"It's true, ge! With this book, I can summon a magical creature -or something- into our world!! Yah ge, are you listening to me??"

 

"Tao...stop with the nonsense or I'll whack your head with that book and then burn it into ashes..."

 

"GEGE!" He gasped, eyes widening comically and held the book close to his chest. He backed away slowly from the glowering older man. "HOW COULD YOU?"

 

"He's right, Zitao-ya. That book is probably just one of the random fictional books - bogus!" Another male smiled at the youngest among them, patting the boy on his crossed arms.

 

The youngest turned. "But, Chenchen ge..."

 

"Enough Zitao. Or I will really burn that book." The tallest said. His hands were already advancing towards Tao's worn dusty reddish-brown book. How old was that thing? It looked ancient. 

 

"I'm really, really telling the truth, Kris ge. We can really, rea- GE NOOOO!"

 

 

~~

 

He heard him when the latter decided to sit next to him. On the top of the staircase just outside their dorm, that's where he was for the last 10 minutes or so.

 

"Hey magnae, what's with the miserable face?" 

 

Tao heaved a sigh before facing his companion. 

 

"Whoa!" The other jumped back a few inches, widening his eyes before squinting an eye at the younger but taller one, "What the hell happened to you?"

 

Tao's lower lip trembled. He promised himself he wouldn't cry but he was so frustrated that the tears just...came out. He knew even without looking at a mirror, his face was blotched red with tears. 

 

"Xiumin gege..." He sighed. He did feel miserable.

 

"What's up?" The eldest member asked him before a look flickered on his face. "Wait, did you piss Kris off again? You know you're not supposed to piss that old man off!"

 

Tao managed to raise an eyebrow at the other. Old man? But that wasn't the point at that moment. 

 

"It's not that I piss the duizhang off, gege just..."

 

Tao launched into his story. And along the way there were times he hiccuped and stuttered but the oldest member listened so without interruption.

 

"So what you're saying is you found a random shop and it's an antique shop that sells dusty and weird-looking things and the old shop lady offered you the book - "Book of Summoning" she said - and because she looks so sad and pitiful, you bought it and now Kris has the book locked up in his room and he chased you with your wushu stick out of the dorm and now here you are sitting for the last 10 minutes or so?" Xiumin's nostrils flared up as he gulped in a huge amount of air. Boy, that was the only time he'd talk without taking a pause. Not again, no more.

 

A pitiful whimper answered the eldest member. Xiumin pursed his lips, making his chubby cheeks looked even chubbier. Then his eyes lightened up, as he grinned in delight. 

 

"Hey magnae, where's that Kris now?" 

 

"Oh? I don't know, I think he's in there," Tao pointed at their dorm door dismissively, "probably watching some random channel."

 

"I see," Xiumin nodded helpfully. Tao exaggerated a sigh, slumping his shoulders even more. What had he done in his past life to be punished with this?

 

"Taozi-ya, what if...I'll help you get the book back?"

 

Sharply the group's youngest member turned to stare at his oldest member. His cat-like eyes widened. 

 

"Mwo?!"

 

~~

 

Their feet shuffled across the wooden floor successfully crossing the living room. Muffled voices were projected from the said room as well as some random flashes of coloured light. They crouched down as they walked, the shorter of the two being in lead. They were both trying to be discreet, well, one was trying to but his loud footfalls and him accidentally bumping into random things were not helping (you know who I'm talking about here).

 

"Ge, I still think this is such a bad idea. Let's just go back now," Tao whispered worriedly, his eyes glancing back in the direction of the common room. But the old baozi was persistent. 

 

"We're almost there, might as well follow through," Xiumin whispered back, back to the magnae. Tao internally groaned as he, albeit reluctantly, followed the gege.

 

They were almost there when-

 

"What are you two doing exactly?"

 

Tao jumped and with his quick reflexes he faced the newcomer and clamped his mouth shut. Xiumin too came and caged the struggling person in his embrace. Muffled voice in alarm reached Tao's ears.

 

"Luhan ge..." Tao exhaled in relief when he saw who it was. But his palm over the other's mouth was still intact. 

 

"Mhmmmm! Mhmmmm!!" Luhan groaned out incomprehensibly, struggling weakly against Xiumin's death grip, widening his doe eyes angrily at the now bashful ZiTao.

 

"Okay okay, I'm gonna let go now..." Tao said, "but promise to stay quiet. Oh, ge?" Luhan nodded furiously. His breath was almost cut short with the other's hand clamping partially over his nose. His eyes were about to roll over.

 

Luhan made good of his promise and the highly eager Xiumin filled the former in with their (his actually) plan. 

 

"Hey, I can help you with that," Luhan chirped happily. He was sharing a bedroom with Kris. 

 

"Good, now let's go," Xiumin said, glancing left and right before signaling the other two to follow him with two of his fingers. What was he doing, shooting a James Bond/Mission Impossible movie?

 

Luhan then overtook the eldest and normally opened his bedroom door and let the two in. He peeked left and right before closing the door entirely with a soft click. He locked the door.

 

"Okay! What are we looking for?" Luhan asked. He was still too cheery. 

 

"A small book. It's like this big and looks old. It's dull red in colour," Tao explained. 

 

"Ah, lucky for you, I think I saw where he put it earlier. Hmmm, wait a sec," Luhan walked past the tallest in the room and began opening a wardrobe. He didn't do it quietly, every little move there was a small hum and it was different one from the other.

 

"Aha!" Luhan yelled, "is this it?" He held a dusty book high up his head and turned to face a sparkly-eyed Huang ZiTao and a grinning Kim Minseok.

 

"Yes!" Tao shrieked and snatched the book from a giggling Luhan. 

 

However, he pulled the book so fast that he accidentally cut himself on the index finger. 

 

"Ow!" He yelped at the same time as Luhan. 

 

"Aish! Taozi!" Luhan whined as he smacked the other on the head. His finger was already bleeding, his blood came out easily if he cut himself and the blood got smeared onto book's side, on the pages. 

 

Tao, on the other hand, gasped as he watched his finger bled and the red blood trickled down. A drop landed onto the book on his other hand. He gasped again and in his panic, he the book into the hands of a shocked Xiumin. 

 

"Yah! The heck?!" Xiumin hissed and Tao looked up to see him putting a finger into his mouth. What on earth? They all got paper cuts?

 

As Tao was busy dabbing his bloody finger onto his black shirt, Luhan suddenly threw himself onto him, clinging onto his arm and almost making him stumble.

 

"Ge, wha-"

 

Luhan shushed him. "D-do you hear that?" 

 

It was then Tao's ears picked out a smooth rumbling sound, like thunder yet was continuous then it stopped. 

 

There it was again. 

 

This time it sounded louder and Tao swore he could feel the ground shaking. And it was as he saw a few bottles of perfume on Luhan's vanity started to bump onto one and another and made the glass-clinking noises. A very loud crash of a thunder made the three of them screamed. 

 

Suddenly, a burst of pale blue light appeared in front of them. Tao squinted his eyes and saw it originated from the floor yet not really on the floor. It was a circle of blue light -big- and it was hovering on top of the floor. Slowly, Tao watched as some sort of runes or symbols were magically crafted out of the same blue light on the inner edges of the circle. The ground was shaking more and more and it felt like they were in a middle of an earthquake. 

 

As if what they were experiencing wasn't enough to cast fear, the floating shapes and symbols began to glow and a hot-white light shoot out and up from the centre of the circle. The three of them were thrown back by some invisible force and they were knocked out of breath. Tao heard clashing of things like hitting sounds and he heard distant yelling of people and the galloping of hooves. Tao was so dizzy that he couldn't comprehend what he was hearing. 

 

And as sudden as it happened, the light vanished. The earthquake stopped and the thundering died - gone just like that. The magnae grunted, his hurt courtesy of the forceful landing as he tried to find his bearing. Luhan and Xiumin were doing just that. 

 

A moment later, they realised...they weren't the only people in the room...not anymore. 

 

Luhan gasped, 'oh my' was what Tao heard from him and Xiumin snapped about something under his breath. And Tao was staring, mouth wide open as his eyes connected with an icy cold blue stare that screamed inhuman.

 

There were 2 of them - in the faintly glowing blue circle. 

 

One of them was in a defensive half-crouch - like a guard, his lips pulled back into a snarl and Tao winced as the animal-like human growled threateningly. Oh dear, he could see sharp and jagged fangs. Oh god! This was the one with blue eyes that seemed to glow white, his skin as pale as the moon and hair as black as coal. There was something that looked like a big teardrop on his pale forehead that looked alive and beating like a heart in blue. His body was clad in what looked like an ancient armour -in eras still full of wars- and like his startling eyes, the clothes under his vest was a tunic of some sort in electric blue. His footwear resembled that of heavy furry boots of animal origin and was tied onto his feet and up his calf with straws. A warrior like one of the Huns, that was what he was. And he was terrifyingly stunning.

 

Tao then moved on to the second person, who was behind the blue-clad man. His stance was also defensive but he was a stark contrast to the other. His skin was dark, golden brown and his eyes were black and pupil-less. They were bottomless. His features were sharp and young. And his blood-red lips were also pulled back revealing those sets of long fangs that could probably pierce into Tao's skin easily. His hair was messy, brownish-black and he was clad in all black, like a long coat. A warrior too. It was then that Tao noticed that he was holding onto something and was protecting it. It was the same for the front-most one too. They were protecting something. And it was then that Tao realised that that something was a someone.

 

So there were 3 of them.

 

The last of them was the one that took Tao's breath away. He was pale, as pale as the blue-eyed man. His face was sharp, sharper than the dark-skinned one. His hair was as fair as the snow but ZiTao could see some black strands under the white hair. He was dressed in white, from the neck. Tao couldn't see how his clothing entailed with the third person being bodily covered by the two menacing creatures. But what surprised Tao the most were his eyes. They were twin orbs of liquid white. And they were staring straight at ZiTao with a frown, the white seemed to be swirling in a mixture of pale blue. Yet somehow, they looked human to Tao. His full lips were sealed tight. But Tao didn't doubt that sharp teeth were inside it. It was then that the last creature spoke. His voice strange, new and musical in the magnae's ears. It sounded like hissing but not hissing, like whistling but not it and it sounded very foreign.

 

"Who dares to summon us, the immortal kings, from our realm?"

 

 

TBC