Caution to the Wind:

Hayan:

When her great grandmother finished applying a special salve to the back of her hand to stop the pain and wrapped it in thick bandages to hide the rune’s faint glow Hayan was sent out to help with making camp, which had largely been completed by the time she arrived. It wasn’t as grand as Haru’s hutch, but it was a descent sized tent for nine people, much like a Native American tepee with an opening at the peek to allow smoke to rise out of.

As she stepped up to the structure Jongdae and Minseok were arriving with their arms full of sticks and branches. They stopped their conversation to look her up and down with furrow brows. Hayan didn’t like that look, yet she was used to it by now. Most of the guys gave her that look during classes when she couldn’t accomplish the spell Haru assigned, or when she was called on when she didn’t raise her hand to answer. It was just a daily occurrence she had come to terms with years ago when their training began.

“Is your hand okay?” Minseok asked breaking the silence.

“Huh, oh,” she squeaked nervously. She hadn’t expected him to actually speak to her again. Nodding she said, “Yes. It was just minor frostbite,” she lied.

Minseok’s brows scrunched together more as he glanced from her to Jongdae who just shrugged with his usual casual expression. “From the crystal?” he questioned. “But your magic was in it too. It shouldn’t have hurt you if that was the case,” he stated.

She gave a shaky smile trying to hide the fact that she was a crappy liar. Always had been since she was a kid and her best friend would always get her in trouble and blame her, and when she tried to retaliate she failed epically. “Guess your magic was just stronger. Not really a surprise, huh?” she tried to joke, but both guys just stared at her skeptically.

Gulping down a deep breath of cold air Hayan turned to the tepee and moved to enter it. As she slipped inside she said, “Wow this is really cool.”

“No thanks to you,” Sehun grumbled from across the way. He was curled up in a pile of blankets they must have conjured, eyes leering at Hayan who froze in the doorway suddenly feeling guilty that she wasn’t able to help.

“Take it easy Sehun,” Junmyeon scolded from his seat next to the smoldering fire in the center. “She was getting treated.”

“Big whoop,” he rolled his eyes. “I had a sprained wrist and Jongin twisted his ankle and you don’t see us getting special medical treatment.”

From behind a hand touched her back pushing Hayan further into the tepee. Glancing backwards she saw it was Minseok making way for him and Jongdae with the wood for the fire. “That’s because it was a magic injury,” he cut in flatly. “Not because she’s an uncoordinated dope.”

“Hey,” Sehun and Jongin (who Hayan didn’t see was also curled up with Sehun in the blankets) whined.

Junmyeon groaned. “We’ll never be a functioning team if you guys can’t get along,” he muttered.

“You don’t have much room to talk,” Kyungsoo commented from his own section of the opening. He was lying on his back with a book in his lap head now propped up in his hand as he looked at the self proclaimed leader of their group.

Hayan shuffled out of Minseok’s and Jongdae’s way as she watched the interaction between her seatmate and the older boy. The atmosphere was growing tense with her arrival and she was starting to consider making her own shelter to stay in the night just so things would calm down for the night. The sun was already starting to set and it had been a long journey to this forest to fight the ice giant and even more tiring to stop it in general.

“Oh,” Junmyeon challenged.

“If you’re going to be the leader, you should consider everyone in the group’s abilities. And as far as I saw you didn’t even glance in Hayan’s direction. You do realize she’s part of the guardians too, right?” Kyungsoo shot back with a raised brow.

Junmyeon pinched his mouth shut as he glared at the boy with thick lips and short black hair. Jongdae oowed as he dumped his arm load of wood next to Minseok’s a few feet from the fire pit, which earned him a glare also from the leader.

“I was referring to all the arguing not our powers,” Junmyeon eventually countered with.

“That’s just Sehun’s bad attitude, and Baekhyun’s big mouth,” Kyungsoo scoffed.

“I don’t have a bad attitude,” Sehun growled.

“And what about me?” Baekhyun said entering the tent with sparkling eyes and his trickster grin on. “I love when you guys talk about me.”

Behind him entered Chanyeol who had a sack in hand and a curious expression on his face as he bent slightly to fit inside the structure.

Hayan moved over more to allow them to enter properly which Baekhyun did, sauntering to a cushion laid out next to Sehun’s and Jongin’s blanket fort. As he passed her he gave Hayan a flick to her forehead like he always did. She wasn’t sure if it was his way of greeting her, or silently insulting her and telling her to get out of his way. Whatever it was he never failed to do the gesture whenever she was within arms reach as he moved by her. She rubbed the spot with a pout as she turned to step around Chanyeol and leave the tepee. It was just easier that way; the fighting would lessen and all the issues involving special treatment would go out the window if Hayan just made her own shelter to stay in for the night. Knowing her great grandmother there was going to be another test tomorrow which would probably be twice as tough as the one today was.

“We were discussing your gift of the gab and how no one likes it,” Minseok retorted.

“You wound me,” Baekhyun said dramatically.

Hayan slipped away mostly unseen and ventured out to find the bare-bones she could use for her shelter. Her magic ability wasn’t great, so the better the already made structure was she would have the best shot of it not falling apart over her during the night. It took a while, long enough for the sun to mostly set before she found a half finished lean-to made of the trees the ice giant had destroyed and strung about the forest. With much concentration and a few attempts at the right spell she was able to enclose the structure with just enough room for her to crawl inside. It wasn’t all that warm, or comfortable, but she had her thick wool cloak around her that helped and the soft pine branches made a decent mat so she wasn’t sleeping on the ground directly.

Sighing she curled up and tried to ignore the laughter she heard in the distance from the guys. It seemed like things had lightened up with her leave, which was good . . . Yet it hurt just the same as a direct insult. Hayan wondered if there was always one guardian who felt out of place or if it was just her because there had never been nine before.

Just as Hayan began drifting off to sleep her grandmother’s words came to her, but with a much different meaning than she had originally thought she meant.

“Each with their own element, but it would seem that there is a block that each must overcome to gain full control.”

Hayan didn’t have an element, that much she was sure of. . . So