When at last they were able to put some distance between themselves and the unconscious patrol, the party began to feel at least a little better about the situation.  Not to say that they weren’t constantly looking over their shoulders, but as no pursuers appeared, they stopped unconsciously holding their breath.

           Quickly moving in to overshadow them in the growing gloom were the storm clouds Siwon had predicted.  “I wish I hadn’t been right,” he sighed as he promptly fished out his rain cloak.

           As the group paused to watch it approach, Kyuhyun muttered, “You knew and didn’t think to let us know?”

           “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway,” Kharin stated dryly as she pulled her cloak on.

           “It’s not as if he could have stopped it,” Eunhyuk laughed at the absurdity of the idea.

           Faintly, they heard thunder rumble from inside the clouds and were able to see dim flashes of light within the thunderheads.  Summer groaned, giving voice to the general feel of the group.

           “Maybe it just looks bad…” Eleanara stated hopefully, though it was obvious even she didn’t believe that.

           “Right…” Kyuhyun stated dryly.

           It did not take them long to find out.  The wind hit them first, surprising them with its force as it grabbed at their cloaks.  “Whoa!” Eunhyuk exclaimed as he briefly wrestled with the brunt of the force before he was able to split the wind around them.  He grinned at the relief in their expressions and shrugged.  There was too much to divert entirely but what got through was manageable.

           Not so for the rain…  The elementalists watched as the leading edge raced for them, a visible curtain of water that soaked the ground beneath it in an instant.  The rain hit them, a physical force that they felt stinging through the cloaks and working past the repellent barriers they all wore.  In mere moments, they were soaked through as they attempted, vainly, to continue onward.

           Leeteuk pulled Eleanara close.  “Can you provide us a light?” he asked, struggling to be heard over the now torrential downpour.

           She didn’t even try to respond verbally.  The light elementalist picked her hand up and in the next moment, a bright orb was floating above her head.  It pierced the gloom enough to show them the puddles already forming even with the water running off the path in small streams.

           Leeteuk guided them off the path, trusting the others to follow after.  When they stopped and he looked back, he was glad to see that he had not been wrong.  As a flash of lightning streaked by overhead, a resounding clap of thunder filled the air and he found Eleanara pressing close, trembling slightly.

           As quickly as he could, he raised a shelter large enough for all of them and slightly higher than normal.  In a bid to keep Eleanara next to him, he held her close and waved the others in, watching Eunhyuk and Kharin bolt in and head for the back while Kyuhyun, Summer and Siwon took the right side.   He ushered Eleanara in and positioned himself on the outermost edge across from Siwon.

           “Well, that was certainly exciting,” Eunhyuk smiled in an effort to break the tension in the group as they shucked soggy packs and dripping cloaks.

           Kyuhyun snorted but, like the rest, laughed half-heartedly.  Summer poked Siwon, “Did you expect it to be quite so…?”  Her voice trailed off as they watched the water pour down, glinting in the light still active.

           “Not really,” he shrugged, holding his hand out to feel the droplets pummel his palm.

           Unobtrusively, Leeteuk made small adjustments to the shelter; extending the overhang, adding spots to hang their cloaks and creating a slope for excess water to drain out at the corners.  “It’s not home, but it should do for now,” he smiled uncertainly.

           An awkward pause descended as seven pairs of eyes looked around.  Their stop had not been planned and as such none of them were sure where to start.  Siwon finally brightened and he began, “What was it you were talking about earlier, Teuk?”

           For one moment, he was horribly confused and then managed to recall the thought from earlier.  “Right.  I was wondering if you were able to scry?”  As soon as he asked, the thought made him mildly uncomfortable again.

           Siwon thought about it and nodded.  “I believe so.  I haven’t tried it yet though.  Why?”  Once the question came out, understanding hit him.  “I see…”

           “Does that mean he can see us?” Summer asked nervously.  She was not alone in that feeling.

           “Didn’t we already figure that he knew about us?” Eleanara asked, leaning forward slightly.

           “Yes, but if he can see us, we have no element of surprise,” Kharin supplied, with a sigh.

           With a derogatory snort, Kyuhyun stated bluntly, “Whether he knows we’re coming or not, the result is still going to be the same.”  His matter of fact attitude made most of them chuckle as he sat with one arm resting on a raised knee, slightly leaning back, the image of cocky confidence.

           “Is everything so black and white to you?” Kharin asked intently, annoyed by his seeming lack of concern.

           “Yes,” he stated, meeting her gaze.  “We have neither the time nor the room for gray,” he assured her.

           “We live in a world of gray!” Kharin stated heatedly as she stared at him, sitting immediately next to her.

           Before Kyuhyun could respond, Leeteuk spoke up, “Calm down, both of you!  Arguing isn’t going to help us,” he explained as calmly as he could.

           Riled, the fire elementalist responded, “You’re one to talk.  You act like you know what you’re doing but you’re as lost as the rest of us!”

           A stunned silence fell as the group looked between the two.  Leeteuk’s face fell and Kyuhyun looked away immediately after.  Eleanara reached out to touch Leeteuk’s arm softly and he sighed, “He’s right.”

           “Kyu’s just saying stuff like he always does,” Eunhyuk tried to say, worriedly looking between Leeteuk and Kyuhyun.

           “No,” Leeteuk spoke again.  “I have no idea what I’m doing.”  He laughed bitterly.

           “The blind leading the blind,” Summer muttered.  “Great…”

           “The one thing I wanted to do was protect you.  All of you,” he continued, opening his hands to encompass all of them.  “And I can’t…”

           “Of course you can’t,” Eleanara stated, as if the very thought was absurd.  “We might be the Elementalists, but we’re still human.  Not one of us can do everything all the time.”  She looked to the rest for support.

           “We all need help sometimes,” Siwon agreed, meeting Eleanara’s gaze and then Leeteuk’s.

           “And that’s what families do.  They help each other,” Eunhyuk smiled as he slung an arm around both Kharin and Eleanara who were on either side of him.

           Leeteuk managed a weak smile at that.  “So what is this ‘family’ going to do about our situation now?”

           The mood had lightened a bit but a pall drew over them at the thought.

           “We keep moving forward,” Kharin stated softly as she held to Eunhyuk’s arm lightly.

           “We’ve made it this far together,” he agreed, giving her a friendly squeeze.

           “But for what?” Kyuhyun asked, bitterness in his voice.

           Summer sighed next to him.  “We were sent out here to save the world…”

           “Why should we, when we see how quickly the world turns on us?” Kyuhyun persisted, latent anger still simmering at the betrayal they had faced.

           “Because it’s the right thing to do,” Siwon stated, though even his response seemed a bit lacking.

           “But is that enough?” Leeteuk asked, a glimmer of understanding in his eyes.  They had done the right thing and it had burned them for their efforts.

           “If not for them…then how about for us?” Eleanara asked simply, holding to Eunhyuk’s arm for support.  “I know I want to live in a world with all of you in it.”

           “No one ever asked us what we wanted to do,” Summer smiled sadly, meeting Eleanara’s gaze.  She at least had a short childhood at the manor before she was taken.  The others hadn’t even had that…  “We were just taken to the monastery and told what we were.  The choice was never ours to make.”

           “And now they shove us out here and expect us to do exactly what they told us to do.  Never mind what we might want,” Kyuhyun sat up and regarded the half-circle intensely.

           Siwon spoke up then, slowly, “The outside world is not what I expected it to be.  There was so much they didn’t tell us in the monastery.”  His face clouded over briefly as he recalled the dark times they had faced only recently.  “I don’t know about saving the world.  I don’t know that I could even if I wanted to.  But I want to think…no.  I know I would save all of you.”

           At the unexpected words, he saw consideration wash over them.  “Everyone has told us time and again that we’re the only ones who can stop him.  I’m not sure how true that is or not, but we have a choice,” Leeteuk smiled, a wondrous expression that lit up his face at the mere thought.

           “So what’s it gonna be guys?” Eunhyuk asked, looking down at both girls under his arms and then all the way around.

           “Obviously, we’re going to stop Enryhll,” Kharin nodded, nudging Eunhyuk lightly in the ribs with a gentle elbow.

           “But we’re going to stop him for us.  Because we choose to,” Eleanara beamed, for once her face free of that shadow of worry she always seemed to have.  Agreeable nods accepted the fact around the shelter, and just like that, the tension they had been carrying was gone.  Outwardly, nothing had changed in the slightest.  Enrhyll was still the enemy.  People were still going to get hurt in the meantime and the war was going to rage until it was stopped one way or the other.  For the Elementalists, the change was impossible to miss.  They had finally made a choice.

           Despite the storm outside and everything that had happened before, they felt a semblance of comfort in the stone shelter.  At Kharin’s urging, before Eleanara could get away, Eunhyuk caught her completely unawares and tickled her relentlessly.  Her helpless, delighted laughter made everyone grin as it was a sound they had not heard often enough of late.  He relented when she was breathless and then threatened Kharin with similar treatment, but a familiar warning glare fended him off.

           “Scared?” Kyuhyun chuckled, a gleam in his eyes.

           “Why don’t you give it a try and see what happens?” Eunhyuk responded with a grin, earning him another glare from Kharin which she then Kyuhyun to the wind elementalist’s amusement.

           It looked as if Kyuhyun actually debated it for a moment before he smirked and waved a hand at her dismissively, looking elsewhere.  “Nah.  It’s not worth it,” he laughed, still looking away.

           Kharin gave his shoulder a shove when he wasn’t looking and sent him bumping into Summer.  “Hey!” she cried in mock indignation, a giggle completely ruing the image.  “You’re terrible,” she sighed instead, helping to right him.

           “So you say,” Kyuhyun chuckled as he took a look around.

           Siwon had moved closer to speak with Leeteuk and Eleanara and Eunhyuk were speaking animatedly.  The light elementalist was using her arms and Eunhyuk’s to demonstrate something or other.  Kharin was listening in on them and then Summer reached over to hand him a bite to eat.

           Gradually, their discussions wound down and at last, the group settled down almost exactly where they had ended up.  The constant sound of the rain had lightened just a bit and Summer had banished the light so only the occasional flash of lightning in the distance disturbed them.

           They had decided to keep a watch, just in case, and Siwon had agreed to take first watch.  They figured they could just move around the half-circle for their order so they wouldn’t have to risk stepping on anyone in the dark.  When it came time for Kyuhyun to wake Kharin, she stirred quickly, seemingly only half-asleep.

           “You’re up,” he confirmed quietly as he returned to his sleeping roll.

           Kharin could just make out his figure in the dark and she chewed her lip in thought.  No one else was up so this was as good a time as any.  Still lying down, she asked, “Kyu?”

           “Hm?” he murmured in mild surprise.  She wasn’t one for small talk typically.

           “Umm…” she started nervously, unsure how to progress.

           Kyuhyun waited a second and then sighed, “If that’s all you have to say, I’m going to sleep.”

           Kharin grumbled under her breath and muttered, “You’re an .”

           He snorted in amusement, “Someone’s gotta be.”  Even though he couldn’t see her, he could feel Kharin watching him.  “What?” he grumbled, wishing she would say it already.

           “Kyu…  What did you mean when you told us to stop fli…flirting?” she asked quietly.  In the next moment, she felt her cheeks grow warm as she could feel rather than see his incredulous expression.

           “I meant exactly what I said,” he stated bluntly.

           “We weren’t flirting,” she denied half-heartedly.

           Kyuhyun smacked his forehead and chuckled.  “You were both flirting.”

           “We’re just friends,” she persisted, arguing with herself as much as with him.  “Besides, Hyuk doesn’t see me that way.”

           “Whatever you say, Kharin.”  Kyuhyun took a breath and laughed again, genuinely amused.  “Really, you’re as bad as Leeteuk.”

           Now it was Kharin’s turn to snort.  “I am not.”

           “Uh huh,” he responded noncommittally.  When he felt her continue to watch him, he grumbled, “Would you just take your watch and let me sleep?”

           After a pause, “Fine.”  Kharin sat up quietly and looked down at Kyuhyun in the darkness, pondering his words.  Slowly, she let her gaze travel to her other side and, even in the dark, she could see every feature of Eunhyuk’s face.  She smiled, shyly, and the feeling of warmth it prompted spread through her.  Kyuhyun was an , but every now and then he was right…

(a/n: Pure filler, I know, but it needed to happen.  ;)  I wish to extend my thanks to my continued readers and reviewers.  Thank you for taking the time to share this with me.  <3 )