“Remind me again how I got stuck out here with you two.” Chaeyoung rolled her eyes from her place perched on the edge of the driver’s side of the truck, feet planted on the mold of the tire on the inside, elbows propping her head up between her hands and thighs. 

 

“Because nobody else wanted to sit with this psychopath.” Mina rolled her eyes sharply fromwhere she sat, in the corner against the cab on the passenger side, hugging her knees and peering over them coldly at Jeongyeon, who seemed too lost in her own thoughts to notice and take offense. 

 

Like Im Nayeon. 

 

Her best friend. 

 

How she’s found somebody, and she should be happy for her. 

 

But it was a human. 

 

Not even a troll, or one of those dreaded pixies, but a human. 

 

Of all the species of people she could’ve met over all the places she’s been, it had to be a god forsaken human. 

 

A kind, warm hearted human with a beautiful smile and inviting eyes at that. 

 

Though, strangely, when Jeongyeon thought of a beautiful smile and inviting eyes. She found her eyes straying diagonally, toward the ice witch who seemed to have her eyes trained on her as well. 

 

“Why do you keep staring at me?” Asked the fire witch, and Mina huffed. 

 

“I don’t trust you is why.” Mina hissed with the roll of her eyes, making Jeongyeon sigh. 

 

“Listen, I don’t have anything against you. You were never a part of the issue.” She assured, feeling something in her chest clench.

 

“I’ve heard a completely different story from my people.” Mina sneered. “I heard about how your people slaughtered ours. Stole our lands and slaid all our women as a part of your petty, disgusting power play.” Her voice was filled with rage, and it seemed as though her hatred for Jeongyeon ran much deeper than the death of her father. 

 

“Is that what they told you?” Jeongyeon asked, outraged by the lies being spewed about her people. “Is that what the men in your coven have convinced you happened to the women? Because in my coven, killing women without just cause is punishable by public torture and execution.” The fire witch’s nostrils were flaring at this point, jaw clenched and throat tight at the notion that she’s been given the blame for such horrific crimes. “We are a coven of women who lift each other up and protect other women from the wrath of a man’s violent impulses.” 

 

Mina thought about what it could’ve meant, Jeongyeon’s people having not taken her people from her. It would’ve meant that all she learned was a lie. It would’ve meant that, if her coven was capable of lying to her, they could’ve been capable of much much more. It meant that-

 

“There’s a vessel following us.” Chaeyoung broke Mina’s thoughts, and the two moved their eyes to Chaeyoung’s line of sight, revealing a small black and white car following them. 

 

“I’ll eliminate them.” Jeongyeon assured dutifully before standing up and lifting her foot to rest on the back of the tailgate, palms up and ready to summon flame from her hands when Mina surged forward and snatched her down by the hood of her sweat shirt, yanking her onto her backside, making the truck shake. 

 

“What are you doing?!” Mina hissed as Jeongyeon rubbed her tailbone, a glare fixed on the ice witch strongly. “You can’t just kill anything that sees us, those are people with families.” 

 

“Well, how are we supposed to stop it from following us?” Jeongyeon scoffed, and before Mina could answer, a piercing sound came from the distance, in the direction of the vehicle, followed by the sight of bright lights spewing from the top. 

 

“Okay, the vessel is angry. Kill it.” Mina okayed, just in time for the truck to pull over. There was a pounding on the back window, and Sana and Nayeon were both gesturing for them to sit down, causing the three to plant themselves into the bed of the truck. A male officer got out of the car, a dusty looking white man with a messy beard and hair too long to be considered clean. 

 

“Afternoon, ladies.” Nodded the man, pulling his glasses down from his face, making Chaeyoung lean closer, eyes seemingly caught by this shabby looking man.

 

He knocked on the window, allowing Dahyun to roll it down. 

 

“License and registration please.” He asked, his voice deep, green eyes scanning the women in the vehicle. 

 

“Of course.” Dahyun smiled kindly, reaching past Jihyo and Momo, into the glove compartment for the registration. She reached into the pockets of her jacket, panicking when she realized that it was nowhere to be seen. “Sorry, I just can’t find my-” 

 

“Here.” Momo reached across Jihyo to give the woman the wallet, earning a perplexed look from the two women in the front and the officer. Dahyun took it and opened it before glaring at Momo upon realizing all her coins were missing. The hundred dollar bill and pair of fifties were still there, but Momo held out her hand to present a palm full of nickels, dimes and quarters. “I like shiny things.” She pouted, as big and innocent, and even Jihyo would’ve had a hard time resisting it, despite the fact that she saw the woman just after she had eaten a man’s heart the day before. 

 

Dahyun sighed before pulling out her license and handing it to the officer, who eyed her carefully before reading the documents. 

 

“This vehicle is registered to a Kim Yerim.” He rose a brow skeptically, “Your husband, I presume?” 

 

“Yes.” She smiled, gritting her teeth, and he cleared his throat. 

 

“Alright, well… I can’t let you off the hook for your three stragglers, unfortunately.” He sighed, reaching into his belt for his ticket book and scribbling on it, in time for Chaeyoung to jump over the side of the truck to look up at the officer. 

 

“What the hell is she doing?” Nayeon asked, her hushed voice almost laced with panic as the woman turned to stand in front of him, her hand on his chest. 

 

“Officer… Beiber… is it?” She asked, her voice low and sultry, chin angled up, lips pursed, eyes glazed over at the man who seemed confused at her forwardness. “Is there any way we could…” She toyed with his badge under her fingertip, “forget about this little mishap?” 

 

“I think I saw a like this once.” Nayeon whispered, causing Sana’s eyes to go wide at the notion. 

 

“What’s a ?” Tzuyu asked in confusion, to which Sana sighed. 

 

“You’ll understand when you’re older.” 

 

“I can’t... excuse this behavior ma’am.” Justin cleared his throat nervously, tugging on the collar of his uniform as if looking for extra room to breathe. 

 

“Couldn’t you though?” Chaeyoung hummed, a smirk on her lips as she awaited for the sweaty man’s response. 

 

Apparently everyone else was filled with anticipation, because nobody else in the cab or in the bed of the truck noticed the way Momo’s eyes glaed over, a deep, tar black, her teeth baring, face hidden by her raven hair as she looked down at her hands, watching as her claws protruded from her fingertips. 

 

Her jaw tightened and she cleared to cover a low, gutteral growl that erupted from the depths of her diaphragm. Her nostrils flared and her chest heaved as she tried her best to be patient for the officer to leave. 

 

“I-I guess I could let you slide.” He stuttered like a bafoon, making Jeongyeon roll her eyes at his idiocy. 

 

“Yes… that would be lovely, officer.” Chaeyoung rasped, pulling him down to whisper something in his ear. Something only he could hear, something that, despite her lack of knowledge, made Tzuyu’s jaw tense. 

 

“This will be quick and painless, I promise.” She whispered, making the officer look down in slight confusion, but before he could question it, she turned him around, making him face Momo, whose face was unrecognizeable, black eyes flashing with the pure embodiment of everything anyone would imagine evil to be. Her skin was dry, a long, black tail coated in slick, leathery looking fur standing on end behind her as she seethed and growled at the terror-stricken man. 

 

He was unable to even let out a scream before the creature pounced behind him to grab him by the neck with her left hand, right coming down to grip something behind him, pulling it out, a haunting sight to witness: a half-shifted creature holding the spine of a screaming man twice her size, blood pouring from his back onto the asphault at her feet. 

 

Tzuyu screamed from her spot, reverting into Sana’s side in terror, hiding her eyes from what she just witnessed. Nayeon’s eyes widened from her spot, but she couldn’t look away, even as the man’s body collapsed to the ground.
 

“Oh my God!” Mina gasped, looking at Jeongyeon to catch her reaction, but the woman’s face was laced with amusement as she watched the man bleed out all over the ground. 

 

“That was unexpected.” She chuckled, as Momo tossed the spine asside and ran to the body with a lightning speed, making ungodly noises as she flipped him over and tore at his chest and stomach, shoveling his organs into like her first meal in ages. 

 

“Yeah… you guys might want to look away for this.” Chaeyoung suggested, looking off awkwardly and looking inside the car to check on the people inside. “You okay?” She asked of Tzuyu, whose body was trembling against Sana’s embrace. She didn’t answer with anything but a sob. 

 

Jihyo was sitting in the front seat, holding Dahyun’s head in her hands after having suggested she closed her eyes when she felt the way Momo’s thoughts started to go fuzzy. 

 

“Don’t open your eyes.” Jihyo demanded quietly to the woman in the driver’s seat, feeling the way the woman’s nerves rattled throughout her entire body, funneling into Jihyo’s brain from the tips of her fingers. 

 

Once Momo was finished, Chaeyoung assisted in a cleansing ritual to get rid of the vessel and gave Momo her jacket to put over her now bare torso, accompanied by only a bloody sports bra when she got back in the car to everyone in the vehicle looking at her in shock. 

 

“What?” Momo asked, as though offended at being stared at. “A girl has to eat.” She pouted, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging them before leaning against Jihyo who, for some unknown reason, seemed unphased. 

 

“H-how long have you been hungry?” Dahyun asked nervously from the other side of Jihyo, and Momo shrugged. 

 

“It usually sneaks up on me.” She admitted, making Mina speak up from where she leaned into the window beside Tzuyu.

 

“How do we know it won’t…” She trailed off nervously, “...sneak up on you again where there are no greasy officers to prey on?” 

 

“What are you asking?” Momo asked, seemingly offended at Mina’s accusation. 

 

“Actually,” Jihyo spoke up over her shoulder at the four cautious women behind them, “Nine tailed foxes feed off of hearts filled with ill intent and livers filled with toxins. They only feel the need to feed on humans when the energy is so potent that they can smell the toxins and ill intent.” Jihyo assured, “So, as long as none of you have ill intent or an intense addiction to alcoholic substances, we’ll be fine.” She assured, and Tzuyu leaned forward, around Mina to Chaeyoung, who was walking around at the edge of the woods off to the side of the road. 

 

“I’m gonna go check on Chaeyoung.” Tzuyu announced, voice gruff from crying, alerting Mina that she needed to move aside. 

 

“Do you want me to come with you?” She asked carefully, as to ensure Tzuyu knows Mina is there. 

 

“No, I’ll be okay.” The nature witch smiled kindly as she slid off the back seat, kissing Mina on the cheek in appreciation as she passed, eyes fixed on the necromancer as she approached. 

 

She watched as Chaeyoung looked around on the ground for something, eyes focused intently. 

 

“What are you searching for?” Tzuyu asked with interest, making the short witch sigh. 

 

“A black dahlia.” She admitted, and the tallest witch chuckled before walking forward and taking Chaeyoung’s hand to drag her further among the trees, weaving in and out of the branches. 

 

“Where are you taking me?” Chaeyoung asked, voice just as monotone as always, despite the way her mind raced with all the possibilities of being pulled into a forest by a witch whose biggest ability and strength comes from nature.

 

“We have to find a warmer place to grow one, because Dahlias grow in the summer, in sand, so you won’t find one here, but if we try and imitate its growing conditions, we can grow one.” She assured once they made it to a clearing in the forest, one where the sun shone through a gap between the branches, leaving a patch of warm foliage at the other end of the warm rays. Tzuyu swept her hand along the leaves and picked the grass out of the ground to expose the dirt before closing her eyes and inhaling deeply to replant the grass to the side, as though bringing it to a new home. She whispered something to it, something Chaeyoung couldn’t hear from where she stood a few feet behind her in observance. 

 

“Today, I ask, indebted to the sun,” Tzuyu chanted, hands pointed to the sky, as though speaking straight at the source of the heat she had sought out for this moment, “I pray that you grant fertile soil so that I may summon a mighty being in your name.” She prayed, inhaling deeply and stiffening her posture, as though using it as a rod to summon the power to grow the plant Chaeyoung so needed. 

 

Tzuyu smiled over her shoulder at the small witch and reached out a hand in her direction, making the blonde roll her eyes before moving to kneel beside the taller woman, as though they were back on the roof of Dahyun’s New York City shop again. She looked down at the ground, and watched as the dirt changed its form, from dark and heavy to light and airy, like sand. Tzuyu muttered something again before rubbing her hands together and cupping them over the new patch of sand, summoning a plant from nothing. 

 

Chaeyoung watched as her companion opened her hands wider and wider to accomodate the growing size of the shrub until it sprouted the dahlia, a soft, warm orange color. Before Chaeyoung could make some mouthy remark, another grew, a deep red, then another, and another, and another, each a different color and shape, until, after what Chaeyoung counted to be the forty first flower, the last one, a dark, deep shade of reddish purple, so dark that the pit was jet black grew at the very center, the largest of the forty two, making Chaeyoung’s eyes grow bright at the wondrous sight. 

 

“Do you want to do the honors?” Tzuyu asked kindly, and Chaeyoung hesitated before sighing with the roll of her eyes and looking down at the soil beneath the bountiful shrub. 

 

“On this day,” Chaeyoung sighed, “Under the light of the scalding sun, we ask for a sacrifice. We want to express our gratitude to the earth for supplying us this great offering.” She felt something in her chest swell, and the sincerity she was lacking suddenly found her. “We thank you, Mother.” She cleared , “For this gift.” 

 

Before her eyes, a small nub of the flower grew back as the sage had when Tzuyu did it before, and something about it tugged at the heart Chaeyoung was never truly sure she ever had. 

 

“D-did I do that?” Chaeyoung asked to Tzuyu, who was smiling at her fondly. 

 

“You did.” The taller witch promised, excitement written all over her peaceful features as Chaeyoung stood up with the black Dahlia in her hand, looking up into the woman’s eyes when she stood up as well. 

 

“I-I’ve never…” Her words caught in , not sure at all why it is she was so ready to open up to this witch she just met. 

 

Tzuyu wasn’t surprised when Chaeyoung cleared and looked away before leavin the clearing, making her follow the shorter woman.

 

“Oh God…” Tzuyu’s stomach churned and her heart grew heavy when she saw the remains of the body that was disembowled by the creature in the front seat of Yerim’s vehicle. 

 

“He’s passing on.” Chaeyoung assured Tzuyu as she kneeled beside what was left of him, crushing the flower between her fingers and sprinkling the pedals over him. “It was his time.” Her voice grew quieter as she spoke an incantation under her breath, granting his soul safe passage to the afterlife. 

 

“D-does that mean you couldn’t bring him back to life?” Tzuyu asked nervously, chancing a peak over her shoulder at the body, which now seemed fine, his face peaceful, eyes and mouth closed, body intact as he was never less than whole. 

 

“It isn’t impossible,” Chaeyoung admitted, “but doing so would leave him broken.” The flower pedals sank into the skin of his body, bringing color back to it, turning the black pedals a deep shade of crimson, as though obsorbing every ounce of blood painting his form. “His soul will never be whole again. It will remain a shell of what it would be if we let it move on and grant it the freedom it has craved for years.” She dragged her fingers through the soil and took a handful before sprinkling it over his body before standing up and looking to Tzuyu, who seemed awestruck. 

 

“Is that why you were seducing him?” Tzuyu asked nervously, “Were you trying to lure his soul?” Just as she finished her question, the officer’s eyes opened, a white sheen over the glass of his view, pupils and color missing. No blood vessels, no life evident. Suddenly, his clothes were back on him, unscathed and in perfect uniform fashion. He walked past a shocked Tzuyu, straight to his cruiser and got inside, closing the door and turning around to drive in the direction they had just come. 

 

“I could feel his life force draining the closer he got to the truck.” Chaeyoung admitted as she stood in the same place the body laid, dropping to her knees to toussel the soil again. “I didn’t know how he would die, just that it must’ve had something to do with us. I simply stalled until his soul was ready to leave the vessel.” She chuckled softly at how it happened before looking over her shoulder at the woman she spoke to. “I didn’t predict he’d get his intestines torn out and eaten by a strangely adorable woman in human clothes.”

 

“Death isn’t funny.” Tzuyu complained, crossing her arms over her shoulder.

 

“It is when you’ve seen as much as I have.” She admitted with a sigh before muttering something and looking up at the sky, opening her arms out to it, as though asking for something. Her warm flesh turned a haunting grey color before Tzuyu’s eyes as she chanted an incantation, voice like glass against Tzuyu’s eardrums.

 

A cloud of black smoke washed over the two women, rousing a chill through the nature witch’s spine and the sight of her breath from the cold that suddenly engulfed them, making Tzuyu think that the smoke must’ve been the source of the frozen air.

 

Suddenly, the hissing stopped, and with it, the smoke cleared in the blink of an eye, filling Tzuyu’s heart with a light, airy sensation that made her smile.

 

Chaeyoung stood up, flesh back to its pink, lively color as she stepped out of the imaginary patch of ground. 

 

“His vessel will collide with another later today, making his passing seem humanlike.” Chaeyoung stated, voice scratchy from her chant, and Tzuyu wordlessly kneeled beside the patch, waving her hand over the patch and conjuring up a sapling. 

 

Tzuyu smiled over her shoulder before moving her palms over her head as the sapling grew into a collossal oak tree before Chaeyoung’s eyes. 

 

In all Chaeyoung’s centuries, after watching things grow and die and grow again, she’s never witnessed something quite so wondrous. 

 

“In his honor.” Tzuyu whispered, and Chaeyoung didn’t have the heart to tell her that he was a cheating alcoholic with no honor. 

 

Instead, she cleared and nodded with a kind smile. “In his honor.”

 

Once the two made it back to the truck and debriefed the group on the vessel and its whearabouts, they all stood around, tired from just a day of travelling. 

 

“Can’t we just teleport there?” Dahyun asked,and Nayeon grunted. 

 

“We don’t even know where it is. Only Momo knows where it is.” She reminded, to which the fox pouted before curling deeper into Jihyo’s side, tucking her knees into her chest. 

 

Suddenly, Jihyo gasped in realization. 

 

She turned to Momo, putting her arm over Momo’s body to look at her tired form. 

 

“I know you said I couldn’t, but…” The Quizmaster began, feeling nothing but desire in the pit of her stomach. 

 

Desire, ambition, wonder. 

 

Desire to find her mother, ambition to do anything it takes to do so, and wonder… 

 

Oh, wonder. 

 

Wonder of what she’s like. 

 

Wonder of what it would feel like to be held by her again. 

 

Wonder of what her voice sounds like. 

 

So much wondrous wonder. 

 

“You feel unsteady.” Momo whispered, and Jihyo seemed hesitant to respond, but Momo wasn’t waiting for it. Instead, she laid her hand upon Jihyo’s chest, feeling the pounding of her heart against her chest under the tips of her fingers, hearing it with her enhanced hearing. “You need to rest your heavy heart.” 

 

Momo sighed before taking Jihyo’s head in her hands by either side, lying her forehead against the one before her and closing her head as though presenting the thought to her. 

 

“Go ahead and take it.” She whispered, and Jihyo closed her eyes, only to be presented with a memory, rather than a thought. 

 

-

 

She opened her eyes and looked down to the ground as it zipped by beneath her in a blur, black paws moving so fast that her eyes couldn’t process them as anything but that same blur. She felt the vessel’s chest heaving, aching, lungs burning as she snapped twigs beneath her sensitive toes, weaving in and out of trees, begging for comfort. Behind her, Jihyo heard screaming and volgar cursing, followed by a deafening sound that echoed in her sensitive eardrums, followed by the feeling of something tearing through her leg, a white hot heat that threw off her steps, tossing her into a tree at inhuman speed, making her ribcage collide with the tree. A whimper fell from Momo’s snout, and Jihyo felt the familiar feeling of broken ribs as she limped off as fast as she could. It was pouring down rain, and her fur grew heavy with water as she continued to weave between trees, until she came to a dead end. 

 

“There’s nowhere to go, witch!” Screamed a man from behind Momo, but she didn’t dare look back, paws just barely hanging onto the muddy ledge as she looked off, noting the pointed rocks that laid hundreds of feet below. Her hearing was pierced by the sound of a gun going off again, and in a split second decision, Momo jumped.

 

Expecting to meet her end, Momo was surprised to meet a cool blast of water rushing all over her body. She was filled with a sudden energy, and her throbbing leg was now free of any pain, ribs healing themselves as she swam through the water that engulfed her. 

 

It felt like she swam for hours in search of land, of somewhere to rest her spent body. 

 

Of somewhere to finally feel safe, even just long enough to sleep before going on the run again. 

 

She didn’t realize she was asleep until she woke up to the feeling of her back slamming against something solid. She opened her heavy eyes and noted the sight of a civilization. 

 

Of kids running around in harmony with one another, some with tails, some wings, some normal. 

 

“Welcome.” Smiled a woman with a kind smile, and, again, there she was. “I’m Yerim.” 

 

- 

 

“Mom!” Jihyo screamed upon leaving the memory, her chest heaving and body sweating as she pulled away from Momo, who seemed nervous. “My mom was there too!” She looked around at everyone before meeting eyes with the fox again. “You know my mom?” 

 

“It makes sense that you are Yerim’s daughter.” She admitted, fingers tugging at the hem of Chaeyoung’s jacket. “She was the only human who has not broken my trust.” 

 

“Listen…” Nayeon sighed, “I know you’re having a moment, but we should really get going.” 

 

“Right,” Jihyo muttered, shaking her head from the new discovery and clearing before taking Nayeon’s hand. She closed her eyes and thought back to the path she took, to the river, and to the unseen land. 

 

When she opened her eyes, there she was, standing atop an unsteady land of rocks, holding Nayeon’s hand and looking around at a clear, still body of water, so clean she could see the fish swimming beneath the surface. 

 

Only, some looked like the ones in the tank in Dahyun’s flat, and some had horns, and three tails, and nine eyes, and fur, and teeth. 

 

“W-we’re here?” Jihyo whispered, looking around to take it all in as Nayeon orbed away to get the others. She stood in the center of what seemed to be an island the shape of a horseshoe. To her right, there was a small tail of the island that rounded, closing off a small part of water where a small group of children played as one.

 

Some ran on their little feet, dressed in clothes similar to the ones Dahyun wore, some had little wings sprouting from their backs through holes in robes made by hand. Some had tails and some hand claws. Nonetheless, they played and ran around in laughter, splashing each other with water. 

 

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Momo asked from behind Jihyo, making her turn around just in time to see Nayeon vanish again. 

 

Just beyond the children was an edge of the island, scattered in trees that all tapered off, up into the sky on top of a mountain that reached the cotton white clouds. 

 

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” She whispered, awestruck as her eyes hopped, one by one from one little cottage peppering the mountain between the trees to another, each different in size, shape and color. 

 

“It’s the only place I’ve ever been where I haven’t feared my life.” She admitted, turning to look at the other end, a dock and boats and boat houses attaching themselves to the edge of land, just a few metres from another small gathering of buildings. 

 

“Why did you leave?” Jihyo asked, following as Momo walked past her to step on the hook of land that closed off the small pool for the children. Large rocks lined the strip of land, holding it up from several feet from the still, calm water. There were three benches spread out at the edge of the path, and Momo sat at the one in the middle, facing out at the opening between the two edges of the island, watching as the sun set out behind the mountains that ended the view of the water. 

 

Jihyo sat beside her, watching as Momo closed her eyes and breathed in the cool, crisp air, listening to the birds and Kirpos as they chirped and giffawed in the distance before answering. 

 

“I don’t know.” She admitted, making Jihyo’s eyes snap to the creature in confusion. “I don’t remember leaving.” 

 

… 

 

“Alright, Sana, let’s go.” Nayeon insisted, putting a hand out to Sana, who seemed hesitant. 

 

“Let me go last.” She requested, voice small as she looked down at her hands, filled with insecurities. 

 

Nayeon sighed before moving to Jeongyeon and holding her hands out for her best friend to take. “Let’s go.” She smiled, and the fire witch seemed just as reluctant. 

 

“Why did you ask her before me?” She asked, eyes tearing into Nayeon’s soul. 

 

“Because she can’t take care of herself like you can.” Nayeon shrugged as though it was the easiest answer in the world, which, for Nayeon, it was. 

 

Not so much for Jeongyeon. 

 

“I thought I’d be your top priority.” The taller witch accused, and Nayeon sighed for the second time. 

 

“Jeong, are you upset with me for kissing her?” She asked finally, and Jeongyeon rolled her eyes. 

 

“Why would I care about a human?” She scoffed. 

 

“It’s not the human you care about, Jeong. It’s me caring about the human that you don’t like.” 

 

It was silent for a moment, and Jeongyeon briefly considered that she would’ve prefered Mina’s company over Nayeon’s when she was so inquisitive. 

 

“Just…” Jeongyeon sighed before holding out her arm. “Take me to the island.” 

 

And before Sana’s eyes, Jeongyeon and Nayeon were gone, leaving her with Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu. 

 

Sana moved to the back of the truck and hoisted herself up on the tailgate to sit beside Dahyun, who seemed troubled. 

 

“What is it that’s bugging you?” Sana asked of her human companion, who sighed. 

 

“It’s just that I’m not ready for this all to be over.” She admitted, looking down at her feet as they swung every which way. “I just discovered some of the most incredible things ever, and I can’t even talk to my favorite person about it because she’s missing.” 

 

Sana frowned at the notion that Dahyun wouldn’t be going with them. 

 

“If it’s any consolation…” Sana trailed, kicking her feet the same, just to have something to look at, “I don’t think I’ll be able to see it.” 

 

“Why is that?” Asked the shop owner, as though it were the most obsurd thing she’s ever heard. 

 

Sana felt her stomach ache at the idea of having to make such an admission. 

 

“Momo said that only the worthy can see it.” She frowned. “I’m just a human.” 

 

“That’s nonsense!” Dahyun snipped, catching Sana off guard. The shop owner placed her hand over Sana’s, looking her deep in the eyes. “Nobody is more worthy of seeing that island than you, Sana. Nobody has more kindness, and integrity, and warmth in their heart than you.” 

 

It was silent, and Dahyun was looking between Sana’s eyes, as if searching for something, and for some reason, Sana’s entire being felt… safe. 

 

Throughout all of this, with all that was on the line, after witnessing all she did, after being in a place she could never call home, she felt a little sense of it in this interaction, and, for a breif second, she believed every word Dahyun uttered. 

 

“Okay…” Sana inhaled, still unsure before looking away and exhaling with a nod. “Okay… yeah. But if I’m going, so are you.” She demanded, throwing Dahyun off. 

 

“What?” She asked, shocked, and the misplaced human shrugged. 

 

“Why not? You’re just as worthy as I am. Besides, you’re the only one who knows anything about Yerim, so you’re just as much a part of this as we are.” She reasoned just as Nayeon made it back, seemingly already having had taken the two remaining witches while they were talking. 

 

“Ready to go?” Asked the messenger, out of breath from all the back and forth, her skin pale, eyes hooded as she stumbled to the side. 

 

“Are you okay?” Sana asked in concern, taking Nayeon’s arm, to which the woman nodded. 

 

“I’m fine, just need sleep.” She assured weakly, and Sana smiled. 

 

“Okay. We’re ready to go.” Confirmed the human, making Nayeon raise a brow. 

 

“‘We?’” She asked, and Dahyun blushed. 

 

“She’s the only one who knows anything about Yerim. How are we supposed to find him when we don’t know where to start?” Sana reasoned, making Nayeon sigh tiredly. 

 

“We just found out Momo knows her.” She remindd, and Sana shook her head. 

 

“The version of Yerim that Momo knew isn’t the same person Dahyun knows. She knew Yerim up to the moment she disappeared.” She assured, taking Nayeon’s hands and looking into her eyes pleadingly. “Nayeon, please, trust me on this. We need her.” 

 

The air between them was silent, and Nayeon looked over Sana’s shoulder at Dahyun, who seemed nervous, and insecure as she looked at her feet. 

 

“Fine.” The witch exhaled, holding her other hand out for Dahyun to take. “I’m taking you both at the same time.” She informed, and as soon as the second human took Nayeon’s hand, they were standing on those same rocks, looking out at the horizon. 

 

“Wow,” Sana gasped as she turned away to look around, “Nayeon, this is-” 

 

She was cut off upon looking back to see Nayeon stumble forward, then collapse to the rocks. 

 

“Nayeon!?”