"You want to wake up Wu Fan."

This means nothing to Suho.

"Have you completely lost your mind?" Xiumin all but screeches.

"He's the only one who could stop Chanyeol now. We have no choice," Kyungsoo says quietly, dancing even higher on his breezes.

"No one even knows where he is. We'd be going on a fool's errand. And even if we did find him, how do you expect to wake him up? He's been sleeping for centuries."

"Who's Wu Fan?" Suho interrupts, feeling completely lost in the conversation.

Both Kyungsoo and Xiumin look at him. Kyungsoo blinks his huge eyes and nods.

"I suppose now is a good time for the story I promised you," Kyungsoo murmurs, and Suho nods.

"Very well," Kyungsoo says, his winds dropping him to the ground. "Wu Fan is the sun."

Suho blinks. Kyungsoo nods. Xiumin rolls his eyes.

"If you're going to tell the history of the Adar you should at least start from the beginning, Kyungsoo," Xiumin sighs and turns to Suho.

"Before humans existed, when the world was still young, two brothers were born. They were Wu Fan, the sun, and Lu Han, the moon. For a long time, the two existed in harmony and never left the sky. However, one day, Lu Han felt the urge to leave the heavens, and so he descended and landed on earth, where he took the form of a stag. It was then, while he was wandering the world, that he met the first humans."

Xiumin pauses, a flash of anger crossing his face. When he speaks again, his voice shakes.

"The humans hunted him down like an dumb beast and killed him."

Kyungsoo speaks next, putting a hand on Xiumin's shoulder.

"Of course, he was a god. He couldn't truly die, but his spirit and his heart were broken and he barely made it back to his brother. When Wu Fan learned of what the humans had done, he was furious. The sun had never burned brighter, and the moon had never looked so thin. If Lu Han had not begged him to show mercy, no doubt Wu Fan would have descended to the earth and wiped out the entirety of the human race. Instead, he summoned four birds to him. An owl, a hawk, a swan, and a songbird. To each, he granted control over weather. The owl became the sylphid. The hawk, the thunderbird. The swan became the phoenix, and the songbird, the hyperion. He gave them orders to torment the humans with great bolts of lightning and fierce storms, tornadoes and blasts of wind, terrible droughts and fires, and howling blizzards and frost.

"Lu Han, with his kind heart, took pity on the humans, and divided the year into seasons, so that only one Adar could reign over the sky at a time, and he tempered their wrath with mercy, and each received a gentler side of their powers that Lu Han encouraged them to use to help the humans.

"The Adar did as they were told, and many humans died, and many were saved from drought or flood and many other disasters. When they discovered the existence of the Adar, many worshipped them as gods. While they were, in fact, gods, they were not intended to be worshipped. They had been created as harbingers of revenge, forces of nature, not gods who could be appeased by worship."

Kyungsoo paused and his face darkened. Xiumin spoke again.

"But…one of the Adar, the phoenix, grew accustomed to the worship he received, and when he became arrogant and drunk with power, he began pushing the boundaries of his season, summer. He also began to mark humans, increasing his own power. He caused a terrible drought, which grew so bad it nearly destroyed humanity. Wu Fan confronted him, and with the aide of the thunderbird and the other two Adar, they forced the phoenix to his knees. Wu Fan removed his claim over any and all humans and forbade the Adar from ever claiming a human again.

"The drought was over and the humans praised the thunderbird for his rains and the worship of the phoenix began to decline. The phoenix, though defeated, was enraged. So he began to plot his revenge. And one day, when all was at peace, he flew up to the sun and poisoned Wu Fan. Wu Fan fell into a deep slumber, and the sun, which never left the sky, sank, falling from the sky and landing in a place that no one knew of.

"The world, which had never known night, was plunged into darkness, lit only by the weak glow of Lu Han. But soon it was plunged into complete darkness when Lu Han left the sky to find his brother. The hyperion made little lamps of ice that he scattered across the heavens, but their dim glow wasn't nearly enough to light up the night. This went on for a long time. But then, on the horizon, there was a faint glow. It grew brighter and brighter until we realized that it was the sun coming up. But something was different. It rose slowly, reached the peak of the sky, and slowly sank down again.

"Lu Han appeared once again in the sky at night, and the Adar went to ask him what had happened. He said that Wu Fan was still sleeping. But with his powers, he had allowed Wu Fan to sleepwalk, and the sun could walk across the sky for a time. However this would cause Wu Fan to tire, and he would have to leave the heavens to fall back into his deep slumber. The phoenix asked where Wu Fan would rest. Lu Han refused to tell him, saying it was best that no one disturbed his brother.

"And so it continued for a long time. And people became accustomed to the separation of day and night. And the phoenix waited. He still wanted revenge on the other Adar.

"So one day he slew the thunderbird."

Xiumin looks like he's about to cry, and he takes a shaky breath.

"He lured the thunderbird to earth, burnt a hole in the other's chest and ripped out his heart.

"The drought that came afterwards was devastating. Humans prayed to the thunderbird but rain never came. Faith in the Adar began to die out. The sylphid and the hyperion tried to stand up to the phoenix but they were no match for him, and he nearly killed them as well.

"Humans began calling the phoenix 'The God of Light' and claimed he resided in the sun."

Xiumin scowls. Kyungsoo clenches his fists. Wind swirls around Suho's feet as ice creeps up the walls.

"And then…something happened. Clouds rolled in and lightning struck. The thunderbird was back. But he was weak, trapped in a child's body. Despite this…we…" Kyungsoo's voice breaks and Xiumin closes his eyes, tears freezing on his face.

"We went to confront Chanyeol with him. We sent him to his death. Chanyeol was even more powerful and he defeated us with ease. The thunderbird…he fought so hard, throwing lightning bolt after lightning bolt at Chanyeol but he just shrugged it off. And then…Chanyeol struck, lashing out at him and cutting him in the knee. It only took one more blow to send him falling from the heavens to earth."

Kyungsoo bites his lip and Xiumin tries to stop his tears.

"I was blinded by grief. I loved the thunderbird dearly and watching him die at the hands of one I no longer recognized as one of my brothers made my very blood freeze. But…Chanyeol was too strong for me, and he would have killed me if Kyungsoo had not pulled me away.

"We left to nurse our wounds, and decided to stay out of Chanyeol's way. Perhaps it was cowardly, but it would have done humanity no good if the phoenix, the bringer of drought and heat and fire, was the only Adar left. Years passed, and one day, I smelled lightning on a human.

Xiumin's eyes focus on Suho.

"And I learned that the thunderbird…Chen…was not as dead as we had assumed. But he was careless, and exposed you to danger and Chanyeol's wrath."

"And now Chanyeol has Chen," Suho finished, his mind spinning from the story he'd just been told. "And we need to wake Wu Fan because…?"

Kyungsoo blinks at him, giving him the "are you stupid" look.

"The last time Chanyeol tried to take over," he says slowly, "Wu Fan severed the connection between him and the humans he'd claimed, weakening him so that we could defeat him. But he can't do that if he's asleep, so we have to find him and wake him up."

"And how do we find him?" Suho asks, rubbing his forehead. "You said yourself, no one knows where he is."

"The moon knows where he is. We'll have to talk to Lu Han."

Suho blinks.

"You want me to talk to the moon."

"Yes."

"And how do I get up there?" Suho asks in exasperation.

"You ride a Nightmare, of course."

Before Suho can ask how he's supposed to ride a bad dream, a deafening explosion rocks the cave and orange light spills through the opening.

Xiumin immediately throws up his hands and pillars of ice block the mouth of the cave. He turns to Kyungsoo, jaw clenched and fear flickering in his eyes.

"If you go towards the back, there's a passageway through. I'll try to buy you some time."

Another explosion nearly shatters the ice pillars and Xiumin flies forward, pressing his hands against his ice shield and reinforcing it.

"Go!" He yells over his shoulder, as a dark shadow passes in front of the translucent ice, outlined by flickering orange.

Kyungsoo grabs Suho's hand and runs. The light from the entrance rapidly fades, leaving the two in almost pitch black. Suho clings blindly to the sylphid's hand and cries out every time he stubs his toe or bangs into the wall. Kyungsoo seems to have retained some of his owl qualities as he barely ever missteps in the gloom.

As light comes into view, illuminating the dark passage, a faint scream echoes from behind them. Suho recognizes Xiumin's voice crying out in pain, and Kyungsoo trips for the first time, his head swinging around to stare down the long cavern. A sob catches in his throat and he yanks Suho out of the cave and into the light, his body already dissolving into winds that scoop Suho up and carry him off into the sky.

Suho's last glimpse of the cave they left is illuminated by towering flames, and as he watches, a dark figure emerges from the now unfrozen entrance and turns its head towards him. Huge wings of fire erupt from its back and extend towards the sky with a roar.

"Hold on," Kyungsoo's voice tickles Suho's ear. Suho is about to ask what exactly he should hold on to when his breath is knocked out of him by the sudden acceleration of the wind. The world around him blurs and he vaguely wonders if he's going to pass out before the wind goes even faster and the world goes dark around him.

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A/N: Okay so creating a whole mythology for this story was not my intention but here you have it. I hope I live up to your expectations since I'm really glad that so many people have said that they enjoy this story and I don't want to let you guys down. I love reading your comments and I hope you enjoy. Thank you for reading!