Tao’s first thought upon stepping into the library was, “wow, that’s a lot of books.” Then, “wait, why in the world are there gulls everywhere.”

He must have said the latter out loud, because Kris rolled his eyes at a table in the corner and said, “The aviary’s right above here, so the gulls have easy access through the window. They’re harmless, don’t worry.”

Then, Tao heard a wonderful singing voice from the aviary (presumably, since it was coming from above them) and all the gulls immediately left their roosts to report to the voice.

“And that voice is Chen, who takes care of the gulls,” Kris added. “He’s like...their leader or something. They listen to his every word.”

Tao nodded like he totally understood.

The third occupant of the room finally closed his book and made his way over to Tao, bowing. “I am...uh. Lay,” the man said. He looked like a white centaur, except there was a horn coming out of his forehead. “I’m going to help you...uh...um...wait, Kris, what’s my job right now again?”

“To help this guy manifest his powers.”

“Ooh...right. Powers. Stand still; I will figure out what your powers are. Because I can do that. Because I am a unicorn.”

Kris sighed. “We all know what his powers are, Lay, he’s here entirely because he’s supposed to be able to time travel.”

Lay (the unicorn?) gave him a blank look.

“Do you need, like, coffee or something? You’re worse today than usual.”

Lay nodded slowly. “Coffee will be good. Let me go get some a coffee.”

“He’s like that,” Kris sighed again as he turned toward Tao. “Just give him a minute or something.”

Lay was back in exactly a minute, looking slightly less baffled at his own existence.

“Okay. Tao, right? What did you want me to do for you again?”

“Um...unlock my powers for me?”

The unicorn-man squinted at him. “Your powers have always been there; you don’t need to unlock them. You just need to learn how to access them. To do that, you need to create your own magic word. Kind of like a password, but make sure you don’t choose anything obvious! Avoid choosing anything like ‘password’, or ‘12345’. It must be at least six characters long and contain either numerals or alphas. Once you’ve decided, you just say the word while concentrating on whatever task you want to accomplish.”

“Uuuhhhh...”

“Hurry up now, we don’t have all day.”

“R-rainbowcake123!”

Kris facepalmed.

“Excellent!” Lay clapped. “You can change this word in the future, but it’s a difficult process. Don’t ask me why; no one really understands how this works.”

“What’s Kris’s power?” Tao blurted.

“I can fly.”

“Woah. Cool.”

“And his password is ‘Let’s fly’,” Lay added, sighing. “So unoriginal. Anyway, let’s first see if you can stop the time on this clock right here.” He pulled out a clock from under the table and set it before Tao. “Just think about it really hard, and then say your password.”

Tao gave him a hard look that suggested he really didn’t believe this was going to work, but shifted the look to the clock anyway.

“Uhhh...” he stared at the clock. The clock stared back at him, like its second hand was mocking him. And if there was one thing that could be said about Tao, it was that he never backed down from a challenge, so he resolutely decided he was going to try anyway. “Rainbowcake123!”

The second hand stopped for a moment. And then the entire clock exploded.

“My clock!” Lay wailed.

“You don’t care about that clock, you said you dug it up in a cheap market a few hours ago,” Kris deadpanned.

Tao gaped. “Was that supposed to happen?”

“Uh,” the unicorn-man started, “no. …No, I don’t think so. Maybe you were concentrating too hard. Or your power is too mighty for such feeble machinery. You did stop the time though, so it must have worked.”

“...That’s crazy.”

“Well, minor things like explosions are prone to happen before you really learn to control your power--”

“No, I mean like...are you sure that really was some kind of power? How do I know this whole power thing is legit, even? I mean...time travel? Seriously?”

“You showed up in this universe by the oh-so-scientific properties of a rainbow cake,” Kris stated.

“...Point taken.”
 

: :

Under the guidance of the unicorn Lay, Tao spent the next few hours training (while Kris dozed off somewhere in the fiction section of the library). He steadily got better until he caused an explosion so big, the soot in the air made Lay look more like a black unicorn than a white one.

“I’m hungry,” Tao declared, and Lay eagerly acquiesced. To wake Kris, they poked him and then ran, not wanting to be around when he woke up from a nice nap (somehow, Tao just knew he didn’t want to be there).

Tao made a direct beeline to the kitchen, where D.O was humming happily and scrubbing the sink until the metal gleamed.

“Hi Lay, hi Tao!” the cook greeted when he saw them, washing his hands off. “Are you hungry? Lunch isn’t for another hour, but I think I have some leftover cake...”

Tao nodded enthusiastically. “Cake would be AWESOME.” He decided right then and there that D.O was his favorite person in O’Lara.

Kris stalked into the kitchen in a huff a while later, earning a look of disapproval from D.O, but soon they all settled in to eat some leftover cake.

Sort of.

Because they’d just started finishing up their first slices when they heard thundering footsteps coming toward them, and the king and queen burst into the kitchen.

“We have--have--we have an emerg--” King Chanyeol panted. Baekhyun took over.

“We just got word that the entire herd of buffaloes that resided on the Plain of Woodchucks has been wiped out!” the queen announced.

D.O gasped. Kris remained stoic, while Lay’s eyes widened. Tao was still confused about the woodchucks. On a plain.

“Kris, have you taken Tao on a tour yet?” Baekhyun asked.

Kris shook his head. “No, he spent all morning training with Lay.”

“Well, we’ll have to have a change of plans then. The two of you, plus D.O and Kai, will have to go investigate right away. Whatever is taking away our buffaloes is getting its job down much too quickly. Kris, help Tao pack. D.O, please call Kai over and tell him to get ready.”

“Kai--” D.O started, and immediately there was a poof of mist as Kai suddenly appeared in the kitchen right next to him.

“Do you need something, Soo?” Kai said eagerly. Then he noticed the other people. “Oh, something happened, didn’t it. Are we leaving now?”

Kris pulled Tao out of the kitchen and headed in a direction Tao had never been to before.

“Meet you at the gates when you’re done!” Chanyeol called to their backs.

“We’ll get you suited up, just in case,” Kris sized him up. “You do wushu, right? Jian or staff?”

“Both, but--”

“Yeah, probably a jian. Would be harder to kill things with a staff.”

Tao eyes all but bugged out of their sockets. “I’m sorry, but did you say kill?”

The guard looked at him like his entire existence was the utmost test to his patience. “Yes. We are going out into the cold, cold world where everything is possibly and probably out to kill you. The most solid plan to have is to kill them first.”

“...I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not.”

Kris rolled his eyes. “I said just in case, didn’t I? If we’re randomly attacked by a bear or some bandits, then you could at least make yourself useful.”

Tao pouted. “You could have just said that.”

“Just go talk to Xiumin.”

It turned out that Xiumin was the resident seller of all things. His place looked like an armory on one side and a merchant’s market on the other, selling everything from brass knuckles to croissants. Tao looked around the enormous room, expecting to find more people manning the vastly different counters, but only finding one.

“Hey there!” the man waved. “I’m Xiumin, and this is place to go whenever you need to buy anything! Everything belongs to the castle though, so obviously for you it’s free. What do you need?”

Tao immediately felt very comfortable around this friendly, friendly man. “I need a jian! And...possibly some travel clothes? Travel gear?”

Xiumin’s eyes lit up. “Most certainly! I know the perfect things!”

Once Xiumin had finished compiling things into a travel bag, he handed Tao an elaborate-looking sword. Also shiny. Very shiny. Tao changed into his new clothes and, after thanking Xiumin, the two of them left; this time in the same direction as the library.

“We’ll get you a gull for transportation now,” Kris told him as they walked.

“What do you mean, a gull?”

“Exactly that. People who can’t fly travel on gulls.”

“But gulls are...kind of small.”

“They get bigger when you need to fly on them, duh.”

Instead of turning into the library, Kris led him up a flight of stairs covered in feathers. The aviary itself was sunny and filled with birdcalls and that nice singing voice Tao had heard earlier.

The singer, Chen, was busy feeding his gulls and didn’t notice them until Kris tapped him on the shoulder.

“OH HEY KRIS!” Chen yelled in greeting. “WHAT A NICE SURPRISE!”

“Can you stop yelling--”

“SORRY, I CAN’T HEAR YOU ABOVE MY PRECIOUS BABIES!”

Kris sighed and pointed at Tao.

“OH, HI TAO! YOU’RE TAO, RIGHT? YEAH, YOU MUST BE TAO. I HAVE A VERY NICE GULL PREPARED FOR YOU! SHE’S REALLY QUITE WONDERFUL.”

Chen whistled a shrill note, and pretty white bird landed on his shoulder.

“THIS IS SHAKESPEARE! SHE’S REALLY FRIENDLY. SO TAKE GOOD CARE OF HER!”

The gull squawked - Tao thought. He couldn’t really differentiate her squawking from the squawking of every other bird in the room. She flew from Chen’s shoulder on Tao’s and nuzzled his neck; it was the first time Tao ever thought a gull was endearing.

“THANK YOU!” Tao yelled to Chen.

“NO PROBLEM! AW, YOU’RE SUCH A SWEETHEART. KRIS, MAKE SURE YOU PROTECT HIM WELL, OKAY!”

Kris mumbled something and stalked away, leaving Tao no choice but to give Chen a quick goodbye and follow him to the gates, where their epic journey to find their destiny would commence.

With epicness.

--------------------------------------------

a/n: I'M SO SORRY FOR THIS LATE UPDATE!  My work habits are absolutely horrendous when not under pressure and, well, it's summer...DX BUT, hope you enjoyed this, and thanks for reading!    --FiveMoreMinutes