---

Several hours later, Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Yixing finally reach Whiterun and leave their horses at the stables before heading towards the main entrance doors. By this time it's nightfall, so less people are out right now as they get approved by the guards (who still look at Chanyeol with shocked expressions) and walk towards Ruby's home.

"Ya know...I never got to stay long last time I was here," Baekhyun says as he looks at their surroundings as they walk. "I guess fate's tryna tell me somethin', huh?"

Chanyeol just lets out a non-committal hum in response, feeling the weariness one can only feel from traveling the whole day. Once they reach Ruby's home, he knocks on the door and the three of them wait for a few seconds before Ruby opens the door--her expression going from curious to amused.

"Hey, you three~" she greets with a grin.

The other two greet her back and while they make small-talk with each other, Chanyeol steps past Ruby to head to the nearest seat to rest his eyes for a moment.

The last thing he hears before he inevitably drifts off to sleep is a Thanks, Yeollie~ from Ruby.

---

The next morning, Chanyeol finds himself waking up in an inn room and starts panicking when he realizes that he's both alone and not at Ruby's place. Quickly, he s away the bed-sheet that was covering him and leaps out of bed.

He's pretty sure that he made it to Ruby's home last night and sat down for like no more than a few seconds. And as he rushes out of the room and down the stairs, he wonders about his companions and if last night ever even happened.

As he gets to the last step and looks around at the other patrons, he lets out a sigh of relief when he sees his four (or well, now six) companions chatting around this inn's roaring fire. And by the familiar look of the inn itself, it must be The Bannered Mare which means that last night wasn't a dream then.

Thank the ing stars, he thinks.

"Hey, Chanyeol! You're finally up!" Minseok greets as he sees him walking over to them.

The others turn at that, and all of them greet Chanyeol with some form of Mornin' as Chanyeol sits down between Minseok and Baekhyun. He automatically returns the greeting before he asks them how the heck he got here.

"Oh, Ruby carried you here last night," Yixing explains. "Once you sat down for a second, you just knocked out like a light."

"...Oh."

Luhan frowns. "Oh, you must've been so exhausted."

Chanyeol just lets out an awkward chuckle as the others look at him with sympathetic expressions before he asks them for the time.

"Eh, it's just about mid-day now," Baekhyun replies.

And Chanyeol leaps up from his seat at that. "Wha--it's noon?! I slept for that ing long?!"

The others just let out variations of Yup and Chanyeol just gapes before they all talk some more with each other.

-------

Later on, once Chanyeol's eaten some breakfast and everyone's grabbed their things and such, the seven of them leave the inn and head towards Whiterun Hold's exit to continue their main quest. And while Chanyeol was asleep, Luhan and the others went ahead and bought the wagon and second horse needed for their journey.

And so, they're all just casually talking as they walk (with Baekhyun and Yixing already seeming like they'd be great companions too). But, just as they get near the small exit bridge, they all hear a sudden Wait! from someone at their right and stop to turn their heads.

A man in plain brown and cream-colored clothes jogs towards them and Luhan furrows his eyebrows when the man squints at him.

"Ah, I've been looking everywhere for you," the man says, panting a bit. Luhan just stares as the man doesn't seem to mean that in a sinister way.

In an instant, Chanyeol takes a step forward though. "And you are?"

"Oh, I'm a courier sent from Ekinmar!" The man replies and Luhan's eyes widen. Chanyeol lets out an Oh and steps back before the man turns to look at Luhan again. "So, I've got a letter to deliver to an android with your exact features--only thing is, I have to make sure I've got the right being."

Luhan just nods his head and the courier reaches into his pocket to bring out the folded letter. "Okay, so let's see here--um, just to confirm--what's your name?"

"Luhan."

The courier smiles. "Okay...one last thing. The person who wanted me to deliver this to ya said I'd have to check for some kinda code that's here...And they said you'd automatically know what I mean."

Luhan nods his head again before he automatically recites his home coordinates to the courier (while also noticing how shocked Kyungsoo looks for some reason). After he says the last number, the courier grins and lets out an Alright before handing him the letter. Luhan thanks him as he takes it and the man continues to grin before he bids them all farewell and jogs away towards the inn.

As Luhan opens the letter, he feels Chanyeol's arm wrap around his shoulders and lets out a laugh when Chanyeol expresses shock over the letter's minuscule font size. Since this letter's from his birthplace Ekinmar, the only being that Luhan knows of who can write this small is his good friend Lao Gao. So, with a burst of nervous anticipation surging through him, Luhan reads the letter.

At first, it starts with Lao Gao wondering how he's been and such before he quickly gets right to it. Luhan's artificial stomach then feels like it just got dipped into tar once he's finished reading, and his shocked expression causes the others to ask him what's wrong.

Luhan can barely focus on them though when his mind keeps going over what the letter's contents said. He ends up quickly reading the letter again to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating before he lets out a shaky breath and tries to calm down.

I'm so sorry, Luhan...I wish there was more that I could do...

"Lu?" Minseok says and Luhan can't help but turn to him.

Worry and concern's etched on Minseok's face and it makes Luhan's artificial stomach let out a dull hum. Then, Minseok suddenly leans in to wrap his arms around his body, and Luhan lets out another shaky breath as he clutches the letter and tries not to cry onto Minseok's mage robe. He then feels a hand gently rub up and down his back and loses focus on his surroundings as he rapidly blinks and the tears form a fluid across his eyes.

Then, he feels Minseok squeeze him a bit tighter and feels his other companions join in on this hug, and finally covers his mouth with his hand as the tears begin to fall.

---

After a good minute of him crying, and the others watching in silence, Luhan leans away from Minseok, and the others pull away from the hug as they watch him. He can tell from their faces that they're wondering what the letter said, so before any of them even ask, he tells them.

"...My mother--she--s-she fell into a coma two days ago," He states, wiping at his eyes. "My friend from home sent the letter. One second she was coherent, and the next she just..."

Everyone's silent for a long moment before Jongin tentatively asks him, "So what do you wanna do now?"

"I...I want to finish this quest. No, I-I need to. And I want to get to that flower and get back to her. I want her to smile again--I..." He says, trailing off as tears start coating his eyes again.

Kyungsoo then opens his arms this time, looking like he might cry himself, and Luhan lets out a sad puff of air and goes in for another hug.

"Ya know, we're just about halfway through this quest already," Kyungsoo murmurs, rubbing his back. "We'll make it there in no time, Luhan--trust me."

"Yeah!" Chanyeol adds, trying to sound cheerful. "And um, once we've all got our petals, I'll ask Taemin to walk to Ekinmar so that he can port ya back there, alright?"

A few seconds later, Luhan finally leans back from Kyungsoo's hug and looks at him and the others with appreciation. His original four companions end up giving him small smiles in return while Baekhyun and Yixing look fairly out of place in all of this. Either way, Luhan feels eternally grateful to these six men around him right now.

"So, um--ya ready to keep goin'?" Kyungsoo asks after a beat.

Luhan looks down at the letter still crumpled in his hand before he looks up and gives a determined nod. "Yes, let's go."

-------

After they leave Whiterun Hold's doors and gates, they head towards the stables where Baekhyun's, Yixing's, Ruby's and t