“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” 

- Lois Lowry, The Giver

"So long..." he whispered quietly. Lay's face had tensed up, teeth gnawing at his lower lip with a serious expression. You turned towards the others, shrugging your shoulders and motioning towards Lay. They all shook their heads, unable to grasp what the man was trying to communicate. Kai coughed lightly before moving towards Lay, putting his hand on the man's shoulder. "What do you mean-" "How long did you take to come here?" he cried softly, "I've been waiting... Oh... I've been waiting for so long..." Lay's eyes began to tear up slightly. Tao stared at the other man with a completely confused expression. "What on earth? What do you mean you've been 'waiting?'" he asked, tilting his head as he observed the strange reaction of the healer.

"The books! The books told me!" Lay straightened his back in an instance and suddenly made a dash for the door. "Come with me!" he commanded. Your jaw dropped slightly. "Huh?" you asked him, forehead crinkled in perplexity. "Someone sounds crazy..." Baekhyun whispered to Tao, who snickered with him quietly. Lay rolled his eyes and ran to you, pulling your arm up quickly alongside himself. "I said, come with me! All of you." He exchanged glances with the others before pulling you with him to the door. "Wait! Lay!" you shouted, resisting his tugs. "What about Luhan?" "Don't worry, your friend will be fine here. Now hurry up!" he answered before pulling you out the door.

"See that black barked tree over there? The large one?" he asked you. Your eyes searched around the beautiful forest landscape before finally spotting the tree Lay had prompted you to look at. "Yes?" "That is the Archive of the Ancients, basically a large library of historical books and stories," he explained, "And we're going there. Hold on!" He told you. "Hold on? Hold on to wha- AH!" You cried out as Lay grabbed you by the waist and suddenly jumped off the platform of the tree. Grasping onto Lay's form tightly, you shut your eyes tightly as the sudden feeling of dropping made your heart drop into your stomach, so to speak. Lay's eyes locked onto something before shooting out his left arm to latch onto it. All at once, you felt your bodies being swung forward rather than falling down. And opening your eyes, you realized that Lay had taken hold of a wooden zipline handle, which, along with the force of your fall, was propelling you both towards the large black tree.

The wind rushed against your body. Hair messily flying everywhere, you shook your head trying to get the strands out of your face. You could see the tree drawing nearer and nearer. From above you heard whoops and laughter, and turning your gaze to the sky, you saw the others zipping along strings between the trees. You could tell that they were enjoying themselves, probably racing one another to see who could speed along the fastest. The thought of it made you smile. How wonderful it must be to live in such a place. As you saw the rest of the forest zip behind you, your mind began to wonder what secrets it held within the pages of its books. Why does Lay want to take us there... You pondered this until a voice called to you. "Kora, we've arrived at the Archive of the Ancients." You blinked your eyes. Indeed, you were now a few yards away from the platform of the black barked tree.

Lay then fixed his eyes on the platform, and just like clockwork, he released the zipline handle and landed soundly on the wooden floor around the tree. You quickly removed his arms off your body and turned towards him in a huff. "I can take care of myself, thank you very much. I did not need you to carry me, sir," you said brusquely, dusting off your clothes. He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh yeah... Sorry about that. I guess I was just too excited," he confessed. There was the patter of landing feet behind you. Turning your head, you saw Kai, Baekhyun, and Tao, who had arrived shortly after you. "You can't just run off with a person you know!" Kai growled, lunging at Lay and shoving him a little. "Especially not my future wife!" Baekhyun piped in. The tanner boy jeered at Baekhyun, rolling his eyes. "Oh, shut up about that already!" Kai hissed in annoyance before turning his attention back to Lay, who put his hands in the air and shrugged his shoulder. "I know. All right, I'm sorry. I will not do that again," he said.

"So, this is the Archive of the Ancients?" Tao's voice interrupted. Your eyes glanced at Lay, who nodded his head. His face had now become more solemn. "It is of utmost importance that I show this to you," he clarified as he stepped towards the large black doors of the library. Taking a silver key from his pocket, Lay put it into the lock and gave it a forceful turn. A loud click was heard, and Lay then used both hands to push the doors wide open. "Please, enter." He invited everyone as he himself stepped inside the room. You looked at the other. Kai gave you a solid nod and stepped beside you as everyone followed behind Lay into the archive.

The first thing you noticed was the smell: musty and airless. The atmosphere of the room was rather dry, perhaps to keep the books from molding or deteriorating. The second thing you realized was that the room was enormous. The interior of the tree had been cut out and carved through the center, where stairs had been formed out of the wood, cascading into a spiral downward from the already abnormally elevated ceiling. The stairs signified that there must have been hundreds of floors such as this one; each of them filled to the brim with history, information, and legends.

The room was rather