Chapter 43:  13:12– A Countdown to Third Death [10:48am]

Seungho POV

What had Mir just done?

From my bird-eyes view, I had seen everything. Mir had pulled me up, and I had twisted around with the painful realization that Mir was falling and the thought of him splattered on the ground, torn to chunks by the leopards, a slowly stilling carcass, all of it slugged me in the gut like a two ton sack of sand. I had reached out subconsciously, fully well knowing I could do nothing yet my body wanted to argue elsewise, and Mir had done the same, reaching out towards the ground and squeezing his eyes shut as if banishing the sight of it would extinguish the danger and-

BAM

There had been an explosion of dust and sand, a whirlwind exploding outwards in a circular radius and the earth had literally risen around Mir in sharp, long sharps. They overlapped circularly, forming a protective shield around the boy. And somehow Mir landed as if simply falling on a bed of pillow. He was safe. He was protected.

But what the hell had he just done?

Magic, I wanted to whisper. But there was no such thing as magic was there? This was the real world, not some cartoon or movie where magic came in the form of wands or sparks or flames bursting from spread out palms. But how else to explain what he had just seen. The manipulation of earth, the expulsion of wind and sound, it was something out of this world and I had never seen anything like-

The rising of earth. The twisting of water. The appearance of creatures from thin air.

It was just like what the Ringmaster was capable of.

Suddenly I felt light-headed, dizzy. I was seeing stars as if the realization of it had dealt me a punch to the solar plexus. Without realizing it I was in oxygen desperately.

And then there came a tentative call from below. “Mir?” It was Thunder. I could see Mir twitch in response to Thunder’s calming voice, and I realized that the boy could not see Mir.

“He’s down there,” I called down to Thunder. He jerked his head up to and pity filled me as I saw him flinch. We had all gone through too many uncertain things in the past twelve hours. How much more would we have to endure in the remaining time?

“In there?” he pointed and I nodded.

“Mir,” I said. “Are you okay?”

Mir looked a little stunned as he gathered himself and shuffled to his feet. I could see him inspecting himself, hands running up and down his body with the overwhelming awareness that he was alive. He had fallen and he was alive. Not pulp, not torn apart, just normal Mir.

“I-I’m fine…I think…” he stuttered and my heart compressed.

This wasn’t Mir’s fault. None of it was. He could have hardly known he possess this…power.

“Mir?” Thunder called out from below. A touch of relief was present. “Can you get out of that…thing?” he asked, but I knew he was looking at the circular shield with suspicion. From above it was clear that the formation of the shards were slanted outwards, making it impossible to climb unless you were on the inside. And even then the sharp, smooth incline looked slippery.

“Um, yeah,” Mir replied and he walked over to one of the shards. My brow furrowed as I tried to guess what he was about to do, and nothing would have led me to predict what he actually did. The lifting of one hand, the pressing of his palm flat to the stone and then with a rocketing whoosh, the stone crumbled to dust and just like that it was gone.

Maybe I was wrong.

Maybe Mir knew how to control his powers.

But…then…why didn’t he tell us about it earlier.

“Did you just do that?” Thunder stammered looking dumbfounded.

Mir stared at his hand for a fraction of a second before letting it drop to his side. “I think…so…” he mumbled, and my resolve stumbled on two unsteady feet.

“Oh Mir,” I breathed as one, tiny tear trickled its way down Mir’s cheek. How could I ever doubt him? He looked so broken as Thunder walked over to him and crushed him in a tight, I’m-here-for-you embrace. I turned, wanting to climb down and hug him for all he was worth, but then a flicker of gold in my peripheral stopped me.

“Leopard!” I yelled and it carried down to the two boys who snapped their heads up to see a recovered leopard get ready to pounce. “Run!”

My eyes widened as Thunder push Mir down, shoving the two of them roughly to one side and avoiding a claw outstretched pounce. The leopard landed, snarled at having missed and twisted nimbly on its paws. 

“Hurry up and climb!” I urged them and Thunder responded first. He rolled upwards, eyes bright, and pulled Mir up as well. Mir stumbled to his feet, still looking a little shell-shocked.

“Hurry!” I pounded my fists into the platform. I wanted to get down there and push them up the ladder but I would be putting myself into danger as well, and right now it would be more sensible for me to stand here and hold the ladder still and goddamn it, “HURRY UP!”

Thunder pushed Mir towards the ladder, grabbing Mir’s hands and shoving them onto the rope ladder. But Mir was responding too slowly and I had to bit my lip to stop myself from shouting any profanities. I could see more felines recovering, their tails twitching, angered beyond belief. Their easy prey was apparently not so easy.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” I chanted, worrying my teeth into my lip and tasting blood. It was all background noise though and my eyes were fixed to Mir placing one foot onto the bottom most run and lifting himself (finally!) and simultaneously a lion crossing the empty space in two long strides (that fast?!) and Thunder’s exposed back to those long, sharp claws.

“Thunder!” the words tore themselves from my mouth and both Thunder and Mir were turning and the lion was getting closer, a feral gleam in its black eyes, and behind it were two other lionesses and, and, and Mir flung out his hand again, teeth gritted and air swirled like a storm cloud, centering itself and blasting straight into the lion’s face.

It was sent flying backwards, a rocketing slice through the air, accompanied by a pained squeak. Thunder stared, breathing heavily, as he realized just how close to death he had been.

“Thanks Mir,” he croaked.

Mir looked equally stunned, as if he still didn’t have a grip on the reality that was his powers. “No…problem…” he managed.

“Hurry,” I reminded them. The other cats looked wary, but that would only last for so long.

Thunder nodded, turning back and pushing Mir up, urging him to hurry. As Mir reached the top I grabbed his forearms and practically pulled him up. He fell against me and we both rocked backwards, and then Mir was crying, small sobbing little noises being expelled. His face was pressed into my shirt and I was rubbing a soothing hand in circles over his back.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I whispered. “You saved Thunder you realize that.”

“Yeah Mir,” Thunder said as he hauled himself over the platform. “You saved me.”

Mir just sniffled.

“Crybaby,” I teased and hugged him tight.

How could I have ever doubted him?