The icy wind bitterly at your cheeks, your limbs felt numb and frozen. You stared up at the decaying tree in front of you as its arms danced to the wind’s song. In the clearing of the tree’s limbs you saw a half eclipsed moon smiling at you in all its auburn glory. An eerie shiver ran down your spine.

You heard a whisper fly passed your head. You whipped around towards it but saw nothing. Another echoed voice boomed passed you again, leaving behind a slight ringing in your ears. What the voice said, you didn’t know. It was too muffled to be understood. Yet another ghostly whisper flew by but this time when you followed it, someone stood before you—Kai.

The tanned boy stood a few metres from you, staring with empty eyes that bore into you with a painful nothingness. Your eyes travelled down to his chest where an arrow stuck out of his bleeding chest. You tried to yell his name—but nothing came out. You reached out your hands to him, urging your feet to move—but they wouldn’t budge. Your heart clenched as tears poured down your face. You had to save him, protect him. But all you could do was cry and watch as his eyes rolled to the back of his head—his knees gave way, as he slipped to the ground.

You felt a tear trickle down the side of your face. The lingering sadness of your dream squeezed at your chest as the memory quickly faded away. What was the dream about? You could no longer remember. The more you tried to think about it, the more the dream was pushed back into subconsciousness.

“Why is she here?” You heard a voice whisper.

“Lay, she’s crying. Is she in pain? Why isn’t she awake yet?” Another asked with a sense of urgency in his voice. His whiny tone sounded very familiar. Something warm came into contact with your face, wiping away the tear that had escaped. There was a low frustrated sigh followed by a clicking of a tongue.

“You boys are insane. You shouldn’t have brought her here.”

The sound of multiple voices merged together in a hushed symphony of uncertainty. A sudden cold dampness on your forehead caused you to flinch. You tried to open your eyes but your lids felt heavy and wouldn’t allow it.

“Princess? Are you awake?” asked the familiar voice.

“Of course not, her eyes are closed.” answered another, also sounding vaguely familiar. “She’ll be alright, yeah, Lay?”

You felt the wet cloth on your forehead being flipped around to the colder side. You held back a wince, wanting your consciousness to remain unnoticed. You knew you had a terrible habit of eavesdropping, but you weren’t in any frame of mind to begin changing it.

“What’s with the face, Lay?” asked the whiny voice. “Hey. Don’t make that face. I told you, she’s on our side! She just doesn’t know it yet!”

“Tao…I don’t know.” Replied the voice, who you assumed was Lay. “She’s been with them for a while…she could have been—“

“—No! Stop saying that. She’s—“

“We have to be realistic. Yes, I can feel it—the aura. I believe you when you say she’s the one. But that doesn’t mean we can trust her anymore. They could have corrupted her.” You heard an exasperated sigh come from Tao.

“Lay…I’m telling you, we can—“

“—enough. Xiumin, you should have known better than to bring her here. When Duizhang finds out…”

“Duizhang won’t have a problem with her and you know it. I told him how she helped me and he—“

“Tao, I said enough. Now, can you go and lie down please? You’re not fully healed yet, we don’t want your stitches coming undone again.”

“But—“

“—now.”

You heard a stubborn whinge and the shuffling of footsteps walking away.

Tao, come back! Don’t leave me here with this Lay dude.

You pried your eyes open and the light flooded in, temporarily blinding you. You blinked a few times to clear your vision.  A face, which you recognised as the boy who saved you from the big scary cat came into view.

“Oh hey! The princess is awake!” The boy exclaimed, a huge smile on his face that reached his eyes.

“PRINCESS!” Tao bounded over and jumped up on your bed. You flinched as the bounce made your head spin. “You’re okay! You remember me right? Tao? Me? Remember?”

You stared at the lively boy at your side, blinking a few times, momentarily forgetting how to form words. The bruising on his face had gone down, leaving a faint yellow tinge to his cheek and jaw. His shoulder was heavily bandaged and connecting arm was in a sling. Guilt washed over you, the memory of his torcher at EXO-K village flooding your brain.  

When you didn’t reply straight away, Tao’s face dropped and he leaned in closer, a pleading look in his eye.

“Y-you do remember me right...?”

You laughed and nodded your head slowly.

“Relax. Of course I remember you, Tao.” You rubbed your head where you had hit it on the rock earlier, running your fingers along the bandage that wrapped it. A dull pain radiated from your wound. “I may have hit my head, but not hard enough to cause me to forget you.” Tao smiled and rubbed the back on his neck with his free hand. A shy flush crept to his cheeks.

With a little help from Tao and his friend, you sat up, the cold cloth falling to your lap. You turned to the boy next to Tao and smiled. “Hi. Um…thanks for saving me from that monster earlier. Much appreciated. Your name is…?”

The boy smiled and waved both his hands at you.

“That wasn’t a monster. That was just Chen’s pet kitty.”

You gawked.

“I’m sorry, did you just say pet?!”

The boy nodded and stuck out his hand.

“I’m Xiumin. And you are…?”

Oh good. These people aren’t crazy about the whole ‘can’t know your name’ thing.

You took his hand in yours and shook it. “Nice to meet you, Xiumin. I’m—“

“THE PRINCESS OF THE MOON!” Tao blasted as he threw his arm around you, his head resting on your shoulder.

“You’re from the moon?!” Xiumin’s eyes widened as he clasped his hands together. “That’s so cool! I’ve always wanted to go to the moon!”

“Huh?! No. I’m not from the moon and I’m definitely not a princess. My name is—“

“Seriously, Xiumin, you should see her hair in the moonlight! It looks silver! Just like the girl in Duizhang’s dream!” You pushed Tao off your shoulder.

Xiumin gasped. “The silver haired moon princess from Duizhang’s dream! No way. She’s actually real!”

“What are you talking about? My hair is not silver.”

“Youuu didn’t see it under the moonlight—I did! It was pretty damn silver.”

Xiumin rubbed his chin in thought as he examined your hair.

“It looks nothing like silver now though…I can’t imagine it silver at all.

Tao grabbed onto Xiumin’s shoulder and shook it excitedly. “You’ll see tonight! It’s so pretty.”

You ignored Tao and Xiumin as they continued to talk about your hair when you noticed that you were being watched. You looked up at the boy who was leaning against the wall, boring holes into your head with his stare. He was quite handsome, you noted. He had straight brown hair, a narrow face that tapered more than usual at the chin and what looked like a defined body underneath his loose woven poncho. He wore a bored—almost spaced out—expression, as his eyes rested lazily on you.

“How does your head feel?” The boy spoke, reminding you he wasn’t a statue. “Headache? Nausea? Any extreme stabbing pains? Do you feel faint?”

You cleared your throat and shook your head.

“I’m fine. I feel a slight pain where this bandage is and I have a dull headache but nothing I can’t handle.” The boy walked over to a small tree stump in the ground where a coconut shell of water sat. He brought it over to you and flashed a cautious smile.

“Drink this. I think you may have a mild concussion, but you should be okay. I had to put a few stitches in your head, but you’ll live. Just try not to move around too much.”

You took the coconut shell and brought it to your lips. The fresh coconut water trickled down your throat, cleansing its walls, almost instantly helping your headache.

“Thank you…uh…sorry, what did you say your name was?”

The boy smiled again, cute little dimples forming on his cheeks.

“I didn’t.” He walked back to his wall and sat against it, making himself comfy. “My name’s Yixing. But just call me Lay.”

“Lay? Why 'Lay'?”

Lay ruffled his hair and let out a puff of air through his still present smile.

“I have no idea. Just some weird trend we have within our warrior group. No one uses their real name for some reason. Not really sure how ‘Lay’ came about. It just did.”

You turned to Tao and Xiumin who were somehow still going on about your silver moon hair. You gave them a questionable look, but decided that you had enough names to remember already, you didn’t need to confuse yourself with their real names.

“Tao, get back into bed.” Lay said as he stood up and walked towards the door. “Come on Xiumin, let them rest. We’ll come get you during lunch time.”

Tao let out another stubborn groan and waddled his way over to the bed on the opposite side of the small room you were in. Lay turned back to you and pointed to Tao.

“Don’t let him escape. He has the tendency to disobey doctor’s orders and go on little adventures instead of staying put. Last time he decided he was bored he went for a walk in the woods and came back with his stitches undone. Blood was gushing from his opened wound and he was crying like a baby.”

“I DIDN’T CRY!”

You let out a snort and rolled your eyes at the offended look Tao gave Lay.

Such a child.

“No worries, I’ll make sure he doesn’t leave this room. Oh, and Lay?” You pointed to your injured head. “Thank you for this.”

Lay nodded once before leaving with Xiumin. You looked at Tao as his sat on his bed hugging his knees with his good arm, a cheeky grin forming on his face. Once Lay and Xiumin were out of sight, Tao scurried to the door and peeked out. He glanced back at you and let out a mischievous chuckle. Your eyes squinted.

“Tao…what are you—“

“Coast should be clear—let’s go!”

Xiumin wiped his darts down with the side of his loin cloth. He followed close behind a robotic Lay who seemed deep in thought.

“So…she seems alright, yeah, Lay?” Xiumin asked as he put the last of his darts in his dart holder around his waist. “Tao was right, once you actually talk to her, you can just tell that she’s trustworthy.”

“I don’t trust her.”  Lay murmured. “Not one bit.”

Xiumin quickened his pace so he could walk beside his warrior friend. His eyes squinted.

“But you helped her. And you were nice to her. And you left her alone with Tao…if you don’t trust her then why—“

“Xiumin. You saw how the town’s folk reacted to her when you brought her in. They’ll all be watching the first aid room like a hawk to make sure she doesn’t do anything bad. No one trusts her.” Lay chuckled. “If she even thinks about going outside to look around, they would give her so much hell. So for her own sake, she better not try to leave the hut…”

They were all around you. Your eyes darted between all the hostile faces. Mothers pulled their children away from you and others grabbed whatever they could use as a weapon and approached you. Tao grabbed your arm and pulled you behind him defensively.

“How many times do I have to tell you?!” Tao’s face distorted with anger. “She’s not the enemy!”

“She’s a witch!” A man in his 40’s yelled. “I won’t let her use her evil powers to hurt my family!”

“She chose them over us! She’s one of them now. Send her back or throw her out.” Another joined. “She doesn’t belong here.” There it was again. People saying you didn’t belong, just like how it was back home. You’d been so happy staying with EXO-K because it felt like you’d finally found a place you belonged. But now it’s back, the deafening unacceptance that you used to hear every time you tried to find a new job, undertake a new course in University or tried to join certain social groups.

“It’s just simply not for you, you don’t belong here.”

You squeezed your eyes tightly and Tao placed his free hand over yours. His heart sunk when he felt you trembling. He squeezed your hand and inched you towards the forest.

“Excuse me young man. Stupid boy, where are you taking her?” An elderly looking man asked as he pointed his bony finger at you. You felt Tao squeeze your hand tighter.

 “I’m not stupid. I’m just going to show her around our village, since she’ll be staying with us for a while.” Tao shot back, earning a stunned look from the elder.  

“Staying?! Boy, where are your senses? She’s not staying. Now get her back to the first aid room until the young master comes.”

The group of village people blocked your path and Tao shot daggers with his eyes at the wall of people in your way. Tao tried to push passed the wall but the people just pushed back. An angry choir erupted as the people loudly expressed their concern for letting you explore their land. The old man jabbed his finger into Tao’s chest.

“You are a warrior, Tao. Time to grow up.” Tao’s expression darkened. “You’re always gallivanting around here, causing trouble all the time. When are you going to learn to be responsible?”

 “I am responsible!” Tao shot back, fury in his cat-like eyes. “Why does everyone keep saying I’m not? If I weren’t responsible, I wouldn’t be a warrior!”

The man let out a haughty laugh.

“Tell me Tao. If you were responsible, would you have gotten kidnapped by EXO-K? Would you have allowed yourself to get tortured by them? Would you have put our village in danger by bringing this tainted witch into our land? No.”

Your fists balled as you felt a dark fury slowly growing within you. Who did this old man think he was, talking to Tao like that?

“And if you were responsible, you wouldn’t want to show her around here because you’d know that she’d go back to her people and tell them all our secrets!” He jabbed his finger into Tao’s chest a second time. “You, boy, are being idiotic.”

You felt a vein in your forehead twitch. The slight fear you had before vanished as burning rage sealed in its place. You clenched your teeth, mentally trying to count down from 100 to try and calm yourself.

100, 99, he’s old. You can’t punch an old guy. 98, 97, 96…

“Now do your job and get that contaminated girl back in the hut until Duizhang gets here and tells us what to do next.”

…95, 94, hasn’t gotten any younger, still can’t punch him…93, 92…

He pointed his skeletal finger one more time. “Time to open your eyes and grow up, boy! Honestly, the young master must have been spending too much time in the clouds when he made such a dumb kid one of his warriors.”

Tao let out a muffled whimper and that did it. You stopped counting and snapped. Before the old man could poke Tao in the chest for the third time, you slapped his bony hand away.  Elder or no elder—he was being really rude.

“Why you—“

“Shut up old man. Listen. How dare you. Who the do you think you are, speaking to Tao like that? Don’t tell him to grow up and don’t call him stupid. He’s done nothing wrong! He’s the only one here that is smart enough to know I’m not here to spy on you. He’s smart enough to have a good judgement of character. I’m not even capable of doing any harm to you—and he’s smart enough to know that. Everyone is misunderstanding the situation here! Listen, er, I just—“

But before you could continue your angry rant, Tao wrapped his good arm around your hip and lifted you off the ground. You let out a pup-like yelp wrapping your arms around Tao’s neck, before he launched himself into the forest at full speed. You heard yells coming from behind you. You looked up to see a few of the town’s people try to follow after you but Tao was too fast for them to keep up.  

“T-Tao…what are you doing? I wasn’t done talking to the old geezer!” The fast bounce of Tao’s running made your head spin, your wound on your head pounding along with his footsteps. You sunk your head into the side of Tao’s and closed your eyes to rid yourself of the dizzy feeling.

It didn’t work.

A soft ringing in your ears pierced through your skull. The sound of the wind rushing passed you amplified. You clamped your hands over your ears but strangely enough, the sounds didn’t disappear. You ears were filled with water—at least, that’s what it sounded like. Your body tingled all over. Suddenly, you heard something. Your breath caught in your chest. 

W-what…what was that?!

Soft strangled whispers flew passed your head but you couldn’t decipher what they were saying. The ebb and flow of voices got louder and louder before they began to fade away. All you could hear now was the thumping of Tao’s feet again.

“T-Tao…put me down...I don’t feel well.”  

Soon enough, Tao slowed down to a halt. Looking around cautiously, Tao set you down gently at the foot of a small tree. You leaned forward and held your head in your hands as you waited for your brain to catch up to you. Tao, squatted in front of you, feeling slightly exhausted. You took a deep breath and sighed, feeling the last wave of nausea dissipate into the soft breeze. You listened carefully for any hint of a whisper, but heard nothing. The sweet smelling air calmed your mind and you were able to think straight again. Tao looked at you with concern.

“Princess…? Are you okay?”

You stared at the boy blankly, unsure what to say. Were you okay?—you weren’t sure. Had you gone crazy? You weren’t exactly a doctor, but you were certain that hearing voices was not okay.

“Did you, by any chance…hear anything back there? When we were running?”

Tao cocked his head to the side.

“Hear anything? Like that?”

You shook your head. No, you weren’t going to say any more. “Never mind. Probably just the concussion. I’m fine.”

Tao didn’t look particularly convinced but he let it go. He pulled out a long blade of grass and absentmindedly wrapped it around his finger. His face was blank and unreadable—completely opposite to his normal demeanour.

“You shouldn’t have said anything.” Tao finally said, avoiding eye contact. “Now it’ll take longer for them to trust you…”

Tao ruffled his hair before resting his cheek on his propped-up knee.

“I don’t understand. Why do they hate me so much?” You hugged your knees closer to you, dejection engulfing you once again. “They…didn’t even give me a chance.”

Tao noticed the sudden drop in your mood and rubbed your shoulder in attempt to comfort you. A little light bulb went off in his head and he jumped up to his feet. He disappeared behind a tree and ran back with a small midnight blue sunflower in his hand. He squatted in front of you and took a quick sniff of the flower before handing it to you. A blue sunflower—you never knew such a flower existed. You wrapped your fingers around the delicate stem and Tao’s face beamed when he saw your eyes brighten with surprise. The once blue sunflower was now a dusty pink sunflower.

You stared at the flower in awe. You blinked, unsure if you had just imagined the flower changing colour.

“D-did…did it just—“

Tao chuckled.

“I take it you’ve never seen this type of flower before?” Your blank look told Tao you hadn’t. “This type of flower changes colour to whatever the holder’s favourite colour is. My favourite colour is blue, so…”

Tao look the flower back from you and the colour reverted back to the midnight blue you had first seen it as. You jaw dropped. If you hadn’t have seen it, you wouldn’t have believed it.

“…But how?”

“The force of the Island. Or what you might know it as…magic.” 

You reached out for the flower again and Tao let you take it. You stared at the dusty pink sunflower in your hands and sniffed it—mmm cotton candy.

“Haven't EXO-K shown you anything like this on their side?” Tao looked confused as to why you found this so shocking. When it came to the Island’s force, this flower was barely the tip of the ice berg. He smiled warmly as you shook your head, still in awe of the flower.

“If you find that little flower fascinating, you’re going to flip at what I’m going to show you next.” Tao stood up and held his hand to you. “Let’s go for a walk, Princess.”

A/N: First of all, can I just say that I deserve to be shat on by all the birds in the world for taking so long to update again. *bows and waits for the s* But seriously though, I apologise greatly. Finals came up and I needed to focus all my concentration on studying and finishing my assignments. And then straight after I finished, I went on a trip with my boyfriend and never got around to finishing this chapter. 

But here it is! Finally in EXO-M land! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you to all of you goregous people for the comments you've been giving me. Every time I feel a little demotivated, I re-read them and my heart swells like over cooked ramen. I can't believe there are so many of you! Why are you reading my potato?! T__T

I love you guys, see you next chapter :)