- Chapter 3 - Save Me -

An hour later, you found yourself wandering through the trails of the woods, not having a clue on where you were going. Somehow, you thought that maybe if you kept walking around aimlessly, you’d end up back home and maybe woke up dreaming.

Unfortunately for you, that wasn’t the case. You had no idea where you were going, you were just following the trails and poking things that looked interesting.

Sighing, you gave up and sat down on a giant rock. Or at least you thought it was. The thing you were sitting on suddenly moved, causing you to yelp out in shock. It rose up higher; the sudden movement made you lose your balance and tumble all the way down onto the dirt.

Wincing from pain, you looked up and met eyes with a…you didn’t even know what it was. It looked like a giant, hairy turtle with grass and plants growing from its back.

Not having the time to stand up, you used your arms to slowly back away from the creature. It turned its head towards you and grunted.

Startled, you threw a nearby stick at its nose and it hit with a smack.

Bad mistake.

The creature growled ferociously and began to manoeuvre towards you.

“Why did I do that? Aish…” You scolded yourself and tried to get up, but you really injured your leg from the fall.

Desperately trying to get away at the monster closing in on you, you cried out for help. A little part of you thought that no one would really hear you in a place like this, but there was nothing wrong in trying.

Perked up by your shouts for help, the turtle-like creature began to move faster, now only just metres away from you.

Like magic, a sudden fireball appeared out of nowhere and hit the creature right in its eyes. A blur of movement flew past you as you tried to decipher what was going on.

“I’ve completely lost it!” You yelled to no one in particular as you lay down on your back.

You closed your eyes and wanted to disappear, but a sudden shadow distracted your thoughts. Peeking one eye open, you saw a tall figure looking at you worriedly. Dazed at the way he was looking at you, you numbly sat up while blinking at him.

The man crouched down next to you and placed a hand on your injured leg, he gave you a small but sweet smile that made you forget about the burning pain.

“Siwon! Is she okay?” Your eyes darted towards the distant voice and landed on a platinum blonde-haired man throwing fireballs at the creature. His hair shone in the bright sunlight and you suddenly wanted to touch it.

“She’ll be fine now!” The man named Siwon yelled back while focusing his attention on you. You hit your head a couple of times to try and get the image of the blonde’s hair out of your mind.

Puzzled, Siwon gently removed your hands from your head and placed them on your lap. (This meant touching your thigh as you were wearing shorts) You blinked and looked at your hand, a little weirded out that he was bold enough to touch you already. Making a face, you shuffled backwards away from him to his dismay.

A chuckling figure walked up next you two and he was laughing at the look on Siwon’s face. You studied the new face and saw that he had wavy brown hair and a very noticeable smirk.

“Hyung, she thinks you’re a freak now.” The smirking man continued to laugh as Siwon rubbed his nape awkwardly.

Completely bewildered, you finally found your voice again. “Who are you people?” You questioned boldly.

The younger of the two turned to focus his attention on you. He looked at your face with soft eyes, “My name’s Kyuhyun and that embarrassing one is Siwon if you didn’t know already.” He pointed to Siwon, who was frowning to himself.

“Over there are the others, fighting the Testudines.” Kyuhyun pointed behind his back and only then you noticed there were many other men fighting the monster and it was beginning to back away.

“Testu-what?” You repeated with a confused expression causing Kyuhyun to chuckle.

“Testudines. It’s a giant, wild and herbivorous creature that lives in these forest areas.” He explained with that same smirk plastered onto his face.

“Herbivorous? It eats plants?” You exclaimed in disbelief, slowly processing this new information. “Then why was it trying to eat me? I’m not a plant!”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, you kind of look like one to me.” Kyuhyun tilted his head, still smirking.

You huffed and was about to defend yourself when Siwon interrupted in a smooth voice. “It wasn’t trying to eat you.”

“Then what was it doing?” You turned to him and softened the tone of your voice.

“She was just protecting her young” A deep and husky voice said, “You probably came too close to her nest or something.”

You whipped your head around and studied another new face. This man had thick black bangs that touched his mysterious eyes and an interesting expression to go with it.

“Yesung hyung is being defensive about his little animals again.” Kyuhyun teased while the one named Yesung gave you a lopsided smile.

The peaceful conversation was interrupted when the ground began shaking violently. Yesung’s face returned to its original serious expression and he looked over your head. “Incoming!” He yelled out as he disappeared and an eagle took his spot before it flew away.

Overwhelmed, you didn’t even have time to ask what exactly happened before you briefly saw a blurry figure pull Siwon and Kyuhyun away.

Now very alarmed, you searched your surroundings and your jaw fell open as you saw the Testudines charging straight for you. Not being able to move because of your leg, you could only cringe and close your eyes tightly.

Hearing the heavy foot stomps increasing in volume, you thought this was the end. Goodbye weird world and strange men.

That thought was cut short when you felt yourself being lifted up. You dared to open your eyes and almost screamed at how tiny the trees were now, way down below.

You also noticed a pair of arms were carrying you bridal style, turning your head to look up at your saviour, your eyes widened at yet another new face.

This man, like the others, was exotically handsome and also had unique facial features. He had golden hair, dimples and gorgeous white wings stretched out, rhythmically flapping.

That’s when your mind realized you were practically flying, up in the sky. Instinctively clinging onto his neck, you looked down and then back up at him.

“Are you alright?” His angelic voice broke through your thoughts of dying as he looked you over with concern in his eyes. “You seem a little pale…”

You swallowed before answering in a steady voice, “I just nearly died and now I’m years away from the ground, being carried by a guy with wings and you’re asking if I’m alright? I’m certainly not alright.” You huffed before quickly adding, “Thank you for saving me by the way. I thought I died and went to Heaven.”

The Angel-like man looked taken aback but he nodded with an admirable smile, “Of course. I wasn’t going to let you get trampled. I’m also sorry for bringing you this high. It was the only way. We can go back down now.” He began to tilt down a little with you tightly in his arms.

During the flight down, you could only stare and admire his hardworking wings and wonder what it’s like to touch them. It felt strange tightly holding onto someone you just met but you felt as if it was needed at this moment.

Smoothly landing onto the ground, you frowned when you realized you couldn’t exactly walk right now.

“Um…What’s your name? I can’t exactly walk right now.” You didn’t meet his eyes, “You can just leave me here or something…” You thought hard about how you were going to get home.

“You can call me Leeteuk and I am not leaving you here like this.” He nodded at your now dirty and ripped clothes, along with your bird’s nest hair.

You reached a hand up and tried to run your fingers through your hair but it only caused you pain. “Then where are we going?”

“We’re going back to the palace with the other guys.” Leeteuk effortlessly carried you towards a large tree, enclosed in the forest, with several figures surrounding it.

As the two of you got closer, you could hear the curious chattering of the many guys and you slowly held your head up straighter so you could get a better look.

“Looks like hyung has the girl again. Why does he always get the girl?” A very strong looking man complained while eyeing you with interest.

The man standing beside him gave him a slap on the back of his head, “Kangin stop it, you’re scaring her.”

“Hyung! Shindong just hit me.” Kangin complained while rubbing his sore head with a sad frown.

“You needed it. You were full staring at her like a ert.” Shindong defended himself with his hands held up.

“I’m not a ert, Eunhyuk is the ert.” Kangin corrected him.

“Yah! Why do I get dragged into this? Right when we’re about to introduce ourselves...” Another lean man, who was most likely Eunhyuk defended himself.

You watched in amusement as the quarrel got louder and more guys joined in.

You glanced at Leeteuk, “I like them already.” You said with a smile.

Leeteuk laughed and called his ‘brothers’ to order. “We have to get her back to the palace at once, Siwon needs to heal her leg. Introductions will have to wait until later!”

“But hyung, can’t we heal her here? She needs to be healed as soon as possible.” The platinum blonde man looked in your direction worriedly as you met eyes with him for a second.

You tore your eyes away from the blonde when Leeteuk spoke again, “It’s too dangerous out here. Shindong can take her back quickly so she can rest while the rest of us head back together.” His tone was firm and the blonde man had to agree.

Soon enough, you were gently passed over to Shindong and he sped off as fast as lightning, literally, towards their palace.

The rest of the guys hopped onto their companions and rode off faster than usual towards their home.

They couldn’t wait to find out all about you.