“Griffin, I really don’t understand why you picked the forest. It’s like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.” I mumble towards the greyish brown coloured owl, who just chirps in response, almost as if he’s teasing me. He flies down from the tree, his wings spread wide as he lands besides me on the bark covered ground. 

 

The owl waddles onto my lap, with a happy chirp, tucking his wings into his sides as he gets comfortable. He doesn’t make another sound for the rest of the night, just sleeping in my lap, as I stare into the fire. The snap of a twig, bringing my eyes away from the fire, and causing Griffin to stir in my lap. A shadow, moves behind a nearby tree and both Griffin and I spring off the ground, the owl flying up onto a branch nearby as I move to grab a small dagger from inside my bag. Moving slowly towards the tree, I adjust the dagger in my grip so that I was ready to strike, Griffin continuing to squawk behind me. 

 

“Who’s there?” I call out towards the tree. With no response, I continue moving towards the unknown shadow, as Griffin moves to a branch on the tree that hides what I assume to be a thief. 

 

“I’m just here for the owl. I mean you no harm.” The voice finally shouts from behind the tree, and I falter looking up towards the owl, who seems equally as confused his head tilted slightly. 

 

“Why do you want my owl?” I question finally stepping around the tree, my dagger lifted up towards the intruders neck. He squeaks, his hands raising in defence as he looks up towards the bird in the tree. 

 

“He used to belong to me and my brothers. My name is Minho, I swear I don’t want to hurt either one of you. I saw him flying and just needed to make sure it wasn’t the owl that I had lost years ago. Though it seems he is indeed the right owl.” He reasons, his voice shaking slightly, as Griffin makes his way slowly to my shoulder, huddling tightly against my face. 

 

I continue to stare at Minho unsure of whether to believe him, his eyes on the owl and his hands up besides his head. He doesn’t move and his gaze never leaves Griffin. 

 

“Pull up your sleeves, let me see if you have any weapons.” I demand and the man complies easily, one hand reaching to his sleeve pulling it up his arm before doing the same with the other arm, and shoving them towards me. A small red circle besides his elbow catches my attention, and I reach forwards pulling his arm closer to my face. 

 

“The marking. Where did you get it?” I question and the man shrugs, clearly not sure why I was so interested in the small red marking. 

 

“Griffin go grab the sheet with the drawings on it.” I order, Griffin complying as he flies lightly to my knapsack, pulling the brown sheet of paper from my bag and bringing it over to where I stood. I thank him, opening the paper with one hand, the other still gripping the mans arm, as I raise it towards one of the drawings on the paper, the marking matching almost perfectly. 

 

“You’re one of the princes?” I question and the man jolts in surprise, shuffling away from me. 

 

“How do you know about that?” He questions pulling his sleeves down and hiding his arms behind his back. I look towards Griffin who just seems to nod, as if reassuring me that what I saw was real. 

 

“My name is Mae, I was sent by Mistress Yu to come find you and your brothers. There is a war and you are the only ones who can do anything to stop it.” I explain and the man takes a step forwards his eyebrows furrowed as he squints his eyes at me. 

 

“Mistress Yu? How do you know her?” He questions and I just smile at the mention. 

 

“She’s my mother. She trained me, my whole life for this exact purpose. I know she hid you and your brothers when you were younger, but now she needs you back.” I explain and he takes another step forward, as if becoming more confident in who I was. 

 

“So you’re Mae Yu, as in the girl born with grey hair and a birthmark like ours?” He questions and I nod pulling up my own sleeve to reveal the red circle with a large spear through the middle. 

 

“Exactly.” I answer and he lets out a big grin.

 

“I haven’t seen you since you were a toddler. You’ve grown.” He mumbles and I look at him confused. 

 

“My brothers and I used to spend a lot of time with you and your mother, I was actually the first to hold you.” He says, his chest blooming with pride, before his eyes shoot back towards the owl on my shoulder. 

 

“So this owl was with you and your mother this whole time?” He questions and I nod sceptically knowing he knew something I didn’t. 

 

“Felix? Is that you?” He questions towards the owl, moving forwards to pet it, the owl instantly leaning into his hand.

 

“Mae, you do realise you’ve had one of us with you this entire time. I bet he told you to come here.” The man says and I freeze. He was spot on, Griffin had basically led me here, he knew that another prince was here. 

 

“How is it possible for an owl to be a prince?” I question, watching as Minho coerced Griffin onto his own shoulder with a warm smile. He looked towards me and then back at Griffin whispering something at the owl, and we both watch him fly off towards a large tree and disappear behind it. 

 

“We were hidden for a reason, Mae. We have something that normal people do not, and based on your birthmark you must have something too.” His voice was calm, as his gaze continue to linger on the tree that Griffin had just flown behind.

 

“Can you please stop being cryptic?” I plead and the man takes one more glance towards the tree, his smile growing louder as footsteps approach. 

 

“Nice to see you again.” The man says and I spin, looking at a boy of average height, his hair a greyish brown and a sheepish grin on his face. I falter, my mouth falling open in surprise as I look towards the tree and then back at the new man. 

 

“My name is Felix. Sorry, I couldn’t tell you about this sooner, your mother thought it was for the best.” He speaks, his voice gruff and his eyes showing his apology. 

 

“So you were Griffin?” I question and Felix just nods, not saying anything as my mouth continues to stay agape. 

 

“I guess I should formally introduce myself too. I’m Minho, the Third born of the princes.” My attention goes back to the man we had run into early today. I just nod and turn back towards Felix with a frown. 

 

“So you’re telling me, you have been an owl for the past eight years and my mother knew about it, and neither of you thought to tell me? How is that even possible? Are you like a were-owl?” I spit, and Felix just chuckles at the rapid fire questions before nodding slightly. 

 

“I haven’t been an owl for eight years straight there were times where it got stuffy so I would become something else, but I haven’t been human for longer than twenty four hours in those eight years. And I’m known as a shape-shifter, able to take the form of any living being.” He responds his words not wavering in the slightest. 

 

“You’re mother did know about this, she knows about all of our gifts. She thought it was too risky for you or anyone else to know who I really was so we kept it a secret, which I am extremely sorry for.” He continues and I just purse my lips looking at the two of them together. It was evident that they look very similar as brothers would. 

 

“So what about you then? What’s your ‘gift’?” I question Minho, raising my hands and placing air bunnies around the word ‘gift’. 

 

“I can track people.” 

 

“Track people?” 

 

“Yes. I can track people location if they are close enough, I don’t really know how to explain it, I can just feel their life pulse and each persons pulse is somewhat different, so I can recognise them. That’s where my suspicion’s about Felix came from. Though I hadn’t felt that pulse in years, I could probably recognise it anywhere.” 

 

“Does that mean you could track your other brothers?” I question and Minho just sighs. 

 

“Not exactly. I need to be close enough to feel their pulse, so if you could get me to a rough location then its possible.” He answers and I nod slowly, take one last glance at each of the brothers before proposing. 

 

“Would you both be willing to help me?” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

 

 

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