Written by Faye Jing and Snigdha Desaty of Cute Craziness Productions.

No copyright intended.

This story was written for entertainment purposes only.

Characters Jing/Fei and Iseul/Snigdha belong to Faye Jing and Snidgha Desaty respectively.

All members of Exo, F(x), SHINee, & Red Velvet belong to themselves and SM entertainment.

Kris (aka WuYifan) belongs to himself.

Only their names, powers and images were used as inspiration for the story.

All other characters used in the story are fictional and any similarities to real people living or deceased is purely coincidental.

Major plot points and ideas used as inspiration: Young Justice episode 19 (Misplaced) & Justice League Unlimited episode 3 (Kid's stuff) and Once Upon a Time (The Thing You Love Most).

---

In the land of the Eastern Kingdom, many years after Sungam's return...

   "Hey, Iseul?" Lay started, hesitantly as he got into bed, careful not to disturb his wife.

   "Hm? What is it?" Iseul sleepily looked at her husband, a bit concerned by the tone of his voice.

   "Well, I don't know how to say it... But..." He gently wrapped his arms around her and embraced her, simply absorbing her warmth while he thought.

   "You know you can tell me anything." Iseul smiled as she ran her fingers through his hair. It was soft and silky to the touch.

   "I know." He smiled back and kissed her forehead, before he began to speak again, "Iseul... How do you feel about... Children?" He finally asked.

   "Children? Hm, I generally like them. I've never had any problems with them before, why?"

   "I meant, how do you feel about having children?" He looked at her with hopeful eyes.

   "Having children!? I-I mean-! Do you think we're really ready for that?" Iseul looked back at him, she wasn't sure, she suddenly felt pressured and a bit panicked, but looking at Lay, she could tell, that he would be supportive of any decision she made and he would be by her side for every moment and every hardship. "Ok," She finally said after a long pause. "Yes, I'd like to have children."

   Lay's smile widened even more as his dimples showed and he leaned in for another kiss. "Would you like a son or a daughter?" He asked.

   "Hm, I think I'd be fine with either." Iseul hummed thoughtfully.

   "I'm hoping for a daughter, if it is a girl, what would you name her?"

   "Hm..." Iseul had to think for awhile. "Snigdha?"

   "Snigdha? Why that name?" Lay looked at her surprised.

   "I don't know, it's just the first name I thought of, it's somewhat common where I'm from. Do you not like it?"

   "No, I love it. It's a beautiful name, perfect for a beautiful girl." Lay smiled.

   "How do you know she's beautiful if she hasn't even been born yet?" Iseul laughed.

   "If she's only half as beautiful as her mother, she'd still shine brighter than the sun."

   "You're so cheesy." She playfully hit him as he pulled her even closer.

Foreword

Lay and Iseul's daughter: Snigdha

Inherited her father's healing ability and her mother's spirit animal: tiger

Curious and easily excitable

Kris and Jing's daughter: (Princess) Fei

Inherited her mother's magic ability and her father's spirit animal: dragon

Shy and secretive, emotionless

Chen and Zhang Liyin's son: Jonghyun

Inherited his father's electric ability and his mother's spirit animal: labrador

Powerful vocals, mischievous

Tao and Bella's son: Minho

Inherited his father's time control ability and his mother's spirit animal: cow

Charismatic and childish at times

Xiumin and Angel's son: Onew

Inherited his father's spirit animal: rabbit, and his mother's sleeping ability.

Kind and generous, clumsy

Sehun's son (wife: Krystal): Key

Inherited his mother's super strength and his father's spirit animal: fox

Playful and fun-loving

Kai's son (wife: ?): Taemin

Inherited his mother's portal ability and his father's spirit animal: wolf

Childlike and intensely passionate

Suho's daughter (wife: Victoria): (Princess) Wendy

Inherited her father's water ability and her mother's spirit animal: dolphin

Charitable and motherly

D.O.'s daughter (wife: Amber): Joy

Inherited her father's earth ability and her mother's spirit animal: monkey

Energetic and carefree

Baekhyun's daughter (wife: Luna): Seulgi

Inherited her mother's special sight ability and her father's spirit animal: wild cat

A bit quiet, but secretly playful and joking

Chanyeol's daughter (wife: Sulli): Irene

Inherited her father's fire ability and her mother's spirit animal: flamingo

A bit vain, but also cares a lot about other people's happiness

 

10 years later...

   "You can't catch me!"

   "Come on, faster!"

   "Guys, wait up!"

   "Slow down, you're gonna break something!"

   Screams and cheers were heard as four kids ran down the hall, nearly trampling Lay as he passed by.

   "Whoa! Where are you going in such a hurry?" He asked.

   "Sorry, dad, can't talk! The boys and I are playing tag!" The only girl yelled, making a sharp turn and hiding behind a table with a vase on it.

   "I can still see you, Snigdha." Lay laughed.

   "Shh, pretend I'm not here." She put a finger to her lips and covered her eyes as if that would help conceal her presence.

   "Hey, Uncle Lay, have you seen Snigdha?" One of the boys looked up at Lay and asked with a wide smile.

   "Hm, I don't know Jinki, have you checked over there?" Lay smiled as he pointed in Snigdha's direction.

   "Ah! Found you!" Jinki yelled.

   "You have to catch me first!" Snigdha leaped up and ran past him, only to be caught off guard by two more boys blocking her path.

   "Nowhere to go now!" The blonde one smiled.

   "Jonghyun! Minho! Three against one? That isn't fair!" Snigdha stomped her foot defiantly.

   "It took all three of us to catch you last time! It isn't exactly fair when you use your spirit animal to climb the trees!" Minho said defensively.

   "Haha, it's not my fault I inherited my mom's spirit animal and you all got spirit animals without claws."

   Lay just shook his head. "Remember, no shapeshifting indoors, we all know what happened last time."

   "You mean when Minho turned into a cow and knocked over that really expensive vase?" Jonghyun asked.

   "Yes, Jonghyun, that and the time when Snigdha scratched up all the furniture in the west hall." Lay sighed.

   "I promise it won't happen again!" Snigdha smiled innocently.

   "Now's our chance! Get her!" Minho yelled and all three boys pounced forward.

   "Eek!" Snigdha screamed and laughed as they piled on top of her. "Oof! Ah, get off! You're so heavy!" She tried pushing Jonghyun off of her, but he wouldn't budge.

   "Not until you say, Jonghyun-oppa is the best!" He laughed.

   "Never!" Snigdha smiled showing off her fangs and kicked her feet, but it was no use.

   "Alright, that's enough." Iseul said as she walked up to them.

   Jonghyun, Minho and Jinki immediately stood up and helped Snigdha stand as well. "Hi, mom. Do you wanna play too?" She asked with wide eyes.

   "Haha, maybe later." Iseul patted her on the head. "But today is a very important day, we're having guests from the Western Kingdom over and we need to clean the castle to make sure it's in good condition for when they arrive. Why don't you and the others play outside?"

   "Ah, ok~!" Snigdha nodded her head and hit Jinki on the shoulder before shouting, "You're it!" and running off down the hall with Jonghyun and Minho right behind her.

   "Aw, man!" Jinki sighed and ran after them.

   "They're so energetic, so early in the morning." Iseul said as Lay wrapped a hand around her waist and puller her closer.

   "Well, we know that Snigdha probably gets it from her mother." Lay smiled and pecked her on the cheek.

   "Hey, can we keep the PDA to a minimum? There are children in the area." Chen laughed as he walked up to them with Liyin by his side.

   "Very funny, Chen. But we see you and Liyin being lovey-dovey even when the kids are around." Iseul mentioned.

   "What can you do? It's part of my charm." Chen smiled and Iseul rolled her eyes.

~

   "You're going to have to run faster than that if you wanna catch me!" Snigdha yelled at Jinki as she ran down the stairs.

   "Be careful hyung! We don't want you falling down the stairs again!" Minho told Jinki.

   "Yeah, and don't cry if you do!" Jonghyun added.

   "I'm not gonna fa-!" Jinki started but stopped when he caught himself on the railing.

   "Ooh, nice save!" Snigdha gave him a thumbs up. "Ah! Fei!" She yelled when she noticed another girl with long black hair walking down the hall. "Do you wanna play tag with us? Jinki's it!"

   The girl stopped and stared at Snigdha then at the other boys before speaking, "I don't have time for games." She said coldly. "If any of you were next in line for the throne, you would know that, but since none of you are, please don't waste my time with nonsense." And with that she walked off leaving the others feeling a little more than offended.

   "Looks like the princess is too good to hang out with us..." Jonghyun pouted.

   "Don't say that, we all know she doesn't really mean that. She's just... Stressed with all her duties as princess." Snigdha tried defending her, even though she was a bit hurt by her words.

   "We also know that she's been cold to us ever since Jonghyun shocked her during Chuseok last year, but when he did it to you, you got over it the next day." Minho complained.

   "She was raised differently. I'm sure it's not easy being the daughter of the King and Queen of the Eastern Kingdom." Jinki added.

   "Whatever, I'm sure that Jonghyun agrees with me when I say that we're better off without her around, right, Jonghyun?" Minho looked at the blonde boy who was too busy snickering to himself to respond.

   "Hehe, she said duty."    

~

   In the backyard of the castle Fei is busy sparring with Tao. "Keep your guard up!" Tao told her as he brought his bo staff down and she blocked it with her own. "Good job!" He smiled as he stood and bowed.

    She did the same. "Thank you again for teaching me Wushu Uncle Tao."

   "Hey, no problem." He ruffled her hair and she pouted as she ran her fingers through the black strands, trying to straighten them out again. "Why don't you ever play with the other kids?" Tao asked, genuinely curious.

   "As Princess of the Eastern Kingdom I-" She was cut off when Tao raised a hand to her face.

   "I don't want to hear that excuse again." He sighed and sat down on the grass, then patted the soil next to him, asking Fei to sit as well. She did so, hesitantly and looked at him. "You know, when Kris was King, before he had you." He looked at Fei, "He played with us just as much as the other kids play with each other. He took care of us and he helped us out when we were down. He was like our leader, our older brother and our closest friend."

   "What are you saying, Uncle Tao?" Fei asked.

   "I'm saying, you don't need to be so stiff. One of the important things about being royalty is that you focus on your people and their needs just as much as you focus on your own." Tao explained. "You're young and won't be queen for a long time, so enjoy your youth and have fun." He smiled at her and ruffled her hair again.

   "Alright... I suppose I could try..." She stood up and went inside to find the others.

   "You're surprisingly good with kids." Bella complimented her husband as she flew down next to him.

   "Why are you so surprised? I'm a great dad." Tao boasted.

   "Oh, really?" Bella looked at him. "If you're such a great dad, where is our son right now?"

   "..."

~

   "Help!" Jinki screamed as he clung to a tree branch 10 feet in the air.

   "Hang on hyung!" Minho yelled as he slowly inched his way closer to Jinki, hanging onto the tree branch like a monkey.

   "Hurry! I'm slipping!" Jinki cried.

   "There's a pond below you, the water will break your fall!" Jonghyun yelled.

   "Are you sure?" Jinki asked, daring to open one eye and peek below, then instantly regretting it when he saw how high up he was. When you're only 3 feet tall, 10 feet can be really scary.

   "Just let go!" Snigdha called up. Jinki nodded than let his fingers loosen their grip and he began to plummet into the pond with a large splash, soaking both Jonghyun and Snigdha. Only Minho, who was still up in the tree, was still dry.

   "Ah, help! I can't swim!" Jinki cried from the water.

   "The pond is only two feet deep, just stand!" Jonghyun yelled at him and he stood up feeling a little silly that he was flailing so much.

   "It's ok, hyung, if it were Jonghyun, he'd be drowning instead of you." Minho said as he climbed down the tree. "Even at two feet the water probably goes over his head." He laughed as he held a hand over Jonghyun's head.

   "Yah! You think being tall is everything!?" Jonghyun yelled and kicked at Minho's legs, who only laughed as Jinki crawled out of the water. Snigdha ran over and helped pull him out.

   "Th-thanks." Jinki shivered. His wet hair sticking to his forehead.

   "Does Jinki need his binky?" Jonghyun joked.

   Tears began welling up at the corner of Jinki's eyes.

   "Wh-why are you crying!?" Jonghyun stuttered.

   "Look at what you did hyung!" Minho pushed him.

   "I-I didn't mean it! Please don't cry!" Jonghyun ran over and began comforting Jinki when Xiumin approached.

   "What's going on?" Xiumin asked. "Jinki? Why are you crying?"

   "Daddy!" Jinki cried as he ran to Xiumin who picked him up and held him.

   "What's wrong?" Xiumin looked at his son.

   "Jonghyun keeps making fun of my name!" He bawled.

   "Why would he do that? What's wrong with the name Jinki? Your mother and I picked it out ourselves."

   Angel silently stood by her husband and brushed back Jinki's hair away from his face as she wiped away the tears.

   "I-I'm sorry, Jinki!" Jonghyun yelled, pulling on Xiumin's pants, trying to get his attention. "Please stop crying, I didn't mean it!"

   "You know if you really don't like your name, you can always come up with a new one." Xiumin told him.

   "A new name?" Jinki sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

   "Yeah, my real name is Minseok, but I also like being called Xiumin. You can always have another name. Why don't you talk to the others and discuss it with your friends?"

   "Ah, ok! I'll do that!" Jinki smiled as his father set him down.

   "You get to choose your own name? Lucky!" Minho cheered.

   "Yep, but what should my new name be?" He held his hand to his chin, deep in thought.

   "Kids, it's time for lunch!" Jing called and all the kids cheered as they ran inside.

~

   "I think I see their caravan heading up the hill now!" Luhan declared as he looked through the window.

   Tao and Chen joined him and in the distance they could see the small shadow of a caravan slowly making it's way over the bump in the road.

   "Ooh~! I'm so excited!" Jing practically squealed and ran to the door, but got pulled back by Kris.

   "Calm down, I know we haven't seen them in awhile, but that's no reason to lose your head over them."

   "Oh, is Kris jealous?" Luhan laughed as Kris glared at him.

   "It's ok, Kris, we all know that you get jealous easily." Chen patted him on the shoulder.

   "I'm not jealous..." He huffed and let Jing go. She ran to the door and greeted everyone as they came in.

   "Suho! Sehun! D.O.! It's so good to see you again!" Jing hugged each one of them.

   "Hey, what's up guys?" Iseul high-fived Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Kai.

   "I see you've been busy." Lay smiled as he saw 6 children run into the room.

   "Ah, everyone this is my daughter and the future Queen of the Western Kingdom, Wendy." Suho smiled as he put his hands on his daughter's shoulders. Wendy had long brown hair with blue dip-dyed tips, she bowed and smiled at everyone.

   "Hello everyone, nice to meet you." She said politely.

   "This is my daughter Joy." D.O. gently pulled a girl with green dip-dyed hair to the front.

   "This is Irene." Chanyeol and the girl with pink dip-dyed hair both smiled widely.

   "And this little star is Seulgi." Baekhyun cheered and raised up his daughter with yellow dip-dyed hair.

   "Ah, dad, put me down." She pouted.

   "Hehe, sorry." He laughed.

   "Wow~! We got 6 more girls in the castle! Sweet!" Jonghyun high-fived Minho.

   "Hey, do I look like a girl to you!?" A boy with blonde hair stomped his foot.

   "Well, yeah, sort of..." Jonghyun admitted.

   "Why I oughta-!" He almost ran forward and punched Jonghyun before another boy grabbed his arm and held him back.

   "Taemin, you have got to learn to control your temper!" He said, while holding him back effortlessly.

   "Ah, sorry about that... My son, Taemin, can be a bit hot-headed." Kai apologized.

   "So he's a lot like his father?" Iseul smiled.

   "What's that supposed to mean?" Kai looked at her.

   "Oh, nothing~!" She leaned down to look at the other boy. "And who is this?"

   "Ah, my name is Key! Nice to meet you~!" He smiled.

   "He's my son." Sehun added.

   "I see, there are... Some similarities." Iseul tilted her head to the side.

   "He mostly takes after his mom." Sehun rubbed the back of his neck shyly.

   "Well, Key, it's very nice to meet you too~!" Iseul smiled.

   "Hi, I'm Jonghyun, and this is Minho, Jinki, and Snigdha!" Jonghyun said as he pointed to everyone.

    "Go on, Fei, don't be shy." Jing said quietly to Fei who was hiding behind her mother's skirt. She had never been around so many kids her age before. She had to admit that she was a little afraid.

   "H-hello..." She nervously stepped forward and bowed.

   "Hey, you guys wanna play a game?"" Jonghyun blurted out, completely ignoring Fei.

   "Oh, sure, what game?" Joy nearly jumped up and down with excitement.

   "Your kids have grown up so much," Suho sighed, feeling a bit old. "How old are they now?"

   "Well, Snigdha's 9, soon to be 10 years old." Iseul smiled as she gave her husband's hand a squeeze.

   "Ah, same with Wendy. They grow up so fast." Suho looked as Wendy and the others laughed and played.

   "I can't believe it's been over 10 years since the reconstruction of the Western Kingdom started." Iseul mentioned.

   "There was a lot of damage. I have to thank you again, for letting my people stay with you after our Kingdom was destroyed by Rose's army of demons." Suho bowed to Kris.

   "Hey, don't worry about it." Kris patted him on the shoulder. "You would've done the same for me. Now that your Kingdom is better than ever, this is a time for celebration."

   "You're right." Suho brightened up. He stood in front of everyone and exclaimed. "Let the festivities begin!" And everyone cheered.

   "Aw, you waited until my arrival to start the party? You shouldn't have." A familiar voice said.

   "Sungam!?" Iseul's eyes widened at the sight of him.

   "Sungam~!" Jing jumped up and hugged him, making Kris glare at him. "And Crystal! It's so good to see you two again! How's the Northern Kingdom doing?" Jing asked, shaking Crystal's hand.

   "It's doing well with Sungam as King." Crystal smiled. "Hey, everyone, sorry I'm late. Had to convince this little guy to wear something nice." She patted the head of a little boy that looked like he wasn't exactly excited to be there. "This is my son, Kalyan, and future King of the Northern Kingdom."

   "Ah, now we have three little future rulers in one castle." Iseul smiled as she looked at Fei and Wendy, who managed to start a conversation.

   "Go on and play with the others." Crystal gently pushed Kalyan towards the others.

   "Oh, later tonight, some of the kids have prepared some performances for us." Jing smiled.

   "Really? If they're as talented as their parents, it's sure to be a show, I look forward to it." Sungam smiled back.

   "Alright, that's enough." Kris said as he pulled Jing into his arms and stood over her protectively.

   "Come on, Kris, we were just talking." Jing pouted as she leaned back and rested her head on his shoulder. "You know that you're the only one for me." She kissed him on the cheek and he seemed to calm down a bit.

   "Hey, Jing, Iseul, do you wanna help me prepare dinner?" Xiumin asked.

   "On my way~!" Iseul told him and quickly pecked Lay on the lips before running after Jing into the kitchen.

   "I'll help too." D.O. followed along with Chanyeol.

~

   "Come on, Jinki! You can do it!" Jonghyun pulled on Jinki's sleeve. He knew that the boy was nervous about performingin front of large crowds, but he wanted his hyung to perform just as much as he did.

   "It's Onew now." Jinki stated.

   "What?" Jonghyun looked at him.

   "I've decided that my new name is Onew." He tried his best to sound brave, but he was honestly a little nervous about what Jonghyun would think, would he make fun of his name again?

   Jonghyun thought for a moment, and then smiled. "Alright then, come on Onew! Let's do our best!"

   Onew smiled back with relief and nodded his head.

   Lay stood in front of the room as he read from a sheet of paper. "Ok, everyone! Our first performance of the night is a ballad by Jonghyun and-!" He stopped mid-sentence when he felt a tug at his sleeve and looked down at Jonghyun. He leaned down and Jonghyun whispered something in his ear. "Ah, ok." Lay nodded understandingly and smiled before speaking again. "Our first performance of the night is a ballad by Jonghyun and Onew!" He declared and everyone clapped as the two boys stood in front of everyone and began to sing.

   After the performance everyone applauded loudly.

   "Your son is an amazing singer!" Suho complimented Chen and Liyin. "But I suppose that's to be expected from the Kingdom's most famous vocal couple."

   "Aw, he gets all his vocal talent from his mother." Chen said modestly.

   "Hm, then I suppose he gets all his mischievousness and troublemaking habits from his father." Liyin smiled.

   "Guilty as charged." Chen laughed.

   Once Jonghyun and Onew left the stage, Irene, Wendy, Seulgi and Joy ran up and introduced themselves as Red Velvet. They then sang and danced to a song called Happiness.

   "Wow, they really put a lot of thought and effort into this. When did they decide to call themselves Red Velvet?" Iseul asked.

   "I think it's mostly because they love D.O.'s red velvet cupcakes." Suho smiled.

   "Oh, now Key and Taemin are doing a dance routine!" Jing smiled as the two boys began to dance.

   "They're great dancers, although Key tends to like dancing to girl group dances more than Taemin does." Kai mentioned.

   "Is that something that he takes after his father?" Iseul looked at Sehun.

   "Don't look at me, that's all his mom." Sehun waved her off.

   "So what did he inherit from you?" Tao asked.

   "My good looks?" Sehun smirked.

   "Your spirit animal and your annoying habit of being a diva?" Kai asked.

   "Shut up." Sehun pushed him.

   "Ooh, what's Minho going to do?" Kai asked, curiously.

   "You'd be surprised, Minho actually has a lot of talents." Bella boasted.

   "He is our son after all." Tao smiled.

   "You be quiet, you didn't even know where he was this morning." Bella glared at him.

   "I knew he was safe. He can take care of himself." Tao argued.

   "You two are so cute when you flirt." Chen laughed.

   "Wow~! That was amazing~!" Key clapped.

   "We should all do a performance together, the five of us!" Jonghyun suggested.

   "Ew, I don't wanna perform with you, I'd rather perform with Onew!" Key joked.

   "Really?" Onew looked at him surprised.

   "I don't care who I'm performing with as long as I get to dance!" Taemin added.

   "You really wanna work together?" Minho asked.

   "Of course! With the five of us, we'd be the most popular group in all four Kingdoms!" Jonghyun boasted.

   "I wouldn't go that far..." Key muttered.

   "Yeah, especially since everyone knows that the Southern Kingdom has been abandoned for years." Taemin mentioned.

   "Abandoned?" Onew asked curiously.

   "You haven't heard? Ever since the Southern Kingdom burned down, the only inhabitants have been ghosts of the people who once lived there!" Taemin said.

   "Ghosts!?" Onew cried and hid behind Snigdha.

   "There are no such things as ghosts! Stop trying to scare him!" Snigdha yelled.

   "Believe what you want, but the Kingdom was never rebuilt like the Western Kingdom for a reason." Taemin said.

   "And what reason is that?" Snigdha raised an eyebrow.

   "Because it's haunted!" Taemin shook his fingers in an eerie manner.

   "I'm not buying it." Snigdha stayed unwavering in her opinion.

   "Enough talk about ghosts!" Key tried changing the subject, because he didn't want to admit that he was getting scared too. "Let's get back to our performance, if we did work together, and I'm not saying that we will, but if we did... Then what would we do?"

   "I've already got a song written!" Jonghyun announced proudly.

   "Really?" Minho looked at him.

   "Yep! All we need now is a dance routine to go with it, like the girls did."

   "We could probably put something together." Key looked at Taemin who nodded.

   "Of course! You've got your residential dancing machine right here!" Taemin did a little dance just to prove his point.

   "Oh! I'm up next, guys! Wish me luck!" Snigdha said as she ran to the front of the room and began her performance.

   "Wow! I've never seen anything like that before!" Onew clapped.

   "Did your mom teach you that dance?" Jonghyun asked.

   "Kind of. She taught me a dance that she learned from where she was born, but I kind of put a twist on it." Snigdha smiled shyly.

   "I thought you were really good!" Taemin complimented her.

   "Yeah, I don't think I could ever do a dance like that, it's so unique." Key added.

   "Our Snigdha is the best!" Minho boasted.

   "Oh, guys! Shh!" Snigdha shushed the boys. "Fei's performing right now!"

   "Pfft! Whatever the princess does, I'm sure it's not as cool as our singing. She never does anything but study in her room." Jonghyun scoffed.

   "That's not true! She spends a lot of time with Uncle Tao!" Snigdha said.

   "Ooh, waving a stick around, that's so impressive." Minho said sarcastically.

   "Do you guys not like her or something?" Taemin asked.

   "Well, it's not that we don't like her..." Onew started, "It's just that... It does kind of seem like she doesn't like us."

   "I'm curious to see what her talent it." Key watched as Fei stepped onto the stage.

   "Whoa~!" Everyone was speechless.

   As Fei left the stage Lay went back up and continued reading from his paper. "Thank you everyone for performing!" He smiled as the audience applauded once more for all of the performers. "Now let us enjoy the food and festivities!" Everyone cheered and began eating. Soon the sun set and it was time for the kids to go to bed.

   "Are we staying the night?" Wendy asked her father.

   "Do you guys mind?" Suho asked Kris.

   "Not at all, please stay." Kris urged.

   "Yeah! We don't get to see you guys often, plus it's great for the kids to socialize!" Jing added.

   "Thank you so much!" Suho bowed.

   "Don't be so formal. You're a King too." Kris made Suho stand up straight. "Besides, we're friends."

   Suho smiled and thanked him again before leading Wendy and the other girls to their room.

~

   The next morning...

   "Alright! Let the games begin!" Jonghyun announced.

   "Games...?" Fei asked.

   "Ah, Fei!? Are you joining us this time?" Snigdha looked at her with hopeful eyes.

   Fei looked at her, then at the other boys. Key and Taemin looked at her with hopeful eyes as well, but the other three avoided looking at her, so she looked down. "Is it ok if I just watch?"

   "Of course!" Snigdha smiled.

   "Do you mind if I join you?" Kalyan asked joining in with the four girls.

   "Yeah! The more the merrier!" Snigdha cheered. "Alright, so we have..." Snigdha counted the heads of everyone, making sure to acknowledge Fei even though she said she just wanted to watch. "Looks like 12 people! Good, we have an even number! We should pick teams first."

   "Teams?" Kalyan asked.

   "Yeah, we're playing football! It's a game that Uncle Luhan and the others came up with! It's usually played between two  teams, so we should have six people on each team!" Snigdha explained.

   "I volunteer Snigdha as team captain!" Jonghyun shouted.

   "You know that just because you vote for me, doesn't mean I'm going to choose you as a teammate." Snigdha looked at him.

   "Of course you will, who else would you choose?" Jonghyun looked proud.

   "Well, Minho is really good at this game." Snigdha said.

   "Ah, does that mean you choose me?" Minho smiled.

   "Then I choose Taemin!" Key shouted.

   "Hey, who made you team captain?" Kalyan asked.

   "Of course I'm team captain, I'm a natural leader." Key smiled.

   "Oh, my turn? Ok, hm... I choose Fei!" Snigdha pointed at her.

   "Me!?" Fei pointed to herself, surprised.

   "Yes, you! Now come on!" Snigdha waved her over.

   "I'd really rather just watch..." Fei said.

   "No, if you don't play, then we'll have an uneven number!" Snigdha whined.

   "Fine..." Fei sighed and stood by Snigdha's side.

   "Yay!" Snigdha cheered.

   After a few minutes of choosing, the kids were finally ready to play. Snigdha's team had Fei, Minho, Kalyan, Irene, and Joy; while Key's team had Taemin, Jonghyun, Onew, Seulgi and Wendy.

   "Ready... Set... Go!" Jonghyun threw the ball into the air and Minho was the first to hit it with his head. Once it was on the grass, Minho ran with it and towards the other team's goal.

   "Defense, defense!" Key called pointing to the goal post. Seulgi and Wendy ran to block Minho, but he easily dribbled past them. Minho was shocked however when a portal suddenly opened and Taemin popped out, stealing the ball from him.

   "Hey! Who said you could use your abilities in this game!?" Minho shouted.

   "Sorry! But it's a free for all!" Taemin stuck his tongue out and began dribbling it the other side.

   "Here he comes!" Snigdha yelled.

   "I've got it!" Joy shouted and lifted the patch of ground underneath the ball. Irene jumped into the air and used a blast of fire to boost her height. She kicked the ball across the field right towards Onew who stood in front of the goal post.

   "Catch it, Onew!" Jonghyun yelled.

   "Ah! Ah!" Onew yelled as the ball hit him and a yellow powder exploded from him.

   "Onew!? Are you ok?" Snigdha yelled, running over.

   "Onew!?" Jonghyun and everyone else ran over, but soon they fell onto the grass, as if knocked out by an invisible force.

   Fei, who had stayed at the other goal post a safe distance away, was the only one who was still awake.

   "What happened?" Suho asked Xiumin. They both had been watching the kids play from beneath a nearby tree.

   "Ah, that yellow powder? That's an ability that Onew inherited from his mother. Anyone who inhales it, falls asleep once they breathe it in, unfortunately, Onew himself isn't immune to this, so whenever he releases the powder he falls asleep too." Xiumin laughed a bit.

   "What an interesting power." Suho smiled. "How long does it last?"

   "Only a couple of hours." Xiumin mentioned. "It's pretty useful during nap time."

~

   "Ok, next time I think Seulgi should be goalie." Key said during lunch time as the kids ate bread and cheese and argued over whether or not they should switch teammates and/or use their abilities.

   "I think we should be able to use our abilities!" Snigdha argued, "I mean, we never get to use them for anything else."

   "But then it wouldn't be fair to Kalyan who doesn't have any powers." Irene added, looking at Kalyan.

   "You don't have powers?" Jonghyun looked at him, shocked.

   "Ah, no, my dad's human and even though my mom's a siren, I didn't inherit any powers from her." Kalyan admitted, somewhat embarrassed.

   "Hey, that's ok! If it really bothers you, we won't use our powers during the game." Joy said.

   "No, it's fine, really... I don't mind." Kalyan shook his head.

   "Ok, but we'll try not to use them too much." Wendy added.

   "After lunch we should play on the hill that overlooks the valley." Jonghyun suggested.

   "Isn't that kind of far away?" Onew asked. "Plus that hill gets kind of steep."

   "It's fine. It'll be more interesting that way." Jonghyun smiled.

   "Yeah, if your goal is at the top of the mountain, it'll be harder to get to, that sounds so unfair." Minho grumbled.

   "Afraid you're going to lose?" Key teased.

   "In your dreams." Minho scoffed.

   "How about we make a bet? The team that loses has to go without using their powers for the rest of the week." Taemin smiled mischievously.

   "A whole week!?" Joy's jaw dropped.

   "Yeah, and you can't shape-shift into your spirit animal either." Irene added.

   "That's cruel and unusual punishment!" Seulgi whined.

   "No, but there will be a punishment if you do use your powers or your spirit animal before the week is over." Wendy added.

   "What punishment would that be?" Onew asked nervously.

   "Ttakbam!" Minho yelled.

   "Ah, not again!" Jonghyun covered his forehead.

   "Ooh, yeah, that really stings." Snigdha scrunched her nose, remembering the last time Onew gave her a ttakbam. It was because Jonghyun and Minho dared him to, and he apologized several thousand times afterwards.

   "So do we have a deal?" Minho held his hand out.

   "Deal!" Key shook it.

~

   About an hour later the kids were all gathered on a steep hillside, playing football with one goal at the top of the hill and the other at the bottom.

   "First team to score 7 goals wins!" Jonghyun shouted.

   "And we're going to win!" Minho shouted back.

   "Yeah!" Snigdha cheered while Fei just stood silently by the goal post.

   "Be careful kids!" Iseul shouted from a nearby tree as she and Lay sat in the shade and watched the kids.

   "Fei, are you wearing enough sunscreen?" Jing asked looking a little worried. Fei only waved at her, letting her know that she was fine.

   "You worry too much." Kris said as he rested his chin on the top of her head.

   "It's your fault she's so reclusive." Jing pouted, even though Kris couldn't see.

   "Excuse me, but I remember a certain someone who used to always hide from me when I approached during her first few years as maid." Kris said, teasingly.

   "Alright, so we're both a little reclusive." Jing admitted. "I just hope Fei can come out of her shell a bit."

   "Let's play ball!" Key tossed the ball and this time Kalyan was the first to catch it and dribble it towards the goal at the top of the mountain.

   "Whoa! Look at Kalyan go!" Snigdha shouted.

   "Don't worry, he won't get past me!" Jonghyun yelled.

   Kalyan dribbled expertly around Jonghyun and kicked the ball into the goal past Seulgi.

   "Whoa! How'd he do that!?" Seulgi looked shocked. Kalyan just smiled sheepishly.

   "Oh, it's on now!" Key smiled and grabbed the ball. He tossed it to Wendy who ran quickly down the hill, but then the ball was stolen by Minho. He ran the ball uphill, but was blocked by Jonghyun and Onew. Key and Taemin begin inching their way closer so Minho called for backup and the rest of his team approached until almost all of the kids were running closer to the edge of the hill.

   "Whoa! Hey! Be careful!" Iseul suddenly stood up and ran over along with Lay, Jing and Kris.

   The kids fought over the ball until Onew slipped and he began falling, in his panic he grabbed Snigdha who grabbed Fei and Kalyan and soon almost everyone was falling over the edge. Minho stopped time as everyone was in the process of falling.

   "Oh no! What do I do!?" Minho shouted to himself in his head while everyone else around him was frozen in time. "I don't know how long I can keep time stuck like this, but I also don't know how to save them. They're too far to pull back to safety, what if-!?" Minho suddenly looked at Taemin and got an idea. He ran over and tapped Taemin to unfreeze him.

   "Whoa! What's going on!?" Taemin asked when he looked around.

   "No, time to explain!" Minho shouted. "I need you to create a portal big enough for everyone for fall though!"

   "What!? I've never made a portal that big before! Even if I did make a portal that big, there's no telling where it would go!" Taemin explained.

   "Anywhere has got to be better than the valley where there are sharp rocks and man-eating lions!" Minho screamed. "Now please try! I can't keep this up, much longer!"

   "Alright! I'll do it!" Taemin nodded and ran to the edge where he did his best to create a huge portal. It nearly took all of his strength. "Ok, now!" Taemin yelled as Minho released time and everyone continued falling through the air and into the portal. Taemin and Minho also jumped in just to make sure they knew where they were going.

   "Kids!?" Iseul shouted as time returned to normal, but she couldn't see any trace of them.

   "Where did they go!?" Jing began to panic.

   "It's like they disappeared into thin air!" Lay shouted.

   "Ok, let's not panic... I'm sure they're fine. Let's go get Luhan and see if he can contact them." Kris said, attempting to keep everyone else calm, while on the inside he was freaking out just as much, if not more.

   "A-alright!" Jing nodded and they headed back to the castle, unaware of the chain of events that was about to occur.

 

   Somewhere in the middle of the Southern Kingdom a portal opened and out tumbled 12 children.    

  "Whoa!"

   "Ah!"

   "Eek!"

   "Oof!"

   "Ugh! Get off of me, you meat head!" Key yelled when Jonghyun landed on top of him.

   "Oops! Sorry!" Jonghyun jumped up and helped Key stand, who pushed him away.

   "Hm, that landing was much softer than I thought it'd be." Taemin smiled.

   "Probably because you landed on Onew." Minho pointed down and Taemin looked and saw that he was sitting on Onew.

   "Oh! Sorry hyung!" Taemin rolled over.

   "Ah, it's fine..." Onew coughed.

   "Is everyone alright?" Snigdha looked around.

   "I'm fine!" Joy bounced up.

   "A little bruised, but I'll heal." Irene added.

   "We're good over here." Wendy waved and helped Seulgi stand.

   "Yeah, no one seems hurt." Kalyan nodded.

   "Where are we?" Fei asked.

   "Looks like an abandoned castle. There are burn marks all over the walls, well, what's left of them..." Jonghyun looked around.

   "Hah!" Onew gasped. "That must mean that we're in... The Southern Kingdom!" He turned pale.

   "Are you ok, hyung?" Minho looked at him, a bit worried.

   "No, no, no!" He ran his fingers through his hair. "This place is haunted! I'm too young to die!" He began to cry.

   "Whoa! No one is dying!" Snigdha yelled.

   "We just have to find our way back, and that should be fairly easy, right Taemin?" Key turned to the boy.

   "Sorry, but that last portal kind of took a lot out of me, plus, it's really difficult for me to create a portal between areas, if I don't know the exact distance." He looked at everyone apologetically.

   "Hey, it's ok. Let's try to get to a high vantage point and see if we can spot any recognizable landmarks from there." Jonghyun suggested.

   "That's the first intelligent thing I've ever heard you say." Key looked at him with shock written all over his face.

   "Same here." Minho joked.

   "Do you guys wanna get home or not!?" Jonghyun glared at the two.

   "Yeah, yeah, calm down, it's a great idea. Let's get moving." Key smiled and the group began searching for someplace high.

   "How about that tower over there?" Wendy pointed to what looked like a watch tower.

   "That's probably a good place to start." Snigdha said. "Come on!"

   "I'll race you to the top!" Jonghyun yelled.

   "Oh, no you don't!" Minho ran past him.

   "Hey! Don't count me out!" Taemin caught up with both of them quickly.

   "Haha! You'll have to try harder than that!" Key sang as he raced past them.

   In a blur of deep red and purple scales, Fei shot past all of them, nearing the top quickly. "See ya at the top, boys." She smiled.

   "Ooh~! Come on girls! Let's show these boys how fast we can be!" Snigdha smiled and ran as fast she could, getting past Jonghyun and Minho, but Taemin and Key were pretty fast too.

   Fei reached the top first, then Key, Snigdha, Taemin, Minho, Jonghyun, Kalyan, the girls and finally Onew slowly walked up the last steps, panting.

   "Wow~! What's this?" Taemin asked, leaning down and running his hand across an old looking leather box with locks and clasps on it.

   "It's probably safer if we don't touch anything." Seulgi warned him.

   "Don't be such a scaredy cat." Jonghyun teased.

   "I don't know, this place is kind of creepy." Key looked around. The room was dark and there were cobwebs everywhere.

   "Stop being such a baby." Minho teased.

   "I'm older than you!" Key glared.

   "I bet I can open this." Kalyan leaned down next to Taemin and took a closer look at the locks.

   "Really?" Wendy looked at him.

   "Yeah, my dad taught me how to pick them, I just need something long and thin like a pin or a nail."

   "How about this?" Joy handed him a hair clip.

   "Thanks, I think this'll do." He pulled the clip apart and used the metal piece to play with the lock. "Simply push it in here, turn it here and... Viola~!" The lock clicked and Kalyan opened the trunk to reveal jewels and treasures and a very old looking scroll within.

   "Wow~! We're rich!" Jonghyun exclaimed.

   "Well, we weren't exactly poor before." Minho mumbled. "But this is pretty cool, I've never seen such odd looking gems..." He picked one up and it seemed to glow in his palm.

   When no one was looking Fei picked up the scroll and when she unrolled it a black stone fell into her palm. It was cool to the touch and felt heavier than it looked.

   "What's it say?" Key asked as he looked at the scroll over her shoulder.

   "I don't know, it's in a language I can't read. Maybe my father can read it. I'll bring it back with me." She rolled the paper up and put it in her bag before joining the others.

   "Tell me your wish..." A voice whispered in the air.

   "What?" Fei turned towards the sound but saw no one.

   "You alright, Fei?" Joy asked.

   "Hm? Yeah, I'm fine..." Fei shook her head, "Must have been the wind..." She thought to herself.

   "Tell me your wish..." The voice whispered again.

   "I sure wish we could go home." Snigdha sighed, "It's getting late."

   "Wish granted." The voice said.

   "Me too, but how?" Onew asked when suddenly a strong gust of wind began pulling everyone off their feet and out the window.

   "Wh-whoa! Wh-what's going on!?" Seulgi screamed.

   "Is this a tornado!?" Joy asked as she clung to the window.

   "We would've heard it! This is too sudden to be a tornado!" Snigdha yelled above the wind.

   "Everyone hold hands!" Fei shouted and grabbed Key's hand, who then grabben Taemin who grabbed Onew and he grabbed Snigdha. Soon everyone was in a circle, holding on tightly by the arms. The wind grew stronger and eventually they were pulled into the air. It seemed like hours, but it was only a few minutes before all 12 children found themselves in the middle of the castle in the Eastern Kingdom.

   "Kids!?" Iseul yelled and ran over to them.

   "Mom!" Snigdha got up and hugged her mom.

   "What happened!? Where did you go!?" Jing spoke quickly as she inspected every area of Fei's body to make sure she wasn't hurt.

   "I'm fine, mom." She pushed her away. "And... It's a long story."

   "As long as you're safe, it doesn't matter." Jing breathed a sigh of relief. "Come now, let's get you kids to bed."

~

   The next morning...

   "Father?" Fei asked after knocking on the door of the library, knowing that this was around the time Kris liked to be left alone to catch up on his reading.

   "Yes, Fei, what is it?" He asked, putting his book down and giving his daughter his full attention. He had to admit that at times he did feel guilty that he didn't spend enough time with his daughter and even blamed himself for her reclusive nature, but he promised himself to always give her his attention when she asked for it, though she rarely did.

   "I was wondering if you could help translate this for me?" She pulled the old scroll out of her pocket and Kris beckoned her over so he could take a closer look.

   "Where did you get this?" He asked her.

   "From a tower in the Southern Kingdom." She responded.

   "When did you go to the Southern Kingdom!?" He looked at her in shock. "That place is dangerous for such a young little girl.

   "It was during the football game yesterday, the others and I were playing when suddenly we fell off the hill and into one of Taemin's portals. It teleported us to the Southern Kingdom and because we could not get back through Taemin's portal again, we went to the tallest tower we could find to help us find our way back." She explained.

   "Wait a minute... You played football with the other children?" He was even more shocked.

   "Yes, now focus." She said sternly.

   "Right, right..." He looked at the scroll carefully.

   "What's that?" Luhan asked as he approached.

   "A scroll that Fei found in the Southern Kingdom, I'm having difficulty reading it since the text is so ancient." Kris responded.

   "Maybe I can help." Luhan took the scroll. "This is ancient, I haven't seen text like this used, except in some of the books in the back of the library and those date back to a thousand years ago."

   "Can you read it?" Kris asked.

   "Only some of the symbols are recognizable." Luhan squinted his eyes. "It would probably help to look back at some of the older books in the library, but I can tell that translating this is going to take some time."

   "We'll work on it when we have time." Kris told Fei, "In the mean time, keep playing with the other kids, ok?" He smiled slightly and she nodded before walking out of the library. "I know that look on your face." Kris's smile turned into a frown when he looked back at Luhan.

   "I'm afraid I have some bad news." Luhan looked serious.

   "You know what the scroll says, don't you?" Kris asked.

   "Yes, and I didn't want to translate in front of your daughter, because this information might have scared her, though I highly doubt she isn't frightened by much." Luhan smirked, "The scroll tells of a witch trapped in a black gem that grants wishes only when the wisher is experiencing strong feelings, like sadness, anger or despair. It also says that after she has granted three wishes, she'll be released from her prison."

   "Do you think that Fei has the gem and didn't tell us?" Kris looked at him.

   "She might, she does seem like the type to keep secrets, though, I've never heard anything worth mentioning to you." Luhan said.

   "Do you read everyone's mind?" Kris asked.

   "You know I can't help it." Luhan smiled. "But sometimes it does come in handy. At least I know how to turn it off once in awhile."

   "Anyway," Kris tried to keep Luhan focused. "Is there anything else important that the scroll mentions?"

   "Only that the gem grants one wish per person. Again, whoever is wishing for something must have strong feelings about their wish, or else it won't work." Luhan explained.

   "I wonder how strong that feeling must be?" Kris pondered.

~

   "Do we really have to go, dad?" Wendy whined.

   "Sorry, but we've stayed long enough, besides, don't you want to see our brand new and shiny kingdom?" Suho smiled while patting her on the head.

   "I can't wait to see you all again!" Joy bounced on her feet as D.O. pulled her towards the caravan.

   "Me too!" Snigdha smiled and waved as everyone got into the caravan.

   "Bye guys! See ya next time, whenever that is..." Key waved as the caravan pulled away and left.

~

About 8 years later...

   "Shh! Be quiet!"

   "Stop moving so much!"

   "Shut up you guys!"

   "She's coming!"

   "Where did everyone go?" Snigdha asked herself as she walked into the ballroom. She looked around and couldn't see anyone. "Hmm... It's like I haven't seen anyone all day. Maybe they're in the dining hall." She ran across the hall and peeked inside, but still couldn't see anyone. However she did see many decorations lining the walls and all her favorite foods set up on the table. "Hm? Is there a party today?" She slowly walked into the room.

   "Now!" Jonghyun yelled.

   "Surprise! Happy birthday Snigdha!" Everyone jumped up and shouted.

   "Ah!" She screamed with happiness and surprise. "Oh, my gosh! Is this what you guys have been doing?" She smiled and hugged everyone.

   "You didn't think we would forget, did you?" Minho asked.

   "Haha, of course not! Oh, wow! You guys are here too? I haven't seen you since the Western Kingdom got rebuilt!" Snigdha's smile widened as Key, Taemin and the girls ran up to her.

   "Wow, the girls have gotten really pretty since we last saw them." Jonghyun leaned over and whispered to Minho.

   "Byuntae." Minho whispered back and elbowed him in the side.

   "What? We're all thinking it! I'm surprised Key and Taemin haven't already started dating them." Jonghyun added.

   "Actually Taemin and Joy have started dating recently." Key mentioned.

   "What!? Seriously!? Wait, why aren't you dating one of them?" Jonghyun looked confused.

   "Hm, I suppose since I grew up with them I consider them more like sisters. What about you guys? Aren't any of you interested in Fei or Snigdha?" Key asked.

   "I don't think any guy can handle either of those girls." Minho joked. "Snigdha's too independent and high spirited while Fei's too reclusive and cold."

   "That doesn't mean that I haven't tried." Jonghyun smiled.

   "He flirts with Snigdha constantly, but she always turns him down." Minho explained.

   "What about Fei?" Key asked.

   "I think he's too afraid to try." Minho laughed.

   "I'm not afraid!" Jonghyun shouted causing some people to turn and give him a weird look. "I just highly value the condition of my face." He grumbled quietly.

   "It does look like Onew might be developing a crush on Snigdha." Minho and the other boys looked over as Onew ran to the table to grab his gift for her, but he tripped over something and as he fell, he pulled on the tablecloth underneath all of the presents, causing them all to tumble and fall on him. Snigdha ran over to him and helped him up.

   "Are you ok?" She asked him, making sure that he didn't have any bruises.

   "I-I'm fine." He stuttered nervously.

   "Onew is pretty clumsy naturally, but I think he gets even more nervous when he's around Snigdha." Minho explained.

   "Aw, they're so cute!" Key cooed.

   "Come on, everyone! It's time to cut the cake!" Iseul announced and everyone ran over.

   "Don't you dare, Chen!" Snigdha warned as Chen came closer with a slice of cake in hand.

   "What? I'm just handing you, your slice." He smiled innocently.

   "I know your habit of caking Kris every year on his birthday! Stay back!" Snigdha laughed.

   "Fine..." He pouted and handed the slice to Iseul.

   As Snigdha turned, she felt something cool and soft smeared on her face. "Wha-!? Baekhyun!?" Snigdha yelled when she wiped her face and found frosting on her hand.

   "Haha, got you!" Baekhyun smiled widely and spread the frosting even more around her face.

   "Yah!" She yelled and began chasing him around the room, while he laughed the whole time.

   "Come on, you two! Don't you want any cake?" Irene asked Kalyan and Fei who had both been sitting down and away from the crowd.

   "No, thank you." Kalyan politely declined, while Fei simply shook her head no. Irene pouted, but she didn't want to bother them, so she left to join the others.

   "I've got a new game we could play!" Jonghyun announced while stuffing his face with cake.

   "Ew, please finish chewing before you talk." Irene scrunched up her face in disgust.

   "This better not be one another one of your crazy schemes." Minho muttered.

   "No, it's not! This is a great idea!" He yelled.

   "What is it?" Joy asked with genuine curiosity.

   "Ok, so my dad told me about how when he was younger, they used to have this contest every year, called King of the castle week, where everyday, for a week they battled and the winner got to be King for a day!" Jonghyun explained. "Doesn't that sound like fun? We could do the same thing and the winner gets to be leader for a day and we have to do whatever the leader wants for 24 hours."

   "That sounds kind of dangerous." Seulgi said.

   "No, it's not, it's just for fun. No one has to get hurt." Jonghyun argued.

   "Sounds like fun to me! Let's do it!" Snigdha smiled.

   "Are you going to join?" Key asked Fei.

   "I'll just watch." She said quietly, before standing. As she stood, she didn't realize that the black gem that she had, had in her pocket fell out.

   "I'll play." Kalyan smiled. He looked down when he noticed the black gem on the floor and picked it up.

   "Tell me your wish..." The voice in the gem whispered.

   Kalyan looked around when he heard it and it only took him a few seconds to realize that the voice was coming from the gem. He looked around one more time before putting the gem in his pocket and following the others outside.

   "Alright! I think the first round should be boys vs. girls!" Jonghyun announced.

   "Fei! You should play! They have an unfair advantage if you don't!" Key yelled.

   Without saying a word Fei stepped onto the field and sighed. "Hopefully I can get through this without hurting anyone..." She thought to herself.

   "Ready...? Set... Go!" Onew shouted and the boys ran forward.

   Minho shape-shifted into a cow and tried using his strength to push the girls back, but Irene and Wendy easily jumped over his back while Joy slid underneath him. Seugli threw a ball of light and it burst, momentarily blinding him. Jonghyun sent lightning bolt after bolt, but he didn't have very good aim and kept missing them. Taemin threw a small portal on the ground before Irene landed and she fell through, about a few feet away the portal dropped her off in the nearby lake.

   "Taemin!" She screamed as she walked out of the lake, soaking wet.

   "Looks like Irene is out!" Jonghyun laughed.

   Snigdha shape-shifted into a tiger and roared, scaring Onew who turned into a rabbit and hopped away.

   "Onew! Get back here you coward!" Jonghyun yelled.

   "Looks like Onew is out, too!" Wendy smiled before tossing a water orb at Jonghyun. It hit him in the face, making his bang stick to his forehead. "Haha! You look like a wet dog!" She laughed. Jonghyun then turned into a dog and shook the water off, making everyone nearby wet.

   "Agh! Jonghyun!" Key yelled.

   Fei noticed that Kalyan was approaching her, attempting to surprise her, but he gave himself away when he stepped on a fallen branch. "Amateur..." She mumbled quietly and transformed into a dragon and flew into the air before he could pounce. Fei's dragon form was not as big as Kris's and instead of red scales, had a mixture of red and purple.

   Joy transformed into a monkey and swung from a nearby tree, then landed on top of Taemin, pulling at his hair. "Oh, Joy! Stop that!" He laughed. He lost his balance and fell into his own portal, the same one that dropped Irene off into the pond and they both landed with a splash.

   "Looks like both Joy and Taemin are out!" Minho shouted.

   "Are you ok?" Taemin asked as he pulled Joy out of the water.

   "Hehe, that was fun! Let's do it again!" Joy cheered while Taemin just shook his head and held her hand as they walked back to the field to watch the rest of the match.

   Key transformed into a fox and jumped on Snigdha's back. She ran around trying to get him off, but he held on tightly. He moved forward until he was on her head and covered her eyes, so that she couldn't see where she was going anymore. In her blindness she ran into Minho and they both tumbled off the field.

   "Snigdha and Minho are out!" Key declared jumping off her back at the last minute.

   "What's the matter Wendy? Don't wanna tranform?" Jonghyun asked, noticing that Wendy was the only one left besides Kalyan that hadn't shape-shifted into her spirit animal.

   "Sorry, but my spirit animal isn't exactly land based." She smiled. "But if we were in the water, this match would be over already!"

   "I don't know about that! I hear labradors are excellent swimmers." Jonghyun argued.

   "Would you two stop flirting and just finish each other already?" Key yelled.

   "Flirting? Who me?" Jonghyun almost looked shocked and Key just rolled his eyes.

   Wendy and Seulgi both approached Jonghyun and Key at the same time. Seulgi blinded them with a bright light while Wendy sent a tidal wave to push them back. Jonghyun sent out an electric shock as soon as the water hit him and the shock hit both the girls and the boys, knocking them all out.

   "Looks like it's just you and me." Kalyan looked at Fei.

   "Great..." She looked down at him and spread her wings, slowly flying in a circle.

   "Aren't you going to fight me?" He asked.

   "There's really no point." She mumbled.

   "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, getting angrier.

   "You're just a human with no spirit animal or special abilities, it wouldn't really be a fair fight, why don't you just give up now and spare yourself the embarrassment?" Fei said without any emotion in her voice. She wasn't trying to be mean, she was just speaking the truth. But anyone would have taken that the wrong way and Kalyan looked furious.

   "Tell me your wish..." The gem whispered and Kalyan pulled the gem out of his pocket and held it tightly in his hand. Fei noticed the gem and her eyes widened.

   "Where did you-!? How did you-!?" She gasped and checked her pockets only to realize that the gem wasn't there.

   "I wish I was the strongest being on the planet!" Kalyan yelled and the gem began to glow.

   "Wish granted." The gem sang and Kalyan's whole body lit up with a bright light.

   "What's going on!?" Snigdha shielded her eyes from the light.

   Kalyan's own body began to change as spiked protruded from his body and his eyes glowed a dark red. "Are you willing to fight me now!?" He roared.

   Fei's eyes narrowed. "How powerful could be possibly be?" She asked herself and flew lower.

   He swung as her with a spiked fist and one of the spikes ripped at her dress and even cut some of her hair. She put a hand to her head and looked at her hair. "I guess I needed a haircut anyway." She mumbled before dodging another attack. She drew in a breath and released a torrent of flames at him, but it didn't seem to effect him at all. He laughed at her attempt and swung another fist, knocking her out of the sky and onto the ground. She struggled to get up. "Ow..." She held onto her shoulder.

   "Fei!? Are you hurt?" Snigdha ran up to her and looked at her shoulder. It was dark with a large bruise.

   "You need to see Lay, right away!" Onew shouted.

   "I'm fine..." She shakily got to her feet and raised her wings. She flew into the air again and straight towards Kalyan, this time going for a head on attack. He turned around and kicked her, sending her flying into a nearby tree. She hit it with a dull thud and fell to the ground again. This time it took her a few seconds to get back up, only for her to stumble and fall onto her knees. Kalyan began to approach her, but Key ran in between them.

   "That's enough! You won, ok? You can be leader for a day, just please, don't hurt her anymore!" Key shouted. Fei looked up at him while holding her shoulder. "Are you alright?" He asked, looking very concerned.

   "Y-yeah..." She muttered.

   Kalyan seemed to be satisfied and slowly transformed back to his human form, the spikes disappearing and his eyes, returning to normal. "Hm, looks like this human managed to beat you after all." He smirked.

   Fei glared at him. "You stole that gem from me. Give it back!" She demanded.

   "Oh, this gem?" He tossed it into the air and caught it. "Even if you are the princess, you're not the leader for a day, so you can't boss me around. I say, if you want this gem, you'll have to fight me for it."

   Fei jumped up and moved to attack him, but Key held her back. "You're in no condition to fight." He told her.

   "You should listen to him." Kalyan stuffed the gem back into his pocket and walked inside.

   Fei shook Key off and left to go find Lay.

   "What was that all about?" Joy asked, looking at everyone.

   "Yeah, what happened!?" Jonghyun's eyes were practically popping out of his head.

   "I though Kalyan was human, I had no idea he had that kind of power." Wendy looked just as surprised.

   "I don't think he had that power before the match started." Snigdha said.

   "What do you mean?" Irene asked.

   "I think that gem that he had gave him those powers." Snigdha told them. "Did you see that black gem that he had? It was glowing with power."

   "Now that you mention, I did see something in his hand when he was fighting." Seulgi added.

   "Do you think that gem also made him crazy or does he just like hurting people for fun?" Key asked bitterly.

   "Well, Fei did taunt him a bit." Minho said.

   "That doesn't give him the right to nearly beat her to death!" Key yelled.

   "I think both are at fault here, but the major problem is, is Kalyan dangerous with his new powers or not?" Taemin asked.

   "He is pretty scary, but he's never done anything to make it seem like he's a bad guy, I think we can trust him." Onew said, but a bit nervously.

   "Let's just keep an eye on him for now." Snigdha decided and everyone else nodded.

~

   "Fei!? How did you get all these bruises, and what happened to your hair and dress?" Jing held her daughter and inspected all of the damage.

   "The others and I were just playing." Fei said calmly.

   "I know I told you to play with the other kids, but if what they're doing is dangerous..." Kris said, but Fei cut him off.

   "I can handle myself, father." She said a bit angrily.

   "Let's get Lay to heal those wounds." Jing gently took Fei's hand and led her to the infirmary where Lay began healing her.

   "I am going to have a serious talk with Sungam when he gets back from the market." Jing fumed angrily.

   "That's not necessary." Fei told her while Lay's hands glowed and spread a healing warmth over her shoulder. "I'm feeling better already."

   "No, there is no reason for anyone to hurt my baby." Jing said.

   "I'm not a baby..." Fei looked down.

   "Well, you're not an adult either, and we're responsible for you. If anything were to happen to you..." Kris leaned down to look her in the eyes.

   "I'm fine!" Fei raised her voice and stood up before Lay was finished. "Thank you Uncle Lay..." She said quietly before leaving.

   "Fei!" Jing called after her, but she pretended not to hear and left.

~

   In the dining hall, Xiumin and D.O. were preparing dinner with the help of Chanyeol and Baekhyun. Well, actually Baekhyun and Chanyeol were just messing around before D.O. shooed them away.

   "Do you need any help, dad?" Joy asked, jumping up and down.

   "Ah, no, it's fine." He smiled at her. "If you want, you can help set the table."

   "Oh, ok! I'll do that!" She smiled and bounced out of the kitchen.

   "She forgot the silverware..." Xiumin mumbled.

   "She'll figure it out eventually." D.O. chuckled and went back to work cooking the soup.

   "Hmm, it smells good!" Wendy smiled as she and Seulgi passed by.

   "That's good to hear, you wanna put these plates on the table?" Xiumin asked them.

   "Sure!" Wendy nodded and took half the plates, while Seulgi took the other half.

   "Hey, Irene, would you mind giving these to Joy?" D.O. handed Irene the silverware as she passed by.

   "Of course, Uncle D.O.!" She smiled and walked into the dining hall where the boys were sitting a little ways away from Kalyan.

   "It's not like he's going to bite, guys." Snigdha scoffed, but had to admit that she was a little nervous around him.

   "He definitely seems much more confident since he got his new abilities." Minho muttered.

   "But he's not dangerous, at least, I don't think so." Onew glanced at him.

   Fei stormed into the dining hall looking more than a little angry.

   "Is everything alright, Fei?" Key asked.

   "Don't ask..." She mumbled and sat at the table.

   Soon everyone gathered in the dining hall. The adults and the children sat at separate tables as they ate.

   "Have we always sat at different tables?" Jonghyun looked around.

   "You guys don't eat at separate tables at your castle?" Irene asked.

   "Not usually..." Minho suddenly realized.

   "Did we do this last time we were here?" Key asked.

   "I think so, but we're almost adults now, so we should be allowed to eat with the adults, shouldn't we?" Taemin dropped his fork as if he was frustrated.

   "Whoa, guys calm down, we're just eating like this because there are so many people at the castle, we'd be too crowded if we all sat at the same table." Onew tried calming everyone down.

    "No, they do this because they think we're lesser than them!" Kalyan pounded his fist on the table causing the glasses to shake.

   "That's not true! How could you say that?" Snigdha scolded him.

   "Face the facts! Adults will always put down their children, no matter how old they get." Kalyan continued.

   "Guys... Maybe we should quiet down... My dad is starting to give us a weird look..." Joy said nervously.

   "Forget about him and every other adult!" Kalyan shouted.

   "Hey, is something wrong over here?" Kris walked over and stood behind Fei at the table.

   Fei suddenly stood up and looked at her father angrily. "I don't want you and the other adults bossing me around anymore!" She yelled. "I am 18 years old and I can take care of myself! My life is not yours! It's mine!"

   "Excuse me?" He glared at her. "Your mother and I only 'boss' you around sometimes, because we care about you."

   "No, it's because you want to control me. You want me to be your perfect Princess! Well, I won't have it anymore!" She yelled.

   "Tell me your wish..." The black gem in Kalyan's pocket began to glow.

   "Fei, darling... Perhaps we should calm down and talk about this later." Jing said nervously while the other adults came up to the table.

   "No! I refuse to just sit and listen!" Fei shouted. "I wish there were no adults to tell me what to do anymore!"

   "Fei..." Jing said, sounding hurt. She stepped forward to comfort Fei, when the wind began to pick up started blowing her hair around.

   "Sehun? Are you doing this?" Chanyeol asked and everyone turned to the wind controller, but he put his hands up defensively.

   "It's not me!" He yelled to be heard over the wind.

   "Kids! Get to safety!" Iseul shouted and waved them towards the basement.

   "We'll try to control this wind!" Sehun began using his powers to calm the wind, but the gust was stronger than he thought and all of the adults began to fly off the ground.

   "Hang on everyone!" D.O. grabbed the earth, digging his fingers into the rock and grabbed onto the others.

   "It's too strong!" Jing held onto Kris as he gripped the stone wall of the castle.

   "Mom!" Fei yelled and reached out to her mother.

   "Go!" Fei waved her away before the wind picked up and all of the adults got caught in the wind that turned into a tornado. In a matter of seconds the tornado was gone and so were all of their parents.

   "Wh-what happened?" Joy asked, her whole body shaking with fear.

   "They'll come back won't they?" Irene looked around while pulling her hair back.

   "They're going to be ok, I'm sure of it..." Wendy said, sounding more confident than she felt.

   Suddenly cackling could be heard. "Who was that?" Seulgi looked around. "Who's laughing!?"

   The black gem in Kalyan's pocket began to glow again. He pulled it out of his pocket and dropped it in pain as it sizzled in the grass as if it was burning hot to the touch. The gem then exploded and a mysterious figure appeared out of the smoke. "Hello, everyone~! I thank you for releasing me."

   "Who are you?" Taemin asked.

   "I am the witch that was trapped in the black gem that granted all of your wishes. Jinju at your service." She smiled and bowed.

   "You were the one that granted my wish?" Kalyan looked at her. "How long were you trapped in that gem?"

   "Yes, I was!" She smiled, "And I've been trapped for thousands of years, but I'm no older than most of you, which is why I felt I had to personally grant your wish." She glanced at Fei. "I was trapped because some adults think I'm too irresponsible with my magic." She groaned dramatically. "But now that I'm free, there's no one to stop me from having as much fun as I want."

   "W-wait a minute!" Onew yelled.

   "Hm?" She looked at him.

   "Is it possible for you to bring back our parents?" He asked. "Fei didn't really mean to wish them away, if she wished for them to come back, would you return them?"

   "Aw, sorry, cutie. Only one wish per person, and since I'm free..." She stretched out her arms. "I don't have to grant anyone's wishes anymore, only my own."

   "Then could you bring them back out of the kindness of your heart?" Key asked.

   "Oh, I'm not that kind." She smiled mischievously. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of havoc, I mean fun to spread. See ya later~! Maybe." She laughed and flew away.

   "What are we going to do now?" Minho asked.

   "Maybe if we go after her we could convince her to change her mind." Onew suggested.

   "I'm sure we'll think of something, there's 12 of us, 12 heads are better than one!" Joy said, sounding much more upbeat.

   "Fei! Fei!" Snigdha called. Fei stood in the middle of the field looking at the sky, before she fell to her knees and pulled at the grass between her fingers, letting her tears fall.

   "What have I done?"

 

   “Fei?” Key slowly approached Fei, who was quietly staring at the ground, guilt consuming her. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder, and opened his mouth to say something, but she swiftly got up, and shrugged his hand off of her. She glanced at him before walking away and towards the others to hear what they have to say. Key followed behind her.

   “Ugh! How are we ever going to find that witch?! How can we possibly stop her?!” Jonghyun let out a frustrated breath and ran his hands through his hair.

   “Oh!” Snigdha suddenly gasped, as if remembering something. Everyone looked at her, but she just smiled before running inside, leaving the others behind and confused.

   “Should we follow her?” Joy asked.

   “Yeah, she seems to have an idea of some sort.” Taemin muttered as everyone walked inside. Suddenly they heard a crash in the library. They looked at each other, a little on edge, but Jonghyun ran past them and gasped.

   “What happened?” Seulgi followed behind him, looking over to see Snigdha rubbing her head, a great deal of books scattered across the floor around her.

   “Er, sorry…” Snigdha mumbled, embarrassed, before picking up a book, flipping through the pages, scanning each page quickly.

   “Want to tell us what you’re doing?” Wendy asked, crouching down, examining one of the books. Snigdha looked at Wendy blankly, before her eyes widened ever so slightly.

   “Oh! I forgot! I didn’t tell you guys, did I?” She smiled sheepishly. “Sorry,” She paused placing the book down. “Uncle Luhan once showed me different sections of the library, and I remember him telling me about where he had a lot of books collecting dust, which were about witches, and other things. So I thought, maybe we could do some research on witches before we go after Jinju, just so we have an idea of what we’re dealing with you know?” She looked at everyone, waiting for someone to say something.

   Fei approached Snigdha, quietly sitting down picking up a book. “What are you all waiting for? Hurry up and start reading.” She said, not looking up from her book. Everyone quickly grabbed a book, sat down and began to read.

~

   “Ugh… I don’t want to read anymore~” Jonghyun whined, placing the book down with a thud.

   “Come on, Jonghyun! Keep reading!” Irene insisted.

   “No way! We’ve been reading for over an hour now, and that’s the longest I’ve ever read! And I’m never doing that again!” He crossed his arms across his chest stubbornly. Irene sighed, before looking back down at her book and continuing to read.

   “Hmm… Maybe we should visit a shaman?” Minho suddenly suggested.

   “A shaman? Why a shaman?” Onew asked, looking up from his book.

   “It says in this book, that shamans have all sorts of special abilities to help cure and heal a person, but also, are very knowledgeable in other creature’s weaknesses, and, well just really knowledgeable. Maybe we should visit a shaman instead, since we aren’t finding any useful information in these books.” Minho suggested. Everyone looked at each other.

   “A shaman, huh? Do you know where we can find a shaman?” Everyone turned around to see Kalyan casually leaning against the doorway.

   “Where have you been this entire time Kalyan?!” Joy exclaimed, not looking very happy with the fact that he wasn’t helping. Kalyan just shrugged, before walking inside and sitting beside Fei.

   “So, where is a shaman?” Kalyan asked again. Snigdha quickly got up, disappearing behind aisles of books, before returning back with a large scroll in her hand, as well as a few more.

   “Here’s one of the biggest maps I could find, that could be the most useful! And also a few others just in case.” Snigdha exclaimed, while laying the scroll out on the table and placing a book at each corner. she handed the rest of the scrolls to the others. They opened up their maps and looked intently at them while pointing to possible locations of where they could find a shaman.

   “Do you think a shaman could be living in those mountains?” Onew suggested pointing to the map he and Kalyan were sharing.

   “Nah, it’s too cold to be living in the mountains, even for a shaman, I bet!” Kalyan said. Onew looked at him for a sec before nodding and pointing at other possibilities.

   While everyone looked through the maps, trying to figure out where they could find a shaman, Fei picked up the book Minho was reading and placed the book down on the table. She closely examined the map and gently placed her finger on a point. “There.” She said.

   “You found it already?!” Snigdha looked at her with wide eyes.

   “Yes I did, we need to go there. It seems to be surrounded in a very dense forest, so we must be careful, there will be an abundant amount of creatures, dangerous ones and peaceful ones, all living in there.” Fei spoke, as everyone nodded, listening to her.

   “You sure we would find a shaman in the forest?” Kalyan asked, raising his eyebrow.

   “Did you read the book about shamans?” She asked pointing at the book on the floor. Kalyan didn't say anything and just rolled his eyes, turning back around.

   “Alright!” Jonghyun stood up, stretching. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s hurry and meet this shaman!” Everyone got up as well, stretching out their stiff limbs from sitting down in one position for such a long time.

   “Oh! Don’t you think it would be best to pack a bit for the journey?” Joy asked.

   Fei looked at her before speaking. “Well, if you must, I guess it would be a good idea.” She nodded. Joy smiled, before grabbing the others, leading them out to pack some food, and other necessities for the trip. Fei quietly walked out, leaving the others in the library.

   “Fei! Wait up!” She turned around to see Key running to catch up to her. “Where are you going?” He asked, panting slightly out of breath.

   “To train.” She simply said, turning around and continuing to walk.

   “Oh!” He walked faster again to catch up to her, slowing his pace down, once they were walking side by side. “Can I join you?” He asked.

   “You… Want to train?” Fei looked at him.

   “Well, yeah!” He exclaimed, grinning.

   “Well, if you want to, that’s fine with me.” She said, reaching the training room and going straight to where her bo staff was, resting in its case. She slowly opened the lid, revealing a white bo staff, a red dragon was drawn intricately on it, with gold whirls at the ends.

   “Whoa! Was that the same bo staff you used during your performance?” Key asked, while standing behind her, a little too close for Fei’s comfort, not that Key noticed though.

   She cleared before speaking, “Er, no, that was another bo staff of mine. This one is very precious to me, because it belonged to my mother and father. They made it out of dragon's fire, jade and magic, so it's stronger than any other bo staff in existence.”

   "Wow..." Was all he could say as continued to stare at it in awe.

   She took the bo staff carefully out of its case and slowly stepped around Key. She stood in front of a large, bulky punching bag and while looking straight at it, she held her bo staff up. She took a deep breathe and relaxed her muscles, before opening her eyes, as she begun to the bo staff toward the punching bag, all the while Key watched with his mouth slightly agape in amazement.

   Fei paused feeling Key’s strong gaze directed towards her, she slowly turned around to see him watching her. “Um, are you not going to train?” She asked.

   Key blinked, being brought back to reality. He scratched his head sheepishly. “Er yeah, sure.” He muttered. He looked around the room to see all sorts of weapons laid out. He walked over to where there were a row of spears resting against the wall. He picked a long, slender one, spinning it around for a bit.

   Fei glanced at Key who continued spinning around the spear, “You’re not very experienced in using a spear are you?” She asked.

   “Huh?” Key stopped spinning to look at her. “What makes you think I’m not experienced?” He questioned.

   “Look at the way you’re holding it, that’s not how to hold a spear, it can be broken or pulled away from you easily.” Fei said, pointing at his hand with her bo staff.

   “Then how do you hold it?”

   “Like this.” Fei grabed another spear, holding it properly as she explained how to use it.

   “Guys? Ready to go?” Taemin peeked inside to check on Fei and Key.

   “Oh! Yeah, we are, let’s go Fei!” Key grabbed Fei’s hand, running out of the room. She felt uncomfortable by the touch and pulled away.

   “Guys, where were you?” Jonghyun questioned, looking between the two.

   “We were just training!” Key exclaimed.

   “Key? Training?” Seulgi looked at Key, trying to hide her smile.

   Key scowled before looking at the backpacks the girls were carrying. “You sure we need that much?”

   “You never know Key! All the stuff we’re bringing might become useful!” Joy said defensively.

   “You want me to carry your back pack?” Taemin offered looking at Joy.

   “Ah! No, oppa! It’s okay!” She smiled. “Alright! Shall we get going?”

   “Yup! I think we’re ready to go. Snigdha, do you have the map?” Minho asked.

   She paused looking at her hands. “Oops! One second!” She ran back to the library, grabbed the map and ran back.

   “Ugh, Snigdha you’re so stupid.” Jonghyun laughed, ruffling her hair.

   “Am not!” She pouted, pushing his hand away. “Anyway, let’s get going!” The kids walked out of the castle on their way to the forest.

~~

   “My legs hurt…” Key whined after only half an hour of walking.

   “Snigdha, are you sure you know where we’re going?” Seulgi asked, looking around the forest.

   “Um, yeah, I’m reading a map, aren’t I?” Snigdha sighed, pointing to the map. She looked up ahead and paused in her tracks, causing Onew to bump into her by accident.

   “Oof! S-sorry! Why did you stop?” He asked, looking at her.

   “Because…” She trailed off pointing to the road ahead, which was split into two different paths.

   “Oh, stop worrying, it’s on the map, right? Just follow the directions!” Wendy said, looking over Snigdha’s shoulder to look at the map, but her smile was replaced with a frown. “What the…?”

   “There is no splitting path, at least not on the map…” Snigdha said, looking from the map to the two roads ahead, clearly confused. She held the map higher so more light could be shined on it, to help see properly. As she observed the map again, a vulture cried out as its long talons grabbed ahold of it, flying off. “Hey! The map!” Snigdha shouted, looking shocked at seeing a random vulture.

   “Unbeilavable! We lost the map to a stupid bird!” Key pulled at his hair, frustrated. “Now how are we going to figure out which path to take?!”

   “Calm down Key… I’m sure we can figure this out, but we can’t start panicking.” Onew said gently, trying to calm Key down.

   “Split up.” Everyone turned their head towards Kalyan, who just shrugged. “I mean it’s the best we can do, we should split into two groups and one group goes down one path, while the other walks down the other path, simple.”

   “You still didn’t give a good reason to split up!” Jonghyun sighed crossing his arms across his chest.

   “I thought it would be obvious,” Kalyan smirked, “Well, if we split up, one of us would be going in the right path, and when the other group realizes they are on the wrong path, they can just turn around and catch up to us. Simple.” Everyone stared at him, unsure if it was going to be as simple as he made it out to be.

   “Well, I mean that’s the best we got right? I’m sure everything will be alright…” Seulgi said, looking at the others. “Alright let’s quickly get into groups, so we can hurry!” She randomly picked the groups, quickly saying everyone's names out randomly. “ Minho! Wendy! Key! Fei! Onew! Kalyan! You guys are all a group. And the rest of us, Jonghyun, Snigdha, Taemin, Joy, Irene and I will be a group. You guys will go to the path on the right, and we will go on the path to the left! Now let’s split up!” Everyone nodded, getting into their groups and setting off down their own path.

   “Urgh! There's so many branches on this path!” Joy exclaimed, trying to detangle a branch that got caught on her dress. Taemin kneeled down and worked quickly on untangling it, before getting up and offering his hand to Joy. She smiled lightly and the two walked hand in hand.

   “Aww, so cute!” Jonghyun teased Taemin who blushed while trying to glare at him.

   Irene nearly tripped over a branch, before she regained her balance, huffing in annoyance. “Stupid branch…” She muttered before she stomped on it, swiftly turning around and catching up to the others.

   Slowly one of the branches twitched, but no one seemed to notice as they continued to bicker about whether they were on the right path or not. Another branch uncurled itself trying to find its victim, and right at that moment Snigdha stepped in front of it. “Guys… Maybe this isn’t the right place...” Snigdha looked up, feeling a chill run down her spine.

   “Why? You okay?” Jonghyun asked, looking at Snigdha, his forehead slightly creasing.

   “Ah, I mean-!!” Suddenly the branch uncurled itself, whipping around Snigdha’s ankle and pulling her up. She yelped in pain when she found her body dangling in the air. As blood rushed to her face, she looked down at everyone and her vision became blurry.

   “What the heck?! Is that a branch?” Taemin hollered.

   “Snigdha, turn into your spirit animal! You might be able to escape!” Seulgi called out.

   Snigdha closed her eyes and transformed into her spirit animal, the branch's grip around her ankle slightly loosened, and Snigdha took the chance to claw at it. The branch whipped her around, letting her go and she landed with a thump on her side.  Before any of the others could react, the roots from the ground stretched out, and the trees stood up, screeching at them, as branches from all sides lashed forward.

   “Aish!” Seulgi tried to pull away, as a branch wrapped itself around her waist. She turned into a wildcat and used her sharp teeth to bite hard on it, breaking it. She pulled back, looking at all of the slithering branches.

   Joy ran past her, jumping into a tree and turning into a monkey. She swung onto one of the branches, but the branch violently tried to shake her off. She jumped onto another branch taunting it. The branch lashed out towards her and she jumped over it, quickly tying the two branches together. As Joy continued to do the same with the other branches, Irene got an idea.

   “Why not just burn the trees down? I mean the trees are the branches' source right?” She asked, her hands slowly being surrounded by fire.

   “Wait! But that could start a wild fire!” Taemin exclaimed. Seulgi looked at Irene and then at the trees.

   “Actually, it might work, we just need to create a barrier high enough to prevent the fire from spreading. Joy!” She yelled. Joy looked up from wrestling with two branches. She jumped off scampering up to them and turned back to herself.

   “What is it?” She asked, looking at the two of them.

   “I need you to create a mud wall around the trees as a barrier so the fire doesn’t spread!” Seulgi ordered.

   Joy nodded before she ran into the middle of the forest. She lifted her arms into the air and slowly closed them into fists before opening them again. Suddenly piles of mud began to rise in the background, sticking together, making a large barrier. Joy held her hands in the air while looking at the others. “Is this good enough?” She asked.

   “Perfect.” Irene smirked, her hands lighting up, as she looked at the trees.

~

   “Whoa! Look at that over there!” Key exclaimed, pointing to a giant brown mound in the distance. “You think it’s something to do with the others?”

   “Well, let’s hope not. But, we’ve been walking for a while, you think we might’ve passed any signs of where the shaman might be?” Wendy asked looking around her, seeing large trees, with their thick leaves, hiding the sky from them. Fei used her bo staff to push aside tree branches and bushes.

   “Well, let’s keep walking, I’m sure we’ll find some clue…” Kalyan muttered, walking faster.

   Soon they passed by a creek, and the soft sound of a flute was heard. “Guys! Do you hear that?” Minho asked, looking at the others.

   “I thought I was just hearing things but, does it sound like a flute?” Onew asked. The others nodded, trying to figure out where it was coming from. Onew looked across the stream and walked towards the other side of the bank, not realizing that he had to cross water. His foot slipped over a rock, and he fell, with water splashing all over him and lightly around the others.

   “Yah! Can’t you watch where you’re going?” Key sighed, walking into the water and helping him up.

   “Er, sorry, but I just thought I heard the music coming from the other side.” Onew pointed to the other side, and as the others walked closer, they realized that he was right. The sound of the flute began to get louder and more audible.

   They soon reached a tree with long, lush vines gently brushing the grass. There were birds chirping, and deer playing with each other, and right in the middle of it all, was a small woman, gently holding a wooden flute, her long, slender fingers gently playing different notes. The others watched in awe, almost forgetting what they came here for. Almost. The woman slowly stopped playing the flute, her eyes fluttering open, revealing delicate sapphire orbs staring back at them.

   “What is it you all are here for?” The woman asked, her voice soft and delicate. No one spoke for a moment.

   “Are you a shaman?” Fei asked, the first to speak up, looking directly at her.

   “Maybe I am, maybe I'm not.” The woman said cryptically while smiling at her.

   Fei looked at her for a moment, before speaking. “Well, you must be a shaman, because you're clearly an adult and in case you weren't already aware, all of the adults of the world are currently gone." She showed no emotion what so ever as she spoke.

   "Shamans are neither children nor adults. We are just merely bodies with power and wisdom filled inside." The woman replied.

   “So, you think you can help us?” Key asked looking at her hopefully.

   “Hmm, well that depends, on what kind of help you need.” She said, grabbing a bowl of berries from behind her and feeding the animals.

   “Er, well…” Key trailed off. He looked at the others and mouthed, “What kind of help?”

   “Well, you see we’re dealing with a witch that was trapped in a black gem… Her name was Jinju.” Wendy said, while looking at the Shaman.

   “Ahh, Jinju… I haven’t heard that name in years. How was she released?” The Shaman asked, while petting the deer, before placing her bowl down.

   Fei closed her eyes for a moment, trying to not let guilt consume her; she can’t have that distraction, not now. “I wished that there would be no more adults… To tell me what to do anymore…”

   “Hmm, a wish?” The woman inquired, still smiling. She laid her flute down on the grass, giving Fei her full attention. The woman chuckled, “Now, now. You wished for such a thing because you wanted more control over your own life?”

   Fei simply nodded. "Yes, I did, but I deeply regretted it as soon as they were gone."

   "I see... Well, if you want me to stop her, I can’t. But, I might be able to help you, just a little bit.” She got up and disappeared behind a tree before she came back out with a large book. “I haven’t had to look at this book for so long, so it might take me some time to find something to help you all out.” The Shaman flipped through the book, pausing once in a while at words or spells that caught her eye, before continuing to flip to another page. “Hmm there are quite a lot of spells, do any of you possess magical powers?”

   “Yes, I have magical abilities.” Fei said, glancing at the book. The Shaman beckoned for her to take a closer look.

   “See this spell?” She pointed at the page, looking at Fei for approval. Fei nodded, reading the words to herself. “Well, it seems you have quite a lot of magic in you my dear, even I can’t read the entire spell, only those who have strong magic can. All you need to do is recite the spell from your heart in front of her, but you must be free of all hatred, guilt and anger. Your mind and heart need to be at peace for this spell to work on Jinju.” The Shaman warned her.

   "I understand." Fei said.

   “What kind of spell do you think it is?” Onew asked the others curiously. Suddenly a bright flash of lighting blinded everyone.

   “Seems like she’s nearby.” The Shaman sighed, closing the book. While the others blinked their eyes, trying to figure out what that was, Fei snuck around them and ran off in the direction where a dark ring of clouds surrounded the mountain.  

   “My eyes still hurt.” Key whined, blinking rapidly.

   “Stop blinking so much! That’ll make it worse.” Minho sighed. Suddenly he heard heavy footsteps getting closer and louder. “Guys… Do you hear that?” Everyone became quiet, listening to the pounding of footsteps. As they all got into fighting stances, suddenly a golden retriever jumped over a bush, his tongue hanging out and his tail wagging side to side excitedly. The dog's eyes brightened as he pounced on Key, sitting on top of him.

   “What?! Yah! Get off me!!” Key yelled at the dog. The dog Key’s cheek just to annoy him even more.

   “Ugh, Jonghyun get off Key already will you?” Taemin walked over the bush, looking at Jonghyun disgusted.

   “Oh! You guys are finally here! What took you so long?” Wendy asked, walking over to Irene and taking out a twig that got tangled in her hair.

   “Long story, but have you guys figured out how to stop Jinju?” Seulgi asked looking around.

   “Yeah, a shaman helped us!” Onew exclaimed.

   “Shaman? What shaman?” Joy asked looking around. The others turned around to see the animals and shaman have disappeared.

   “What?! I swear the shaman was there a second ago…” Minho said, surprised.

   “But, where’s Fei?” Snigdha asked the others.

   “Wait, what? Fei isn’t here?!” Key jumped up, looking around frantically.

   “She must’ve left on her own?” Irene guessed.

   “Why would she just leave like that?!” Key yelled at Irene annoyed.

   “Key, calm down. Yelling at her or anybody else won’t help. Do you know at least where she could have gone?” Seulgi asked. After a pause as she counted the number of heads and noticed that someone else was missing. “Hold on, where’s Kalyan?”

   “Ugh, don’t tell me that both of them went to defeat the witch!” Joy gasped looking at everyone with wide eyes.

   “Guys I think they went to that mountain over there.” Wendy said, pointing towards the mountain surrounded by dark clouds.

   “Well, what are we waiting for?! Let’s hurry then!” Key exclaimed, running off in the direction of the mountain.

   Snigdha ran after them, but stopped when she noticed something shining in the tall grass. "Hm?" She leaned down and a picked up a necklace with a blue gem that hung on a thin golden chain. Attached to the necklace was a note that read, "For protection." She looked around only to see no one nearby. "The shaman must have left this for us." She thought to herself and put it around her neck, before turning and running to catch up to the others.

~

   As Fei slowly climbed up the mountain she saw a light green glow at the top of the mountain. Suddenly a branch behind her broke. She whipped around to see Kalyan, his eyes staring wide at the branch before looking up to see Fei staring at him. He quickly covered his shock with a smirk, “Oops.”

   “What are you doing here Kalyan?” Fei asked, frowning.

   “Oh, c’mon don’t tell me you’re not happy to see me.” He smiled, playfully winking.

   “What are you doing here Kalyan?” Fei asked again, ignoring his comment.

   He pouted. “I’m here to defeat Jinju.” He said, looking away, while walking past her.

   “You never seemed to care much about this entire mission you know…” Fei muttered, continuing to walk up the path. Kalyan gritted his teeth and walked faster.

   Jinju watched as the two made their way up the mountain. “Hehe! Oh, I’m being too nice to you guys! Let’s have some fun shall we?” She smirked, while waving her hands in the air.

   “Baa~!” A small goat with curving horns on the side, scampered down the side of the mountain, trotting up to Fei. “Baa~!” It nudged its head into her legs. While, jumping up, it blinked at Fei with large, round, brown eyes. Fei looked at the goat, smiling gently down at it, before stepping back.

   “Sorry little fella.” She walked around the goat, only to suddenly bump into the tiny goat again. “Oh! Honestly…” She sighed walking around the goat again, quickening her pace, trying to catch up to Kalyan who’s way ahead of her. Suddenly she heard a loud gurgling noise behind her. She froze in her tracks, and slowly turned around to see, the once small goat growing at a rapid pace, and slowly deforming. The goat's horns grew longer, curling out as its teeth became sharp and saliva dripped out of its mouth. The new creature stared down at Fei, grunting, and its hoof raised high in the air ready to stomp over her. Fei looked up to see a dark shadow creeping closer to her, but didn't have enough time to register.

   “Yah!” Kalyan grabbed Fei around the waist, pulling both of them far to the side. They fell to the ground as they heard a loud STOMP behind them. A ripple in the earth caused some of the trees to uproot and the strong dirt to crack beneath them. “Ugh! Where did that thing come from?!” Kalyan exclaimed, looking up at the beast. His eyes turned a crimson color, as he growled lowly. “Doesn’t matter, I’m stronger than that thing, I’ll beat it to pulp!” He jumped up, as spikes protruded from his back and he ran forward raising up one of his spiked fists, piercing it through the monster’s leg. The monster roared in pain and tried to shake Kalyan off, but he was in too deep. He began to climb up the beast, all the while stabbing at it. Once on top of it, without mercy, he stabbed one of its eyes, as the beast roared furiously.

   Jinju watched the scene below, disgusted, “Ugh, that thing is useless! And that boy… His wish that I granted, is being used against me.” She hissed and snapped her finger which shot a small spark aimed at the beast. It hit the beast right through the forehead and it evaporated into thin air.

   “Where did that thing go?” Fei asked, looking around surprised.

   “Who knows, but let’s be glad it’s gone. We should hurry.” Kalyan insisted, still in his beastly form. They both turned around to continue to climb the mountain but gasped in surprise when they saw Jinju standing right in front of them.

   “Honestly… I was hoping that beast would have taken care of you two, but it seems that I forgot about you.” She sighed, looking at Kalyan. She raised her hand in the air, “Might as well say goodbye to your wish…” Her hands glowed bright red, illuminating her face. The red light shot through the air, and into Kalyan’s heart. He howled in pain, and fell to the ground curling up into a ball.

   “What did you do to him?!” Fei watched Kalyan with wide eyes, unsure of what to do.

   “Oh, don’t worry about him, I’m just extracting his powers!” She smirked, while watching Kalyan wither in pain. Fei curled her hands into fists, letting out a low growl. She looked straight at Jinju, and quietly whispered the spell. She waited for Jinju to disappear or howl in pain or something to happen… But nothing did.

   Jinju howled in laughter, after seeing Fei’s confused expression. “Silly girl, you think a small spell like that would work on me? You don’t even have half the power I possess!” Suddenly they heard a cacophony of panting and footsteps. The two turned around to see the others catching up to them. “Tsk! More annoying people to deal with? Lovely.” She rolled her eyes, exasperated.

   “Ah! Fei! Why did you leave us?!” Key cried out, then hunched over, trying to catch his breath. Everyone gasped seeing Jinju behind Fei, and got ready in a fighting stance.

   “No.” Fei said, looking at the others. “This is my battle, don’t interfere.” The others looked at her confused and with wide eyes.

   “How can you say that?” Seulgi asked, calmly looking at Fei. “This is your battle? Then what do you think we're here for? We lost our parents too remember? We all decided to work together. What happened to that?” The others watched her, waiting for her to answer.

   “Just stay back!” Fei turned around, she could never tell them that it was because she felt responsible, since she caused this all to happen in the first place. She looked back at Jinju and recited the spell again, waiting for something to happen, yet nothing did.

   Jinju cocked her head to the side, while watching Fei’s expression. “You know…” She paused walking closer to Fei, running a finger delicately over Fei’s porcelain skin. “Your expressions are quite amusing, filled with anger, hate, and most of all... Guilt.” Jinju’s finger trailed down to her neck, and she suddenly wrapped her hands around Fei’s throat. “Why not, if I just end it here? Hmm?” Jinju smiled wickedly at Fei her face slowly turning red from lack of oxygen.

   “Get away from her!” Key yelled. He ran forward and pushed her away. He pinned her to the ground. Jinju tried to free herself from Key, but he proved to be too strong. Jinju opened and began to chant a spell, but Wendy shot ice cold water into the air before dumping it on Jinju’s head, preventing her from saying the spell clearly with her teeth chattering.

   From the corner of Jinju’s eyes she saw Kalyan still curled in a ball, whimpering softly to himself. She smirked, getting an idea. “Kalyan… Get up…” Jinju whispered, her eyes glowing iridescently blue.

   Suddenly a low growl is heard as Kalyan rose to his feet. “Good boy, now get this annoying pest off of me!” Jinju ordered.

   Kalyan charged up to Key, wrapping his spiked filled arms around him. Key yelped in pain from the spikes piercing into his torso. Kalyan tossed him to the side then turned and eyed the others. Snigdha rushed over to Key, placing her hands gently over Key’s blood stained shirt.

   “Kalyan?” Joy asked, her eyes wide with fear.

   “Now tear those pests apart for me.” Jinju smirked while getting up. Kalyan roared, looking hungrily at the others. He rushed forward towards Taemin, but Taemin quickly turned into a wolf and easily dodged Kalyan.

   “Man, what happened to you?!” Taemin exclaimed before dodging again.

   “Who are you?” Kalyan growled at Taemin aggravated, “Don’t act like you know me!”

   “So, you erased his memory it seems.” Wendy gasped and looked at Jinju. Annoyed, she took water out of the trees and in a full wave she hit Jinju, completely drenching her.

   “Why you little-!! Kalyan! Your first target is her!” Jinju screamed, pointing at Wendy.

   “Not on my watch!” Irene exclaimed, shooting a fireball towards Kalyan. Kalyan winced in pain from the burning sensation.

   “Irene don’t hurt him! He’s not conscious of what he’s doing.” Minho warned.

   “Then how can we stop him?!” Irene exclaimed in frustration. Kalyan growled while inching closer to Wendy. Wendy sighed before dumping water over Kalyan’s head and freezing it. He clawed at his face furiously trying to break through the thick ice.

   “Ugh! You’re seriously useless!” Jinju screamed at Kalyan. She raised her hand in the air and shot another red light at Kalyan’s heart. He fell to the ground, screaming in pain. “Seems like I’ll have to be the one to deal with you all.” She cracked her knuckles and wiggled her fingers in the air. “First a small revenge~!”

   She pointed her fingers towards Wendy, turning her into her spirit animal-dolphin. Wendy flapped her body, trying to breathe. “I-I can’t breathe!” She yelped out weakly. Joy ran over to Wendy, worried.

   “Can’t you turn back?” Joy asked.

   “I can’t!” Wendy exclaimed.

   “Guys we need to hurry!” Joy screamed.

   "Not on my watch!" Jinju shot more bolts of red light and soon everyone was either immobilized or frozen in place. "It seems like I'll have to use a lot of magic if I want you insects out of my hair for good!" She smiled evilly to herself as she thought of the perfect spell. "I can't wait to be rid of all of you, once and for all!" She gathered up all of her energy into a large ball and sent it into the sky where it exploded in a flash of bright light, blinding everyone. The last thing that Fei heard was her friends screaming in pain and then... Silence...

 

   Fei groaned as she turned her head to the side and found her face met with a course itchy material. She sat up and realized that it was her pillow and she was in her bed. "Whoa... What a crazy dream." She shook her head as she slowly crawled out of bed and put on a simple tunic and long skirt. She carefully closed the door of her small home and headed towards the market.

   "You're late!" Irene scolded her angrily, once she reached the market.

   "Forgive me." Fei bowed apologetically.

   "Stop being so formal." Irene sighed. "People are going to think you're royalty with that kind of attitude." She joked.

   "Sorry." Fei apologized again. "Did you get paid today as well?"

   "Yep!" Irene said happily. "I really hope the fish market has some good sales though. Wendy told me that she has a great new recipe that she wants to try."

   "Is she coming too?" Fei asked.

   "No, I think she and Onew got held up at their job. Their boss is such a jerk." Irene pouted and crossed her arms.

   "Come on. The market looks busy today, let's hurry so I can do the laundry before the sun sets." Fei pulled on Irene's arm through the crowd as people called out prices on their fruits and vegetables.

   "I wonder why there are so many people in the market today?" Irene looked around curiously. "Oh! Fei, look! There are some boys dancing in the street! Wow! They're really good!" She pulled on Fei's sleeve, only to be ignored.

   "The herbs don't seem very fresh today, can we get a discount?" Fei asked the owner before turning towards the crowd and locking eyes with one of the street performers. They danced so powerfully while others played music on drums. Fei couldn't look away, she watched as if she was in a trance. Irene glanced at her and noticed her expression, and how her eyes seemed to follow a certain blonde haired performer.

   After the music ended, the boys bowed and the crowd applauded loudly while throwing money towards them. "Thank you! Thank you!" One of the boys smiled and bowed again, while the other boy collected the coins from the ground.

   "You guys were amazing!" Irene cheered as she ran over. Fei followed quietly behind her.

   "Ah, thanks." The boy shook hands with Irene and looked expectantly at Fei, who quickly looked away as if she was disinterested in the conversation.

   "Do you do this everyday?" Irene asked, referring to their earlier performance.

   "Not everyday, but pretty often. We're hoping that one day the queen will hear about us and invite us to perform for her in the castle." The other boy explained.

   "Wow! Really? That's incredible!" Irene continued to stare in amazement.

   "I highly doubt the queen is interested in street performers." Fei muttered under her breath, but everyone heard her.

   "Fei..." Irene elbowed her. "I'm so sorry, we're being rude. We forgot to introduce ourselves!" She bowed, pulling Fei down with her. "I'm Irene and this is my friend Fei, we work together in the tavern near the castle. We serve the best bulgoki, you should stop by sometime."

   "Maybe we will." The boy smiled while still looking at Fei. "By the way, I'm-"

   "Key! Taemin! Get back to work!" The boy was interrupted by a gruff voice yelling from the stables nearby.

   "Sorry, got to go." The boy called Taemin sighed heavily.

   "We'll see you later?" The one called Key, asked.

   "Of course!" Irene nodded before the boys ran off. Fei's eyes followed them and Irene noticed. "Ooh, you like that boy, don't you?"

   "What?" Fei snapped out of her trance and looked at Irene like she was crazy.

   "That one boy, Key, I think was his name. You like him." Irene repeated.

   "I think you're being foolish." Fei turned back towards the stand with the herbs and vegetables.

   "Why must you be so stubborn?" Irene pouted.

   Fei ignored her, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel something in the pit of her stomach, something told her that she knew who they were or had see them somewhere before, but she couldn't remember. The feeling was beginning to give her a headache so she shook her head and decided to forget about it.

~

   "Ow... My head..." Snigdha held a hand to her throbbing temples before looking around, trying to figure out where she was. She found herself in the middle of a field with sheep and cows. "Where am I? What happened?" She looked down and saw the necklace that the shaman had given her and suddenly all of her memories came flooding back, making her headache even worse. "Argh... Oh, right... JinJu... Magic spell... I have to find the others..." She clumsily stood up and squinted her eyes, trying to look in the distance.

   The castle and the village wasn't too far off, behind a couple of hills. "At least I'm still in the Eastern Kingdom..." She continued looking around and saw a small house, lined with a simple white fence. "Who lives all the way out here?" She asked herself and decided to knock on the door. She nearly jumped back when the door flew open, revealing Wendy, without her blue dip-dyed hair.

   "Snigdha? Did you fall asleep in the field again?" She asked.

   "Again?" Snigdha must have looked just as confused as she felt, because Wendy simply sighed.

   "At least you're not like Onew, he already lost two sheep this week. Come on in, I just made lunch." She gestured for Snigdha to come in.

   "You're back!" Onew cheered and smiled widely when he saw her. He got up and ran to give her a hug, but tripped and fell face first onto the floor.

   "Ah! Onew! Are you alright?" Snigdha knelt down and helped him up.

   "I'm fine!" He blushed and stood up quickly.

   "Onew, where are the others?" Snigdha held him by the shoulders so he wouldn't fall over again.

   "Others?" He looked at her blankly.

   "Fei, Jonghyun and Minho? Where are they?" She asked again.

   "Fei is out shopping with Irene, but I have no idea who Jonghyun and Minho are." He replied.

   "What!? But you and I grew up with them! We've known them all our lives!" Snigdha shouted.

   "Whoa! Snigdha! Calm down! Did you hit your head or something?" Wendy grabbed her and put a hand to her head, checking for fever then for any bumps or bruises.

   "S-sorry! I'm fine! Really, I am!" Snigdha pushed her arm away. "Their memories really are changed." She thought to herself. "Maybe if I find the shaman, she can tell me how to fix this..." Snigdha nodded as if she made up her mind and grabbed a bag, filling it with supplies.

   "Where are you going?" Wendy asked, pouring some soup into a bowl.

   "Sorry! I have to do something, but I'll be back soon! I promise!" She called out before slamming the door shut behind her.

   "That girl... She's always in a hurry..." Wendy huffed while Onew stared at the door looking a little worried.

~

   "Hah, there. Finally." Fei sighed as she finished hanging up the clothes. She watched the wet clothes flap in the wind a bit, before grabbing the laundry basket and heading inside.

   "All done?" Irene asked.

   "Yeah." She replied, setting the basket down.

   "If only Wendy was here. Then laundry might not take as long." Irene pouted while she stirred the stew.

   "You know that the Queen outlawed any use of our powers and our spirit animals, long ago." Fei reminded her.

   "I don't understand that! What's the point of having them if we can't even use them?" Irene nearly yelled.

   "I don't make the laws, Irene." Fei began chopping the vegetables.

   "Well, if I were Queen I would get rid of that stupid law." Irene stuck a spoon in the soup and lifted it to her lips. "Ah, it's still not hot enough. Maybe if I..." She held the pot over her hand and a small flame in the middle of her palm helped the soup begin to boil.

   "Irene!" Fei scolded.

   "What? It's not like she's going to find out." She smirked. Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Irene nearly dropped the pot of soup. She quickly put out the flame in her hand before Fei opened the door.

   "Fei! Irene! I'm so glad I found you!" Snigdha ran in.

   "Snigdha? What are you doing here?" Fei and Irene both looked at her curiously.

   "Well, I... Um..." Snigdha paused, at a loss for words. "Wow, I really didn't think this through..." She thought to herself, before laughing nervously. "I just, um... Thought, gee, I haven't seen you two in so long, I guess I kind of missed you."

   "Aw, we missed you too." Irene giggled, even the pink in her hair was gone. Snigdha looked down.

   "Yeah, it's really hard to believe that it's almost been 24 hours since we last saw you." Fei said sarcastically.

   "Well, since you're here, do you wanna join us for dinner?" Irene asked and began to pour the soup into three bowls."

   "Oh, yeah! I'm starving!" Snigdha smiled, realizing that she was hungrier than she thought.

A few minutes later...

   "Ah, that was so good!" Snigdha patted her stomach and laid down on Fei's bed. Fei wanted to protest, but she felt that it would have been pointless, so she just sat on a chair near the wall.

   "So, what was the real reason you came here for?" Fei asked after a moment of peaceful silence had passed.

   Snigdha immediately sat up and looked at her, but still didn't know what to say. "Hm... How do I explain this without sounding crazy?" She pondered.

   "Oh, no! There's a tear in my favorite dress! I was going to wear this to work tomorrow!" Irene cried, interrupting Snigdha's thoughts.

   "You were going to wear your favorite dress to work?" Fei asked.

   "Well, if those two boys, we met in the market today, are going to be there, I want to look my best." She whined as she inspected the tear.

   "I'll take it to the seamstresses tomorrow morning before my shift starts." Fei took the dress from her and folded it, before putting it in her bag.

   "Two boys?" Snigdha looked at Irene curiously.

   "Ah! Fei and I met a couple of really cute boys while we were shopping earlier. They were both blonde and they were dancing for the crowd. They were really good! I can't wait to meet them again, I just can't seem to remember their names..." Irene made a face as she tried to remember.

   "Wait a minute... Blonde, dancers..? Ah, do you mean Key and Taemin!?" Snigdha's eyes widened.

   "Yeah, that's it! How did you know?" Irene asked.

   "I, uh... Must have seen them perform once..." Snigdha said, then thought, "It's not a complete lie. I did see them dance when we were kids."

   "Aren't they amazing?" Irene sighed.

   "They weren't that great..." Fei mumbled.

   "Don't you lie! I saw the way you looked at them! At least one of them." Irene pointed a finger at her accusingly.

   "Ooh! Does Fei like a boy!?" Snighda giggled.

   Fei threw a pillow at both of them. "You two are being ridiculous!" She huffed.

   "Hehe, oh! Hey, do you mind if I join you tomorrow?" Snigdha asked Fei.

   "Don't you have work?" Fei looked at her.

   "I'm sure Wendy and Onew can take care of it. Besides, I need to find someone." Snigdha explained.

   "Hm? Find someone? Who?" Irene sat on the bed next to her.

   "Why is everyone on my bed?" Fei mumbled, but no one heard her.

   "Ah, just a friend." Snigdha lied. "And it's not just one person..." She thought. "I haven't seen Jonghyhun, Minho, Joy, Seulgi or Kalyan since we got here. I really hope that they're all alright."

   "Well, I'm leaving first thing in the morning, so we better get some sleep." Fei took the candle off her night stand.

   "Ok!" Snigdha and Irene both said as Irene went to her bed and Snigdha proceeded to make herself comfortable in Fei's bed. Fei looked at her and groaned quietly before blowing out the candle and sleeping on the floor.

The next morning...

   "Hah, what a wonderful morning!" Snigdha sat up and stretched, feeling well rested and energetic. "Fei! Are you ready to-!?" She stood up and ran over to find Fei, but tripped and fell over something. "Ow... What the-?" She turned and looked at the foot of the bed where a body was lying. The body then began to move and a face covered by long black hair, looked at her while . "Eek! A ghost!" Snigdha screamed. The figure then pulled back her hair to reveal Fei's face underneath. "Oh, Fei! There you are! What are you doing on the floor, silly?" Snigdha laughed, completely oblivious to the glare that Fei was giving her.

   "I'm heading out! See you later!" Irene called from the doorway.

   "Oh, you're leaving already?" Snigdha asked.

   "Yeah, the boss wants me there early. Please bring my dress before those boys show up. I don't want them to see me in only my second best dress." She pleaded.

   Snigdha just rolled her eyes. "We'll be there, I promise."

   "Thanks!" She waved before closing the door.

   "Well, we better get going if we wanna make it there in time!" Snigdha stood up and ran to get ready while Fei slowly got up, cracked her sore back and contemplated setting the house on fire with Snigdha still inside.

   After a few moments she finally decided, "It'd be too much work to build another house..." She thought and proceeded to get ready as well. Soon they both left the house and headed back into the streets.

   "So, where are these seamstresses?" Snigdha asked Fei, even though she was running in front of her.

   "They're in the main square, near the stables." Fei told her.

   "Oh, I see it!" Snigdha ran to the small shop, where simple dresses hung from the ceiling on ropes.

   "Good morning!" One of the girls greeted her.

   "Good mo-! Joy!?" Snigdha screamed, she almost didn't recognize her without her green hair.

   "Er, yes, that's my name. How can I help you?" She looked at Snigdha as if she was crazy.

   "Ah, she must not know who I am..." Snigdha reminded herself.

   "Can you fix the tear in this dress, please?" Fei asked, as she pulled out the dress and handed it to Joy.

   "Hm, this looks like a pretty big tear... I'm going to have to see if one of the other girls can fix it." Joy said before heading towards the back of the shop. "Unnie!" She called.

   "What is it?" Another girl walked into the shop and Snigdha recognized right away, that it was Seulgi, even without her golden tresses. It took nearly every fiber of her being to keep herself from running up to her and shouting her name.

   "Are you ok?" Fei turned to her. "You look sick."

   "Huh? I'm fine!" Snigdha smiled nervously and tried to regain her composure.

   "Alright, I think I can fix this, but it might take awhile." Seulgi told Fei.

   "Could you try to make it fast? My friend would like it fixed as soon as possible." It almost sounded like Fei was pleading, but...

   Snigdha shook her head, "No, that can't be right..."

   Seulgi and Joy looked at each other, before returning their gaze to Fei and Snigdha. "We promise to have it ready in an hour."

   "Thank you." Fei bowed.

   "Hm, even growing up as a peasant and she still hasn't lost her princess-like manners." Snigdha thought to herself and smiled as they exited the small shop.

   "Look out!" A familiar voice called, but before Snigdha could even react, she found herself being pulled to the ground.

   "Hey! Why don't you watch where you're-!?" She looked up and saw Jonghyun staring back down at her. Behind him, a large wheelbarrow full of metal tools and supplies had toppled over. If he had not pushed her out of the way, she might have been seriously hurt.

   "S-sorry!" He quickly stood up and offered her his hand. She took it and he helped her stand before putting on a playful smirk. "Hey, the name's Jonghyun. How are you?"

   "Are you... Flirting with me?" Snigdha laughed, remembering how Jonghyun used to flirt with her, back when they were kids, but now that they were strangers... It just seemed different.

   "Hyung, stop that." Minho stood behind him and put a hand on top of his head, making their height difference very obvious.

   Jonghyun grumbled. "What? I'm just saying hi."

   "Are you hurt?" Fei asked Snigdha.

   "What? No, I'm ok!" Snigdha smiled, reassuringly.

   "What's wrong with you two!? You could have hurt my friend!" Fei yelled at Jonghyun and Minho who looked at her with wide eyes.

   "Yah! I said I was sorry!" Jonghyun yelled back.

   "Who are you to yell at us like that?" Minho glared at her. "Do you think you're the queen or something?"

   "If I was, you'd already be in jail for such reckless behavior!" She continued to scold them.

   "Ah! F-Fei, It's ok! Really! It was just an accident!" Snigdha tried to calm everyone down. "They used to fight like this when they were kids." Snigdha chuckled at the thought.

   "Whoa, what's going on here?" Wendy walked up the group with Onew behind her. "Snigdha? Why aren't you out in the field with the sheep? Don't you know that the morning shift is your job?"

   "Ah, sorry. I had to do something important!" Snigdha said. Again, it wasn't a complete lie. She did consider trying to get everyone together, very important.

   "Is having an argument in the middle of the market square, what you consider important?" Wendy raised an eyebrow.

   "She's right... Why don't we move this conversation into the tavern? I hear they serve really good bulgoki!" Onew added.

   "Oh, yeah. Let's do that..." Snigdha said nervously. "At least that way we won't draw as much attention." She thought when she noticed the stares that people were giving them as they passed by.

~

   "There you are! Is it done! Do you have it?" Irene immediately ran over to Fei, when the whole group walked into the tavern. Several people sat and ate, while a few others cooked and served food and drinks on wooden platters.

   "Sorry, they said it would take a while." Fei told her.

   Irene groaned. "Ugh! Now what am I going to do?"

   "You could find us a table." Wendy joked and Irene's pout slowly turned into a smile.

   "Ok, right this way." She led everyone to a large table in the corner of the room while Fei put on her apron and served everyone some drinks.

   "Oh, by the way, this is Jonghyun and Minho." Snigdha introduced the boys to everyone.

   "Nice meet you." Wendy smiled politely.

   "The pleasure is all mine." Jonghyun winked.

   "Do you ever stop flirting?" Minho gently hit him on the back of the head. Then he thought for a moment and said, "Hold on..." He turned to look at Snigdha. "I never told you my name, how did you know?"

   "Ah, I um... Lucky guess?" She said, though it sounded more like a question.

   "Maybe knowing people's names is her special ability." Jonghyun added when Minho continued to look at Snigdha with curiosity.

   "You better be careful Snigdha, the Queen outlawed using our abilities." Onew told her.

   "She did what!?" Snigdha yelled, causing everyone in the tavern to turn and stare at her. "I mean..." She lowered her voice. "Why would she do that?"

   "Who knows? Queen Jinju has never really made sense, but that's the way she's ruled the Eastern Kingdom for years." Minho sighed.

   "Queen Jinju!?" Snigdha yelled again, but a bit more quietly this time.

   "It's like you've been completely gone these past few years." Irene said as she placed several plates of bulgoki on the table.

   "I must be... Really out of it..." Snigdha scratched her head in confusion, then thought to herself, "This must have been the spell that Jinju casted. She changed our memories and sent us to an alternate world where she's queen and magic is outlawed. It sure is a a good thing that the shaman gave me this necklace to protect me, but... How am I going to stop Jinju if I can't even get the others to remember each other?"

   "Hey, everyone, is that the famous bulgoki that I've heard so much about?" Key and Taemin walked up to the table and Taemin was the first to try a piece.

   "Hm! It really is good!" He his lips and went for another piece, but Jonghyun stopped him.

   "Yah! This is ours! Get your own!" He yelled.

   "Eek! Key, Taemin! You're early!" Irene squeaked in surprise and hid behind the wooden tray she was holding.

   "Oh, hi, Irene. Why are you hiding?" Key asked, as he approached her.

   "N-no reason!" She stuttered, then ran to the door when she saw Seulgi and Joy enter.

   "We just finished!" Joy announced proudly.

   "Ah, thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" Irene smiled and grabbed the dress. "Now I just have to change and-!?" Irene turned quickly to find the bathroom, but accidentally ran into Fei who tripped and fell, causing her tray full of rice and side dishes to fly into the air and towards Seulgi and Joy.

   Taemin saw the whole thing and without thinking, sent a small portal towards them. The portal caught the food and it all disappeared without anything getting on the girls.

   "Ha, my hero!" Joy smiled at Taemin who rubbed the back of his neck shyly and smiled back.

   "Are you ok?" Key asked Fei, who didn't realize until now that Key had caught her before she hit the floor.

   "F-fine, th-thank you." She stammered and stood up straight. Then leaned down to help Irene get up.

   "Oh, no... My dress... It's ruined..." She whined when she saw the food stains on the skirt.

   "Forget about the dress, where did all of the food go?" Jonghyun complained.

   Both Key and Taemin looked at each other, before Key nodded and Taemin proceeded to open up a small portal above Jonghyun's head, which dumped all of the food on top of him. Everyone is the tavern burst into laughter. All except for Jonghyun... And the boy hiding in the shadows.

~

   "Oh my gosh! That was great!" Key laughed.

   "That was completely unnecessary!" Jonghyun yelled while he continued to pick rice out of his hair.

   "That's what you get for being such a pig." Wendy added.

   "For your information, my spirit animal is a labrador." Jonghyun huffed.

   "Oh, how nice. A dog. That's so much better than a pig." Seulgi said sarcastically.

   "Seulgi is a wild cat, so it makes sense that you two wouldn't get along." Joy laughed.

    "Hey, cheer up, Irene." Minho ruffled the girl's hair when he noticed her sullen expression. "So you didn't get to wear your favorite dress, it's no big deal."

   "It is to me!" She pushed his hand away. "I understand that guys don't care about looks as much as girls do, but guys don't understand how much pressure there is for girls to look nice!"

   Fei looked at Irene as if she understood her, but she didn't know what to say.

   "Hey, would it make you feel better if Taemin and I did a dance for you?" Key asked and pulled Taemin to the side.

   "Hm, it would make me feel a little better." She smiled as she watched the two boys get ready. Minho started to beatbox, while the boys got a feel for the rhythm and pretty soon they were moving to the beat.

   "Wow! They're really good!" Joy cheered.

   Irene nudged Fei when she noticed that look again on Fei's face. "What?" Fei asked when she felt an invasion on her personal space.

   "Oh, nothing." Irene hummed nonchalantly. Even Snigdha giggled at the way Fei was staring at Key.

   As soon as they stopped dancing Minho had stopped beatboxing. They were slightly out of breath while they waited for everyone's reaction. There was a moment of silence and suddenly everyone was clapping.

   "That was amazing!" Seulgi said.

   "I must admit, you two are pretty good." Jonghyun nodded in agreement.

   "What was the reason you performed in the streets again?" Irene asked.

   "Ah, well, it may sound a bit silly, but..." Key said hesitantly. "We were hoping that one day the Queen might invite us into the castle to dance for her, since performing for the Queen is such an honor. I know that this might just be a rumor, but I heard that if Queen Jinju really likes your performance, then she'll grant you a wish."

   "Really!?" Onew stared at him in shock.

   Suddenly, it was as if a lightbulb went off in Snigdha's head and she remembered something that Jonghyun had once said when they were just 10 years old. After all of the boys had performed separately for their parents.

~

   "We should all do a performance together, the five of us!" Jonghyun suggested.

   "Ew, I don't wanna perform with you, I'd rather perform with Onew!" Key joked.

   "Really?" Onew looked at him surprised.

   "I don't care who I'm performing with as long as I get to dance!" Taemin added.

   "You really wanna work together?" Minho asked.

   "Of course! With the five of us, we'd be the most popular group in all four Kingdoms!" Jonghyun boasted.

~

   "You guys!" Snigdha shouted and everyone turned to face her. "Why don't we all perform together?" She asked.

   "All of us?" Minho looked at her in shock. "As in one big group?"

   "Why not?" She asked. "I bet a bigger group of highly talented people will be more likely to get the Queen's attention. After all, we all have different talents that we can showcase."

   "How would you know? You just met us?" Jonghyun didn't look convinced.

   "Call it intuition." Snigdha smiled.

   "Well... I do sing a little..." Onew admitted shyly.

   "Really? Me too." Jonghyun threw an arm around him. "I guess I do like the sound of it. One big group, performing in front of thousands!"

   Onew gulped, "Thousands?"

   "Don't look so worried! You'll have us by your side!" Snigdha smiled at him and he seemed to relax a bit. "So, what do you think guys?" She looked at everyone and they all seemed to nod in agreement. All except for Fei. "Fei?" Snigdha looked at her.

   "Sorry, but I don't sing or dance." She said quietly.

   "Oh, that's right." Snigdha tried to remember back to when they were kids. She looked around and ran over to one of the buildings that was still in the process of being built. Laying by the side of the building, were long pieces of wood. She picked one up and kicked it, so it split in half. Then she ran back over and handed the pole to Fei, who just looked at it confused. "Does Fei know how to use a bo staff in this world?" She asked herself.

   "What am I supposed to do with this?" Fei asked her.

   "Try... I don't know, spinning it around." Snigdha told her.

   "Spinning it? I highly doubt that's going to impress anyone." Fei scoffed.

   "Please? Just try." Snigdha pleaded.

   Fei looked at her, then took a deep breath and sighed. She took a couple of steps back so she was far away from the group and she began to spin the pole. Slowly at first, then she began to pick up speed and it was as if all of her memories came back to her. Her memories of training with Tao in the courtyard of the castle and her memories of performing in front her parents. Her body began to move on its own as she did flips and jumped into the air, bringing the pole down and hitting the ground with it. When she was done, she stood up straight and looked at everyone. Although she didn't show it, she was slightly afraid that they were going to laugh at her.

   "That... Was... Awesome!" Key cheered.

   "Who knew you could move like that?" Irene looked at her in shock.

   "We'll definitely get the Queen's attention if we incorporate that into our performance!" Taemin added.

   "So, we're doing it? The performance? All of us, together?" Snigdha asked again.

   "Fei?" Everyone looked at her and she felt uncomfortable with all eyes on her.

   "Please?" Key held out his hand and Fei looked him in the eye, before she slowly let her head nod.

   "Yay! Let's go practice!" Joy announced.

   "Right now? After we just ate?" Onew asked, sounding worried.

~

   "Your majesty." The boy from the shadows of the tavern stood before Jinju as she sat on her throne, playing with the little tassels that hung from the tapestries. She hated how almost all of them depicted dragons and decided that she would have to change that soon.

   "What is it?" She asked, somewhat irritated that her playtime was interrupted.

   "A boy was sighted using his abilities in the tavern near the castle today." The boy told her.

   "Oh, really?" She looked at him. "Then just throw him in the dungeon, like all the others."

   "There's something else, your majesty." He said.

   "What?" She groaned, as if she was already bored with this conversation.

   "The girl you told me to keep an eye on. She was with him." He stated.

   "You don't say." turned into a wicked grin as she got an idea.

   "What do you propose I should do, your majesty?" He asked.

   "Follow them, talk to them, gain their trust and break them apart. Although that shouldn't be too hard." She chuckled as the boy stepped closer, into the light. "After all, you are their friend, aren't you, Kalyan?"

   He looked at her as his eyes glowed a faint red, "What is a friend?"

 

   “Well, where should we all practice?” Key asked as they all walked out of the tavern. The others looked at Key and Taemin, before pondering for a moment themselves, trying to figure out where they could go.

   “Oh! Why not practice at our place?” Onew suggested. “Well, not our house, but where we work. The sheep are inside the barn most of the time, so we have a lot of open space to practice.” Everyone smiled, liking the idea, as they headed to the barn.

~

   Taemin scrunched up his nose at the strong stench of animal manure surrounding the area, and the constant animal noises being heard from inside the barn. He was about to open his mouth to suggest finding a different place but Key gave him a look, telling him to shut up. Taemin pouted before following the others farther away from the barn to the middle of the field.

   “Alright! Is this a good spot?” Onew asked, turning around to face the others. Everyone nodded.

   “I guess now it’s time to begin brainstorming for our performances!” Joy exclaimed, her hair in pigtails bouncing with her excitedly. Taemin chuckled, finding her cute.

   Taemin gathered his group together, as they all sat in a tight circle. “Alright guys, let’s all check each other’s vocal ranges!” Taemin exclaimed, smiling expectantly. “So anyone wanna go first?” He asked looking at everyone but no one volunteered. “Ugh, fine. I’ll go first. Basically I want you guys to hum or sing a song, that’s it.” Taemin closed his eyes, slowly inhaling and exhaling. Before fluttering his eyes open, and slowly singing out a sweet melody. The members smiled at the young one, looking content with hearing him sing. Taemin finished his song off, looking at the others smiling. “Okay, now that you heard me sing, let’s listen to Key.” Taemin gestured towards Key, who grinned, clearing his throat.

   “Okay! Here I go!” Key exclaimed, before beginning to sing out a random melody he made up in his mind, his voice filled with a bit of funk and glamour to it. He ended it with a high pitched, “Wow!” The guys clapped for Key, finding his voice interesting. “Okay~! Next I want… Jonghyun to go!” Key exclaimed, pointing straight at Jonghyun. Jonghyun smirked, looking at the guys then over at Snigdha, who was jumping around, mouthing words to herself.

   “This is for Snigdha~!” He yelled, loud enough to catch Snigdha’s attention. Snigdha stopped bouncing to look over at the guys curiously, when her eyes caught Jonghyun’s and he winked. Snigdha simply rolled her eyes, hiding her smile from him. Jonghyun stretched his neck, before slowly beginning to sing about childhood love, and a cute little girl. Snigdha watched in awe, and memories flashed before her eyes of when she and Jonghyun were kids. Then memories of everyone else flashed before her. Fei looked over to see Snigdha’s face seeming to be in distraught.  Snigdha bit her lip, looking down at the lush, green grass, before turning around, deciding to take a walk for a bit to clear her mind. Jonghyun finished his song, smiling at the others, and looked to where Snigdha was, his smile turning into a frown. “Where’s Snigdha?” He ased, looking at the others.

   “Oh! I saw her walk out of the farm!” Seulgi exclaimed to the others.

   “Alright, I’m sure she’s fine, why don’t we continue practicing shall we?” Taemin suggested, trying to divert Jonghyun’s attention. Jonghyun simply nodded.

   As the groups continued their brainstorming, Fei continued to practice, and Snigdha walked into the bustling marketplace, as her little escape.

   "Hmmm, I remember hearing Onew say something about needing to buy some fruits, I could just buy them now..." Snigdha pondered out loud. She walked over to a vendor selling fresh, ruby colored apples, making Snigdha her lips hungrily. "Alright! Should I get a pound? Yeah a pound!" Snigdha exclaimed, digging her hands into her pockets for some money. She handed the money to the vendor and grabbed  her basket of apples walking off to find another vendor selling other fruits.

   "Ay! Lady! You want these ripe berries! Freshly plucked!" One of the vendors exclaimed, trying to get Snigdha's attention. Snigdha stopped and took a look at the berries, asking for the price. "Hmm $15 for a pound!" He smiled, already getting a bag out to put the berries in, but Snigdha stopped him.

   "Sorry sir, I didn't bring enough money." She smiled at him apologetically. The man looked at her before nodding.

   Later, she saw a stand in the distance with a woman and her children seeming to be trying to sell their own fruits and vegetables. Snigdha curiously walked over to the stand to see an assortment of fruits laid out before her eyes, like jewels. She looked around, wondering why no one else was buying from them.

   "How much?" Snigdha asked picking up one of the grapes, twirling it between her fingers.

   "At least $5 for each item will do." Snigdha looked up at the woman and saw the woman's face creased with wrinkles and her skin gray with dark circles under her eyes.

   "Hmm let's see..." Snigdha took out whatever money she had, but saw that she didn't have much, although she wanted to buy a lot of the fruits on the stand in front of her. After carefully thinking and wanting to still save some money, she finally decided on buying two plumbs, a bundle of green grapes and one orange. She handed  the money and stuffed her few dollars left into her pocket. Ready to go back to the farm.

   As she began walking out of the market place, she heard a cry nearby. She turned to see a little boy crying, begging the vendor for some food.

   "Please sir! Just a little will do! My little sister is really sick and hungry! Please I will do anything! I'll even be your slave!" The child pleaded with all his might but the vendor just glared at him. Then he spat on the boy's shoes, making Snigdha's blood boil.

   "Hey! How dare you spit on that child! What's your problem!" Snigdha exclaimed, standing infront of the boy protectively.

   "What are you getting all upset about little miss?" The vendor grumbled.

   "He just asked for some food! Is it that hard to give it to him?!" At this point Snigdha was yelling furiously.

   "Heh. You think we don't have problems of our own miss? If you're so upset why don't you pay for him?" The vendor challenged, looking annoyed at seeing his possible costumers flee from seeing Snigdha yell at him.

   "Fine! I will!" She dug into her pocket taking out her last few dollars and shoved them into the vendor's hands. She turned to pick out a fruit but got her hand slapped away instead. "Hey! What was that for?! I paid, didn't I?!" She pouted, rubbing her now red hand.

   "This isn't enough little miss, you still owe me three more dollars." He said, waving her dollars in his hands.

   "Three more...." She sighed, before deciding to give the little boy one of her fruits.

   "Hold on, here's three more dollars." She heard an all too familiar voice. She turned around and was faced with broad shoulders, strange leather straps resting on the person's back in an "X". She noticed the black silky hair moving with the wind.

   "K-Kalyan...?" She whispered, barely audible. The man infront of her didn't respond, he simply grabbed an apple and handed it to the boy.

   "Waa~! Thank you big brother! And you too big sister!" The child exclaimed, running off.

   Snigdha simply waited to see who the man was and as he slowly turned to her, her eyes widened. "It is you..." She said, sighing in relief.

   "Aren't you gonna pay me back, Snigdha?" Kalyan asked, smirking. He patted her head, seeing her conflicted expression. “Hey… You alright?” He asked, gently looking at Snigdha, worry etched in his voice. Snigdha looked up at him, giving him a weary smile.

   “You don’t remember anything either do you?” She asked, to which Kalyan looked at her, with no emotion. “I thought so.” She placed her fruit back in her basket. “Well, how about you come with me and I’ll pay you back.” She said, looking up at him for an answer.

   “Sure.” He simply said, following her, as she led the way back to the farm.

   “So, um sorry if this sounds weird, but, how do you know me?” Snigdha asked looking down at the dirt path. Kalyan paused slightly before continuing to follow her, not sure exactly what to say.

   “Well, I guess I’ve known you for a while, we met at the market when we were younger just like today.” He lied. Snigdha looked up at him, and gave him a genuine smile, not saying anymore. “Here let me hold some of the bags for you.” Kalyan insisted, as he reached over to take her bags.

   “Thanks.” She simply said.

   Soon they arrived at the farm and Snigdha led Kalyan into the house.

   “Hey! Guys! I think Snigdha brought a guest!” Irene exclaimed, pointing to the two walking inside. The others looked over, and the boys didn't seem very pleased with the sight at all.

   “Whoa! Whoa! Who is that?!” Jonghyun asked frantically, while shaking Key’s shoulders violently.

   “Yah! Stop that!” Key yelled, annoyed. He pushed Jonghyun away and the boy pouted.

   “W-why don’t we just check it out, and see why that person is there.” Onew suggested, nervously.

   “You mean without them knowing?” Jonghyun asked, his frown turning into a smirk. “Onew, I like how you’re thinking. Let’s go!” Jonghyun grabbed Onew's hand running off to the house and Onew stumbed after him.

   “You think we should go after them?” Joy asked.

   “Do you want to?” Taemin looked at her.

   “Well… I’m curious too.” Joy blushed. Taemin chuckled, patting her head.

   “Alright, let’s go.” He said, leading her to where Jonghyun and Onew were crouched in front of the window, watching the two inside. The others followed behind them, curiosity getting to the best of them, and huddling together in front of the window.

   “What are they saying? I can’t hear them.” Irene whispered, looking at the others.

   “Stay quiet, and you’ll hear.” Seulgi said, looking straight ahead.

   “Sorry, I actually don’t have money, but could I pay you back with a meal?” Snigdha asked, placing the fruits on the table.

   “Sounds good to me.” Kalyan said, stretching before sitting down on one the chairs, resting his elbows on the table. “What will you make?” He looked around the house.

   “Hmm, something…” Snigdha muttered while digging through the cupboards. She took some food and tools out, then placed a pot on top of the oven.

   “She’s making him food?!” Jonghyun hissed under his breathe. “She never made me food~” He whined.

   “Idiot... Shut up or they’ll hear you!” Minho whispered while slapping the back of Jonghyun’s head. Before Jonghyun could cry out, Taemin cupped his hand over Jonghyun’s mouth, to muffle his cries.

   “I hate you all…” He muttered once Taemin removed his hand. His attention diverted back to the two when he heard the chair screech against the wooden floor.

   “Here, is this what you needed?” Kalyan asked, reaching over Snigdha and grabbing a box of flour from the top shelf. Snigdha looked down hiding her slight blush and took the box out of his hand. He looked at her, as she continued to whip something up. “What are you making?” He asked again.                                                    

   “I’m making cupcakes.” She simply said, stirring the batter.

   “Can I help?” He asked, picking up a wooden spoon.

   “No.” She said, placing the batter in each of the holes in the pan.

   “Why not? I’m really bored.” He said, while twirling the spoon in his hand.

   “Because,” She took the spoon from Kalyan’s hand, “this is my way of repaying you, so you can’t help.” She placed the pan into the oven and closed it, before dusting the flour off on her dress.

   “Do you live alone?” He asked, sitting back down.

   “Why is he asking her if she lives alone?” Jonghyun muttered, glaring at Kalyan.

   “No, I don’t live alone.” Snigdha stated, “Wait, if you’ve known me, shouldn’t you already know?” She asked.

   “Er, well I never came to your place. We would just talk outside whenever we met.” Kalyan lied again.

   “Ah, I see.” Snigdha said, smiling. She took out an icing tube and began making the icing by mixing milk, sugar and butter. The room is filled with silence, but it doesn’t seem to bother them.

   “Should we… Go in?” Minho asked, but the girls just shook their heads.

   “Why not?” Jonghyun whined, but the girls just giggled.

   “You wouldn’t understand even if we told you.” Wendy said, smiling. Jonghyun pouted again for the umpteenth time.

   *Ding!*

   “Oh! The cupcakes are done!” Snigdha quickly put on a pair of gloves and carefully took out the pan, then placed the cupcakes on the table for them too cool. She gently squeezed out the icing onto the cupcakes, creating little swirls. “Here, tell me what you think.” She handed Kalyan a cupcake, then watched him as he took a bite. He chewed it for a bit before swallowing.

   “It’s… Good.” He said, staring at the cupcake, before stuffing the rest of the cupcake in his mouth.

   “Haha, don’t stuff yourself like that, you might choke.” Snigdha grabbed herself a cupcake, taking a bite into it and her lips. “Hm! Not bad at all. I should go get the others!” She placed her cupcake down, ready to walk to the door, when suddenly Kalyan grabbed a hold of her arm, and pulled her towards him. He gently swiped his thumb across her bottom lip. “You had icing.” He said while holding her chin between his thumb and finger.

   “Oh my god!! Are they kissing?!!” Jonghyun gasped, his mouth hanging wide open. “That’s it! I’m not sitting around anymore!” Jonghyun shot up and jumped in through the window, landing right in front of the two. “Yah!” He yelled making Snigdha jump back in surprise.

   “Oh! Jonghyun! When did you come in? I was just about to call you and the others! I made cupcakes!” She smiled, grabbed a cupcake and held it out in front of him. Jonghyun looked at the cupcake, before looking at her.

   “I don’t want it. More importantly, who is he?” He said and pointed to Kalyan while glaring at him. Kalyan simply smirked.

   “Oh! This is Kalyan! Kalyan this is Jonghyun.” Snigdha introduced them to each other.

   “Nice to meet you, Jonghyun.” Kalyan nodded, still smirking. Jonghyun ignored him, then turned towards Snigdha.

   “How do you know him?” He asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

   “I’ve… Known him for quite a while.” Snigdha said, but she didn't sound so sure of it herself.

   “Huh, is that so?” Jonghyun asked, not believing her one bit, but Snigdha didn't answer. “I'm going out for a bit.” He sighed sounded frustrated and walked out.

   “What’s that guy’s problem?” Kalyan asked, staring at the door.

   “I’m not sure… But I’m sure he’ll be fine! I’ll go call the others in for snacks!” Snigdha exclaimed, walking out. She turned the corner to call them, but stopped when she saw everyone huddled together in front of the window. “Um, guys? What are you doing there?” She asked, looking at them confused.

   “Ah! Snigdha!” Onew shot up, standing straight. “We weren’t doing anything! We weren’t watching you at all!! We weren’t curious as to why you brought a guy into our house!!!” He blabbered. Wendy simply face palmed and groaned.

   “Oh… Er, is that so? Um, alright, would you guys like to come in and eat some cupcakes? I just made them.” Snigdha said, as everyone nodded, getting up and stretching their backs.

   “Augh! Man, my back hurts. I’ve been sitting there in the same position for too long!” Key whined, shaking his arms.

   “Um, how long have you guys been there?” Snigdha asked, looking at them surprised.

   “Er, don’t worry about it! Let me eat some cupcakes already!” Key said, running into the kitchen. The others walked inside and dug into their cupcakes, as they introduced themselves to Kalyan.

   “So, are you and Snigdha close?” Irene smirked while looking at the others.

   “Hm? Ah well, sort of, it just seems like she doesn’t remember? Or maybe we lost that connection. I mean it has been a while since we saw each other.” Kalyan smiled, dabbing his lips gently with a napkin.

   “Aww, is that so? Well I’m sure you’re glad to see her again, and don’t worry she does seem out of it, I’m sure she’ll be back to her old self!” Wendy reassured him. Klayan simply nodded, watching Snigdha’s every movement.

   “Say, do you like Snigdha?” Joy asked, noticing Kalyan’s gaze directed towards Snigdha, who’s busy laughing at some joke Key made.

   “Hm? No, of course not. We’re just… Friends.” Kalyan said, hiding his shock at Joy’s strange idea.

   “Ohhh~ Just friends I see.” Seulgi said, grinning to the others. ‘What are those weirdoes grinning about?’ Kalyan pondered in his head.

   As everyone chatted idly and finished up their snacks, they were surprised to see that quite a lot of time had gone by and that it was already getting dark.

   “Wow, well I’ll go make dinner for everyone.” Wendy said, walking into the kitchen, getting out an assortment of ingredients.

   “We’ll help.” Seulgi, Joy and Irene began helping her out in the kitchen, by cooking, cutting or anything else they could possibly do.

   The others preoccupied themselves with another activity or continued with brainstorming, but Snigdha looked around and saw that one member was still missing.

   “Is Jonghyun still not back?” She asked, turning to the others, who looked up at her, as if they just realized that he was missing this long. “Ugh, you guys are unbelievable.” She muttered, seeing the sky already dark, no visible light outside, not even the moon. “Er, I should go look for him.” Snigdha stood up, walking to the door.

   “Do you even know where he is?” Minho called out, making her pause, and turn to them.

   “No.” She simply answered. Minho sighed, pausing to think of where he could be.

   “You know where the blacksmith shop is right?” He asked Snigdha, who simply nodded. “He’s most likely there.”

   “Okay! Thanks! I’ll be back soon!” she waved, rushing out of the door and running down the hill from the cottage into town, in search of the blacksmith shop. She squinted her eyes, trying to see where she was, but all she saw were tall, black shadows looming over her. Maybe she could just call out his name, he’s bound to hear her at some point right? “Jonghyun!!” She yelled, waiting for a response but nothing. Suddenly a chilly breeze whipped past her, her long hair blurred her view. She huffed, pushing her hair back, and just as she was about to call out Jonghyun’s name again, she suddenly felt arms snake around her waist. She gasped, and was about to scream, but a sweaty palm covered , muffling her cries.

   “Don’t scream, unless you want to die.” A low voice hissed. Snigdha’s eyes widened, as she tried to break free from the person’s tight grip. She suddenly felt something sharp against her abdomen, making her freeze. “You think I was kiddin’ little girl?” The mysterious being spat, as they applied more pressure on the object against her abdomen. “Just hand me all of your money, and I’ll let you go. Got it?” Snigdha nodded furiously, as she dug into her pockets, but found that she had no money. “What’s taking so long?” The voice growled, annoyance thickly coated in their voice. She closed her eyes, as her lips quivered, ‘Jonghyun, help me…’ She pleaded in her mind.

   Suddenly she felt the person’s arms disappear around her waist as she heard a loud grunt behind her.

   “Leave.” She heard another low voice snarl. She shakily turned around and saw a lamp illuminating a pair of black, shiny shoes and the vendor from earlier, lying on the ground with a bump on his head. "Leave." The new voice growled again and the vendor quickly scrambled to his feet and ran off. The lamp was then picked up and moved closer towards her. The lamp was then raised to the person's face, revealing a frowning Jonghyun. “What are you doing here?” He sighed, scratching his head. He seemed a bit agitated.

   “I-I was looking for you…” She whispered, biting her lips to keep from letting herself sob in front of him. Jonghyun softened, seeing her state.

   “Sorry…” He murmured, patting her gently on the head. She quietly looked at him, as he got up, his face disappearing from her sight, but then revealing a hand outstretched in front of her. “C’mon, let’s go.” She slowly took his hand, got up, and quietly followed him, neither spoke to each other on the way back to the cottage.

   “Guys! Guys! I see them! They’re finally back!” Taemin exclaimed, catching a furiously pacing Onew’s attention. He rushed over to the window to see the two walking up the dirt path. As he caught the two holding hands, his smile faltered slightly.

   The two walked inside, letting go of each other’s hands, as Snigdha quietly walked to the kitchen to help the girls serve the food.

   “Dude! Where have you been?!” Key exclaimed, looking at him with wide eyes. Jonghyun just looked at him and shrugged.

   “Dinner’s ready!” Fei called out, as the boys eagerly gathered around the table. They sat down and grabbed their silverware, eyeing the food hungrily. As each were served, they instantly dug in, not waiting for the others to get their food, and the girls served themselves while eating quietly.

   Soon after dinner, everyone gathered into the living room, just chatting and making plans for tomorrow.

   “So does everyone have an idea of what they’ll be performing?” Key asked looking at everyone. “How about we go around and explain what you will be performing?” He suggested. “We’ll go first, so our group is called SHINee, and we decided we will dance and sing. The song is all done, and the choreo, we just need to polish some things up and we’ll be ready!” Key exclaimed. “Alright, Seulgi. Mind telling us what your group is doing?”

   “Well, we will be doing the same thing as you guys; dancing and singing!” Seulgi simply stated.

   “Sweet! Alright Fei, what about you?” Key smiled towards Fei, his eyes sparkling, making Fei slightly blush, before clearing .

   “I’ll be doing a bo staff performance.” She quickly replied, brushing a bit of her hair back timidly.

   “Sweet! Can’t wait to see how it goes! Alright, and Snigdha what will you be doing?” Key asked. Snigdha knit her brows together, pondering for a moment.

   “Well, I plan to do a dance performance, but actually Kalyan, I have a favor to ask…” Snigdha trailed off shyly, looking over at Kalyan.

   “What is it?” Kalyan asked, titling his head curiously.

   “Well, I was thinking for my performance, it’d be nice if I could have you, um, do a drummer dance…” She trailed off again, and saw Kalyan’s expression being clouded with confusion.

   “Drummer… Dance?”

   “Er, yeah, all you have to do is play simple beats, and move along with me… ah! But well you don’t have to! I mean I am being burdensome aren’t I? Pretend I didn’t ask!” Snigdha blabbered, feeling flustered. Kalyan softly chuckled.

   “Don’t worry, I can help out.” He smiled softly. Jonghyun knit his brows, as his lips turned into a frown, but he didn't say anything.

   “Alright! Well, everyone seems to have everything together! We’ll practice some more tomorrow and hopefully get a chance to perform for the queen!” Key cheered. “We should get going; we’ll meet back here tomorrow.” He got up and stretched as the others did the same. They all bid their goodnights and walked out of the door, leaving Onew, Snigdha, and Wendy alone in the house.

   “Well, let’s get some sleep…” Wendy paused to yawn. “We've got a busy day tomorrow.” She sighed, while walking into her respective room and closing the door behind her.

   "Goodnight!” Onew smiled and waved to Snigdha before walking to his own room.

   She smiled and waved back, but her smile fell as she climbed into and wrapped her fingers delicately around the pendant. Her eyes fluttered shut as she fell asleep.

~

   “Ah! I think we got this guys!” Jonghyun exclaimed excitedly, as the others lied down on their backs, panting from exhaustion.

   “H-how… Is he… Even…” Taemin panted out, not even bothering to finish his sentence.

   “It’s just Jonghyun.” Minho grinned, looking at him. The boys' attention was diverted to the girls, as they heard them singing and practicing their dance.

   “They’re all so adorable.” Taemin mumbled.

   “You sure you aren’t just speaking about Joy?” Key snickered.

   “Wha?!” Taemin’s cheeks turned light pink in embarrassment. “Speak for yourself idiot, I saw the way you were looking at Fei.” He muttered, but failed to embarrass Key, who just laughed.

   “Well, I admit I was looking in her direction. Her performance looks absolutely amazing.” He admitted, as he looked over to see Fei continue to practice her spins and leaps, not noticing Key watching her.

   “Alright! Kalyan! You got the hang of it!” Snigdha clapped her hands happily, while watching Kalyan hit the drum in perfect rhythm. She twirled a couple of times to the beat, and then Kalyan spun towards her, as she hit the drum with her hands before spinning away, continuing the rest of the dance.

   Later, a soft cry of a bird is heard, and everyone paused their practicing to see a messenger bird land on a nearby post. Wendy ran down the hill, to the bird and untied a scroll that was attached to it's leg. She walked over to everyone huddled together, staring at the scroll curiously. Wendy unrolled it, and began to read it aloud.

   “Dear citizens, as I was passing by today I noticed all of you seeming to do some interesting dances, and your angelic voices intrigued me. And for that I want you all to perform at my castle, I’ll be sending carriages to your place, and you all will be staying at my castle tonight.” She finished off with hanging wide open. “Oh my god! Is she for real?!” Joy squealed happily while hugging Irene.

   Key smiled, high fiving Taemin. “We did it!”

 

   Soon enough the trotting of horses, and wheels creaking could be heard, and the carriages stopped in front of the cottage gates.

   The horseman bowed to them, as they all piled into the carriages excitedly, as if it was their first time in such a thing. Snigdha got in; not finding the carriage all that interesting, but watched the others, her hands clenched tightly into fists to contain her annoyance. The ride to the castle was quiet, as everyone was preoccupied with looking out the window or just simply enjoying themselves in such a luxury.

   As the carriage came to a stop, the doors flung open, to reveal a tall brooding castle looming over them. Everyone was quickly escorted inside the castle and then directed to their rooms. Only two rooms had been provided for them; one for the boys and one for the girls, but as they checked the interior, the rooms had a set of six king beds evenly spaced out, with an abundant amount of space left over.  Everyone’s jaws dropped in awe at the rooms, except for Kalyan and Snigdha. Kalyan slowly walked out of the room without anyone noticing and walked over to Jinju’s room, quietly knocking on the door.

   “Come in.” He opened the door and walked in

   “They’re all here.” He simply stated. Jinju curved her thin lips into a smirk.

   “Good. Now we can get rid of them once and for all, but make sure that girl, Snigdha, doesn’t ruin anything.” Jinju spat. “Now go.” Kalyan bowed again, before stepping out and walking back into the others’ room.

   “Yo, Kalyan! Where did you go?” Minho called out, noticing Kalyan walk in.

   “I needed to go to the bathroom.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

   “Oh, I see, here’s the food. This is our dinner! Look at all the food the queen gave us!” Irene exclaimed. “She actually seems nice!” She whispered the last part. Snigdha threw the apple she was playing with, completely pissed now. The others looked at her frowning face.

   “Hey, you alright?” Fei asked, looking at Snigdha worriedly. Kalyan leaned against the wall, watching Snigdha quietly.

   “Did you just call that woman nice?” Snigdha hissed out. Irene was taken aback by her comment, unsure how to respond to that. “Do you guys have any idea what’s even going on? No! Of course you don’t! It’s that witch’s fault! She erased all of your guy’s memories. We don’t even belong in this world. This kingdom has been turned into a waste land because of her! And stop calling her queen! She’s not even the real queen! It’s Fei!” Snigdha yelled, pointing at Fei. Fei’s eyes widen, and her cheeks flushed deep red, in anger and in embarrassment.

   “Snigdha! What is your problem?! You’ve been acting like such an annoying brat since a few days ago, and now you speak so much crap, saying I’m queen?!” Fei yelled, her teeth clenched together, trying to find her composure. Snigdha bit her lip and looked down, she closed her eyes to fight back the tears that were threatening to fall. She was too reckless, of course no one would believe her. Fei pushed past Snigdha walking out of the room, as it became dead silent.

   No one dared to speak. The girls looked at each other before quietly getting up and walking out of the room. Kalyan hid his smirk, ‘foolish girl.’ He thought to himself as he quietly watched the scene. He stepped out of the room, deciding to check on where the others went. The boys were the only ones left in the room, but none of them spoke.

   “Snigdha… What happened?” Jonghyun asked, breaking the silence. Snigdha remained silent, before parting her lips.

   “Do… You believe anything I said?” She asked, her voice hinted with a glimmer of hope. Jonghyun remained quiet, not wanting to speak the truth. She sighed, understanding the silence. “I want to be alone.” She whispered. But the boys heard it, and they all looked at each other, before slowly getting up and walking out of the room. All of them left, except for Onew. Snigdha looked up to meet Onew’s eyes staring back at her. She chuckled softly. “You must think I’m crazy, right?” Onew didn't speak, but slowly approached her.

   “No, I don’t think you’re crazy. I believe what you said.” Onew stated, as he looked at her.

   Her eyes widened. “R-really?” She asked, as if she didn't believe what she was hearing. He smiled while nodding. Snigdha let out a shaky sigh, her eyes became watery from happiness. “Thank you.” She covered her face in her hands, letting her tears fall. Onew slowly reached over, pulling her in an embrace, letting Snigdha cry as much as she wanted, but he felt something strange come over him as his vision went black, but in the blink of an eye, he saw a bedroom and heard soft sobs. He looked down, to see Snigdha leaning against his chest.

   “Snigdha?” he whispered, as his mind was in a rush, remembering the past events and the events of today. She sniffed, looking up at him, tears still falling down her cheek. “I remember everything…” Her eyes widened at that, and she pushed herself back.

   “How? Wait! Quick! Who’s the idiot that always flirts with me?” Snigdha questioned.

   “That’s obvious. It’s Jonghyun.” Onew blinked at her, without even pausing to think of his answer.

   “Hmm, alright how about when you were little, you were stuck in a tree, you fell in a pond and drowned. True or false?” She asked again.

   “False! I didn’t drown… I just thought I was going to…” He exclaimed, flustered. Snigdha smiled, and wrapped her arms around Onew happily. Onew’s blush deepened but he didn't say anything. He simpy wrapped his arms around her as well.

   “Hey, how did you get your memories back?” Snigdha asked, curiously. Then she noticed her pendant glowing faintly. “Ah! It must be the necklace! Maybe because I was wearing it, its magic passed through me to you when you hugged me before. That’s it! That’s all I need to do, and everyone will remember again!” She grinned happily, staring at the neckalace. Onew smiled, patting her head.

   “Alright! What are we waiting for then? Let’s hurry and bring everyone’s memories back!” Onew encouraged, as both of them rushed out of the room to look for the others. After a bit of walking Onew spotted the girls sitting at the fountain, idly chatting. “Go for it!” Onew gave Snigdha a thumbs up, ushering her forward.

   “Er, hey guys!” Snigdha waved to them awkwardly. The girls looked at her, and Joy sprang up and hugged her suddenly, catching Snigdha off guard.

   “Ah! Snigdha, I-!!” Joy paused, pulling back and looking around. “Snigdha! Oh my god! We have to defeat- mmpf!” Snigdha slammed her hand over Joy’s mouth, silencing her.

   “Shh, we’re in her domain now. There are guards everywhere, so be quiet.” Snigdha whispered hurriedly. Joy nodded, and Snigdha slowly let her go.

   “Um, hey you two? What are you doing?” Seulgi asked, looking at them quizzically. Joy beckoned for the others to come closer.

   “So, how about we all have a group hug?” Joy asked, smiling. It seemed like she understood how she got her memories back.

   “What? A hug? Why so sudden?” Wendy asked, looking between Snigdha and Joy.

   “Well, didn’t you see you felt about earlier? Just give her a big hug already!” Joy pouted, crossing her arms across her chest. Wendy sighed, and hugged Snigdha, and soon the others did the same, until they all slowly have their memories back.

   “Well, are we and Onew the only ones who remember at the moment?” Seulgi asked.

   “Yup, I have to find the boys and Fei.” Snigdha stated.

   “Alright, we’ll go find Fei, and then meet you at our room.” Irene said, and then dragged the girls away.

   “I think I know where the guys are.” Onew said, leading Snigdha back to the boys’ room. Onew barged in, and Snigdha walked behind him, startling the others.

   “Yah! Learn how to knock!” Key gasped dramatically while holding a hand to his chest.

   “What are you guys here for?” Minho asked, looking over at Snigdha.

   “Erm, I wanted to say sorry about earlier…” Snigdha mumbled.

   “Ahh, is that all? Don’t worry about it.” Minho smiled kindly.

   “But, see the problem is she won’t believe you forgive her unless you hug her!” Onew exclaimed. The others looked at the two weirdly. Snigdha fidgeted nervously, waiting for someone to respond.

   “Well, if we hug you it’ll make you happy, why not?” Jonghyun got up, walked over to Snigdha and wrapped his arms around her tightly. The neckalace began its magic, and Jonghyun blinked, looking around. Then realized he was hugging Snigdha, and Snigdha was hugging him back, making him smirk. “Well I knew one of these days you’d admit that you had feelings for me.” He pulled back, and Snigdha blinked, surprised at the comment.

   “You remember?” Snigdha asked. Jonghyun grinned and nodded.

   “Alright, I hugged her now the rest of you go hug her already.” Jonghyun said, stepping away from her. Minho then walked over and hugged her, and smiled as his memories come flooding back to him. Next Taemin walked over and hugged her, and a memory of Joy and him holding hands flashed by, making him blush.

   “Why is that idiot blushing?” Jonghyun whispered to Minho.

   “Who knows.” He just shrugged, not really caring.

   “Alright, last but not least Key!” Jonghyun hollered. Key bounced over to Snigdha and gently hugged her. Just then the girls walked in.

   “Snigdha! We found Fei!” Key looked up, and Snigdha turned her head, smiling to see Fei glaring at her.

   “Is this what you wanted to show me?!” Fei asked, trying to keep calm, while staring daggers at Key and Snigdha who were still in each other’s arms. They both jumped back, embarrassed.

   “Fei, this isn’t what you think!” Snigdha exclaimed, running over to her. But Fei turned away from her and walked out of the room.

   “Yah! Fei!” Snigdha huffed, frustrated, and ran out of the room after her. “Fei! Get your over here right now!” The others chuckled, hearing the comment in a situation like this.

   Snigdha sprinted over to Fei, and wrapped her arms around her, as Fei squirmed. “You weirdo let go of me!” Fei screeched, but suddenly stopped writhing. “You can let me go, Snigdha.” Her voice became quiet. Snigdha slowly let go, and Fei turned around. “Thank for bringing back my memories. Let’s go back to the others.” She walked past her, and into the room, and right as Snigdha was about to follow her, she noticed Kalyan loitering in the shadows.

   “Ah! Kalyan! What are you doing there?” Snigdha jogged to where he was standing, his expression blank, as he saw the whole scene. He was a bit cautious to do or say anything. She then realized that Kalyan’s memories weren't back yet, and simply wrapped her arms around him. “I’ve done way too much hugging to last me a lifetime.” Snigdha mumbled to herself. He stiffened, but slowly relaxed, looking down at her.

   “Snigdha, you can let me go now.” He said softly. Snigdha nodded, and the two walked back to the room, where everyone was gathered, and Kalyan closed the door behind him.

   “So now that we all got our memories back how are we supposed to defeat Jinju?” Key asked. The others quietly thought to themselves but Kalyan interrupted their train of thoughts.

   “Actually, I need to tell you all something. Jinju actually sent me as a spy, to spy on you guys.” Kalyan admitted, scratching his head.

   “Hmm, we could actually use that to our advantage.” Wendy said.

   “True, but should we continue with our performances?” Taemin asked.

   “Yeah, so we don’t arouse any suspicion, it would be best.” Fei stated. “So let’s all lay low, and pretend as if nothing happened, and Kalyan can keep us updated on what’s going on.” The others nodded, and yawns suddenly broke loose.

   “Well, I guess that’s our cue. Let’s go to bed, we have an important day tomorrow.” Key exclaimed, jumping into one of the beds, and already snoring. The girls walked out, and got into their own beds, not saying a single word, and falling into a deep slumber.

~

   The next day, everyone was buzzing with excitement and nervousness as they all prepared the castle for the event. Onew sighed as he watched the girls get ready and nearly jumped out of his skin when Jonghyun and Minho patted him on the back. They noticed his nervous glances and wanted to encourage him to do his best.

   "Everything's going to go according to plan!" Jonghyun smiled at him.

   "Try not to look so nervous, hyung. You might make the others worry. You have to look brave as leader." Minho told him.

   "L-leader!?" Onew stuttered and stared at Minho as if he was crazy.

   "Of course. You're the oldest and most responsible. It's clear that you have what it takes to be leader." Minho said and gave him a thumbs up.

   "Plus, no one else really wanted the position. We asked Key, but he thought it would be a pain and there's no way someone as young as Taemin could be our leader." Jonghyun scoffed and Minho elbowed him.

   "What he meant to say was... There's no one more suitable for the role than you." Minho clarified.

   "Do you really think so?" Onew asked, uncertain.

   "Definitely!" Both Key and Taemin shouted. Onew turned around to see the two boys standing behind him.

   "Look, you're not exactly the most... Graceful..." Key said, thinking about how Onew seemed to trip on air on some occasions, "But you're definitely the one who cares the most about others."

   "And besides Key, you're the only one who has ever treated me like an adult, you respect others. Also, don't worry about being nervous. Being nervous is ok, it just means that you want to do your best." Taemin said encouragingly.

   "Wow... You all really believe in me..." Onew wiped his eyes on his sleeve as he sniffed a little.

   "Ah! Don't cry hyung!" Jonghyun ran to Onew and the boy simply lifted his head and smiled.

   "Sorry," He laughed, "I'm just really happy!"

   Minho sighed, "What are we going to do with you?"

   "Come on, everybody! It's time to go!" Key shouted as he buttoned his uniform.

   "Let's go!" The boys adjusted their hats and in front of a large audience, they laid down on the stage as the music began.

 

   "You guys were amazing!" Joy cheered as soon as the boys came backstage. She jumped into Taemin's arms and gave him a peck on the lips, making him grin foolishly.

   Seulgi took a deep breath as she fixed the black ribbon around her neck.

   "Nervous?" Irene asked.

   "Is it that obvious?" Seulgi chuckled.

   "Why? We've performed in front of a huge crowd before." Wendy said, reminding the other girls of the performances they used to hold back in the Western Kingdom when they were younger.

   "This is different though." Seulgi stated. "We're not in the Western Kingdom, we're not even in our own world. I kind of feel like we're performing for our lives here." She said as she and the other girls looked past the audience, where Jinju sat on her throne, watching with great intensity.

   "Don't let her intimidate you." Irene put a hand on her shoulder. "She won't hurt us as long as it seems like we don't have our memories."

   "I don't know about that. Something tells me, she might try to pull something while we're performing just to get a good laugh." Joy sneered, making Taemin squeeze her hand in concern.

   "I just don't understand why we lost our hair color." Seulgi said suddenly, in an attempt to make a joke. "I mean, now I feel so plain." She ran her fingers through her hair and pouted.

   "I think you look better, honestly." Minho said.

   "R-really?" Seulgi blushed a little at the comment, "I-I was just kidding, you know... I didn't really think... I mean... Oh, nevermind." She turned away as the rest of the girls began to go on stage.

   "What just happened?" Minho scratched his head in confusion.

   "Try not to think about it too much." Joy giggled.

   "Oh, gosh. Now you've made me nervous." Irene said in a half joking manner, as she put a hand to her heart.

   "Don't be like that. How am I supposed to perform if you're nervous too?" Seulgi complained.

   "Just be natural." Wendy said as they all sat in their chairs and the lights dimmed, before the music began.

 

   "That was awesome!" Key screamed so he could be heard over the cheering audience.

   "I knew you would do well." Taemin said as he pulled Joy into a hug.

   "Gosh, you two are so lovey dovey, I think I'm going to puke." Jonghyun gagged.

   Minho hit his shoulder. "You did great, we're all really proud."

   "Thanks, now all that's left is Snigdha and Fei." Seulgi stated as she looked at the two girls who were talking with Kalyan in private.

   "Do you feel ready?" Fei asked. Kalyan nodded.

   "Of course! I'm always ready!" Snigdha said proudly. "I'm more concerned about you though... Do you think you can cast the spell this time?" She asked, sounding a bit nervous.

   Fei simply sighed before replying. "I'll do my best. If this doesn't work... Then there's no telling what she'll do to us..."

   "Hey, don't think negatively! I know you can do it!" Snigdha pumped her fists.

   "Try not to screw up this time." Jonghyun said from the side, making Fei glare at him.

   "I said, I'll do my best." She growled.

   "We're all doing our best." Minho said, "But it seems like you're the only one that's not pulling through."

   "Hey, it's not Fei's fault that the spell isn't working." Key defended her.

   "Then whose fault is it?" Jonghyun asked.

   "I-I... I don't know, but..." Key stuttered.

   "But nothing!" Jonghyun shouted. "It's her fault that we're in this mess so it's her responsibility to get us out!"

   "Look! Fighting isn't going to get us anywhere." Minho stood in between them. "We're all putting our faith in you, if you can't get us home... Then we have no reason to trust you." He turned to Fei.

   "I'll get us home." She said angrily as she took the simple wooden bo staff and left to practice once more.

   "C-come on..." Snigdha tugged on Kalyan's sleeve. "It's time for us to go on."

   "Right." He said as he followed her onstage and the music began.

 

(Music starts at 0:20)

   "You two have a surprisingly good amount of chemistry." Wendy stated when they got off stage together.

   "What's that supposed to mean?" Snigdha asked.

   "Oh, nothing." Wendy smiled to herself.

   "I can't help it if Snigdha and I make a good match." Kalyan said as he threw an arm around her shoulder.

   "Aren't you being a little too friendly?" Onew asked, pushing Kalyan's arm off.

   "What's your deal? Are you two dating or something?" Kalyan looked at him surprised.

   "Wh-what!? No, I just..." Onew stuttered nervously.

   "Kalyan!" Jinju's voice echoed in the room.

   "Ah, I better get into character." Kalyan said before putting on an emotionless expression and following Jinju's voice.

   He moved behind the audience and bowed once he reached her throne. "Your majesty." He said.

   "I saw you performing with that girl just now... You seemed awfully close. You don't think that she or the others have their memories back, do you?" She asked while glaring at him.

   "No, your majesty." He stated as calmly as he could. "They have shown no signs of having their memories. The girl known as Snigdha simply asked me to perform with her and I feared that I would be discovered if I had not agreed to her request."

   "I see..." She said as she watched the kids continue to prepare backstage for the final performance. "You know what happens when people I trust betray me." She stated causing Kalyan to sweat nervously.

   He paused before nodding. "I do, your majesty."

   "Good, now stay by side for this last performance." She ordered and Kalyan bowed, before standing between her throne and the rest of the guards as Fei stepped on stage, wooden bo staff in hand.

   The music started and Fei began turning her bo staff in circles, progressively getting faster and faster, while whispering the incantation to herself.

   "What is that girl doing?" Jinju asked as she leaned forward to get a better look.

   "I believe it's called wushu, your majesty." Kalyan replied.

   "Not that." She said angrily. "I can see her lips moving, what is she saying?"

   "Perhaps she's simply counting the beats?" Kalyan said, sounding unsure.

   "No..." Jinju looked closer and her eyes widened. "She's reciting the spell! Which means..." She glared at Kalyan who did his best to keep a straight face. She turned to continue watching the performance, but as Fei held her bo staff above her head, Jinju cast a small spell.

   Fei brought her bo staff down as the music was beginning to come to an end. She kept repeating the spell and wondered why it wasn't working, when suddenly she felt her bo staff slither in her hand. She jumped when she saw that her bo staff had turned into a snake and before she could react, the snake hissed and wrapped itself tightly around Fei's throat, strangling her.

   "Fei!" Key yelled. "We have to do something!"

   "We can't! Jinju will see us!" Minho held him back.

   "But she'll die!" Key shouted.

   "Do you want to blow our cover!?" Jonghyun asked.

   "No, but I..." Key watched as Fei's face began to change color due to lack of oxygen. He bounced on his heels as the seconds ticked by and as the voices in the audience grew louder. They didn't know if it was part of the act or if someone was dying right in front of them. "Agh! I have to help her!" Key panicked and wrestled his way out of Minho and Jonghyun's grip.

   "Gah! Why is he so strong!?" Jonghyun growled.

   "Key! Get back here!" Minho called, but it was no use. Key rushed onto the stage and pulled the snake off of her, throwing it onto the ground. It hissed at him before he stomped on its tail, causing it to coil and slither away.

   “Fei?! Are you alright?!” Key looked at her with wide eyes. She stumbled forward and into his arms, unable to walk straight. She put a hand to as it took her a few minutes to gain enough oxygen to speak again. But before she could.

   "Treason." A voice boomed. Key and Fei both looked up to see Jinju standing in front of her throne with her arms crossed. "You all know that it's forbidden to use magic or special abilities of any kind in this kingdom." She stated.

   "But it was you that turned Fei's bo staff into a snake!" Key yelled.

   "Are you accusing your Queen!?" Jinju asked, sounding shocked.

   "You're not the Queen! Fei is!" Snigdha shouted as she jumped onstage, next to Key. She grabbed Fei's arm to help support her weight. "You're just a cruel witch that's manipulating us for your own amusement!"

   "Snigdha, what are you doing?" Onew whispered as he and the others ran onstage to stand next to them.

   "We've had enough of your games! It's time for you to return us to our world!" Irene yelled.

   "Can Fei recite the spell?" Seulgi asked as Fei let out a pitiful wheezing sound.

   "She can't. She's too weak." Key said.

   "That's just great." Jonghyun scoffed.

   "Take these pests away!" Jinju ordered before she waved her hand as guards grabbed Fei’s arms, pulling her away from Key. Before Key could react, they grabbed onto his arms as well, and did the same for the others. Pushing them all towards the dungeons.

   “Remember what I said yesterday.” Fei managed to whisper as she passed Kalyan, who simply nodded.

   "And you!" Jinju turned to Kalyan suddenly, making him jump in surprise.

   "Your majesty." He bowed.

   "You said that they didn't have their memories back. You lied, you betrayed me, Kalyan. I trusted you!" She shouted and grabbed him by the hair.

   "What are you going to do? Throw me in the dungeons with the others?" He asked, giving up the act and glaring at her.

   "No." She said coldly. "I have something else for you." He screamed in pain as she pulled him by the hair and tossed him into a small cage, next to her throne. “You hurt my feelings Kalyan.” She said, sounding sad. "Now I'm going to hurt you and your friends."

~

   "Let us go, you monsters!" Irene screamed as the guards tossed her and the rest of the kids into a cell. Onew scraped his knees on the cold, hard floor and did his best to hide the pain.

   "Onew, you're hurt..." Snigdha leaned down and saw the bruising around the wounds on his knees.

   "Ah, I'm alright, really." He lied as he tried to sit so his knees wouldn't hurt so much.

   "Here, let me heal them." She put her hands on his knees and a light glow shined from her hands. Onew hissed at the sudden contact, but soon found the pain in his knees disappear.

   "Whoa, how'd you do that?" Onew gasped when she took her hands away and he saw the wounds were completely gone.

   "My dad is the best healer in the kingdom." Snigdha boasted.

   "I see you kept my gift." The kids heard a familiar voice in the darkness.

   "Gift?" Snigdha sounded confused, until her hand found her necklace and realization hit her. “Oh my god! It’s you!” Snigdha gasped pointing to the shaman. The shaman simply smiled.

   “You’ve done well, child.”

   “Yeah right, if I did well, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.” Snigdha rolled her eyes, pouting.

   “Not quite, it’s actually Fei who still is causing us to be in this ‘predicament’.” Jonghyun grumbled. Fei looked over at Jonghyun, not saying anything.

   “You still have too much anger and guilt built inside you, even though I warned you, you still couldn’t cast the spell properly.” The shaman paused. "If you cannot recite the spell correctly, you must strike a deal with Jinju instead." The shaman told them.

       "What kind of deal?" Snigdha asked.

       "Ask her to return you to your own world and for your parents. She won't agree until you offer something in return." The shaman explained.

       "Like what?" Seulgi asked.

       "She's a witch that gains her power from strong emotions and the stronger the emotion, the more powerful she becomes. It's also more effective if this emotion is from a strong magical being like you." She said while looking at Fei. "If you give her what she wants, I'm sure she'll grant your wish."

       "What does she want from me?" Fei asked.

       "The thing you love most."

 

   "The thing I love most?" Fei stared at the shaman in disbelief.

   "What is the thing you love most in this world?" The shaman asked. "You must decide now whether or not you're ready to give it up."

   "I don't really know... I don't usually have strong attachments to things." Fei looked down as she thought.

   "Ah, your bo staff!" Key suddenly blurted out, but immediately covered his mouth when he did.

   "That's right... My bo staff... It's the last thing I have from my parents, but... It's a very powerful weapon! Even if Jinju uses her magic to bring back my parents, there's no guarantee that we can beat her." Fei argued.

   "Then maybe you don't need to defeat her." The shaman said.

   "What do you mean?" Snigdha asked.

   "When the time comes you will know." And with that the shaman disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

   "What the-!? Where did she-!?" Jonghyun ran his hand through the cloud, hoping to find her body still there, but his hand only met air and smoke.

   "She's gone!?" Minho gasped.

   "Just like last time..." Snigdha said aloud.

   "What?" Seulgi turned to her.

   "Huh? Oh, never mind." Snigdha waved her off.

   "I don't even know where my bo staff is." Fei finally said after a moment of silence. "I remember having it with me when we were traveling in search of the shaman and Jinju, but after she sent us to this world... I don't know where it went."

   "Maybe it's still here, somewhere. In the castle." Key suggested. "Remember that box that you kept it in?"

   "In the training room? It might be there..." Fei pondered the possibilities.

   "Well, if we're going to find it, we need to get out of here." Wendy stated.

   "How? This dungeon neutralizes our abilities." Joy said sadly.

   "But not our spirit animals." Snigdha smirked and looked at Onew who looked behind himself, then realized that she was looking at him.

   "Me?" He pointed to himself.

   "Your spirit animal is small enough to fit through these bars." She told him. "You can distract the guards while Joy uses her tail to reach the keys."

   "That sounds dangerous." Onew gulped.

   "I know you can do it!" Snigdha smiled at him and he blushed, before nodding and turning into a rabbit.

   He struggled a bit, squeezing between the bars, but managed to get through and hopped past the guards, wiggling his little cotton tail in their faces.

   "Hey! How'd that rabbit get in here?" One of the guards asked.

   "Who cares? Just catch it!" The other guard commanded and they both went chasing after Onew down the long corridor.

   "Alright, now Joy!" Snigdha called and Joy transformed into a monkey and hung from the pipes on the ceiling as she stretched her tail out as far as it could go.

   "Ah! Got it!" She said as soon as the keys hung from her tail. Taemin pulled her back in and Minho quickly took the keys and managed to open the door just as Onew returned with the guards right behind him.

   "Jonghyun, would you like to do the honors?" Snigdha asked and the boy nodded, with a mischievous grin on his face as he transformed into a dog. "Sic 'em boy!" Snigdha commanded and Jonghyun jumped out of the dungeon, landing on top of one of the guards who fell with a heavy thud. He then leaped at the other guard and bit him hard on the leg.

   "Agh!" The guard screamed while Key kicked him from behind. He then dragged both guards inside the dungeon and locked the door behind him.

   "Let's go!" Irene cheered as everyone ran down the corridor.

   "Let's split into teams to find the bo staff!" Fei commanded. "It'll be faster that way. Key and I will check the training room, Jonghyun and Minho will check the dining hall while Irene, Seulgi, Wendy and Joy check the bedrooms upstairs!"

   "I guess that just leaves you and me." Snigdha hooked her arm with Onew's, who jumped at the sudden contact.

   "R-right!" He stuttered nervously.

   "You two should check the Queen's room! It'll be dangerous, so be careful." Fei told them.

   "The Q-Queen's room!?" Onew's eyes widened.

   "Don't worry, you've got me!" Snigdha smiled at him and he seemed to calm down.

   "Go!" Fei shouted and everyone ran off in different directions.

~

   Jonghyun and Minho began by searching through the dining hall. There were several cabinets and glass cases full of fancy China and jade trinkets.

   "Do you think it'd be somewhere in here?" Jonghyun asked while inspecting a vase. He set it down and turned to walk away, but he knocked it with his elbow, causing it to teeter to the side and fall. He made a sudden dive and slid on the carpet, catching the vase before it hit the floor.

   "Watch it!" Minho glared. "If we break anything, Uncle Luhan will kill us!"

   "If only Uncle Luhan were here to kill us..." Jonghyun sighed and gently put the vase back.

   "Shh!" Minho put a finger to his lips. "Did you hear that?"

   Jonghyun looked up and saw two shadows walking down the hall. "Guards! Hide!" He hissed and both boys ran to find a hiding spot. Jonghyun ducked under the table and peeked out from underneath the tablecloth to see the guards walk in just as Minho hid behind a window curtain.

   The guards turned towards the movement. "It was probably just the wind." One guard commented.

   "Maybe, but I'm going to go have a look anyway." He moved towards Minho, while holding the torch higher.

   Minho put a hand to his mouth to control his breathing, while trying to stay as still as possible.

   Jonghyun could feel beads of sweat drip down his forehead as the guard continued to move closer to Minho's hiding spot. "Minho, you idiot. If we get caught now because of you..."

   "Moo..." A cow's call was suddenly heard in the other room.

   "What the-!? How did a cow get inside the castle?" The guard looked at the other, confused.

   "Let's get it out of the castle before JinJu finds out." The other guard said as they left to follow the sound.

   As soon as they left, both boys breathed a sigh of relief and slowly crawled out.

   "What was that?" Jonghyun asked.

   "I just remembered that Uncle Luhan taught me how to throw my voice. Kind of like that ventriloquist that visited our castle once." Minho explained.

   "Hm, neat trick." He smirked. "Maybe you should teach me sometime so I can win at hide and seek in the future."

   "Maybe you should stop playing with Seulgi. You know that her special ability is super sight." Minho chuckled.

~

   "ACHOO!" Seulgi sneezed.

   "Bless you!" Joy whispered.

   "Someone must be talking about me." Seulgi sniffed before checking underneath the bed, while Joy inspected the dresser.

   "Anything?" Irene asked, peeking her head into the room while Wendy searched the bedroom next door.

   "Nothing." Joy said sadly.

   "Maybe Wendy and I should help you." Irene motioned for Wendy to come in. "Fei's room is bigger than the others. It may take longer to find anything."

   "Everything is so neat and organized, though." Joy commented.

   "Yeah, it's a lot cleaner than your room." Wendy joked.

   "At least I know where all my stuff is." Joy pouted.

   "Quiet!" Irene said a bit loudly causing the other girls to jump. They fell silent and the only sound that could be heard were footsteps heading in their direction.

   "Shoot! Everyone, hide!" Wendy whispered and hid under the bed.

   Irene climbed into the closet, while Joy shape shifted into a monkey and clung to the chandelier. Seulgi panicked for a second before she hid behind the door.

   The guards held a torch inside the room and looked around. "Are you sure you heard something?" One guard asked.

   "I swear I heard voices." The other guard sighed. "Maybe I'm just tired."

   "The Queen does force us to work long hours." The first guard rubbed his temples.

   "ACHOO!" Seulgi sneezed again and froze in place.

   "You sneeze like a girl." The other guard laughed.

   "Yeah, well wanna see if I hit like one?" He raised his fist and the other guard shrank back before they closed the door and left the room.

   "Oh, my gosh. That was close." Wendy breathed a sigh of relief.

   "I don't think we're going to find anything here." Irene groaned.

   "Let's keep looking and hope the others are having better luck." Joy said as she landed on the bed and transformed back.

~

   "This way." Snigdha whispered as she and Onew quietly snuck through the hallway and found a highly decorated door with green gems encrusted in the frame. "This must be JinJu's room." Snigdha pulled on the handle. "Shoot! It's locked!" She struggled and continued pushing, but it wouldn't budge.

   "Let me take a look." Onew moved closer to the door and pulled out a thin piece of metal from his pocket. He then pushed the metal into the keyhole and maneuvered it around until he heard a click and the door opened.

   "Whoa! How'd you do that?" Snigdha smiled at him.

   "Ah, I might've asked Kalyan to teach me when I saw him do it when we were kids." Onew scratched his head sheepishly.

   "Onew, you're a genius!" Snighda cheered.

   "I-I wouldn't say that..." He blushed.

   "Are you kidding? You're-!" Snighda silenced herself when she heard footsteps.

   "Oh, no! Guards! What do we do?" Onew asked, sounding very worried.

   "Time to play hide and seek." Snigdha smiled before pushing Onew into the room and dragging him to a hiding spot.

   Two guards poked their heads into the room. "I thought the Queen always had her door locked." One guard said.

   "Maybe she forgot." The other guard pulled the door closed and the two heard the lock click as keys jingled.

   "Um... Snigdha..." Onew breathed out her name as he heard their footsteps walk away.

   "Hm?" She turned to look at him and found the tip her nose bump into his. They were almost pressed up against each other as they hid between the dresser and the wall.

   "I-I uh... Think it's safe to move now." He managed to mumble and prayed that she couldn't hear how fast his heart was beating.

   "Right! Gotta find that bo staff!" Snigdha smiled and slowly moved to begin searching the room. She started by opening the dresser while Onew stood still for another minute to let his heart rate slow down, only for it to spike again when Snigdha called his name. "Onew, search the other side of the room while I get this side."

   "Y-yes ma'am." He stuttered and did as he was told.

~

   "Come on, hurry up!" Fei whispered as loudly as she could at Key, who was just a few feet behind her.

   "I'm not a fast runner!" Key panted as he ran up to her.

   "We have no time to waste. Jinju's guards could find us at any moment. We have to act fast." She informed him as she quickly moved to the doors of the training room.

   Once inside, they discovered hundred of boxes piled up. "What is all this?" Fei asked as she looked around.

   "Whoa! It looks like someone forgot to clean the attic." Key joked and Fei simply turned to glare at him. He coughed nervously.

   "Jinju must have made the training room, her personal storage room. My bo staff has to be in here somewhere. Find it!" She ordered.

   Key silently began searching through the nearest box and when he couldn't find anything he set it next to the door and started looking through another. His search was interrupted when he felt something soft hit him in the back of the head. He turned around to see Fei looking frantically through each box and then tossing it aside angrily when she couldn't find it. He then looked down to see what had assaulted him. Lying on the floor was an old teddy bear and not far from it, a small doll with pigtails. "Fei..." Key started, and repeated himself a bit louder when she didn't respond. "Fei, what is this?" He held up the bear as she turned to look at him.

   "It's just an old toy that mother bought for me when I was little." She said curtly before returning to her search.

   "It looks old, but at the same time, unused. Didn't you ever play with it?" Key asked as his fingers ran over the glass beads for eyes.

   "I never had free time to play... I was a princess... I had important things to do..." Fei said as she pushed aside box after box to find her bo staff.

   "All of these toys and you never played with them?" Key turned to look through another box, this time there were letters, all birthday cards written by the other residents of the castle. "Happy birthday Fei!" was written on one of them in bright orange crayon and below it was written, "I hope you have the best birthday ever! Sincerely, Jinki!" Key picked up another card. "Hey, why don't you come out of your room this year and actually celebrate your birthday with us? Your friend, Jonghyun." And another, "Maybe we should learn wushu together! I bet my dad would be happy to teach you! It'll be my gift! Yours truly, Minho." And another... "We all really miss seeing you... I know the boys might not admit it, but they do... They really do... You used to play with us, what happened? If it's because Jonghyun shocked you during chuseok last year, he's really sorry. Hopefully you'll join us this year, if not, maybe the next year? Anyway, I hope you have a good birthday. Love, Snigdha."

   "What happened?" Key asked as he showed the birthday cards to her.

   "Things changed." Fei stated without even glancing at the papers.

   "I think you changed." Key said quietly.

   "How would you know? You barely know me." Fei glared at him.

   "I think you used to be happy. You used to play with the others and have fun, but something happened when you were about 10 years old... What happened?" He kept pressing forward, because he was more than curious. He wanted to help her in someway... Anyway.

   "Why!? Why do you want to know so badly!?" Fei nearly screamed.

   "Because I want to see you happy." He said, without a moment of hesitation, which surprised her.

   She looked away before speaking. "As the daughter of the King and the Queen, I am a princess, which means that one day I have to take the throne as Queen. Being Queen of a whole country is a lot of responsibility and I think at the time... When I was told that I would have to do that... I guess I just wasn't ready to handle that kind of responsibility. I had an argument with my parents about not wanting to be Queen and then later that night I could hear my parents arguing in the next room over... They sounded really angry with each other. The next thing I knew, I heard dad leave the castle and mom was crying. I knew it was my fault that they were so angry with each other so I left the castle to find dad and convince him to come back. Suddenly, I was kidnapped by rogues from another kingdom. They held me captive and tortured me for hours. Eventually my parents and the other adults came to rescue me and Uncle Lay was able to heal my wounds before the other kids could see me, but... Uncle Lay may be the greatest healer in the Kingdom, but he cannot completely heal emotional wounds like he can with the physical ones."

   "Fei... I'm so sorry..." Key said.

   "After the incident, my mother and father crafted that bo staff for me and had Uncle Tao teach me wushu so that I would be able to defend myself." She explained. "And that is why that bo staff is so important to me. If we can't find it, then..."

   "We'll find it." Key stated, without a doubt. "I know we will."

   They continued searching, but after a few minutes of moving boxes around, it seemed like Fei had finally given up.

   "This is a waste of time..." Key heard Fei groan as she sat down on top of a couple of boxes. She held her head in the palm of her hands and just sat there for a few minutes, feeling defeated.

   "H-hey, we can't give up so easily." Key tried to reassure her. "I know we'll find your bo staff!"

   Fei glanced up at him, her eyes looking tired and worn out. "We're never going to defeat Jinju..." She said quietly. "She's too powerful and I'm just..."

   "Stop thinking like that!" Key interrupted her. "Don't give up on yourself!"

   "Why? Everyone else has..." She mumbled as she let her head fall forward again.

   Key didn't know what to say. He stepped forward to comfort her, when a bright light blinded him for a second. He turned towards the light and saw that it was sunlight reflecting off of Fei's bo staff that was hanging on the wall above the door. Wordlessly, Key stacked a couple of boxes and hopped up, quickly grabbing the bo staff. "Fei! Look!" He shoved the bo staff in front of her and grabbed her hand, wrapping her fingers around the golden dragon design.

   "Key..." She stood up and grasped the bo staff tightly. "Key, I don't know what to say..."

   "You can thank me later! Like you said, we have to hurry!" He grabbed her hand and began running out the door.

   She wiped her tears away and ran faster, moving to the front as she began to pull Key behind her. He smiled at her as he noticed her energy pick up, but when he saw two shadows at the end of the hall, he suddenly stopped and pulled Fei behind a pillar. She nearly screamed by the sudden loss of momentum, but was silenced when Key put one hand over while the other held her closely. Both their heartbeats sped up as the shadows came closer and they both knew that they would be found, so they had to figure now whether or not they were ready to fight.

   In a split second decision they both jumped out, prepared for battle but simply blinked in surprise when the two guards turned out to be Jonghyun and Minho.

   "Yah! You guys scared me!" Jonghyun shouted.

   "Sorry, we thought you two were guards." Key smiled, sheepishly.

   "Did you find the bo staff?" Minho asked.

   "Yes, we did." Fei said as she held the bo staff in front of her.

   "Great! Let's find the others and make the deal!" Everyone nodded and headed towards the throne room.

~

   "Snigdha? Onew? Are you guys in there?" Irene asked as she knocked on the door to the Queen's room.

   "Yes! But we're locked in!" Snigdha yelled on the other side. "Onew can't pick the lock from the inside, we either need to unlock it from the outside or break the door."

   "Anyone strong enough to break a door?" Wendy asked.

   "I might be." Key said proudly, with the others behind him.

   "Dadadada! Key to the rescue!" Joy sang.

   "Stand back!" He told them as he ran forward and kicked the door down.

   "Thanks!" Snigdha smiled when she saw everyone.

   "What was that noise?" The kids heard a voice. "Hey, you kids! How'd you get out of the dungeons?" Several guards began running into the hallway.

   "RUN!" Jonghyun yelled and everyone began moving as fast as they could. The guards chased them all the way to the throne room, but they stopped as soon as they saw Jinju. She was sitting on her throne eating grapes while resting her feet on a cage holding Kalyan.

   "Kalyan!" Irene yelled, causing him and Jinju to look up.

   "You again!?" She stood up and prepared her magic to attack.

   "We wish to make a deal!" Fei said as loudly and as calmly as she could.

   "A deal?" Jinju asked, sounding cautious, but sat back down. Kalyan looked at everyone with wide and nervous eyes.

   "You return us to our world and bring all of the adults back..." Fei began and took a deep breath before she continued, "And, I'll give you whatever you want."

   "Oh, really?" Jinju leaned forward and smiled evilly. "You're willing to give up your most prized possession to bring back your parents? The very people you wished away so strongly?"

   "I was wrong and this is how I will pay for my mistake." Fei said stoically.

   "Very well!" Jinju clapped her hands and smiled. "Hand it over!"

   Fei stepped forward and held out her bo staff as an offering. "This bo staff was crafted by my mother and father from a combination of dragon fire, jade and magic. It is incredibly powerful and means more to me than anything else in this world." She explained.

   Jinju looked carefully at her before bursting out in laughter, causing everyone in the room to look at her in shock. "Are you being serious right now?" Jinju asked in between her fits of laughter.

   "Am I being-!?" Fei furrowed her brows at Jinju. "I am not one to make a joke in such a situation."

   "Your feelings for that bo staff pale in comparison to the feelings you have for a certain someone." Jinju said, wiping away a tear, her laughter finally subsided.

   "Excuse me?" Fei looked at the others before looking back at Jinju. "Are you telling me I don't know my own feelings?"

   "I think you're in denial." Jinju smiled. "As a witch who can see the various levels of emotions, I can tell that you care more about that person, than you do that pathetic stick of yours."

   "That person?" Fei looked at the others, confused until her eyes landed on Key. "No..." She said quietly to herself, before turning back to Jinju. "You said the 'thing' I love most not 'whomever' I love most!"

   "People are like objects, what's the difference?" Jinju asked.

   "You can't take Key!" Snigdha yelled, but Jinju simply laughed again.

   "I'm afraid you don't have a say in the matter." She cackled. "Fei offered what she loved most and it's my choice whether or not I choose to accept it."

   "Take me instead." Fei pleaded. "I have more magical power than Key does and that's what you want, isn't it? More power?"

   "It does sound like a tempting offer." Jinju mused.

   "There has to be some other way." Key tried, but Fei looked at him then back at Jinju.

   "This is my punishment." She said quietly and stood before Jinju. "If you return us back to our original world and bring all of the adults back, you can take whatever you want, just please... Bring our parents back..." She pleaded.

   "Hm..." Jinju pondered a bit before smiling. "Alright," She said. "Wish granted." She stood and raised her hands, a bright red light shined from them. Fei yelled as if she was in pain. The red light began to pull all of her energy from her body and into Jinju, "Such power!" She laughed.

   She continued draining Fei until Key couldn't take it anymore. He ran forward and pushed Jinju off her throne. She screamed and Fei fell to the floor, almost all of her energy was drained. Key rushed over to Fei and picked her up. He held her face between his hands as she slowly opened her eyes.

   "Key..." She said weakly. "What are you doing?"

   "You don't have to do this!" He cried. "Look, I know, you feel like you have to take responsibility because you're royalty and you've always been on your own, but look at me! Look at us! We're your friends and we're here for you! No one blames you for what happened. So please stop feeling like you have to do everything by yourself!"

   "Key..." Fei looked at him, then to everyone else. They all nodded and smiled as if saying they agreed. Even Jonghyun and Minho looked at Fei and gave her all of their support.

   Fei looked at Key again when she felt him grab her hand. "I'm here for you." He told her. "We all are."

   "Fools!" Jinju screamed, clearly angry. "You're going to regret that!" Her eyes glowed red and her hands became bright red spikes attached to her arms.

   Fei held onto Key's hand even tighter as she began to recite the spell, quietly at first, then a bit louder until everyone could hear her as her voice echoed off the castle walls.

   "No!" Jinju screamed, "NO! NO! NO!" Her whole body glowed and burst into a cloud of smoke. Left in its wake was a black gem, sitting on the seat of the throne. Fei clumsily walked up to the throne, grabbed the gem and crushed it in her hand. Letting the black dust be carried away by the wind.

   Irene ran to the cage and immediately pulled Kalyan into a hug as he got out. "I'm so glad you're alright!" Irene continued to hug him and without thinking, he found himself hugging her back.

   "Is it finally over?" Joy asked.

   "I think it is..." Taemin smiled at her and held her close.

   "So... We won?" Wendy looked around, her smile widening.

   "We won!" Irene jumped into the air and cheered.

   Fei looked at her friends and smiled, "It's finally over..."  She let her body relax as relief flooded over her, until she noticed the wind pick up and everyone was suddenly pulled off their feet.

   "Uh, oh. Here we go again." Jonghyun groaned.

   "Think of it as our last free ride!" Minho laughed.

   "Uwaa!" Onew cheered as his body floated in the air, next to Snigdha who grabbed his hand and pecked him on the cheek. For a moment he was completely stunned, unable to do or say anything. Even Jonghyun was speechless for once.

   "Everyone ready?" Key asked, refusing to let go of Fei's hand. She smiled at him and nodded her head as the wind spun around them and they disappeared, returning to their own world.

   Soon everyone woke up and saw that they were back in the castle with their parents standing near them. "Mom! Dad!" Everyone cried when they saw them.

   "Dad!" Fei ran up to Kris when she saw him slowly walking towards her. "Dad..." She stopped just a few feet away with tears falling down her face. "Dad, I'm so sorry... If I had just listened to you, this wouldn't have..."

   "Hey, now..." He brushed back her hair and kissed her forehead. "Don't say that... I'm just glad that all you kids are safe." He wrapped his arms around her as she cried into his shoulder.

   After a few moments, she finally stopped crying and wiped her tears onto the sleeve of her dress. "Dad! I'm so happy to see you... But..." She looked around, with teary eyes. "Where's mom?"

   "Ah, she just decided to step out for a bit. She was afraid that you were still mad at her, but don't worry about it for now." He ran his thumb across her cheek and wiped away the last few tears, making her smile.

   "Oh, my goodness! I'm so glad that you're alright!" Iseul and Lay both held Snigdha in their arms tightly.

   "I missed you guys so much!" Snigdha cried.

   "Don't you ever scare me like that again!" D.O. held Joy by the shoulders.

   "I'm sorry, dad, but Taemin was there to protect me!" Joy smiled as she looked back at Taemin.

   "Hm, I see you raised a good kid, Kai." D.O. turned to his friend.

   "Well, what can I say? He takes after his father." Kai laughed.

   "Hey, you're all forgetting it was my son who saved the day." Sehun added.

   "I think you mean my son." Sungam argued.

   "What do you mean you're son? Don't you think the girls had anything to do with their victory?" Both Chanyeol and Baekhyun pouted.

   "Hey, can't we all agree that all of our kids put in some effort to save the day?" Chen raised his hands as Liyin stood by him.

   "My kid put in the most effort." Tao scoffed while Bella just shook her head and laughed.

   "I'm not even going to argue." Xiumin held Angel's hand and smiled.

   "I think we should leave the adults to discuss this." Seulgi said quietly to the others.

   "Good idea." Minho said as he and the rest of the kids quickly snuck away from them.

~

   "So..." Key started when he and Fei were standing by themselves away from the crowd.

   "Hm?" She turned to him.

   "Apparently I'm the thing you love most?" Key raised his eyebrow while smiling and Fei looked away, blushing.

   "I think Jinju was confused, how can you possibly be the thing I love most?" Fei muttered while looking down.

   "Are you saying I'm not?" Key asked.

   "I'm not saying anything." She replied.

   "Well, this is what I'm saying." He leaned down and whispered in her ear. She didn't move, but as Key pulled back he saw the tips of her ears turn red and he laughed. She turned to glare at him and hit him with her bo staff while he continued to giggle at her embarrassment.

~

   After all of the kids and adults had their tearful reunions, it was time for Suho and the others to return to the Western Kingdom.

   "Do we really have to go?" Seulgi pouted as she looked at Baekhyun.

   "Sorry, but we've been gone too long. We need to make sure that our Kingdom is still in one piece." He joked.

   "I hope I'll see you next time, Kalyan." Irene blew a kiss, before she got into the caravan with the others.

   "Ye-yeah, me too." He stuttered nervously.

   "Yah! What is your relationship with my daughter!?" Chanyeol yelled at Kalyan before Sungam pulled the boy behind him and Crystal, while Kai and Baekhyun held Chanyeol back from strangling the boy.

   "Dad... You're embarrassing me." Irene groaned.

   "I hope we get to play with the others again soon." Joy smiled as she leaned her head on Taemin's shoulder.

   "Aw, but then I wouldn't get to have you all to myself." Taemin fake whined and Joy hit him playfully. "But I agree with you." He held her hand in his. "I miss them already."

   "So, what happened to Jinju?" Suho asked as he hugged Wendy.

   "It's a long story, dad." She smiled. "All that matters now is that she's gone!"

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   Later that night, in Kris's study, he and Luhan seemed to be discussing some serious matters when Fei knocked on his door.

   "Dad?" She asked hesitantly.

   "Ah, Fei, come in..." Kris gestured for her to close the door and to take a seat. "What seems to be the matter? Why aren't you in bed?"

   "I, um..." Fei looked down at her feet as she sat in the chair across from her father's desk. She seemed to be at a loss for words, but Luhan could tell what she was thinking.

   "Excuse me, I have some business to attend to, somewhere else." He gently patted Kris on the back and gave a guilty look over his shoulder at Fei, before leaving and closing the door behind him.

   "What is it?" Kris asked again. Although he was afraid that he knew what was coming.

   "Mom never came back did she?" Fei raised her head, and Kris had to look away to keep himself from falling apart. "Dad..." Fei's voice trembled. "Where is mom?"

   Kris looked down, it seemed like an eternity had passed, but it was only a few moments, before he finally looked at her and answered. "I'm afraid she's gone..."

 

3 years later...

   "Hey, everybody! Guess who's back!" Key cheered as he and the others jumped out of the caravan.

   Snigdha ran up and hugged each of the boys. "Key! Taemin! It's so good to see you again! Did you come without your parents?" She asked as she looked inside the caravan, only to see the girls.

   "Yep! We're officially adults, so we don't need our parents to accompany us whenever we want to travel, which means you'll be seeing a lot more of us from now on!" Irene smiled.

   "Sounds good to me! Hey, Wendy, did you get the song lyrics that I sent you?" Jonghyun asked as soon as the future Queen of the Western Kingdom stepped off the caravan.

   "I did and I really like them! I think you guys should definitely perform that for the talent show this year!" Wendy said.

   "Actually..." Jonghyun rubbed the back of his neck shyly. "I was hoping it would be a duet... With you..."

   "With me!?" Wendy looked at him shocked, then smiled. "Oh, Jonghyun, I'd love to!"

   "Really!?" Jonghyun smiled back.

   "Ooh!" Minho taunted and Jonghyun just shot him a look.

   "Ah! Kalyan! You're here too!?" Snigdha shouted when she saw the future King of the Northern Kingdom.

   "Kalyan!" Irene yelled as she jumped out of the caravan and immediately pulled Kalyan into a hug.

   "Agh! Nice to see you too..." Kalyan wheezed. "Could you maybe loosen your grip?" He patted the arm that was around his neck. "I can't breathe."

   "Oops! Sorry!" She laughed as she let go and decided to hook arms with him, instead.

   "Where's Fei?" Key asked after looking around and seeing no sign of the future Queen of the Eastern Kingdom. Everyone fell silent and Key looked at them worried. "Did I say something wrong?"

   "Why does everyone look so sad?" Taemin looked at Joy and she just shrugged, having no clue either.

   "You haven't heard?" Snigdha asked and everyone shook their head.

   "Jonghyun did say something happened in one of the letters he wrote to me, but he wasn't very specific." Wendy added.

   "You two have been writing letters to each other?" Minho looked at the two of them.

   "Just little things to keep in touch, but forget about that, focus on explaining it to them." Jonghyun pouted.

   "Right... Well..." Minho sighed. "We found out, after you guys left, that Fei's mom never came back from wherever Jinju sent her and the other adults, we think that maybe Jinju's magic is still in this world and somehow keeping her trapped in the other world. Ever since then, Fei has reverted back to isolating herself and no matter what we do, we can't seem to get through to her."

   "Well, clearly you guys aren't trying hard enough!" Key yelled.

   "Key, calm down. This is hard on everyone." Snigdha tried to calm the boy.

   "Why did you guys decide to come here anyway?" Onew asked, curiously.

   "Oh, we were invited." Seulgi held up a small card with decorative gold designs all over it.

   "Our parents were invited too, but they were busy with some other stuff and said they'll arrive in time for the actual event." Wendy explained.

   "But we were so excited that we just had to show up early and help set up!" Joy smiled and bounced with excitement.

   "Event?" Now it was Snigdha's turn to look confused. "What event?"

   "The Princess's coronation." Luhan said as he approached the kids from behind.

   "Ah, uncle Luhan!" Onew jumped in surprise. "Coronation?" He asked.

   "Since the Queen has been gone for three years, we can only assume that she won't return for awhile. In the mean time, the King has decided that since Fei is now an adult, it is time for her to rule as Queen of the Eastern Kingdom. An official coronation ceremony will be held a week from today, on the Princess's 21st birthday." Luhan explained.

   "Queen!?" Everyone looked at him in shock.

~

   Fei stared at her reflection in the mirror. "Am I ready to be Queen?" She asked herself. "No, I'm not... But if it's for the good of the kingdom..." She sighed as she stood up and ran a brush through her long, black hair. "I'm sure mom would have wanted it this way."

   She gently set the brush down and looked across the room, where the dress that she was to wear during the coronation, hung on a silver hook. She raised her hands, as she began to use magic to lift the dress off the hook and bring it closer to her. The dress moved slightly as her fingers twitched with magic, but suddenly Fei's head throbbed with pain and the dress fell to the floor.

   "Ugh... How can I be Queen if I still haven't recovered from that day?" She held her head as she remembered what Jinju did to her.

   When Key pushed Jinju off her throne, he merely stopped her from taking all of Fei's magical powers, but the amount she did take, left Fei with very little power and she suspects that Jinju used Fei's power to stay in this world, despite destroying her black gem.

   Fei picked up the brush and threw it in anger, shattering the mirror into hundreds of pieces. "I will have my revenge on that witch if it's the last thing I do." She stared at her distorted figure in the few shards of mirror that remained. Most people would have seen a hurt and tortured soul, but what Fei saw was a monster.

   "Fei!? Are you alright!? What happened!?" Key and the others ran in and Key was the first to inspect her. When he saw all the glass on the floor he thought that Fei had been attacked, so he checked her arms and face to make sure that she wasn't hurt.

   "I'm fine." She pushed him away. "You've probably already heard about the coronation so if you can't tell, I'm very busy." She walked past him and all the others standing in the doorway. They watched her as she left while Key began picking up the pieces of glass.

   "What are you doing?" Jonghyun looked at him. "You don't have to do that."

   "Who else is going to?" Key asked, making everyone feel a little ashamed. "If I can't do this for her, than what can I do?" His lower lip trembled and Snigdha nodded, understanding.

   "Let me help." She leaned down and began picking up a few pieces too.

   "Ah! Don't cut yourself!" Onew took the pieces from her and she smiled as they both continued to help Key.

~

   "Why? Why did this happen?" Kris asked.

   "All magic comes with a price and the penalty for using magic this strong was apparently the life of a loved one." Luhan explained.

~

   "Get a good nights sleep, because tomorrow is rehearsal night for the coronation!" Luhan announced.

   "Ugh, I don't even want to do the rehearsal." Fei groaned.

   "Hey, why don't we go to the training room and spar a little, like we used to?" Key suggested.

   "What's the point?" She looked at him, slightly annoyed.

   "I think you just need to relieve some stress." He smiled as he threw an arm around her shoulders.

   She sighed, "Fine, I guess you're right."

   "Yeah!" Key cheered, making her smile a bit.

   Inside the training room, Key ran in and started by lifting some small weights. Fei stood next to him and began lifting some larger weights.

   "Oh! You're stronger than you look." Key smiled as he switched to an even larger set.

   Fei dropped her weights and attempted to lift the next larger set, but when she couldn't she put some magic into the weights to help lift them.

   "Whoa!" Key exclaimed when he saw her lift them, he smirked and added more weight to the set he already had.

   Fei glared at him as she used her magic to add more weight, but suddenly her headache came back and she dropped the weights with a loud clang on the ground.

   "A-are you alright?" Key set the weights down and ran over to her.

   "Ugh! This is so pointless! I've been training longer than you, how are you stronger!?" She screamed in anger.

   "I, uh..." He was at a loss for words at the moment and before he could put together a coherent thought, she grabbed her bo staff and began destroying the room.

   "This entire thing is pointless!" She screamed as she swung the staff, knocking down the punching bag. She hit the walls leaving large indentations and she smashed the weights and boards.

   Key caught her staff before it hit another one of the mats and pulled her closer, forcing her to drop the staff. "Fei! I'm sorry! I should've told you that my special ability is super strength! I just wanted to impress you. Please, calm down!" Key pleaded, trying to get her to hear him. She pushed against him, but knew now that even she wasn't strong enough.

   She let her body go limp in his hold and when he felt her heartbeat finally slow down, he let her go. "I'm sorry..." She said.

   "It's ok, you didn't hurt anyone, that punching bag might disagree, but it can't talk." He joked, making her smile. "Come on, we better get some sleep." He led her down the hallway and walked her to her room before saying good night and heading off to bed as well.

~

The next day...

~

   During rehearsal, Fei's heart was racing and her hands were shaking as she tried to tie the cape around her shoulders.

   "I don't know if I can..." Her voice shook with uncertainty.

   "Hey, look at me. You're going to be fine." Key smiled as he tied the thread loosely, allowing the cape to gently sit on her shoulders, giving her an air of royalty.

   "Something's going to go wrong, I just know it." Fei said.

   "Calm down, this is just the rehearsal. The real coronation isn't for another three days." Key held her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

   "Right... Just a rehearsal." She took a deep breath and continued walking. At the end of the long red rug, stood her father as he held the crown and scepter in his hands. He looked at her and smiled, though it wasn't genuine. It was sad and full of pain and Fei could see that. "Stop." She froze in her tracks and Key stood beside her.

   "What's wrong?" He asked, his voice full of concern.

   She turned to him and he could see the fear in her eyes. "I can't go through with this."

   "Fei... I know you're scared, but..." He started but before he could continue, she dropped the cape and ran out the door. "Fei!" Key ran after her. Everyone else stood still in their places, unsure of what to do or say.

   Outside, Key found Fei sitting in a curled up position, on the edge of the veranda. The night air was cold, so he took off his coat and laid it on Fei's shoulders. She looked up as soon as she felt the warm weight on her body. He smiled at her, but she looked down, not wanting to say anything, so he sat down next to her and moved closer to share his body heat.

   "This isn't just about the coronation, is it?" Key asked.

   "What do you mean?" Fei looked at him.

   "All the stress and anger... It's not just because you're going to be Queen soon. It's because of your mother, am I right?" He didn't want her to hurt anymore, but he also wanted her to stop bottling up all her feelings and just let some of it out.

   Fei looked down. "She was right..."

   "Who, your mom?" Key put a hand on her shoulder.

   "No, Jinju... She said she would take the one thing I loved most... I just... Didn't realize until now, that she meant my mom..." Tears threatened to fall at the edge of her eyes and Key quickly pulled her into a hug to hide her face, knowing that she didn't like people seeing her cry. "Why couldn't it have been me?" Fei asked while sniffling into Key's shoulder.

   Key held her tightly as he ran his hand up and down her back in a soothing manner. "Because you might not think so, but so many people depend on you. The Kingdom needs you, your family needs you, your friends need you... I need you..."

   "Key..." Fei began to lift her head, but he pulled her closer.

   "No, listen to me..." He patted her head. "You were always meant to be a great Queen, but you didn't expect the title to fall upon you so quickly. Your mother was taken from you and this can cause anyone to fall into a state of depression, but you need to know that so many people care about you and that you'll make a great Queen, no matter the circumstances."

   "Alright..." She wiped her tears away and smiled. "I think I'm ready to be Queen." Key stood up first as he offered her his hand and she gladly took it. They both stood there for just a few moments, staring at the fireflies in the garden and appreciating the simplicity in their glow.

   "Stop! Hold everything!" Key and Fei were both startled when they heard a gruff voice yelling inside the castle. They both ran in to see some elderly men waving their arms about as if they were protesting the coronation.

   "This girl cannot become Queen!" One of the men said as he pointed a bony finger at Fei.

   "Excuse me, but who do you think you are!?" Kris stormed over to them angrily. He was quite intimidating, since he was a whole foot taller than most of them.

   "We are the royal council and we cannot condone this coronation! How do we know that this girl is fit to be Queen?" Another one asked.

   "She is my daughter and if anyone is fit to be Queen, it's her." Kris nearly growled. It took both Tao and Luhan had to hold him back and keep him from breathing fire in their faces.

   "W-well, unfortunately, it states here in the ancient texts that if the only child of the King and Queen is a girl, than she must marry, before she can take the throne."

   Everyone turned to Fei and Key as they entered. "Marry!?"

~

   Kris and Luhan left to speak with the council members privately while everyone else sat in silence around the dining hall.

   "What do you think they're talking about?" Onew asked Snidgha.

   "Who knows?" She shrugged.

   "I'm sure they're having a calm and understanding discussion like mature adults." Xiumin said.

   "No! You're being stupid!" Kris's voice could be heard through the door.

   "Kris, sit down!" Luhan yelled.

   "Yeah, real mature." Chen laughed.

   After a few moments, they finally came out and sat down with everyone else.

   "Well...? What did they say?" Tao asked.

   "They're being completely ridiculous!" Kris growled.

   "They think that she should marry Kalyan." Luhan added.

   "What!? Why?" Xiumin asked.

   "Because the Northern Kingdom is becoming so prosperous, they say it would greatly benefit our Kingdom to join the two Kingdoms together through marriage." Luhan explained.

   "That's so stupid." Chen scoffed.

   "Finally! Something we agree on!" Kris laid his head on the table.

   "Why do we have to listen to the royal council anyway? Aren't you King? Don't you have final say?" Tao asked.

   "I can make big decisions, but none of them get put into action unless they get approved by the royal council, so in a way, they have the last word on any matter." Kris spoke in a muttered tone without even lifting his head.

   "Stop being such a big baby." Luhan patted him on the back. "Look, it won't be so bad. We can hold a fake wedding, like the one between you and..." Luhan trailed off when Kris looked up at him.

   "It was a fake wedding, but they ended up getting married anyway." Chen joked, trying to lift the mood. "Who knows, maybe they'll fall in love like you guys did."

   "No! I won't allow it!" Kris pounded his fist on the table. "My daughter deserves better!"

   Kalyan looked down when he heard this and Irene gently placed her hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry." Kris apologized when he saw all the kids staring at him. "I didn't mean it like that, I just... I want my daughter to be able to choose whoever she wants to marry." Kris explained.

   "Exactly. I had an arranged marriage before I met Lay and that one didn't work out so well, but now here I am. Married to the man I love most." Iseul gave Lay a kiss on the cheek and he blushed.

   "Ew, gross, mom. Not in front of my friends." Snigdha whined and everyone laughed.

   "We'll talk to the council again, but in the meantime, get some sleep and continue preparing for the coronation." Luhan told them.

   "Yes sir!" Everyone replied and set off in different directions.    

~

   "You can't marry Kalyan!" Key shouted.

   "And I don't want to!" Fei looked at him sadly. "But it's not my choice, if it's really what's best for the kingdom, then I think I have to."

   "But..." His voice trembled. "I lo-"

   "Don't say it, Key..." Fei stopped him. "Please don't."

   "Fei..." Key took a step toward her, but she took a step back.

   "I can't deal with this right now. I have to go." She turned and quickly walked down the hall. Key watched her go until she disappeared.

   He sighed as he leaned against the wall and slid down to a sitting position. He sat there hugging his knees and wondering what he could do to help. "I wish Fei didn't have to go through with the wedding..." He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

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   "Wish granted."

 

Fei groaned as she slowly turned herself over on her bed. “Why does this bed feel so uncomfortable…” she mumbled to herself. She had lazily tossed her hand to the side, and was about to fall back asleep until she heard a loud crash, as if some glass broke. She cracked her eyes open, and whirled around, peering over the bed, to see a blue vase crashed and the flowers scattered all over the floor, and water surrounded the entire scene before her. “What the…” she trailed off as she wondered when she had a flower vase right next to her bed. Slowly she pushed herself up, and looked around with wide eyes, as she saw the room entirely messy as if a tornado went through her room. Clothes were lying everywhere, no shame at all for even the bright colored undergarments. Books were scattered everywhere and weapons were lying on the floor dangerously. If anyone took a wrong step they’d be severely hurt or maybe even dead.  But she was confused, she doesn’t have weapons in her room, and especially the clothing wasn’t something she would wear. She slowly stood up, stretching and grumbling when the curtains were wide open letting bright sun light jump right into her room. She squinted her eyes as she closed the window, and looked around the room again, seeing the walls lightly colored baby blue. Her room was never painted blue; it was always a creamy white. As she was about to walk into the bathroom, her door burst open to reveal, someone hunched over panting. “Um…” she stared at the figure unsure of how to respond, until the figure finally looked up, with a horrified expression stapled onto their face. But what was more horrifying was the fast that she saw Fei’s face with that ugly expression. “What the heck?!” Fei exclaimed, rushing over to person, and poking the face, as she checked to see if maybe it was a mask, or some makeup.

“Ow! Yah! Don’t poke me!” The Fei look-alike swatted Fei’s hand away, as they glared at her, rubbing their cheek.

“What on earth…?” Fei muttered as she was completely confused. The other Fei just blinked as she stared at the confused one.

“Oh… you still haven’t noticed…” The other muttere. Before Fei could ask what she meant, she was whipped around and dragged into the bathroom, where a wide mirror was set, and she pushed Fei in front of the mirror. Fei gasped, as she touched her face, seeing it bronzed, and her eyes suddenly a different color and shape. She takes in the reflection she sees and sees Snigdha’s mouth wide open staring back at her.

“Why am I seeing Snigdha?!” She shrieked, as she ran through Fei’s- or Snigdha’s- hair frustrated.

“I don’t know, when I woke up this morning instead of seeing my beautiful face, I saw yours instead.” The girl sighed, and leaned against the wall as she watched Fei slowly look at her.

“Wait… is that you Snigdha?” Fei asked, and Snigdha simply nods. Then she frowns. “Did you just call yourself beautiful? Cause from the looks of it, at least in the morning, your far from beautiful.” Fei stated, as she ran through the tangled black hair. Snigdha’s mouth falls.

“Did you flat out just call me ugly?” Snigdha asked, while Fei smirked, making Snigdha’s eyes turn into slits.

“Remember who has ¬your body now, I could do anything to it!” Snigdha smirked feeling satisfied when she noticed Fei’s smirk falter.

“Don’t you dare.” Fei warned. Snigdha simply shrugged still smirking. “Hold on, why have we switched bodies in the first place?” Fei asked leaning against the wall.

“Beats me, maybe it was some dome prank?” Snigdha pondered out loud.

“The prank needs magic; no one in the castle other than me can use magic.” Fei stated.

“Tsk! I don’t know! How would I know?! I’m just as clueless about this situation as you are!” Snigdha exclaimed, completely annoyed.

“Alright, let’s talk to our parents and see if they can do something about this.” Fei pushed Snigdha out of the bathroom, as the two walked down to the dining hall, where everyone was already gathered eating their breakfast. The food was all laid out, while everyone quietly chewed their food, as the girls footsteps gave away their arrival. Everyone looked up to see the two girls standing awkwardly, and Key’s expression brightened instantly, but he keeps quiet, as Kris spoke.

“Girls, why are you both late?” He asked genuinely worried. The girls looked at each other nervously unsure exactly what they should’ve said. “Never mind, take a seat and eat something, we have a busy day.” The girls quietly nodded, as Fei sat next to Key and Snigdha sat next to Onew, but both of them looked at the girl sitting next to them surprised. As they still were unaware the girl’s bodies were switched. Onew looked around the table nervously at the others, confused why Snigdha hadn’t sat by him. Did he do something wrong? He pondered to himself. Key assumed it was because of yesterday, when Key was about to say he loved Fei, but she cut him off; that she was avoiding him. As the real Snigdha quietly played with her food, she noticed from the corner of her vision Onew was staring at her with wide eyes. She couldn’t help it as she cracked a smile, finding Onew adorable. But from Onew’s vision it freaked him out seeing Fei suddenly smile at him.

“U-um hi?” Onew stuttered. Fei looked up from her food, to see Snigdha smiling at Onew, but it looked like Fei was the one who smiled at him. She sighed as she placed her untensils down carefully, which Snigdha’s parents noticed making them surprised, as Snigdha never does leave her utensils down gently, but tosses them on the plate lazily.

“Sni-er Fei?” Fei called out. Making Snigdha turn to her confused.

“Yeah?” She asked, a little too loudly, surprising everyone hearing Fei’s voice echo. Fei grit her teeth annoyed with the fact that Snigdha isn’t at least trying to act as if she was Fei; since she’s stuck in Fei’s body.

“Why don’t first talk more quietly, and two stop smiling, you’ll give children nightmares.” Fei muttered then thought about what she just said. Wait… did I just insult my own smile? She shook her head, leaving that though behind, as she noticed Snigdha’s parents’ jaws drop, and staring at her wide eyed.

“Snigdha!” Iseul gasped, unable to utter a single thing. Fei mentally slapped herself, for forgetting about their parents still sitting right next to them.

“Snigdha, that wasn’t very nice of you. Apologize to Fei.” Lay spoke as sternly as he could.

“Ah! No! It’s fine daddy really!” Snigdha jumped up, staring at Lay with wide eyes. But Lay’s eyes got wider, as he stood staring at Fei confused.

“Fei…? Did you just call me daddy?” He asked. Snigdha gasps clamping a hand over , and looing over at Fei, who looked at her before she slapped her forehead groaning.

“Er, Snigdha? You alright?” Key asked as he stared at the bright red spot on Snigdha’s forehead.

“Perfectly fine.” Fei muttered, blushing unable to look at Key’s face, even though she knew Key didn’t know that Fei was in Snigdha’s body.

Kris cleared his throat grabbing everyone’s attention. He looked at Fei, as he raised an eyebrow as he noticed her glance over at Snigdha, who remained expressionless. ‘Weird, they’re acting the total opposite of each other.’ He thought to himself. “Fei, are you alright?”

“Er! Actually, Unc- I mean Dad? Yeah, dad, F- I mean! Snigdha and I…” Snigdha sighs frustrated as she tried to collect her thoughts together and explain. She looked over at Fei, pleading with her eyes for Fei to help. Fei slowly rose, dabbing her lips gently.

“Fei, honestly, you should calm down. You’re just nervous about the coronation right?” Fei suddenly said, looking at Snigdha. Snigdha’s jaw dropped.

“H-huh?!”

“This is why we were late Uncle Kris, I was simply trying to calm Fei down.” Fei gestured toward Snigdha.

“Ah, is that so? Thank you for helping Fei out Snigdha, I really appreciate it.” Kris smiles kindly at Fei, before turning back his attention to Snigdha whose face was absolutely red, from anger and embarrassment. “Fei, I understand this is a lot to take in, but you have to understand that under certain circumstances, we have to think of the kingdom as well.” Kris spoke, as Snigdha numbly nods.

“Yes, father. I’m sorry about my behavivour. Now,” Snigdha pauses as she looked at Fei, and grinned. “I would like to personally speak to you as well Snigdha.” Fei looked up, and shudders seeing Snigdha’s unhappy grin. Snigdha beckons with a finger to Fei, to follow her. Fei quietly gets up and follows her to the garden, where no one is. “Oh, dear Fei. How cruel you can be.” Snigdha turns around, and Fei can’t help but gasp at seeing Snigdha become so pale, and she noticed Snigdha’s hands shaking.

“Snigdha…” Fei slowly said.

“Don’t. First explain to me what happened in the dining hall!” Snigdha said slowly, trying to contain her anger.  

“Look… now that I’m in your body…” Fei paused unsure if she should really explain her true intentions, worried that Snigdha would blow a fuse.

“Yeah, continue…” Snigdha urged, still with a frown plastered on her face.

“Nothing, nevermind. It was a spur of the moment.” Fei spoke quickly trying to cover it up. But she heard Snigdha darkly chuckle.

“Fei, I’m not an idiot, well not always. But seriously, Fei…” Snigdha’s tone softened. “You can’t even trust me, can you?” She spoke quietly. Fei looked up to see Snigdha smiling sadly at the ground. Fei closed her eyes, gritting her teeth.

“Look, it’s not that. But you won’t be happy hearing why I did what I did.” Fei stated.

“It already happened, so there’s no going back. So even if you do explain it, there’s nothing I can do about it.” Snigdha spoke not looking up from the ground, making Fei sigh.

“Since the others are still unaware of our problem… I thought it would be best to continue on, letting them not know that our bodies are switched.” Fei spoke slowly letting her words sink in. There was a heart wrenching silence after Fei spoke.

“So… you want me to substitute for your, marriage, for your coronation?” Snigdha said, looking up to meet Fei’s eyes.

“Er, well…” Fei looked away, she hadn’t thought of it that way.

“Are you…crazy?” Snigdha growls. “You’re going to just run away from reality? Is that how it’s gonna be?!” Fei didn’t answer. “Answer me!” Snigdha yelled, which made Fei flinch.

“I don’t need to say anything, you got it all figured out.” Fei spoke, before turning around and walking out of the garden, which left a confused and angered Snigdha.

The rest of the day, the two girls didn’t speak to each other, as one was completely annoyed. Key seeing Snigdha quietly sitting on a chair staring out the window approached her.

“Fei?” Key approached her, as he placed a hand gently on her shoulder. Snigdha slowly looked up at him, giving Kay a tired smile before looking out the window, not really bothered by his hand on her shoulder. But Key noticed that subtle difference, normally Fei wouldn’t be so fond of Key touching her, but here she was, sitting right in front of him, not caring with the fact that his hand was on her shoulder. “Fei, what happened? You’re not acting like yourself.”

“I’m glad at least you’ve noticed.” Snigdha smiled, still staring out the window.

“Huh?” Key looked at her confused.

“Would you believe me if I said, the person who’s actually speaking is Snigdha, not Fei?” Snigdha asked him. Key blinked taken aback by the strange question, but then thought about the question.

“Well… if that explains why you’re so different today, yes?” Key said, making Snigdha smile happily.

“Really?! Thank god! I was about to go crazy if I had to keep this from anyone for any longer!” Snigdha exclaimed, as she bounced happily.

“Why are you keeping it from us?” Key asked tilting his head to the side.

“Er, well… Fei said she didn’t want anyone to know.” Snigdha muttered, as her eyes grew dark, and her expression become unhappy.

“Fei? Why wouldn’t she want to let everyone know? She’s going to get coroneted soon!” Key exclaimed.

“Hah! But did she ever say she was okay with the whole thing?”

“Ah, no…” Key admitted. “Well where is she now then?”

“Don’t know, I haven’t spoken to her all day, after our… little quarrel.” Snigdha sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Quarrel? Never mind, but don’t you think we should find her? I mean, we could somehow figure out how to get you back into your own body.” Key insisted.

“But she doesn’t want to!” Snigdha exclaimed, her nose scrunched up.

“Well we can talk this out with her, when we find her. Come on let’s find her first.” Key grabs Snigdha’s arm pulling her up.

“Fine.” Snigdha pouted as she followed Key out of the room.

“We should split up, so we can find her quickly, and we can meet back at the library.” Key suggested. Snigdha nods, and turns around walking away from him.

Key first decides to walk to Fei’s room assuming she might be cooped up in there. He slowly approaches the door, gently knocking on it. “Fei?” He called out, but he gets no response. He gently pushed the door, to see if it was unlocked, and it was. He slowly walked inside, to see the room pitch black, and cold. “Seems like she’s not here…” He walked out of the room, closing it gently behind him. He then wonder maybe she might be in Snigdha’s room, since she looks like Snigdha right now. He walked half way across the castle finally reaching Snigdha’s room, and forgetting to knock, he opens the door, as his eyes widen seeing the mess. “Yup, she definitely wouldn’t stand being in this room.” He mumbled to himself. Closing the door shut, yet again, he turned around and bumped into a figure. “Oof! Sorry!” Key scrambled backwards and looked up to see Luhan staring at him, and then he glanced back at Snigdha’s door.

“What are you doing?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest, looking at Key accusingly.

“Ah! I was just looking for Fei!” Key explains quickly flustered.

“Fei?” Luhan raises an eyebrow, “And you think you’ll find Fei in Snigdha’s room because…” Key opens his mouth to say something but no words came out.

“Actually, have you heard, during breakfast Snigdha’s and Fei’s thoughts?” Key asked.

“Their thoughts? No, I left early, around the time they just walked in. Why?” Luhan asked, as he stared at Key confused.

“Oh, never mind, it’ll be better for them to explain. Now, please excuse me.” Key walks around Luhan, running out of the hall. Luhan stares at Key’s back, as he tried to read what was on Key’s mind, before a yawn erupts out of him, and he shakes his head, leaving their little meeting behind.

A half an hour has passed, and Key still haven’t found Fei. “Where on earth is she? Maybe Snigdha found her already?” Key decides that’s probably what has happened and he turns around as he walked otwards the library.

Meanwhile Snigdha peeked behind a bush, and finally found Fei, as she hugged her chest, staring off into the distance.

“Earth to Fei!” Snigdha said as she snapped her fingers infront of Fei’s face. Fei blinked, as she looked up to see Snigdha, Fei’s expression turning sour.

“What are you doing here?” Fei slowly got up, brushing the leaves off her dress.

“We need to talk.” Snigdha said, waiting for Fei to answer.

“Oh? So now you want to talk to me after you ignored me all day?” Fei asked, glaring at Snigdha. Before Snigdha could come with an answer, Fei turned around walking past her.

“Yah! Hold up!” Snigdha yelled, grabbing her shoulder. “We need to talk.”

~

Key paced in the library frantically. “Why aren’t they hear yet?! It’s already been over an hour!!” Key exclaimed tugging at his hair. “What if they went missing?! Or they ran away?! Neither of them was mentally stable, they could’ve gone crazy!! What do I do??” Key cried out, running has hands through his hair furiously, as he thought about how he went out of the library twice to go look for them but never found them. “I… should tell the adults! I can’t do anything about this! They’ve definitely gone missing!!” Key exclaimed running out of the room, yelling for everyone to come out. The others groggily come down stairs, their hair all tousled, and their eyes blinking slowly looking around confused.

“Key? What’s wrong?” Iseul asks yawning.

“It’s Fei and Snigdha! They-they’re missing!” Key threw his arms in the air, frustrated.

“Whoa! Calm down Key, I’m sure they’re in their rooms sleeping.” Jonghyun said as he patted the boy’s back in an effort to calm Key down.

“No! You don’t understand! I was out looking for them, but I couldn’t find them at all!” Key said exasperated.

“Really? We’ll help you look for them; they couldn’t have gone anywhere else. I’m sure they’re still in the castle somewhere.” Kris patted Key’s head, as he ordered the guards to go around and search the castle for the girls. An hour has passed, and the guards slowly came back, and reported that they could not find the girls. Kris’ jaw tenses as he slowly exhales, trying to keep himself calm. “Alright, they must be out there somewhere, the adults and I will go out searching for them, but you all stay here, in case they come back, and send Luhan a message, and we’ll come back. Alright?” The children tiredly nod, as the parents all walk out of the castle, leaving the kids behind. Key collapsed to the ground, as he shook with worry.

“Ugh, maybe it would’ve been a better idea to not have split up.” Key muttered under his breath.

“What are you mumbling on about?” Minho asked, sitting next to him, rubbing his tired eyes.

“Snigdha and I were out looking for Fei, and I suggested the idea of splitting up, but that made things worse…” Key explained.

“Hey, both of them are strong, I’m sure they’ll come back safely!” Onew exclaimed trying to lighten up the situation.

“Uh guys?” Everyone turned around to see Fei and Snigdha walking into the room. “What are you all doing up?” Snigdha asked surprised to see them.

“Shoot! Were you guys here the whole time?” Key asked, standing up.

“Uh, yeah, we came to the library to meet you, but you never showed up, so we decided to go look for you.” Snigdha explained. Key hissed under his breath.

“Guys, think of Luhan and tell him the girls were here the whole time…” Key muttered, embarrassed.

“Our parents left?” Snigdha asked raising her eyebrows in surprise.

“I though you guys went missing.” Key said sheepishly.

Suddenly a bright light filled the room, and then disappeared as quickly as it came.

“What was that?” Irene asked with wide eyes. Suddenly a high pitched cackle fills the room, bouncing off the walls. Snigdha grabs her head, as she cursed under her breath.

“You okay?” Onew asked, as he saw Fei clutching her head.

“Too noisy…” Snigdha muttered.

Everyone looked up to see Jinju floating in front of them, smirking seeing the kids shocked faces.

“Call for Luhan!” Wendy exclaimed, closing her eyes and thinking of Luhan trying to call the parents back.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Wendy!” Jinju giggled. Wendy opened her eyes looking up at her confused.

“My magic created a barrier around the castle, sweethearts. So even if he heard your call, they wouldn’t be able to get in. Both the doors and windows or closed!” Jinju clapped her hands, as she flew across the room. Then she gently landed on top of the railing, as she stared down at the children. "Now..." JinJu said as her hands glowed with Fei's magic. "It's time to end this!"

 

   "Don't back down! If we all work together we can beat her!" Snigdha shouted and attempted to transform into her spirit animal but fell when she realized that her tiger form was actually a dragon. "Ah, shoot! I forgot I was still in Fei's body!"

   "Let me handle this!" Fei yelled as she ran forward and attempted to cast a magic spell on Jinju. A bright light glowed from her hands and Jinju covered herself before realizing that the light was healing her. "Snigdha! Your healing powers are useless!" Fei shouted at the girl who was struggling to fly with her dragon wings.

   "Yah! Try saying that the next time you're hurt!" Snigdha yelled back.

   "Which is right now." Jinju smiled evilly as she sent a blast of dark magic at Fei, sending her backwards and knocking her into Snigdha. They both fell with a heavy thud.

   "Urgh! You witch! Fight fair!" Snigdha shook her fist at Jinju.

   "What fun is that?" Jinju laughed as she stepped forward. "You may have broken my gem, but your magic has given me enough power to not only stay in this world without an anchor, it's also given me enough strength to crush you into the ground like the insects you are."

   "Yah! You stay away from them!" Jonghyun growled in his spirit animal form. Electricity sparked around his fur making it stand on end.

   "We won't let you hurt them!" Wendy shouted as she gathered a large ball of water in her hands.

   "We defeated you once and we can do it again!" Key transformed into a fox with Taemin as a wolf next to him.

   Seulgi transformed into a wildcat and Minho into a bull. Both walked slowly in circles around Jinju.

   Joy stood her ground as she raised a couple of boulders into the air, while Irene lit her hands on fire, ready to attack at any moment.

   Onew and Kalyan stood a good distance away, unsure if they would be of any help, but they raised their fists as if they were prepared to fight.

   "Oh, look at all of you." Jinju smiled as she glanced at everyone. "You're all so adorable, thinking you can take me on." She raised her hands as they transformed into silver spikes and her eyes glowed a dark red. "Bring it."

   Seulgi attacked first, she ran forward with her claws out, but Jinju simply side stepped her, causing her to run into Minho. Jonghyun ran forward but his momentum was a little more slowed down, his plan was to get close enough to shock her, but Wendy got in the way. Jonghyun accidentally zapped Wendy and she dropped her orb of water, creating a giant puddle on the floor and putting out Irene's flames. Joy ran forward to drop the boulders on Jinju, but slipped on the water. Kalyan and Onew managed to run out of the way, just in time, before the boulders hit the floor with a thunderous thud.

   "We've got to be more organized!" Key shouted. "Think before you attack! Like this!" He looked at Taemin and they both nodded before Key ran in the opposite direction of Jinju.

   "Running away already, are we?" She asked as she created two orbs of dark magic and threw them at Key, but Taemin intercepted with a small portal. The orbs flew into the portal and a new one opened above Jinju, dropping the orbs on top of her. They burst in a flash of light and she screamed as she fell to the ground.

   "Nice!" Key cheered.

   "It's not over just yet!" Taemin warned as Jinju stood back up.

   "You'll pay for that!" She screamed as she raised her arms and suddenly all of the vases, glass cabinets and furniture began to float in the air. Anything that wasn't bolted down slowly started spinning in circles around them.

   "Look out!" Jonghyun shouted as he pushed Wendy out of the way, before a vase was thrown right where her head was, and shattered against the wall.

   "Thanks..." She managed to breathe out.

   "You can thank me later, maybe when we're not about to die." Jonghyun joked and helped her up.

   "Alright, on the count of three." Irene told Joy, who nodded and raised two more boulders from the ground.

   "One..." She paused and looked at Jinju, but panicked when a wooden chair came flying towards her. "Three!" She shouted and threw a fireball, lighting the chair on fire.

   Joy threw a small boulder which caused the chair to change its course and hit Jinju directly. She screamed and looked directly at Joy, before throwing another orb at her. Joy used the other boulder to ride on and avoid her attack.

   "Get back here, you pest!" She screamed.

   "Ready Snigdha?" Fei asked as Snigdha stood beside her, finally used to her dragon form.

   "I think so." She said.

   "Good, let's go." Fei transformed into a tiger and ran forward. While Jinju was distracted by Joy, Fei was able to reach Onew, who was on the other side of the room. "I need you!" She shouted at him.

   "For what!? What can I do!?" He was clearly panicking.

   "Transform into your spirit animal." She ordered.

   "A-alright!" He gulped and did as he was told. Once he was a rabbit, Fei leaned down and picked up Onew in before running towards Jinju and Snigdha.

   Snigdha was following Jinju as she flew through the air, chasing Joy. In a split second, Fei transformed back to her human form and held Onew in her hand. "Snigdha, catch!" She shouted before throwing him into the air.

   "Yah! What do you think you're doing!?" Onew cried as he was caught by Snigdha.

   "Sorry, about this Onew." Snigdha apologized before shouting at Jinju, "Hey! Jinju! I got a present for you!"

   Jinju stopped in mid-flight and turned around to glare at Snigdha, but her eyes widened when she saw a white ball of fluff flying towards her.

   "AIEEEE!!!!" Onew screamed as he hit Jinju in the face and a yellow powder exploded from his body. Jinju struggled a bit before she managed to pry Onew from her face. She threw him to the ground, but Snigdha managed to catch him, before he hit the floor.

   "I got you." She smiled at him.

   "Y-you! I should...!" Jinju began swaying side to side as the yellow powder started working. Like a rock, Jinju fell from the air and landed on the ground. Soft snoring could be heard.

   "Yes! We did it! We-!?" Snigdha cheered but stopped when she felt something come over her. "Ugh... I feel funny..." She held her head and Key noticed Fei doing the same.

   "Agh!" They both screamed at the same time and for a moment they just stared in the distance.

   "Um... Fei?" Key waved a hand in front of Fei or Snigdha's face.

   "Key?" She looked at him.

   "Are you...? Fei...? Or Snigdha?" He asked.

   "That depends, who do I look like?" She looked at him a bit worried.

   "Well, you look like Snigdha." He said, hesitantly.

   "Whew! That's a relief!" Snigdha sighed, "I was afraid I was going to be stuck with that face forever!"

   "Ahem! I'm standing right here!" Fei glared at her while still holding Onew in his rabbit form.

   "Um... You can put me down now..." Onew said cautiously.

   "Oh, right..." She immediately dropped him and he transformed back as he hit the floor.

   "Ah, ow..." He groaned as he sat up and rubbed his back.

   "You, ok there, champ?" Snigdha asked as she offered him, her hand.

   "I am now." He smiled as he took her hand and stood up.

    "I'm glad you're back." Key said, while looking at Fei.

   "I guess, I'm glad to be back too." She sighed.

   "Um, guys... I think it's a little early to celebrate..." Kalyan said and everyone turned to see glowing red eyes from a black cloud of smoke.

   "If you think a childish trick like that is going to defeat me, then you're gravely mistaken." They all heard her growl. A strong gust of wind blew everyone backwards, causing them to fall. The black cloud was gone and in its place was Jinju, a dark purple aura surrounding her body. "I am going to be rid of you once and for all!" She shouted and threw 12 dark orbs from her body.

   "Agh!" The first one hit Fei and engulfed her body in a pinkish light that seemed to be causing her pain. More screams were heard as each orb hit its target. Making any form of movement impossible. It even hurt to breathe.

   Jinju slowly approached Fei as she writhed in agony at her feet. She leaned down so that Fei could hear her clearly. "You want to know the real reason your mother never came back?" She asked, making Fei struggle to turn her head towards Jinju. "It's because she was weak. She was too weak to bring herself back, just like how you're too weak to defeat me. I bet she didn't even want to come back. I wouldn't if I had a pathetic daughter like you." She laughed. Fei glared at her, but was unable to do or say anything. "Now you're going to die at my hands, just like your mother did."

   "ARGH!!" Fei broke free from the orb and in a flash of bright light and flames, quickly transformed into her spirit animal. A large dragon with red and purple scales turned to Jinju and breathed a cloud of smoke into her face before releasing an deafening roar and pinning Jinju to the ground beneath large claws.

   "What the-!? How did you-!?" Jinju began to panic.

   "I've had enough of you!" Fei screamed and pressed all of her weight onto her claws, crushing Jinju even more.

   "Fei!" Key shouted, though he couldn't move. "Don't do it!"

   "Don't be like her..." Snigdha struggled to tell her. "Don't be like Jinju, this isn't what your mother would have wanted..."

   "You're better than that... I know you are..." Key told her.

   Fei looked at everyone and saw several emotions, pain, anguish, distress, but mostly fear. She sighed as she slowly removed her claws and reverted back to her human form.

   Both Key and Snigdha breathed a sigh of relief, but this happiness was short lived, because as soon as Fei turned around, Jinju hit Fei with a blast of dark magic which momentarily stunned her.

   "Fei!" Key yelled as she fell to the floor.

   Jinju rested her boot on top of Fei's head. "How does it feel to be on the receiving end, huh?" Jinju taunted. "You're all so stupid. Haven't you realized by now that it's impossible to defeat me?"

   "Oh, we knew that from the beginning." Fei suddenly said, which surprised Jinju. She looked down to see Fei smiling beneath her. "We weren't really trying to defeat you, we were just trying to distract you long enough for our real plan to kick in."

   "In other words... We were stalling." Snigdha smiled.

   "Stalling?" Jinju looked at her confused. "For what?"

   "For us." A cloud of smoke burst in the middle of the room and as it cleared, Jinju could see Kai smirking along with all of the adults of the Western, Eastern and Northern Kingdom.

   Jinju stumbled backwards nervously and fell.

   "It's over." Kris said, his voice low and laced with anger.

   "Please..." She began bowing and crying. "Please, I don't care what you do with me, just please don't put me back in that black gem. I've spent an eternity in there and I'd rather die than spend another. I'll repent for my sins, I'll live in the dungeons, I'll do anything, just please... Don't leave me alone..."

   "Alone...?" The others looked at her.

   Luhan turned to Kris and Kris only glared back at him. "Please don't tell me you're thinking of taking in another stray." Kris growled.

   "What do you mean by another stray?" Sungam asked.

   "I think I have something for her." Luhan told Kris.

   "Fine..." Kris sighed as Luhan stepped forward and leaned down to face Jinju. He wiped her tears and offer his hand.

   "Are you going to...?" She looked at him with pleading eyes.

   "Just trust me." Luhan smiled at her as he place two cufflinks on her wrist.

   "Wh-what are these?" She asked.

   "Think of it as a magical stabilizer. They're telepathically linked to me so I know whether or not you're using your powers and I can control how much power you have." Luhan explained.

   "So, I'm like... A genie?" She asked.

   "If you want to think of it that way, sure." He nodded.

   "I'm so glad to see you guys again." Kris said as he turned to his guests from the Western Kingdom.

   "Sorry we're late for the coronation." Kai smiled.

   "Oh, that's ok. The coronation has been postponed until the wedding." Luhan added.

   "Ooh, wedding? Who's getting married?" Crystal asked.

   "Fei and... Kalyan." Kris said quietly.

   "What!? When was this decided!?" Sungam shouted and grabbed Kris by the collar, but it was a little awkward since Kris was taller than him.

   "It's not my choice! It's the council's decision!" Kris growled back.

   "So, when's the wedding?" Chanyeol asked.

   Fei glanced at Kalyan and Key, before looking down and sighing. "Tomorrow..."

   "You do realize that if Jinju brought Jing back, then there would be no need for a wedding or a coronation." Luhan informed them.

   Everyone turned and gave him a look that said, "Why didn't you mention that sooner?"

   "So will you do it? Will you bring back Jing?" Kris asked.

   "Why should I?" Jinju glared at him.

   "Jinju..." Luhan turned to the witch with a condescending look.

   "Yeah, yeah. I know what to do." She pouted as she raised her hands and a cloud of purple smoke rose from the ground. Everyone stood back as the cloud grew and expanded. Fei held her breath as a human form began to step out of the cloud and as the smoke finally cleared, Fei could clearly see the happy expression of her mother, standing in front of her.

   "M-mom?" Fei stuttered, her voice barely audible.

   "Fei... I'm so... I'm so happy to see you're alright!" Jing ran forward and pulled Fei into a hug.

   Fei hesitated hugging her back. "Y-you're not mad?" She asked, sounding surprised.

   "Why would I be mad?" Jing looked at her and brushed her hair back.

   "I said all those hurtful words to you... I thought... I thought I'd never see you again..." Fei looked down, unable to look her mother in the eyes.

   "Hey..." Jing raised her daughter's head by the chin. "I know you didn't mean what you said, you were scared and hurt and you didn't know what actions your words would cause."

   "How can you forgive me after everything I've done?" Fei's voice cracked, tears threatened to fall at the edge of her eyes.

   Jing smiled as she hugged Fei even tighter. "Because I'm your mother and I'll always love you."

   Fei slowly raised her arms as she wrapped them around her mother and hugged her back. She let her head fall as she let her tears soak her mother's shoulder. "I love you too."

   "Well, since you guys are already here, why don't we celebrate?" Kris suggested, patting Suho on the back. "To happy reunions and to a bright future."

   "Sounds good." Suho smiled.

~

   "Hey, Snigdha..." Fei approached her as Iseul and Lay finally left to chat with the other adults.

   "Oh, what is it, Fei?" Snigdha asked.

   "I wanted to apologize for... Earlier... I was so scared about getting married and getting coronated, that I... I forgot to consider how you felt about the whole thing..." She said nervously.

   "Hey, don't worry about it!" Snigdha slapped her back causing her to fall forward a bit. "I'm just glad that you were able to reunite with your mom." She smiled widely.

   "I couldn't have done it without your help." Fei smiled back.

   "Oh, stop, you're embarrassing me." Snigdha laughed.

   "There is one more thing, that I wanted to ask you." Fei said, sounding a bit more serious.

   "Hm? What?" Snigdha blinked curiously.

   "Would you..." Fei looked away and Snigdha looked at her confused, was she being shy? No way, that's so unlike her. Snigdha thought to herself. Fei forced herself to look at Snigdha as she spoke. "Would you... Teach me... How to dance... Please?" She finally managed to spit out.

   "Wh-what!? Really!?" Snigdha's eyes widened.

   "I just thought... I should do something different for the talent show this year and... I guess I'd like to learn how to dance... If you'd be willing to teach me that is..." Fei blushed.

   "Of course! Oh, my gosh! This is going to be great! We can go over choreography together! Ah! We could be a dancing duo!" Snigdha screamed with glee as she hugged Fei.

   "Why do I feel like I'm going to regret this?" Fei asked herself.

~

   "Hey, Jinju..." Key walked up to the witch hesitantly.

   "Hm? Key, right? What do you want?" She asked.

   "I, um... Have a favor to ask you..." He fiddled with his hands, nervously.

   "Well, I already granted you one wish, but I guess since I caused you so much trouble I do owe you. What is it?" She leaned against the wall, while looking at him.

   "Do you think you could help me with something?"  Key shifted from one foot to another.

   Jinju raised an eyebrow. "From the way you're acting, I suspect that it's a request for Fei."

   Key's eyes widened. "How'd you know?"

   "I'm an emotion witch." She crossed her arms. "You want to surprise her, right? I think I have just the thing." She smiled and whispered in his ear.

   As the two were talking, Fei walked past the hallway and saw Key and Jinju standing close together. "What are those two doing?" She scowled at the sight, that's when Jinju leaned forward and her face obscured Key's. "W-what!?" She stepped back in surprise and hid behind a pillar.

   "Thanks, Jinju." Key smiled at her as they separated. "And remember, Fei can never find out."

   "My lips are sealed." Jinju put a finger to her lips and smiled back.

   "Find out about what?" Fei growled and dug her nails into the side of the pillar, leaving small scratch marks.

~

   Fei shivered as she stood in the cold night air. Surrounded by the rose bushes in the garden.

   "Sorry, I'm late!" Key called as soon as he ran up to her, while holding several dozen floating objects attached to strings in his hand.

   "What are those?"" Fei looked at the many different colors.

   "Iseul says they're called balloons, Jinju was able to conjure them from her world." He smiled at her, but she pouted at the mention of the witch's name.

   "Why'd you call me out here in the middle of the night?" She asked. Her breath coming out in small cloud-like puffs.

   "I wanted to give you something." He said, holding out the strings attached to the balloons.

   She looked at him hesitantly before reaching out to grab the strings, but just as her fingertips touched his hand, he released them. Her eyes widened as she jumped into the air to catch the string of one balloon. A bright red one.

   "Yah, why'd you let them go?" She pouted, looking at the red balloon a bit sadly.

   "Because that's not what I wanted to give you. Look closely." He pointed to the balloon in her hand.

   She looked down and her heart stopped for a second as she saw something sparkle. Tied at the end of the string was a single golden ring with a small diamond that shone in the moonlight.

   "Is that...?" She was too stunned to speak.

   Key stepped forward and untied the ring, then he took Fei's hand and easily slipped the ring onto her finger. "It is." He smiled.

   Tears welled in the corners of her eyes as she looked at him. "So?" He asked. "What do you say?"

   "Yes!" Fei laughed. "Yes!" She ran forward as Key hugged her and they simply stood there for a few minutes, embracing in the rose garden under the full moon.

~

   Later that night...

   "As happy as I am that you proposed, I do have one question." Fei said as she leaned her head on Key's shoulder.

   "And what is that?" Key asked while adjusting his arm to make sure she was comfortable.

   "How'd you know I'd grab the right balloon?" She looked at him curiously. "I mean, it was the only red balloon, but how did you know that I'd grab that one and not one of the others?"

   "Er... Well, maybe it was destiny." Key laughed nervously. "I mean, it's not like I tied expensive golden rings to all of the balloons."

   Somewhere in the castle...

   "Oh, my gosh! Is that what I think it is!?" Snigdha screamed barely able to contain her excitement.

   "What do you think is what?" Onew asked, clearly confused. He looked at the bouquet of roses that he had picked for Snigdha and for some reason a golden ring was attached to one of the thorns.

   "Ah, yes! I accept!" Snigdha took the ring and put it on, then quickly pulled Onew into a big hug.

   "B-but I didn't-! I mean, it's not like I wasn't going to eventually, but I-!" Onew stuttered, but Snigdha was too happy to even hear him. "Oh, well..." He smiled to himself. "Never mind..."

   "Oh! Come on! It's time for the talent show!" Snigdha pulled Onew up and they ran to the dining hall where everyone was sitting, waiting patiently for the show to begin.

   "There you are!" Iseul smiled as her daughter and Onew ran in and sat next to her and Lay. "I was worried that you were going to be late."

   "You worry too much, mom." Snigdha laughed. "Ooh, I can't wait for the show to start!"

   "Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us tonight." Kris said as loudly as he could, so that everyone could hear him. "Although we were originally gathered here for a different reason, I think that tonight's celebration will be even more grand, for tonight... After three long years... We are celebrating the return of my wife and the Queen of the Eastern Kingdom!" Everyone applauded as Jing stepped forward shyly and Kris pulled her into a hug.

   Fei clapped quietly on the sidelines and smiled as Key gently nudged her.

   "Are you ready?" Snigdha bounced up to Fei, excited for the performance.

   "As ready as I'll ever be." Fei sighed, but even she couldn't hide her excitement.

   "Good luck!" Key gave her a thumbs up as she and Snigdha both ran onstage.

   Lay stepped forward with a small scroll in hand. "Now, may I present to you tonight, a beautiful dance performance by Snigdha and Fei!"

 

   "You were wonderful!" Key laughed happily as he spun Fei around.

   "Put me down you idiot! People are going to start rumors." She hit him playfully as he set her down.

   "What rumors?" He asked, "We're already getting married."

   "You're what!?" Everyone shouted.

   "Really!? Us too!" Snigdha cheered as she held up the ring that Onew gave her and held his hand.

   "What!? When was this decided!?" Jonghyun yelled, while Onew just tried to hide his face.

   "Oh, my. It seems I've missed quite a lot, while I was gone, haven't I?" Jing asked her husband and turned to him when she received no response, only to find him passed out on the floor.

   "M-maybe now would be a good time to do our performance." Onew suggested.

   "Oh, yeah! Let's go!" Taemin cheered and ran onstage.

   "R-right..." Lay stuttered, trying to recover from the shock of finding out that his daughter was getting married. "Now please welcome, SHINee!"