"The Shadow knows nothing of love, of struggle, of family and of loyalty.

And because of this, I can die knowing that The Shadow will fall."

**********************

Kris walked along behind his mentor, hands stuffed into his coat pockets to keep out the cold. A second mentor was up ahead speaking with Yunho, the two of them very serious and quiet as they spoke. The mentor's charge walked beside Kris, every once in a while glancing up at the tall boy, curiousity shining in his eyes.

They hadn't spoken much, but Kris was deeply grateful to the other boy. His name was Xiumin, and though he looked cute, he was apparently a fierce warrior... he had saved Kris the night before.

Kris felt cold fingers close around his throat, and he found himself lifted off of the ground by a monstrous humanoid creature, something he had never seen the likes of before. Shadows wound a lazy course around it's extremities and it's eyes were glowing yellow dots, and the sheer physical strength of the creature was immense. Kris could feel his head getting light as his brain was deprived of the oxygen it needed, and he swung his walking stick at the creature's face in an attempt to poke its eyes. 

To his utter amazement the stick passed straight through the creature's head, with only a slight tug of resistance as if passing through water. Kris fought to grasp anything on the creature, but continued to fail. His vision began to dim as he finally succumbed to the suffocation, and he felt the creature drop him as a fierce scream echoed throughout the campsite.

The fierce scream had turned out to be Xiumin, who had swung a walking stick at the Shadow Soldier's back, striking it firmly and causing it to drop Kris. He landed hard on the ground but had enough sense in his muddled mind to scramble out of the way as the creature turned to face the short boy behind it. Kris caught a glimpse of him as they battled, and was struck immediately with an awe as the boy handled himself incredibly well throughout the fight. He dodged the blows and grabs of the Shadow creature to strike it as often as possible with his staff, actually hitting the creature without having it pass through.

A big, solid man (whom Kris later discovered was Xiumin's mentor Kangin) was doing the same thing for Yunho across the campsite, not only fending off the creature that was attacking Kris' mentor but actually killing it. Kris could see the yellow eyes dimming with every strike of the man's rod, and finally it burst into smithers of shadow and disappated into the night. Only moments later the boy's opponent had also been defeated, and he stood there staring at Kris with something akin to recognition in his eyes.

"Th... thank you." Kris has stammered, choking on the words as he realized that this boy had just saved his life. The other held out his hand and pulled  Kris to his feet with a smile, changing his face from fierce to... well... cute.

"I'm Xiumin... do you remember me, Kris?"

Quick memories of toads and roaches flashed through Kris' mind, and he