Taemin petted the doe. “Hey girly. You’re back. I haven’t seen you all weekend. I’ve been looking all around the mansion for you. I have your favorite flower as a treat!”

The girl’s brows furrowed. He hadn’t seen the deer since he had come back, and the animal had just shown up now. How?

“Did you have a good time getting your fresh air and exercise?” Taemin spoke gently to the animal as the doe nibbled on the flower that Taemin held.

The girl’s eyes widened a fraction in realization, but Taemin didn’t notice.

“I’ll see you later, girl.” Taemin gave the doe a final . He turned back to the girl. “Come on, Nuna. We’re going to be late for lunch. Kibum’s making all my favorites!” He pulled her along but she was staring behind her at the deer.

At lunch, she ate faster than usual. She wasn’t lethargic like how she’d been acting around them lately. You could say, she was eating normally. The SHINee boys were surprised but not unhappy.

“Eat well, Nuna,” encouraged Kibum as he put another piece of food in her bowl. She nodded while swallowing her food. She finished her meal before the others. After washing her bowl, she announced, “I’m going to go shower and head to bed for a nap. I’m tired. See you later.” Her tone wasn’t as friendly as it used to be when she had known them as just the Kpop idol group SHINee, but the boys would take whatever they could get at this point.

She walked out of the room and back to her room at a slow pace. She wouldn’t want them being suspicious, hearing her rushed footfalls. Getting back to her room, she rummaged through her dresser for clothes. She then headed towards the bathroom. She sat on the edge of the tub with the water running in the background. Kibum wouldn’t be looking right now. He would never watch her when the shower was going. That would just be invading her privacy. She rolled her eyes, as if any other time was not invading her privacy. Plus, he was still eating. That would also distract him. She left the bathroom door open wide. Her eyes lit up as the doe walked past the door. She waited a few seconds before shooting up and following the animal.

It was fate! It had to be! If the doe didn’t walk past, she would have continued to doubt herself. She followed the animal but kept herself at a good distance. It didn’t even pass the foyer. She entered the indoor garden. If she wasn’t a prisoner, this would have been the most beautiful place to her. In her slight pause, she almost missed the deer’s white tail disappearing behind a vine-choked wall. She cautiously moved the heavy mat and found a dirt and stone passage. Catching up with the deer, she soon approached light and in her excitement, she gave the deer a push out of the way (because the animal had paused at the exit of the tunnel). The deer snorted a disgruntled sound at her and then went to graze on green grass while she stared, wide-eyed at the expanse of the lawn. She was free! She was so shocked that she couldn’t even move for a few seconds. She just stared. Then she finally started running. She ran west, towards the sun. She didn’t know where she was going but she didn’t care. She just needed to get as far as possible. She soon entered the woods that she had often stared at from the back windows. She slowed as she moved through the woods. She wasn’t going to overestimate her abilities. If she tripped and sprained her ankle, her chances of escape would be zero. Plus, she wasn’t even wearing proper shoes, having run out in her house slippers.

Some time later, Taemin was doing the dishes while Kibum was drying them with a dish towel. Minho and Jonghyun were playing cards on the cleared dinner table. Jinki was out of the game and so finished his drink and brought the cup over to the sink. While placing it in the sink, he asked Kibum, “Where is she right now? Is she in her room? I feel like talking to her.”

“Hold on. I’ll check.” Kibum wiped soapy water off the mirrored surface that was over the sink. He stared at the mirror absently but his expression visibly transformed into one of greater concentration and concern. “…I…can’t find her…” Everyone paused in their activity. Kibum whirled around, wearing a shocked expression. “She’s not here!”

Cards fell out of Jonghyun’s hand. “You’re joking right?” His face was possibly more shocked than that of Kibum.

It was autumn so the sun set at earlier times nowadays. It wasn’t exactly dim out yet but the trees blocking the light weren’t helping. She covered a lot of ground, at least, that’s what she would have liked to think, but she knew she was still too close for comfort. She wasn’t sure, but she’d estimate that she’d been moving nonstop for about an hour and a half tops. She almost wished she had put more thought into this. Packed some food and water, or at least put on a good pair of shoes. The escapee couldn’t dwell too much on that now though. This would probably be her only opportunity. A cloud moved in front of the sun, and she stumbled slightly from a misstep. She caught herself, using a tree trunk for help and paused to collect herself. The cloud moved along and she did too.

“Check again. Maybe she’s just walking around in a spot that’s out of your sight. She can still be here.” Jinki tried to reason.

Minho put his cards down and stood up. “Taemin, you go look around too. We don’t want to get too worked up for nothing.” The youngest guy nodded, eyes hard. He walked out of the room while gripping a dish towel to dry his hands.

The girl came across a stream, the water ran clear and quick over lots of rocks so she assumed it was safe to drink. It wasn’t like she had a choice anyways. She needed to hydrate herself. Cupping her hands she scooped cold water to . She repeated the motion several times before using the last scoop to splash water against her face and rub the dirt and sweat off. Now that she had actually stopped to rest, she felt the fatigue catching up to her. She watched as a discarded candy wrapper floated past her. As she stared at the piece of plastic becoming smaller as it moved away, she realized something. Who littered and threw trash into water? People did! She knew it couldn’t be her boys…er…any of those demons. Taemin would throw a fit at such a thing and she had preached to them enough personally about the environment to know they wouldn’t do that. With renewed strength and more haste than before, she followed the stream, hopefully towards civilization.

Jonghyun and Minho stood tense in the foyer. Jinki was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Kibum stared at the mirrored walls and held a small hand mirror. It was a little over half an hour since their initial worries had manifested. They all knew the answer already. She wasn’t in the mansion. But they had to make absolutely sure. Kibum mentally cursed. Why did the mansion have to be so large? He didn’t really have that many mirrors in the lower underground levels of the mansion either. They could all search together, but it was actually more efficient to let Taemin and Kibum do the searching.

“You don’t need to search that room. She’s definitely not there. Your wolf has cleared the second floor east wing. Your rats are coming back from the basement levels.” Kibum reported to Taemin, speaking through the hand mirror as if it was a walkie talkie or a cell phone on speakerphone or something of the like.

Taemin watched as dark gray rats scurried towards him. “She wasn’t in any of the lower levels either,” the beast demon reported. He started exiting the indoor garden but paused as his doe pushed through a curtain of heavy vines. He didn’t hear the stone wall behind that secret exit move to open. It wasn’t the noisiest of sounds but it still gave a gentle scraping sound that his ears would pick up easily. The doe turned around and touched its snout to the moss covered stone wall and the secret passageway sealed itself. Taemin approached his animal and touched a hand to its head. The doe snorted and shook it’s head in annoyance as it recalled the girl who pushed it before it could close the door behind her.

The doe walked away as Taemin brought the compact mirror up to his face. “Hyung! She’s outside! Ran off into the woods to the west!”

Kibum relayed the message quickly to the other guys in the foyer. Minho and Jonghyun were already out through the front door. Jinki was rubbing his temples at the situation. He sighed. “She couldn’t have gotten far.”

Kibum nodded. “Bring her back guys,” he commanded through the mirror. Taemin, Jonghyun, and Minho each took a compact mirror with them for communication with Kibum, who would be the go betweener between the three of them.

“Already on it,” replied Taemin.

Jinki got up and Kibum followed him out the front door. They took the jeep and took to the roads just in case she ever found the road from the woods. Kibum was out of his element. There were no mirrors in the woods. Taemin was right at home in them so he was there best bet. Minho and Jonghyun were pretty fast and had lots of energy. Jinki wasn’t good at tracking and, although his clumsiness was getting better, it would just hurt his pride if he sprained his ankle while looking for her. No, he didn’t need his pride hurt right now. He needed to hurt something himself. “I can’t believe she ran away.” He whispered with anger behind his words.

“Well, believe it hyung.” They drove on in silence with only occasional words from Key speaking into his mirror.

Taemin paused at a stream, flaring his nostrils. He leapt over to the other side of the shallow waters and sniffed again. He walked around the area for a few minutes while Minho and Jonghyun arrived.

“Her scent disappears here. So she must have stepped into the water. She can only go upstream or downstream. Which way do you guys want to go?” Taemin asked.

“We’ll go upstream. Contact us if you find anything.” The elemental demons raced off in one direction while the beast demon moved the other way. While running, he looked up at the sky through the treetops. In a few more hours, it would be dark. He hoped they found her before then, but if she really could evade them for that long, well, she’d be at a disadvantage. Humans were weak to darkness.

She came to a fork in the stream that was now getting wider and deeper. She had to finally step out of it and shivered as cool autumn air brushed against her wet skin. She pulled down her pant legs that she had rolled up so they wouldn’t get wet and replaced her socks and slippers. No use stopping now though. She kept moving. She’d be stupid to think that they didn’t realize she was gone by now.

“What the hell?” Jonghyun said as they ran. “How’d she even get this far?” They arrived at a fork in the stream. Minho ran a hand through his hair. “With our luck, she got off the stream a while back and we completely passed it.” Jonghyun searched the ground for any signs of a trail. “Nah. Our girl is smarter than that. She would try to avoid leaving her scent for Taemin as best as she could. Why couldn’t we just fall in love with someone less…intelligent?” Jonghyun grumbled. Minho gave Jonghyun a hard glare. The fire starter lifted his hands in defense. “Just joking man. I like that she’s smart.” But he mumbled, “Too smart for her own good though…”

Kibum’s voice reached them. “Taemin’s coming your way, but won’t get to you guys for at least five to ten minutes. She didn’t head in his direction. He asked an owl that was apparently hanging around his end of the stream all day and it didn’t see a girl.”

“We came to a split in the stream but we’re sure she’s probably not traveling by water anymore. It’s getting too deep and quick to be safe and fast travel route. We’ll just wait for Taemin to get here and catch her scent.” Minho reported.

“Roger that.” Kibum acknowledged.

‘What do I do? What do I do?’ she kept asking herself as she ran. At this rate, they’d catch her. She finally had to pause again to catch her breath. The water wasn’t as deep anymore. Maybe she’d travel by that again? But they’d know which direction she’d be heading in if they had gotten this far. Plus, it wasn’t THAT shallow. She stared at a dead tree on the other side of the river. Maybe she should just hang herself now of something… No! She’d gotten this far! She’d survive. Her eyes blazed with determination.

Taemin, having already met up with the other search team, halted and, as a result, so did Jonghyun and Minho. “She took the river again.” Taemin blinked, puzzled.

“Let’s go.” Minho and Jonghyun ran off in the direction in which they were already heading. Taemin looked around and rubbed his temples in mental fatigue as he stared absently at a rotting tree across the water before following his hyungs. He knew they were close. Her scent was so fresh.

A few minutes later, the girl dared to take easier and deeper breaths. She was starting to feel claustrophobic in the hollow trunk of the tree. Her lower half was in water and it was really cold too. Taking a deep breath, she ducked under the water as she slid her legs out of the space at the bottom of the trunk, where the roots were, that opened out to the water. She emerged outside of the tree trunk, gasping for air. Those roots were hard to get past. She coughed a little and dragged her heavy body out of the water. She discarded her hoodie by the riverside behind a tree and started off again. Twenty minutes later, she arrived back at the fork in the river and took the other direction. Her skin gave a shiver every few seconds as cold air blew past her during her run. She almost laughed out loud at the thought of dying from pneumonia as soon as she reached a safe place.

Jonghyun was pissed now. “Can I just burn the forest down to flush her out or something?! GAH!” He stopped running and punched a burning hole through a dying tree trunk.

“You do that, and I’ll claw your throat out hyung.” Taemin warned.

“We don’t want to hurt her, remember?” Minho reminded the older guy.

“Can we just make her scream once? A scream of pain. Or of pleasure. Or both. It’ll make me feel better after all this trouble we’ve gone through,” grumbled Jonghyun.

“She’s not some demon (in the canine animal sort of definition) you can discipline that will heal quickly hyung,” chastised the youngest.

Minho shook his head at the direction the other two were going. Although he was angry himself, he pushed the feeling back. Their problem right now was just finding her. “Save that all for later.”

A Korean raccoon dog waddled towards Taemin, and the boy crouched down to its level. There was silence and then Taemin laughed bitterly and loudly. “We’ve been going in the wrong direction hyung.” He straightened as the raccoon dog scurried away.

“No friggin way.” Jonghyun uttered disbelievingly.

“That fox…” Taemin grinned in a predator-like fashion. “At least we chose a smart one.”

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Posted: what's the date? I don't really care. Too tired to look I think it's the 20th though... (Winglin)
Posted: 20 July 2010 (Asianfanfics)
Approx: 4.5 pages

Updated with poster (16 Dec 2011)! Made by sherinahima, the same person who made the poster on the Forewords page!