He was cold, his clothes were clammy and still Junsu didn’t make the slightest noise. He sat… lay now for quite a while on this up and down moving… thing. There was no other way for Junsu to describe it, because until now he didn’t dare to open his eyes. He had been jolted out of his sleep in the middle of the night and then – since they found he was struggling to annoyingly – knocked out by a hard hit on his head. However he had managed to bite through the bracelet, which had been given to him by his mother, and let it fall down in hope that someone would find it and could draw any conclusion on where he was dragged to. Because of the darkness he had neither been able to see, where his bracelet had fallen down to, nor what the thing was, they did put him on.

Be that as may, fact for his present being was, he felt sick – presumably by reason of the hit and the continuously moving underground – he froze and he was… ‘’, Junsu thought as he felt that his hands were cuffed tightly on his back. The ropes were cutting into his wrist by only his slightest attempt to move his hands. It was of no use to him, besides: “Hey, I believe our princey is coming back to his senses.” Junsu bit his lower lip and lay still. Maybe, he thought, they would believe that their eyes had played a trick on them – whoever they were.

His head was still pulsing with pain, but in the end it was the sickness, which put a spoke into his wheel and ended his plan of stay unnoticed. In his mouth a well-known sweet flavor spread, giving notice of the bile, the young prince chocked up suppressed shortly after, the acid fluid crawling up his throat. Junsu bravely swallowed it back down. But this only led to a new chocking he couldn’t suppress any longer, so he threw up for real.

“UAH! This jerk puked on my boots!” Junsu coughed and opened his eyes. But still he was not able to orientate himself, for everything was still spinning around him. “ it up! As if you’d notice anything of it with the wind and all”, the other man said. Junsu felt a hand in his hair jerking back his head roughly, so he could only pant for breath. “Don’t you dare doin’ that again, you little-” – “Pull yourself together, gee! It’s mere a little puke!” – “Mere a little puke?! It’s my new boots!” the man still holding Junsus head tilted back, shouted enraged.

While the both of them were fighting, Junsu had a little time to adjust his senses. But also after blinking a few times, he still wasn’t able to see anything around them but… blue. White. He was so cold. The silken, clammy sleeping robes he was wearing weren’t doing much against the icy wind which was blowing up here. “Where am I?” Junsu asked hoarsely, although he didn’t know whether it was a good idea to draw back the squabbler’s attention on himself.

“Shut up!” His head was let go of, so Junsu fell back onto the means of transportation he lay on. In fact he seemed to lay face down on top of the man’s lap, whose new boots apparently he had puked on. He gasped slightly but still heard the other man’s voice, who appeared to sit in front of them. “Heechul, the boss said he wanted him alive and sound.” – “I’m not doin’ anything to him”, the man named Heechul snorted. “You were the one who knocked him out!” – “Because I had no choice, but if you let him fall down-“ – “I’m not dopey!”, the man holding Junsu grumbled and the silence between them returned.

What would be if he’d let him fall down? It didn’t feel like they were moving fast, despite the wind which was still tearing at his weary body. Junsu took one more chance on opening his eyes, this time to glance downwards. Firstly his vision was focusing on the boot on which tip was stuck a something, suspiciously looking like his vomit. Junsu’s stomach revolted again and rushed he closed his eyes again, breathed deeply and reopened them. He tried hard to see anything else. See something. The ground. But there was only… white. White mist as far as the eye could see. Maybe his eyes were damaged or something? Why couldn’t he see anything…

Then suddenly they reached a piece where the white was vanished and Junsu understood. He exhaled a shriek of fear and astonishment, struggled with his bonds and nearly slipped off backwards, if not for a pair of strong hands to grip him. “Siwon, I think our princey just recognized where he is.” He could clearly make out the malicious joy in Heechul’s voice as he said so. And so Junsu didn’t feel sorry at all when the next portion of his vomits not only spoiled Heechul’s boots, but also his white pants.

He coughed and the drumming noise in his head was almost enough to drown the next cry of the man who was examining his pants closely. “Siwon! Go down! Now! I won’t hold this… this cretain any longer! We swap!” – “Maybe we should just take a break. He doesn’t seem well…” Heechul snorted in answer on Siwon’s words but didn’t refuse. And so it was decided that they were going to take a break. Junsu felt thankful for the prospect of escaping this thing and being back to solid ground. Flying was no good for him. That’s for sure.

~*~*~*~*~*~

They had touched down near a forest border where Heechul pushed away Junsu ruggedly. The young prince stumbled on his cold numb feet, which soon denied him so he tripped backwards to the ground. Still while falling, ere he buried his cuffed arms under his body, Junsu saw on what they had been flying. And it took his breath away. He tried to crawl away backwards from the monster as fast as he could.

It was huge. 30 foot at least. Its skin, its wings, which it hold tightly pressed to the sides of its reptile like long body were of a dark steel gray.  Its comparatively small flat head the dragon had lain down to the ground and beneath its eyelids it was shimmering pitch black. “Breath”, said Siwon dryly, who Junsu hadn’t seen and hadn’t been able to pay any attention until now, and took him by his arms to drag him up ungentle. The whole world started shifting again, but it was of no matter, because Siwon took him around the hip and threw him over his shoulder. Junsu groaned. He couldn’t breathe probably and the man’s strong shoulder was no good for his weak stomach.

He was carried a short way in between the woods, was made sit down on the roots of a great oak tree and his hands were cuffed to the trunk. As if he was even able to think about a flight at the moment. In his head there was still this drumming noise, everything spun around him and he felt so unbelievable sick. And cold.

Heechul disappeared firstly to a nearby river to get water – and to get his pants clean, Junsu thought. Siwon meanwhile was making a fire. Junsu didn’t take his eyes off of the dragon which lay at the edge of the forest. It had curled up and looked a little bit like a big cat, resting in the sunlight. Not that Junsu ever had seen a real living cat of prey, but his teachers had made him read books about them and had showed him pictures. And the way this dragon had shoved its head under its wing, wrapped its tail around his whole body, it just looked like one of the big cats on the pictures.

Junsu didn’t feel good near the dragon, although it seemed tame right now. But he certainly didn’t want to be back on the back of this creature. He’d rather stay with both feet on the solid ground, thanks. But this was not his decision to be. Yet early afternoon after a sparse meal, Siwon put the prince back on the dragon’s back to fly on. But this time it was Heechul who sat in the front. Junsu was placed so he’d sit in between his kidnappers, since he was back to consciousness.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Till the evening they flew around the top of the great forest, the ocean beneath them. The crowns of the trees where so high, it seemed impossible to fly above them. Otherwise they would have done it, won’t they? Junsu hardly believed that his kidnappers just wanted to show him the beauty of the kingdom.

As he slowly got used to the idea of flying, he was able to look down from time to time, for he had nothing else to do. Since the mist of the day had gone the time they had had their break, Junsu was now able to see the world gliding through underneath them. They had stuck to the border of the forest, where the trees were not that high, but the view was still breath taking. The sea of the first saplings’ delicate green was waving beneath them while beside them the mountains of great hyperion tree’s crowns, which leaves neither in autumn nor in winter fall but alter their color with the seasons, rose. When they finally crossed the border to the real ocean, Junsu was not thinking of his fear of falling down any more. The blue was glistering down there in the last orange rays of the chill spring’s eve. Junsu was jittering because the salty breeze was pounding into him even up here. He saw the islands of the Seommin – the insular race – down in the waves, even their boats… For a brief moment he thought, if he would be able to call their attention to him. If they could help him. But just then he wanted to punch himself for his stupidity. He was up in the air. On the back of a dragon. Who would possibly be able to help him here?

Junsu thought of his family, his beloved brothers. Would he ever see them again? Did they bear him in their minds? Maybe already searching for him? Of course they would search for him, but would they find him? And would they be able to take him home?

~*~*~*~*~*~

The next stop they made, when night already was about to fall. At the horizon Junsu saw the glowing red fireball sink into the ocean, but he almost wasn’t capable of taking in the beauty of the nature. He was miserable in his much too thin clothes which gave no protection against the biting cold and was long crouching between his two kidnappers, hoping to get even the slightest cover from the piercing wind. The both men wore mantles of fur, so they weren’t cold for sure. But Junsus situation didn’t seem to mean anything to them.

The young prince had already no feeling in his cuffed hands anymore when they were approaching to land. His stomach was rumbling again and Junsu was thankful as they went down near the coast at the edge of the woods. Junsu fell down to the ground tiredly. His legs didn’t even want to carry his own body’s weight anymore, but he was dragged back up roughly. “Into the forest”, Heechul grumbled behind him gruffly and he stumbled forward as told. Junsu heard the swoosh of great wings behind him and looked back just in time to see the dragon take off again. Then he was pushed in the back hardly, so he lost his balance and fall down, face first into the leaves on the ground. Twisting, but not able to get back up with his cuffed hands, Junsu groaned with pain. He could taste blood on his tongue and felt his cheek burning with ache. “Heechul! The boss said, he wants him unha-“ – “Keep your pants on. Some scratches more or less don’t matter, do they?” Heechul snarled. Was this guy actually always in such a bad mood?

After all it was Siwon who rolled him out of the mud onto his side. Junsu crouched shivering. It was warmer down here, but his body cooled pretty much up in the sky. Siwon merely gave him a short look, went over to their supplies he took from the back of the dragon earlier, dragged out a thin blanket and tossed it unlovingly above Junsu’s body. Then he started to make fire.

After Heechul and Siwon finished eating – Junsu only watched them with growling stomach – the latter came over to him and was just about to shove a dry piece of bread between Junsu’s lips, when he turned away his head. “I can’t feel my hands anymore”, he muttered with an unsteady voice, but determined not to eat. He heard Heechul’s snorting. “Just eat”, Siwon said, but Junsu pressed his lips to a thin line. The man in front of him sighed frustrated. “Then let him starve himself”, Heechul said unconcernedly. “The boss”, even before Siwon had finished this sentence, Heechul turned over noisily, pulled his blanket over himself and said: “You take the first watch!”

Junsu peeked at Siwon, who was still standing in front of him holding the bread in the hand and staring at Heechul, out of the corner of his eye. “Hey”, Junsu drew back the attention on himself. “I have to pee.”

At least that had worked to get Siwon to free him from his bonds for a short while. Junsu rubbed his bloodless wrists and stepped behind a tree. Siwon followed him. “I can’t while you’re watching”, Junsu uttered slightly angry and stared at Siwon. “Then it can’t be that urgent”, Siwon responded. And Junsu turned away wordlessly.

~*~*~*~*~*~

In the end Junsu sat tied up to a tree trunk like during their last stop. But at least Siwon had put back the thin blanket around him, before he went to keep watch near by the bonfire.

Anyhow Junsu wasn’t able to sleep properly. He dozed off, because his eyes became too heavy. His head fell aside to his shoulder and just in the twinkling of an eye he was awake again. He didn’t feel safe here. Even though Siwon kept watch, he didn’t feel safe at all. How could he, since he had only been kidnapped?!

In the middle of the night Junsu heard the wings of the dragon again, which probably came back to curl up near their camp next to the woods in order to sleep. Junsu felt his heart pounding hard in his chest as he thought of another great creature which maybe would attack them any second… but everything kept quiet. And in the end he dozed off again himself, only hearing the noises of the woods and Heechuls low snore.

The next time Junsu startled from his sleep, he heard a hushed rustling. It seemed to come from above, from the crowns. Yet spacy he looked around, but couldn’t make out anything in the shadows of the treetops. His gaze flitted to Siwon who was sitting unmoving and quiet, staring into the flames of the fire. Junsu drew in a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. There. Again the low rustling sound. Was it only the wind in the trees? Holding in his breath, the prince peered up into the treetops once again. But there was nothing. Mere darkness. Only… and then he saw it. It was the face of a young man, up there in the trees. He kept to the shadows, but still the pale skin of his exotic features was slightly glowing in the darkness. Junsu stared at him. And the man stared back. It required a moment until Junsu recovered from his shock.

His thoughts came thick and fast: Would this man attack them and kill his kidnappers and him? Or was it even possible, he could rescue him? Junsu gave a swift peek at Siwon, who still was sitting quietly near the fire. Then he gazed back up into the treetops. But the face was gone, only shadows were chasing each other between the young leaves of the trees. This part of the woods near the sea seemed to have been touched more intensely by the spring. In this night there was no frost.