---

Several hours later, after the others have a nice, long meal break (with Luhan keeping watch for any disturbances), they all finally make it to the next village. A breezy place called Windsur.

Everyone's exhausted from the trek here, and Luhan's fairly sure that the only reason he's still awake right now is because he's around the others.

"Finally!" Chanyeol exclaims, before rushing towards the first tavern that they all see that's called The Shepherd Dog Inn.

Usually, a Hold guard would stop any intruder from just running into the village like that but surprisingly, none are there to greet them at the entrance. Minseok just lets out a tired chuckle and Luhan watches as Jongin and Kyungsoo share an amused head-shake before everyone freezes when they hear Chanyeol let out a yell after entering the tavern.

With hurried steps, the four of them rush towards the tavern too and as soon as they enter, Luhan's mouth drops open in wonder as he and the others hear noise above their heads and look up.

Tables, candles, people, Chanyeol, everything and everyone reside upside-down on the ceiling, and it's not until they step past the threshold that they all feel themselves magically lift off of the ground too. They all scream just like Chanyeol did (with Luhan screaming the hardest) as their heads quickly get closer to the ceiling before the magic in this place rights their bodies and they find themselves standing upside-down too. Or well, right-side up depending.

And Chanyeol, who's already been sitting at a table now and was apparently watching them, ends up laughing at their faces and gets glared at by an embarrassed Kyungsoo. Luhan, on the other hand, finds it hard to even feel embarrassed as he focuses more on calming down his too-fast beating heart.

"Okay, what the moon is this place?!" Minseok finally exclaims, glancing around at the calmly chatting patrons around them. Some glance at them with empathetic expressions before going back to what they were doing.

"Welcome travelers!" a chirpy man suddenly greets them from behind the front...top desk. "How can I help y'all today?"

"How...how is this place doing this?" Kyungsoo asks him while holding a queasy-looking Jongin's hand for comfort.

"Doin' what?" the tavern-owner replies before tilting his head with disingenuous innocence.

Kyungsoo's and Minseok's eyes narrow and Luhan senses that there might be a verbal fight brewing before another man comes up to the tavern-owner and places his arm around the other man's shoulders.

"Baekhyunnie, stop teasing our guests," this new man says with a slightly dimpled smile.

Another affectionate nickname registered, Luhan automatically thinks.

The first tavern-owner just lets out a light chuckle at that and looks up at his apparent romantic partner before looking back at them. "Alright, alright, lemme start over."

The man then flips his bangs away from his eyes and gestures a hand out towards him and his partner. "So uh, I'm Baekhyun--he's Yixing--and we own this here inn! Um so, it used to be like any ol' inn too but then, well, this ugly ol' witch came in patronizin' our guests--" He looks over at this one lady. "--you remember that right, Hyuna?"

She nods and he looks back at them. "Those two had a mutual agreement to disagree on everythin'. Anyways, long story short, things sorta escalated and we stepped in to stop them and then the hag cursed our tavern to work upside-down! Now, the only way to fix it is to either apologize to her--hah, as if! Bring her back here and force her somehow or, well...um kill her."

Yixing nods beside him. "And seeing as how we have our pride and we're not murderers--it's been like this ever since."

"...Oh, okay," Chanyeol simply replies.

"And uh how long has it been since this place got cursed?" Minseok asks, an excited twinkle appearing in his eyes.

Luhan smiles to himself, already knowing where this is going, and looks back at the tavern-owners.

"Eh, like almost a month now?" Baekhyun responds.

"It's easy to get used to this though so, no worries," Yixing adds.

Luhan and his companions take all of this in for a moment before Jongin finally stops looking so queasy and asks, "...So, is this the only tavern in Windsur?"

"Yep," Baekhyun deadpans.

Yixing just lets out a chuckle at their displeased expressions and says, "We understand the concern though, and so we lowered the price for a day's lodge to just two gold septims per person."

"Holy ," Kyungsoo whispers while pushing up his glasses. Usually taverns cost at least ten gold septims per person.

"We see you five need some time to discuss though, so just ring the bell if you have any questions, okay?" Yixing adds, before giving them a friendly, dimpled smile.

Then, he and Baekhyun walk around to check up on their other patrons; Baekhyun soon laughing at something that this one man tells him about and Yixing smiling beside him. That blip in Luhan's stomach registers again as he watches them, before he turns back to his companions to focus on their conversation/ongoing argument.

"...Why not?!" Minseok whispers to a weary-looking Jongin and Kyungsoo. Luhan blinks in surprise, wondering what he's missed. "We can recharge here for a bit, find that witch, get rid of the curse, and get a reward!"

Reward? Luhan thinks.

"But the tavern-owners never mentioned any reward for us though," Luhan accidentally says aloud.

The others turn to him at that and he blushes as he locks eyes with Minseok before he shyly looks away.

Minseok just blinks at him for a second before whispering, "Ah, they'll have to give us one--we'd be saving their business! Plus, if this is the only tavern in all of Windsur, where else would we stay? 'Cause I'm definitely not roughing it up in the woods again if I don't have to."

Kyungsoo then opens his mouth to speak but Minseok cuts him off. "And, Jongin here looks like he won't make it through the night in this state. C'mon...please?"

"...Only if it's okay with Luhan," Kyungsoo responds with a frown.

Everyone then turns to look at Luhan again, and he looks at each of their faces to read their emotions. Minseok obviously wants to go on this mini-adventure while Kyungsoo's been disagreeing the most but has a curious tinge to his expression. Jongin obviously just wants to get right-side up again more than anything, and Chanyeol looks like he's down for any decision.

According to Luhan's mental calculations, finding this witch and getting her back here may take up to two whole days. Which would further extend the time it'd take for him to get to the eternal flower and back to his homeland...

But then he looks at Minseok's face again, and finds the sweat pores in his hands activating and his heart pumping out more magic than usual, and so he easily comes to a decision.

"I--" He looks at Kyungsoo. "--I don't mind going."

And so, with a triumphant Yes! from Minseok, a new side-quest gets accepted.

---

At first, Chanyeol suggested that maybe they should all get some rest for the night, but after Jongin started looking sick at the thought of that, Kyungsoo announced that they should just get this quest over with already.

So, after all of them drink some energy-reviving potions (courtesy of the lady Hyuna), they set out towards the southeast several minutes later with their usual packs and necessities. And the surprised expressions and subsequent information from the tavern-owners replays over and over again in Luhan's mind as they all walk. The witch apparently lives in a dwelling a few miles away; having the description of being pale 'like a white vampire', with stringy black hair, a gaunt, wretched face, a long black mage robe that she never washes, and a strong odor that attracts flies (all according to the crude sketch given to them by Baekhyun).

And this time, Luhan and Minseok lead at the front while Kyungsoo and Jongin walk behind them and Chanyeol (in lighter clothes this time) guards their rear. At Luhan's left, Minseok hums every so often and practically skips as they all walk on.

A thrill-seeker would have to be the best word to describe him. And, even though Luhan's taste for adventure tends to be pretty minimal, he can't help but want to seek out some thrills now too.

Then, about an hour into their walk, just as they near a tall, crumbling fort ruin--they all get a chance for a thrill when they suddenly find themselves face-to-face with bandits who've just popped out from the bushes and are now blocking their way.

---

Before anyone can even get a word in, the bandits all yell and rush towards them with steel daggers in their hands. Luhan freezes for a good second as one of the bandits targets him, wondering why he never even heard them when they were hiding. And even now as the screeching bandit gets closer and closer, Luhan's ears can't hear their footsteps at all!

That's never happened to him before.

Then, just as the bandit's dagger comes towards Luhan's chest, he hears a Luhan, duck! from behind him and automatically does just that.

The dagger misses him completely as he fully focuses on the present, and he dodge-rolls out of the bandit's way before the bandit dashes to slice him again. Luhan keeps evading and dodging though and the bandit gets more and more frustrated as this goes on before they switch tactics and lift their boot up to try and kick one of Luhan's shins.

Luhan simply side-steps the attempt though before he grabs the dagger and throws it as far as his arm can throw it, and both of them watch as it sails above multiple trees for a bit before the bandit turns to him with wider eyes and brings their fists up to fight.

In the end though, Luhan doesn't even have to put up his own fists to fight because Minseok finally freezes the bandit he was dealing with and all of the other ones too. When Luhan glances around at his panting companions and their now frozen enemies, he locks eyes with Minseok, who gives him a gummy smile in return.

"C'mon, let's go!" Chanyeol exclaims, already sheathing his sword and running away.

Jongin's the first to run after him, and Kyungsoo grabs a slightly dazed Luhan's hand and brings him with them before Minseok shouts a Wait up! and follows after.

---

"Um, so like...what happened back there, Luhan?" Jongin asks, as they all finally slow down their pace since the fort ruin's a whole mountain-side away now. "You just like froze--" He glances at Minseok before looking back at him. "--uh, metaphorically speaking."

Luhan just blinks as Jongin and the others look at him before he shyly starts rubbing behind his own neck. "I-I don't know. I guess I was just in shock when they popped up like that, because I didn't even hear them at all before. Even when they attacked us, I couldn't even hear their footsteps or their breathing or anything besides their yelling." He furrows his eyebrows. "I've never even seen anything like that on the technological airwaves."

"Hm, it's probably 'cause they had silencing gear on," Minseok pipes up and Luhan looks at him with a curious yet shy gaze. "I heard it's kinda a new thing, at least like black market-wise. Don't feel too bad for not knowing about it."

"Um, so how do you know about it then? Are you like part of the black market or something?" Chanyeol asks, letting out an amused huff at the end.

Minseok simply winks at him and Luhan and the others look at him with surprised expressions at that--causing Minseok to let out a beautiful sounding chuckle.

-------

Several hours later, they all finally reach the witch's lair. Or, more like cottage in Jongin's opinion.

Yellow glowing lanterns float up and down near the main door while the distinct sound of a cauldron getting stirred can be heard coming from within. Currently, Jongin, his husband, and their three quest-mates are hiding in a bush just right of the cottage--going over their plan one more time.

The plan that they came up with on the way is for one of them to distract the witch while another incapacitates her. Then, Jongin puts her to sleep, they tie her up, have her hauled over Chanyeol's shoulder and head back to the tavern to get their reward. Done and done.

So, after Luhan checks the ground for any hidden traps and confirms that there are none, Kyungsoo tells Jongin and the others to wish him luck and cautiously walks out of the bush towards the witch's main front entrance. When he's finally in front of it, he gives a quick glance at them before ringing the cottage's doorbell and waiting with his hands clasped in front of him. His eyes have gone wider now behind his glasses, in that way that Jongin's always thought of as super adorable, and his whole demeanor gains a fake aura of curious innocence.

"I can hear the witch's footsteps," Luhan suddenly whispers.

Jongin and the other two glance at Luhan before turning back to Kyungsoo, who must've heard the steps too, because his shoulders are more tense now. Jongin in his lips at that and feels his own shoulders get tense as they all wait.

Then, the door opens.

And though the old wooden door blocks their view of the witch, Jongin can see clear as day (or well, night) the initial look of disgust that crosses Kyungsoo's face before he quickly adopts that innocent look again. Jongin suddenly gets the urge to run up and protect his hon as he senses the witch's sinister aura, and deeply pouts because he initially wanted to join him in this ruse. But, Kyungsoo had come up with the idea himself to be the bait and no amount of Jongin's But's and What If's could dissuade him.

Now his hon is standing in front of a dangerous witch, shyly greeting her and then chatting with her as if he's actually just a lost man who happened to stumble across her 'humble abode'. And Jongin couldn't feel any more worried.

He and his other quest-mates (besides Luhan) can't quite make out what Kyungsoo's saying, but they soon get another gl