“Why is six afraid of seven?”

Minho wanted to bang his head against the nearest tree but decided against it and choked down a groan instead as he continued leading Hae along the small path they had found a few hours ago.

He didn’t know why, but apparently Key had woken up that morning and decided he wanted to be comedian of the year. Twenty minutes into the trip he had claimed they needed entertainment for the road and, after rummaging through his bag for a moment, he had procured a small leather journal from which all his jokes came from. They were anything but funny, although for some reason Onew kept indulging him. Minho wished he could cut both their tongues out so there would finally be peace.

Next town, he told himself and gripped Hae’s reins tighter as he pushed through a bush growing across the path, just until the next town and he could escape from them.

“Um…” Onew hummed thoughtfully. “Because seven is a prime number and they can be quite intimidating?”

Minho rolled his eyes and tried to coax a suspicious Hae through the bush.

“Because, seven eight nine,” he muttered under his breath.

“Because, seven eight nine,” Key echoed behind him. Apparently, Onew didn’t fully comprehend the wordplay because Key elaborated. “Eight sounds like ate. Like eating, you know?”

A beat of silence followed and Minho glanced behind Hae, his eyes falling upon a frowning Onew and a patiently waiting Key.

“Oh,” Onew breathed at last. “I see.”

Key laughed and flipped a page.

“What did the sea say to the sand?” he continued.

“Hello?” Onew guessed.

“No,” Key said through barely controlled laughter. “Nothing. It simply waved.”

A laugh left Onew and Minho heaved a sigh.

“For the hundredth time,” he said and they both looked up at him. “Could you please cease the joking? I can’t hear anything other than you two idiots, which could land us in very grave danger.”

Blissed silence fell and Minho relaxed a little, continuing to coax Hae through the bush. She was almost halfway.

“Hey, Minho,” Key piped up.

Minho barely refrained from slapping his forehead.

“What?” he groaned.

“Can February March?” Key asked.

Minho pressed his lips together. He knew the answer, but he wasn’t going to indulge him. If he did, Key would never shut up.

Key took his silence as an ‘I don’t know’ and continued.

“No, but April May,” he said, breaking into chuckles, Onew laughing along.

Minho stopped and turned to them fully, his frustration growing rapidly since Hae didn’t want to co-operate.

“Look, I’ve got zero patience at the moment,” he growled. “I’ve been looking for the stupid prince for months, I’m sick and tired of going all over the world, we’re in a godforsaken forest I didn’t plan to travel through at all, Hae refuses to go through this damned bush, and you two chuckleheads just won’t. Shut. Up.”

They blinked at him, Onew raising a hand as if preparing to use magic.

“If you ing don’t stop getting on my nerves,” Minho continued, “I will hurt you.”

They continued to stare at him, astonished. Then Key’s lips pulled into a grin.

“Well, at least you stopped talking like a stuck up prude,” he said cheerfully.

Onew threw him a warning look, which was completely ignored as Key took a step forward.

“Here,” he pushed his book of jokes into Minho’s chest. “You can have it.”

Then he brushed past him, grabbed Hae’s reins, and gave her an affectionate pat on her muzzle, mumbling something to her. Minho whirled around to ask him exactly what he thought he was doing – Hae was his horse – but the words died in his throat though, because Key suddenly straightened up, whipping his head to the left.

“What is it?” Minho and Onew asked at the same time.

Key held up a hand to silence them, his eyes narrowing at something through the trees. Minho followed his gaze but couldn’t see anything. He silently drew his sword anyway; glancing around for any movement and Onew swiftly came to stand beside Key. Hae must have felt the tension in the air, because she pulled at her reins, huffing worriedly. Key placed a comforting hand to her muzzle, up and down while still staring into the trees.

Then Minho heard it – heavy footfalls a few meters away and indiscernible, gruff voices.

He gripped the hilt of his sword tighter and Key let go of Hae to draw his bow from his back, putting an arrow into position and pulling the string taut. Onew stood ready to cast a spell, his feet firmly planted on the ground.

The smell hit them first, foul and eye watering. Then a large orc stepped into their path. Its face was ragged and scarred, one of its eyes cloudy. The other eye zeroed in on them and a deadly, predatory grin spread on its lips just as two other, younger, orcs stepped out behind him.

The first orc said something to them in their rough, gargling language, and the two younger orcs whipped around to stare at them as well, equally predatory.

“Um, any chance you know Orc, Minho?” Key asked under his breath and Onew gave him a hopeful glance.

“No,” Minho murmured with a shake of his head. “Though I hardly believe they said anything that favors us.”

Key snorted and the string of his bow grew even more taut.

“Then I guess I’m allowed to do this,” was all he said before the arrow suddenly whistled through the air and buried itself in one of the younger orcs’ eyes.

There was a shocked beat of silence from everyone as they watched the orc crumble to the ground, blood and gooey liquid leaking through the pierced eye. Then the older orc let out a battle cry and the two left advanced on them with thundering speed.

“At least one’s down,” Key consoled as he moved to scramble up a tree.

Minho shot him a scathing glare before he nimbly ducked out of the way of an oncoming club with large, iron spikes protruding out of it. He looked up at the old orc standing above him and swiped his sword at his right leg. It left a deep, profusely bleeding gash and the orc roared in pain. Minho rolled out of the way to avoid being crushed as the orc fell to its knees and jumped to his feet.

Another arrow sped through the air just barely missing Minho's shoulder and grazed the orc’s cheek. The orc grunted, swinging blindly with its club and Minho had to dance around it to avoid getting hit.

“Onew, you need to kill them not try to spare them!” Key yelled from above.

Minho looked behind the orc in front of him and saw Onew battling the other, shooting spell after spell at it without much of a result. It slowed the orc down but didn’t seem to do much damage.

“Maybe they have family!” Onew yelled back then yelped as an arrow hit the orc square in the chest and it stumbled. Another arrow found its way into the middle of its forehead and the orc finally toppled over, dead.

Minho jumped out of the way of yet another attack form the old orc and, before it could stand up again, swung his sword in a wide arc, slicing right through its throat. The head rolled off its shoulders and fell to the ground with a loud ‘thump’ along with the rest of the body, rolling halfway over to Onew, who grimaced in disgust. Key jumped down from the tree he had taken refuge in and punched Onew in the arm.

“Maybe they have family,” he mimicked and Onew glared at him. “That was the worst excuse I’ve ever heard for something that’s trying to kill us.”

“I can’t just go mindlessly killing things!” Onew protested. “That’s not what our objective is! And besides, how would you know their intentions?!”

Key gave him an incredulous look and turned to Minho as if he couldn’t believe his ears.

“Have orcs ever been known to be friendly?” he asked.

Minho raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

“Not in my experience,” he answered. He looked over to Onew, whose face had taken on a defeated expression. “If it makes you feel better, they would have probably played with and tortured us before killing and eating us. That’s usually how it goes.”

Onew wrinkled his nose but nodded weakly.

“Let’s get out of this forest,” Minho continued. “I’m sure these orcs were either on their way to or coming from a camp. There could be more and I’d rather not run into them.”

“I concur,” Onew said.

“Sure, just wait a sec.”

Minho and Onew watched as Key swiftly searched one of the bodies.

“Um,” Minho said once Key pocketed something and moved to the second body. “What are you doing?”

“They have valuable things on them,” he threw over his shoulder and pocketed something else.

Minho pinned his back with a disbelieving stare.

“They’re orcs,” he stressed.

“Wow, your observational abilities are exceptional,” Key said with fake awe. “Besides, orcs steal, which means they most likely have something of value on them.”

He held up a pouch triumphantly and shook it, making it rattle with the sound of coins.

“See,” he said. “Steal from the bad and give to the good!”

Onew frowned.

“I don’t think that’s how the line goes,” he objected.

Minho rolled his eyes.

“Are you done?” he asked.

Key surveyed the bodies one last time before nodding.

“Yeah, let’s go,” he said and scooped up his book of jokes, which Minho had dropped in his haste, on the way to Hae, grabbing her reins and leading her with ease through the bush she previously had been so suspicious of.

Minho narrowed his eyes at their backs, but resigned himself to walking with Onew, both of them keeping a silent eye on the horse and Key, respectively.

As they continued picking their way through the forest, Key fell back into reading his stupid jokes for them to guess the answers. Minho refused to play along, choosing to keep a close eye on their surroundings, but Onew kept indulging his charge, which resulted in a lot of confusion on his part and patient explanations on Key’s.

They finally made it through the edge of the forest and came to a stop at a small hill, looking down a winding dirt road leading to a moderately large town.

“Maybe we could spend a night here,” Onew suggested. “It looks like it will take at least two days to look through the town for anyone who might have seen the prince, or even the prince himself.”

Minho nodded his agreement.

“Have the king and queen tried a locator spell on him?” Key asked suddenly and Minho looked at him questioningly. “I mean, this seems like a lot of work if they could just hire a mage to find him on a map.”

“They tried but it failed,” Minho explained. “The prince must have put up a ward against being found. And weren’t you the one who said you wanted to help me because of the adventure?”

Key shrugged.

“Well, I didn’t think we’d actually search through entire cities and towns and such,” he muttered.

Minho gave him an incredulous look.

“Then how will we ever find him?” he demanded. “No spells work, so we must do this the non-magic way.”

“You’ve only ever seen a painting of him, how can you be sure you won’t just walk past him?” Key questioned.

“Well, it’s great I have you then, is it not?” Minho countered. “So you can put your brain to work and recognize him for me.”

Key wrinkled his nose and sighed.

“I thought this would be more exciting than interrogating people all day,” he mumbled to Hae as he began leading her down the road. “Where’s all the excitement of an adventure?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t just invite yourself to other’s journeys in the future then!” Minho called after him.

Without looking back, Key flipped him a finger over his shoulder. Onew chuckled as they followed him.

Soon, they found themselves outside an inviting tavern. It had a small porch on which a rocking chair stood in the far corner and the door was open, giving them a glimpse of the homey interior. The tables were placed hither thither in the room, none of the chairs matched, and the unlit fireplace in the far wall had a cluster of souvenirs on top of it. If it were from the owner’s own travels or brought to them by their guests, Minho couldn’t say. The smell of food wafted over to them as a maid passed with plates in her hands, picking her way through the cluster of chairs. The tavern wasn’t full by any means, it was past midday, but there were a few patrons lingering inside.

“This looks like an awesome place,” Key said cheerfully. “Let’s eat!”

He tied Hae to one of the wooden posts holding up the roof over the porch and made his way up the three steps, Onew naturally following.

Minho stared after them, then glanced down the road. He had a job to do. He couldn’t just neglect his duty.

“I’m not hungry,” he said and they both stopped just outside the entryway. “You two eat. I’ll go speak to the townspeople.”

Key narrowed his eyes at him, but shrugged.

“Fine,” he said. “Don’t think we’ll save you any food or anything.”

Minho let out a deep breath.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he muttered, but Key didn’t seem to hear it as he had already entered.

Onew hesitated for a moment, as if he didn’t want to let Minho out of his sight, but quickly followed when Minho gave him a pointed look.

Before leaving, he gave Hae a few pats and promised to be back soon. He’d think up a plan to sneak away while he wandered around town. Key and Onew would likely find a place to sleep and then, when night fell Minho could just come back for his horse and ride to the next town.

He spent hours walking around town, interrogating people and looking at things his mother might like. He didn’t have a lot of room in his bags, but he bought her a pretty necklace with a small silver locket on which a crescent moon had been engraved.

The sun hung low when he finally had made his way around town and was walking down a familiar street. He saw Hae in the distance and contemplated putting up with his two companions for a day more, just so he could get the chance to eat in the homey tavern. He had become hungry by now, his stomach rumbling almost constantly. He wasn’t sure it would be worth it though.

Someone crashed into him and brought him out of his musings. His hands instinctively shot out to steady whoever it was. He himself was quite sturdy, and it would take a lot more to put him off balance.

“Oh, sorry!” came a male voice. “I wasn’t looking where I was going!”

As Minho looked down his eyes were assaulted with the color white and he blinked a few times before realizing it was hair.

“That’s quite all right,” he assured as he pushed the man away. “Just watch where you’re going next time.”

He received a grin at that.

“I will!” the man said and began walking away before Minho could get a good look at him. “Have a nice day!”

He began humming as he sauntered away, waving a hand over his shoulder. Minho looked after him for a confused moment, then shook himself a little and decided he could put up with Key and Onew for another day after all and headed to the tavern.

He found them in the farthest corner, beside the unlit fireplace, mugs on the table but no plates. Key was talking animatedly with a young man Minho didn’t recognize while Onew scanned the tavern every few seconds. He looked genuinely surprised when he spotted Minho, then frowned but motioned to the empty seat in front of him. Minho made his way through the sea of tables and chairs, the place a little fuller now so close to dinnertime.

“– where the water is always warm,” he caught the end of Key’s sentence.

“Wow,” the new person said, voice awed. As Minho got closer he detected the pointy ears of elven kind, though the young man’s pale skin and brown hair were that of humans. So, half elf then. “I’d like to go there some time.”

Minho cleared his throat and the young man jumped, turning to him with wide eyes. Key looked up as well and a slow smile spread on his lips.

“You didn’t run away,” he stated. “Great! I was thinking we could sleep in the forest again.”

Minho slumped down in the chair Onew had motioned to with a soft groan.

“Well, now I wish I had run away,” he said under his breath and caught the amused smile Onew hid behind his mug as he took a sip of whatever he had ordered.

Key ignored him and motioned at the young man sitting beside Minho.

“This is Taemin,” he introduced. “His parents own this tavern.”

Minho gave him a small nod in greeting and Taemin smiled shyly at him.

“I heard you’ve travelled quite a lot in your search for the crown prince of The East,” he said and Minho shot Key a raised eyebrow. “It must be nice to get to go places.”

Key frowned.

“You’ve never travelled?” he asked incredulously.

Taemin shook his head.

“No, I’ve been stuck here my entire life,” he mumbled, looking embarrassed. “We’ve never had the time or the money to travel places. This tavern is the life of my parents, they rarely leave and the few times they do it’s reluctantly.”

Key exchanged a concerned look with Onew, who shrugged at him in a what-can-you-do? way.

“But I…” Taemin sighed. “I just feel so trapped sometimes. I’ve never been anywhere.”

Key gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

“I know the feeling,” he said.

Onew raised his eyebrows at him and Minho frowned. Wasn’t Key an ambassador’s son? He should have travelled the world. He had all the stories to tell for it.

“My parents wouldn’t really let me go anywhere,” Key explained when he noticed their looks. “I was always inside, and teachers and friends came to our house instead of meeting me at school or wherever. We travelled with magic seals, so I only saw the interior and garden of our houses.”

“That must have been driving you insane,” Taemin said and Key smiled.

“Yeah,” he said. “But then I managed to convince them to let me travel on my own by finding Onew and employing him as my protector.”

Taemin's curious gaze fell on Onew who smiled gently at him.

“I’m a mage,” he explained.

Taemin's eyes grew round and he looked to Minho expectantly.

“Don’t look at me,” he muttered. “They invited themselves on this journey. I have nothing to do with them so I have no obligation to tell you anything.”

Key sent him an irritated look and huffed.

“We’re taking him with us,” he stated to which both Minho and Taemin turned to him in shock.

“You are?” Taemin asked at the same time Minho spluttered: “We are?!”

Key laughed at their dumbfounded expressions.

“Yeah,” he said. “You’ve been stuck in this place your entire life and if you don’t go now, you never will.”

Taemin looked across the tavern to where an elven woman was buzzing around behind the bar.

“I-I don’t know,” he said uncertainly.

“If you ever want to get out of this dinky little town, you need to start somewhere,” Key advised him sagely. “So why not with an adventure? Minho's a royal guard, Onew’s a powerful mage and I’m a pretty good shot with a bow. You’ll be safe.”

Minho glared at him.

“He will just slow us down if he can’t protect himself,” he protested. “I’m not here to babysit. I have a mission and I must make that my priority.”

Key gave him an unimpressed look and proceeded to ignore him.

“So do you want to come?” he asked.

Taemin threw a glance at Minho, who frowned at him.

“Don’t mind him,” Key said.

Taemin bit his lip, hesitating.

“Well… I do know how to use a bit of natural magic,” he said slowly. “My mom was a druid before she met my dad and moved here.”

Key smiled.

“Then it’s settled!” he said happily. “I’ll fill you in on everything later!”

Minho groaned loudly this time and sank lower in his chair.

“I never should have let you come along,” he growled. Then he scowled at Taemin. “Can I at least get something to eat?”

Taemin shot to his feet, his chair falling over.

“Of course!” he flustered and pulled it back up. “It’ll be right up!”

He scampered over to the bar to place an order before launching into a discussion with the woman, who had to be his mother, his hand gestures urgent and wild. She threw a glance at the three in the corner, her eyes suspicious. Key and Onew waved at her, while Minho tried to not look as grumpy as he felt. It wouldn’t do to get detained by officers; it would only slow him down further.

Another young man appeared beside him then, and Taemin turned to him looking like he just had the brightest idea. The newcomer was weirdly familiar and it took Minho a moment to realize it was the guy that had bumped into him on the street. It seemed the blond haired man knew Taemin, because they both began an intense discussion with Taemin's mother.

“Huh,” Minho muttered to himself.

“What?” Key asked.

“That blond guy,” he said. “He ran into me earlier.”

Key and Onew looked over and a smirk spread on Key’s lips.

“Did he now,” he laughed under his breath. “He must have been nice, since you gave him your entire pouch of coins.”

“What?!” Minho exclaimed and patted his pockets.

When he couldn’t find his money he looked back up at the blond man, who choose just that moment to look over at them as well. As their gazes met, he winked at Minho with an infuriatingly smug grin. Minho scowled once he noticed his coin pouch hanging from a loop in the man’s belt. Key laughed again and Onew tried to hide his own laugh by taking another sip of his drink.

“Some palace guard you are,” Key snorted. “Couldn’t even detect a pick pocket right under your nose.”

Minho's scowl him.

“I was preoccupied with other things,” he growled. “Like wondering if I should take Hae and escape you two or eat first.”

Key grimaced at him.

“How very knightly of you,” he countered.

Minho's retort was interrupted when Taemin reappeared by their table, a plate of food in his hand and the blond man trailing behind him.

“Here you go,” Taemin said and put the plate in front of Minho, placing a fork and knife beside it. Then he gestured to the blond man. “This is my friend, Jonghyun.”

Key smiled at him, his eyes dancing with amusement, and Onew gave a polite ‘Hello’. Minho glared at him.

“Hey,” Jonghyun said amicably, and gave Minho a sheepish smile. “Well, I guess you want this back.”

He untied the pouch from his belt and dumped it beside Minho's plate. Taemin gave him a disapproving look and he shrugged.

“What?” he asked, a little defensive. “He was zooning out so he was an easy target.”

Taemin only shook his head while Key burst out laughing again.

“So, I heard you all are taking Taemin with you on a trip?” Jonghyun said.  “Any chance you have room for one more? His mom doesn’t want him to go alone with strangers.”

“No,” Minho grunted but it was drowned out by Key’s: “Of course!”

Jonghyun threw an amused look at Minho before taking a seat in the chair Taemin had previously occupied.

“Do you have anything you specialize in,” Onew spoke up for the first time. “We really cannot protect both you and Taemin without putting ourselves in serious danger.”

Jonghyun grinned and leaned back in his chair.

“I’m a master of disguise,” he said and flicked with his fingers. “Also, I’ve got very nimble hands and feet.”

“Master of disguise,” Minho snorted disbelievingly.

Jonghyun raised his eyebrows and, right before their eyes, his shape began changing until a mirror image of Minho sat in his place.

“Master of disguise,” the Minho duplicate repeated, voice squeaky and mocking.

They all stared at him in astonishment, except Taemin, who shook his head again with a sigh.

“I don’t sound like that!” Minho said indignantly.

“You should!” Key laughed.

Jonghyun morphed back into his previous form and grinned impishly at Minho.

“Truth's painful, huh?” he asked.

Minho decided not to answer him and grumpily began eating instead, to everyone’s apparent amusement.

“There’s just one thing,” Jonghyun continued. “There is an orc camp not far from here and I was asked to infiltrate and take care of them. Taemin tells me you guys are quite well trained, so if you could help me out before we left, it would be awesome.”

Onew looked a little nauseated, but Key nodded eagerly.

“Of course we can!” he said before Minho could even open his mouth to decline. “We were planning to stay here two days anyway.”

“To look for the prince,” Minho reminded him irately.

Key grimaced and waved a hand dismissively, but Jonghyun frowned, looking from Minho to Key to Onew.

“He’s not here,” he said slowly, as it unsure he should say it at all.

Minho narrowed his eyes at him while Key and Onew exchanged a curious look. Taemin looked at his friend in curiosity as well.

“Do you know something,” Minho asked, barely daring to hope. Had he finally found someone with a connection to the prince?

Jonghyun gave him a contemplative look, then shrugged.

“If you help me with the orc camp I’ll tell you everything I know,” he bargained.

Minho sighed heavily and looked to Key and Onew. Key was practically begging with his eyes for him to take the offer. Onew on the other hand, though is face was expertly schooled, looked like there was nothing he would like less.

Minho wasn’t so keen on the idea either but he couldn’t give up what could be his only chance at finding the prince.

“Fine,” he muttered and went back to eating his food, ignoring Key’s little whoop of excitement and Onew's barely audible sigh.

And if that pickpocketing shape shifter had lied to him, God help him, Minho would start the fricking apocalypse

A/N: I haven't even attempted to proofread this, so please don't judge me too hard. I wrote this on my phone Dx

Uhm, I have nothing else to say to be honest so I guess I'll just let you be... If you have any questions just ask :)

Oh! If anyone gets the reference to Onew's answer to the 'six afraid of seven' question, you're awesome! ;D

Hope you liked this chapter! I'm gonna go sleep now -.-

Bye~!