylight left,” she encouraged, trying to smile despite the tension.

           “That’s the spirit!” Siwon grinned, striding over to Eleanara and sweeping her along as he placed an arm behind her and propelled her forward again.  “You guys coming?” he called back, still walking smoothly, his tall frame towering over her almost comically.

           “Hey!” Leeteuk laughed, hurrying to catch up.  Eunhyuk and Kharin jogged past, packs bouncing noisily as they moved, bypassing Kyuhyun and Summer neatly.

           “Come on, Kyu,” Summer encouraged, tugging at his sleeve softly.

           Kyuhyun grumbled and looked after the others for a second before he pushed her hand away and then reached around behind her to nudge her forward.  “I’m coming…”

           The brief pause was enough to ease some of the tension, but not all by any means.  As they started to make their way around the mountain, they could see an orange glow that bloomed from the very top and they kept a wary eye on it, an unshakable feeling of discomfit growing in them.  While they were nervous to camp in the shadow of the smoking spire, they really had no choice.  It was too large to get around in one day and they weren’t going to press on during the night.  A mundane light source was not something they had opted to worry about with the light and fire elementalists but it also meant they would be betraying themselves in using their powers at night, especially if someone else were to see.

           By nightfall, the group concluded that they still had a long way to go before they were going to clear the mountain.  It would not be soon enough…  More and more often, their eyes turned up to the top, seeking some sign or presence.  Something was there…  They had seen debris roll down from the top where something had to have disturbed it.  The feeling of being watched only intensified at those moments though they could still see nothing.

           “What do you think it is?” Eunhyuk asked quietly, his blonde hair, now long enough to fall into his eyes, fluttering in the wind he directed to himself.  He had heard nothing but snippets of sound which could have just as easily been rock shifting.

           “It’s nothing,” Kyuhyun stated softly as he threw a pebble into the fire he had started for them.  It was just a campfire made with regular twigs and limbs but he ignited it.

           “Something has been keeping an eye on us,” Siwon insisted bluntly, refusing to let the younger man just brush it off.

           “May it is nothing,” Summer retorted, frowning at the top where a gentle orange glow gleamed.  “Nothing,” she stated against louder, smiling at Kyu.  He laughed once with a half-smile on his face.

           “Considering our enemy, I’d rather be cautious and wrong,” Kharin muttered darkly, intense eyes regarding Summer and Kyuhyun in annoyance.

           Unconsciously, Kyuhyun leaned back with his hands behind his head.  “I still say it’s nothing.”

           Siwon glanced over at Leeteuk, trying to see what their leader had to say but his attention was not on the group.  His eyes were closed and his hand was pressed against the ground, questing.  “At least pay attention,” he muttered instead, directing his statement at the fire elementalist and shaking his head.

           “Let them be hopeful,” Leeteuk stated quietly as he opened his eyes to regard Siwon calmly, alert.

           “And pray that they’re right,” Eleanara added, reaching over to hand Leeteuk a wrapped rock.  The cover slipped slightly and a beam of bright light speared the ground before it was quickly shuttered.

           “Same order as usual?” Kharin asked, glancing at the watchlight.

           “Unless anyone has any complaints,” Leeteuk shrugged, looking around to be sure there weren’t.  No suggestions were made otherwise and Kyuhyun just waved dismissively, still lying down.  Easily, Leeteuk tossed Kharin the stone and she caught it deftly, grinning as Eunhyuk tried to catch it midflight and missed.  “Don’t stay up too late,” he warned evenly, smiling to ease the sound of the command.  He didn’t mean to come off as a parent…not that they’d had them growing up but still.

           “Yes, dad,” Kyuhyun murmured sarcastically, echoing Leeteuk’s thoughts.  Given that he had expected the retort, Leeteuk just shrugged.

           The rest looked between the two to see if anything further would develop but when that failed, they quietly retrieved their sleeping rolls and laid themselves out.  As they had traveled down the path the snow had disappeared entirely and with it, the worst of the cold.  They did not sleep so close as they had before and arrayed themselves around the camp fire instead.  As the weather looked like it would hold, they did not have the need for a shelter tonight.

           Quietly, they said their good nights and settled down, though few drifted to sleep immediately.  Kharin banked the fire to reduce the light and paced around softly, her feet crunching lightly on the packed dirt.  They had camped not far from the center of the path due largely to the fact that there were so few persons that ever travelled at night.  That was reserved only for the most desperate or dangerous predators.  Leeteuk lay on his side and watched Kharin’s progress, one hand resting on the earth, half-paying attention.  He could hear her steps as she walked as if she were right beside him, but the earth was more quiet of late.  He didn’t know if that was a good thing or not yet.

           Across the camp, he could still see the fire reflecting off the eyes of some of the others who had not been able to fall asleep.  Despite his earlier words, Kyuhyun was still awake and starting at the mountain top.  He was more nervous about it than he wanted them to know and it was obvious to Leeteuk.  The others seemed to have drifted off well enough though.

           Directly across from him, Eleanara had curled right up and gone to sleep, her back to the fire and her face cast in shadow; not that he needed light to see her face…  Her constant presence throughout this journey had been a greater steadying force than he figured she might know.  When she wasn’t busy running herself into the ground, she had a knack for being nearby, quiet and calm.  He smiled at the thought and with a final heartfelt sigh, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

           High above them, a pair of dull red eyes regarded the sleeping party intently.  Normally, this stretch of road was quiescent and it had no need to stir, content to leave the insignificant humans alone, but these ones…  They smelled and did things different than the others.  The smell was what had initially caught its attention as it had watched them progress closer and closer to the mountain.  From what it had seen, they had power, not unlike the one that had created it.  Partially bound to the liquid fire and earth that made its form, it had found no reason to leave that comfort.  Now though…

           For a long time, it watched the single figure that patrolled the camp, took note as they switched off with another.  It waited until the dead of night when the one with red hair took her watch.  Slowly, it hauled its large salamander-like frame from the pool of lava, the bright orange coloration subsiding to a duller earth tone, forming shifting plates that mostly hid the molten interior.  With infinite patience, it began to make its way down the mountain, the stealthy body blending well with the dark backdrop; betrayed only slightly by the shifting seams that appeared when it moved.