Chapter 23

It was cold, it was warm. It felt like the weather kept changing, but it wasn’t changing at all. It simply felt too warm and cold at the same time. The wind that nobody saw but everybody felt was very cold but the ground they were wandering on felt hot even through their shoes. The purple shining sun wasn’t warm at all, it was like it was only at the sky to light the day no sunray was noticeable on their skin.

The world where they were wandering around right now felt surreal. There were trees and they were following and walking on a trail from which they hoped to bring them to their destination. Of course, they thought twice about following that trail. Nowhere in this world they were more exposed. But this was the only way, the only guarantee they wouldn’t get lost.

Besides all these strange surroundings, the world shined in beautiful abnormality. The path let them through a field of purple shining flowers in all forms they’d ever seen. There were roses, lilies, daisies, tulips, sunflowers and many more. But they all were white and shined purple without any noticeable reason. Some of them even sparkled when they were touched by some ray of light. Baekhyun wanted to touch at least one flower but was held back by Tao who noticed his action. “You never know if this affects you.” He was right and so Baekhyun fought the urge to touch it and was simply gladded by the beauty of the nature on the lost planet.

They were about to pass an old bridge now which was in the middle of a wood when Sehun stopped. “Do you hear this?” he looked around confused.

“There’s nothing…”, Luhan said but stopped to listen more carefully. “Does anybody else hear something?”

Junmyeon shook his head. “What are you hearing, Sehun?”

“Singing…”

“Singing?”

“There is this voice…whispering threw the trees…”

“We can’t hear it, Sehun. We should move. Try to listen to it, maybe it’s here to tell us something.” Junmyeon commanded and crossed the bridge.

“Strange…”, Sehun mumbled and followed.

The trees were getting thicker and huger with even more limbs and red, pink and purple leaves, some of them where kind of blue. “It’s beautiful…”, Baekhyun whispered while he crawled under a thick root that was too huge to step or climb over. “It’s frightening…”, Minseok mumbled and helped Baekhyun and Chanyeol up to tier feet. “I’ve never seen such huge trees.”

“It’s stifling. I feel uncomfortable…”, Jongdae said and grimaced. “But isn’t it wiggy that we haven’t anything until now? No monster, no strangeness at all? Simply a world in red colors. I’ve expected worst.”

“Now!”, Yixing screamed and formed his hands to mussels around his ears. “I hear this voice now…”

Jongdae sighed. “Okay, this voice is really strange.”

“You do?”, Sehun asked. “I can’t hear what it’s telling me.”

“It’s really singing…”, Baekhyun said, he began to hear this angelic voice now as well.

“You hear it too Baek?”

“I guess…everyone does.”, Chanyeol said and listened to the voice.

“It’s an old language. You’ve enlighten the fire step by step, it’s here now you can’t go back…”, Suho translated and frowned.

“This…doesn’t sound good.”, Kyungsoo mumbled and took a few steps back. “Maybe we should search for another way.”

“They’re saying that we can’t go back.”, Yixing mumbled and took Suhos hand. “Is there anything else?”

“I don’t know. I have to listen to it.”

“So…are we gonna turn around now? This is too dangerous here.”

Sehun nodded. “It’s too risky. We should-“

“Watch it!”

Baekhyun turned to Kai who’d suddenly screamed. He jumped to Kyungsoo and then Baekhyun couldn’t see them anymore, but a spiky limb was now stuck to the ground where Kyungsoo had stood before. Jongin had teleported himself and Kyungsoo to a limb.

“What…” There was now time to wonder but soon after that other limbs began to whip after them. Baekhyun was able to eschew one but would have been hit if Chanyeol hadn’t shove him to the ground.

The blonde hurt his knee on the trail but hurried up back on his feet. When he looked at Chanyeol he saw that his hand got badly injured by the limb. He wanted to run to him but soon before he reached his guardian the root rose out of the ground and separated the two of them again.

“Baekhyun!”

“Chanyeol!”

Baekhyun tried to climb over the root. All he wanted was to be with Chanyeol right now, he felt save with him. But his desire clouded his senses. If it wasn’t for Jongdae, Baekhyun would have been pierced by a limb. “Be careful, small!”

“What are we going to do now?!”, Minseok asked screaming while he eschewed the roots that were about to hit him.

“We have to find the source of this!”, Junmyeon said and tried to focus on something even stranger in their surroundings.

“It’s too hard to look for anything at this state!”, Minseok stated. He managed to escape two roots that came from different directions.

“Minseok!”, Kyungsoo screamed.

But when he saw a third come for him, he simply couldn’t move that fast. In defense he closed his eyes and held his hands in front of his face. The fear to die every moment activated his power and he iced the limb right in front of his face.

“Minseok…”, Kyungsoo mumbled. “Ice…It’s ice. You have to ice them!”

Xiumin opened his eyes to the peak of the limb in front of his eyes. He nodded when he looked at his hands. “This could work…” The blonde touched a tree and the ground. Ice was growing its way through the ground and the trees. The cold made the trees move slower and soon the guardians stood in wood of iced trees.

Jongdae who’d took care of Baekhyun let the fragile body go and went to Minseok. “You did it!” He raised him up and kissed him briefly. “I knew you’re a genie!”

Minseok smiled lightly. “I was simply too afraid that my power activated by itself…”

“Doesn’t matter, you’d saved us all!”

Baekhyun searched for Chanyeol. After the redhead came forth the limb Baekhyun ran to him and hugged him. “God, you’re okay…”

The taller smiled and hugged him with his healthy hand. “Of course, I am. I’m your guardian and your lover. I guess there’s still a lot to do for me.”

Yixing came to Chanyeol and tried to heal his hand. Baekhyun watched it and grimaced. “It’s not working?”

“It is, but it’s really slow.”

“The tree said our powers would work different here…”, Chanyeol said. “But as long as it will heal, it’s okay.”

“But we shouldn’t stay here, we should move.”, Junmyeon said. “I don’t trust this issue. When Lays power is slower, what’s with Minseoks? He iced the trees, like his power wasn’t affected at