“What did you see?” Leeteuk asked, taking a step closer to the door.

           “Injured men,” Kharin filled in, her expression bewildered.  “Like Yorin…”  Her green eyes focused on the light elementalist and saw that she had stiffened, caught between wanting to heal them and afraid of the reaction as she had experienced the other day.

           Kyuhyun sighed and rubbed his forehead in aggravation.  “I knew she shouldn’t have healed him the other day.”

           Siwon reached out and tapped him in the back of the head.  “You were just as affected as the rest of us.”

           The youngest pushed back reactively, his expression cross at which Siwon frowned.  “No one asked me what I wanted to do,” he stated bluntly, skirting the answer of how he had felt about it overall.

           “Stop it!” Summer stated, stepping between them quickly, placing a hand on each of their chests.

           Eunhyuk hopped back over the bed and threaded through the group towards the window.  “Well let’s check here.”  Cautiously, he pried open the shutter to peer out, grateful that it was warm enough in this part of the country that they did not have glass panes.  A sigh escaped him when he closed the shutter quietly too.  “Same thing on this side…”  Carefully, he looked up as his eyes focused on Eleanara and then the door.  “We could help them…”

           Various groans spread through the group and more than one placed a hand against their face as they realized they were going to have to walk through them.  Resignedly, Leeteuk sighed, “Let’s just hope they’re not as enthusiastic as Yorin’s father…”  He remembered clearly the expression the older man had given him the other day and he did not want to see it again…didn’t want to have to turn it down like he knew they would have to.

           Reluctantly, he stood at the doorway and took another deep breath before pulling it open slowly.  Two of the injured men were awake already and reached out to him mmediately.  “Please!  Help me!  I was injured in the war!”  “I can’t use my arm!  Please help me…” and as their voices woke the others, a confusing din of pleading tones blended into one garbled voice all asking for help as the Elementalists tried to make their way through.

           “I’m sorry,” Leeteuk stated firmly, a sense of panic beginning to overwhelm him.  “Please let us through.”  It wasn’t that there were many of them but rather that they were so intense and desperate for aid or some kind of hope.  As gently as he could, he pushed the beseeching hands away, having to pry someone’s grip off on more than one occasion.

           When Eleanara cleared the room, she was immediately grabbed at by the nearest injured man who still wore a bandage over his head and it looked as if he had lost an eye.  “Please healer!  Please help me!” he cried, dragging on her arm as she shrieked in alarm, trying to pull his hand off with her free one.  Immediately, she could feel what was wrong with him and started to heal him, in fact.

           Before she could finish, Eunhyuk came around from behind her and forcibly made the man release her.  “Let her go,” he demanded, pushing the other man back to get him away, a mixture of worry and reluctance written plainly on his face.

           “No!  Please!  Help me!” he cried louder, scrambling back towards them.  Even as he was pushed away, another injured person on the other side tried to reach her and Summer intervened, stopping him before he got too close.

            Her sais were halfway out before she blanched and shoved them back into their sheaths, tripping him and sending him to the floor with a controlled fall.  “Stay back,” she told him firmly, her eyes intense and pained.

           Leeteuk felt them losing control of the situation.  Ahead, past the injured persons were seemingly normal individuals who were watching with a mixture of hope and anger.  With a stubborn growl, he grabbed Kharin’s hand and pulled.  “Come on!”  He trusted she would understand what he was trying to do and as he felt resistance when he tried to move forward, he could only hope that they were following too.  The injured continued to try and cling while the persons ahead added a new tone to the cries.  “Save us, Elementalists!  Save us!”  “Bless you!  The gods have answered our prayers!”  “It’s your fault this is happening!  Enrhyll’s just after you!”  “Why aren’t you fighting!?”

           Before they had made it out, he heard Eleanara’s voice pleading in the middle, “Wait, please.  I can help them.  Please.”

           Kyuhyun’s voice rose above the fray, angry and sounding slightly panicked.  “Get away!” followed by a thud as it sounded like someone hit the floor.

            Even Eunhyuk added to the cacophony of sound as he kept repeating over and over, “I’m sorry,” as if somehow that would be enough to make them understand.

           Leeteuk had no time to look back to see if the others had things under control as he pushed another individual out of the way, trying to open a path.  He didn’t want to hurt them, but they were so persistent and they kept crowding…

           Finally, they made the doorway and the bright rays of the morning sun nearly blinded them as they stumbled into the open.  “There they are!”  Through squinted eyes, he saw a small band of mostly recovered men and some harder looking women who were brandishing battered weapons and staring at them.  “Get them!” came the cry from the front as the pleading crowd followed them out.

           Yorin and his father came running out from the nearby equipment shop brandishing well used swords.  “Wait!” he yelled at the offensive party, not quite foolish enough to get in front of them but spacing himself off to the side.  “They can help us!” he cried, his panicked eyes drifting from the Elementalists to the attackers.

           Cries of denial answered him.  “They can’t beat him!”  “Enrhyll’s a god!  How can they win?”  “If we give them up, he will take mercy on us!”  The angry, illogical cries continued as the Elementalists banded together, the light elementalist firmly caught in the middle.

The pleading crowd had backed off slightly when the others had aimed to attack them and were shouting at the newest group like Yorin.  “We need them!”  “Let them help us!”  “Don’t you dare hurt them!”

           “You’re all daft if you think Enrhyll will stop if he has us!” Kharin snarled, her hands clenched into tight fists at her side.

           “Enryhll is no god!” Eunhyuk snorted, wind beginning to play around him and tug at his hair.

           Leeteuk looked ahead at the path they had to take, noticing the group clustered before them was only three deep and looked about seven long.  There were others beyond them but if they could get through this bunch, they should be able to make it out alright.  Firmly, he caught hold of Eleanara’s hand and called back, “Get ready!”  The mood shifted to one of anxious tension as they tuned in to what he was planning.  With a deep breath, he hauled the earth up in the middle of the attackers, raising a mound that rolled them off in every direction, a confusing jumble of limbs and released weapons.

As he pulled the group forward, he shoved the mound back into the earth, smoothing it out and giving them a path to bolt through, though they had to jump over or sidestep the few that had rolled forward.  Desperate and angry hands clutched at them, snatching the fabric of their pants and gripping their ankles as they bolted past.  Both Summer and Siwon had to kick more than one person to make them let go, feeling sick at the expressions on their faces and the need to use such action.

           Defensively, Siwon covered their trail with a wave of water that knocked any further pursuers to the ground, tripping them up in the swift currents.  Eunhyuk provided a steady, forceful stream of wind that deterred additional persons from the front and side, the occasional gust enough to knock them from their feet.  Kyuhyun let the threat of fire speak for itself, a ball of flame floating in his hand as he ran.  More than one man turned aside, raw fear on his face when he looked at the fire elementalist’s expression.  Kharin used darkness spheres to confound the stragglers on her side and jump kicked one idiot who kept running at them regardless of being unable to see.  “Go away!” she snarled, recovering her footing easily enough and pounding after the rest.

           Hearts pounding, they heard the cries behind them continue long after they had made the end of the crossroads and the party kept running until silence was their only companion.  When they finally slowed up enough to look back, they confirmed they had lost their pursuit and as one, stopped to breathe, hands resting on knees or behind their heads as was their wont.  They were all shaken by the reactions they had seen in the village and it showed on their clouded faces.

           “Is everyone alright?” Leeteuk finally asked as he looked over the party to make sure none of them had suffered any wounds.  Other than being tired, the party looked alright.

           “Except for being chased by insane villagers, I’m fine!” Kyuhyun snapped, pacing in agitation.

           “I’m good,” “Me too,” Kharin and Eunhyuk assured him, giving him a weak smile and thumbs up signs.

           “Same here,” Siwon waved, rolling his shoulders to readjust the pack.  Summer gave him a half-hearted wave and sat down, fidgeting with the straps on her pack distractedly.

           Eleanara finally looked up and nodded, giving a small chirp from the back of as confirmation.  She unconsciously rubbed the spot on her arm where she had been grabbed, a handprint bruise forming already.

           With a grimace, Leeteuk rubbed the back of his neck and looked up, feeling a twinge of annoyance that the day was so nice, but it had started out so very poorly.  “I guess we now know why Yoogin advised us not to show the amulets…”

           “Because people are crazy?” Kyuhyun muttered, taking a seat and resting his head on his knees, the intense feel of adrenalin finally draining away.

           “Kyu, stop it,” Summer stated tiredly, tossing a pebble at him.  “We’re all okay after all.”

           “They just wanted help,” Eleanara said in a small voice, staring at the bruise on her arm.  “They’re scared and hurt and they just wanted help…”

           “And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do,” Kharin stated firmly.

           “I could see they were scared,” Eunhyuk sighed, remembering the crazed expression in the man’s face as he had grabbed Eleanara.  “They just weren’t listening.”

           Siwon spoke quietly, gaze focused on the light elementalist, “I’m not sure their definition of help is quite the same as ours.”  She gave him a wounded look and then looked down and nodded; the bruise on her arm, gone.

           Slowly, Leeteuk released his pack and pulled out a ration, glad they at least had a chance to replenish their supplies.  “We’ll rest here for a bit and then move on,” he announced, pulling out the new map he had found as well.  He was grateful they had at least taken the correct fork in the road and were indeed on the right path.  They still had a ways to go, but they were still on their feet.  Shaken and their faith in their fellow person tested, but still ready to go on.  He checked to make sure they were getting a bite to eat and nodded to himself, satisfied when they all had a ration in hand.

           He had finished his ration and was looking down the road ahead when he felt a quiet presence at his side.  He wasn’t surprised to see it was Eleanara.  “Thank you,” she murmured softly, looking down the road and not at him.

           “You can’t heal them all,” he sighed before he pat her back comfortingly.

           “I know…but it doesn’t stop the need to do so,” she admitted, swallowing hard.

           “I know.”