9/4/11

Hey, sorry about the lack of updates! It's already September o_o!! But after this week, I'll be done with summer school!!! And I'll have more time to update :P Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

OH!! PLEASE READ: There's a reference at the end of this chapter that might be confusing to people who have not read the prequel. If you are one of the confused people and would like to be un-confused, please read this chapter: http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/41065/4/becoming-cinderella-prequel-to-into-another-world-2ne1-bigbang-dara-daragon-jiyong-korean-romance

ALSO!!!:  Please stop by this place and leave your thoughts!! : http://www.asianfanfics.com/blog/view/36624  It will be very helpful to me!!

            The next morning, the six young adults set off to the River of Yix. While trekking toward the river, Youngbae warned his friends of the possible dangers coming their way.

            “The Vidle will most likely set up a trap for us like she did last time,” Youngbae huffed out as they walked uphill. “The River of Yix is not as unique as the River of Paint, so I doubt there will be any hypnotizing, but still be wary of things that seem out of the ordinary.”

            The friends continued walking for an hour and a half. They talked about random things like the weather and their thoughts about the people of Ton (“The village definitely lived up to its namesake,” Dara commented. “If you guys know about the Victorian era, you’ll know what I mean.”), but they did not dare to mention their next traveling destinations or the main reason for their mission in fear of being overheard.

            Youngbae led the way, while Seungri stayed behind with Chaerin, who protested at least once every ten minutes about how Seungri did not have to keep her company. And every time, Seungri would say that he was just keeping an eye on her in case she started getting tired. (“Well, somebody has to keep an eye on you. I mean, it’s not like you’ll ever admit that you need a break. Your large amount of pride won’t let you say anything.”)

            As the six friends caught sight of the river, their conversations stopped. The group grew tense and slowly approached the river. There was nothing out of the ordinary with the landscape, and for some reason, that made them even more nervous.

            They reached the bank of the river, but nothing seemed to happen. Looking at each other, the group of friends tacitly agreed to carry on. Bom raised her hand and froze a section of the river. After everyone crossed to the other side, Youngbae used fire to melt away the ice. The six friends continued walking, not sure how to feel about the anti-climactic crossing of the River of Yix.  

                                                                                                    :::::

           It took twice as long to reach a city in the land of Wun, and by the time the six friends found an inn, all they wanted to do was relax on their beds.

            “Ow, my calves hurt,” Bom complained as she fell onto her bed. “I don’t want to move.”

           “But we should probably go and earn some money,” Chaerin reasoned as she, too, lied on her bed. “I think Youngbae was saying that the cost of booking the rooms and buying new clothes will use up all of our money.”

            Bom frowned. “That’s true.”

            Dara, who was sitting on her own bed, sighed and stood up. “Well, I’ll be thinking up some clothing designs. I guess I have the luckier job since I don’t have to walk around.”

            “Yeah,” Bom smiled bitterly. “You don’t even have to leave the room since there’s a desk right over there.”

            Chaerin laughed, as she pushed herself up. “Come on, Bom. Let’s get going before we become too lazy to get up.”

            “Alright,” Bom sighed as she took her time to push herself off of the bed. “See you later, Dara. I’m sure you’ll come up with something awesome!”

            The two best friends waved goodbye to Dara and slid through the door.

            “Wow,” Bom said as they went out of the inn. “How come I didn’t notice this before?”

             The surroundings of the city in Wun were completely different from the surroundings of the village in the land of Ton. Instead of elegantly dressed men and women walking around with lacy umbrellas and top hats, the citizens of the city were dressed in worn-out Chinese-style clothing made of cotton. The streets were dirty, and the place reeked of a mix of urine and rotten meat.

            Bom and Chaerin clenched their noses as they squeezed their way past the hoards of people walking around to buy groceries. I guess it is rush hour right now, Bom thought to herself. Afraid to lose Chaerin in the large crowd, Bom quickly interlocked her arm with Chaerin’s. Slowly but surely, the girls squeezed their way to the location of the animal race.

                                                                                                  :::::

            In the meantime, Seungri was also squeezing his way past the crowd to go back to the inn. He had stopped by a sculpture store while the rest of the group went to the inn. At the store, he managed to sell Youngbae’s sculptures and procure leftover pieces of the nation’s stone, the peridot. Carrying his findings in his backpack, Seungri suddenly realized that he probably won’t be able to go into the guys’ room by himself since he was not there when they booked the room. Heck, he didn’t even know which room they were staying at! Hmm, Jiyongshould be out selling Dara’s clothing designs. Maybe I’ll be able to spot him, he thought to himself.

            Climbing up a few crates to get a better view, Seungri started scanning the crowd and searching for Jiyong’s signature blonde hair. Luckily all the citizens of this city have black hair or else it will be really hard to find him in this sea of people.

            After five minutes of scanning, Seungri was about to give up when he saw a yellow blob moving around about ten feet away. Elated, Seungri started waving to the yellow blob. “Hyung!”

            At the sound of his name, Jiyong looked up at Seungri and smiled. In a split second, the smile turned into an expression of pain, and Jiyong disappeared into the crowd. Seungri felt the hair on the back of his neck rise, and all the noise from his surroundings seemed to disappear. What just happened?

            His stomach wrenched together. Something bad had happened to Jiyong. Instinctively raising his arms, Seungri mustered up all his energy and created a tornado to blow all the people that were in his way. Not caring about the citizens’ gasps of horror, Seungri ran to the kneeling Jiyong. His stomach wrenched even closer together as he saw the deep gash across Jiyong’s abdomen. . What just happened?

                                                                                         :::::

            “Ouch,” Dara whispered. She looked at her finger and sighed. Not again.

            For some reason, Dara couldn’t seem to focus on her sewing. This was the third time she poked herself with her needle already. Sighing again, Dara put the fabric down. I’ll work on it later.

            Standing up from the chair, Dara began to pace back and forth in the room. Somehow, Dara felt uneasy, as if something bad had happened. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t know what it was. The only thing she could do was wait.

            “YOUNGBAE!”

            Dara snapped her attention to the door. She heard the sound of running feet. Seungri?

            “HYUNG! WHICH ROOM ARE YOU IN?!” Seungri shouted out again.

            He sounds scared. At that thought, Dara rushed out of her door. “Seungri, what’s wrong?”

            Seungri turned around at the sound of Dara’s voice, and he froze. It took Dara a few seconds before she could register the sight before her. Seungri was carrying Jiyong. No, Seungri was using the power of air and was making Jiyong float, and Jiyong had his arms clutched around his stomach, his clothes covered in blood.

            Dara looked at Jiyong’s face. It was practically white, and his expression was contorted in pain. Dara felt like she couldn’t breathe. As if someone had the soul out of her body, and she was left shivering and unable to move. The only thing on Dara’s mind was the horrifyingly deep, bloody gash across Jiyong’s stomach.

            “Dara!” Seungri found his voice. He slowly bent down and placed Jiyong on the floor, leaning on the wall. “We have to find Youngbae. It’s the only way—“

            Before realizing what she was doing, Dara rushed over to Jiyong and placed her hands over his abdomen. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a faint blue light glowing from her pendant, and she felt the warmth from the pendant transfer through her veins to her hand. After a few moments, blood stopped flowing from Jiyong’s stomach, and the skin had completely healed.

            There was a long silence as the three of them processed what had just happened. Jiyong was the one to break the silence. Visually shaken, he looked up at Dara. Meeting her eyes, he forced out a chuckle. “You saved my life.”

            At the sound of his voice, Dara let out all of the tears that she didn’t realize she had been holding. Leaning forward, she wrapped her arms around Jiyong’s waist and cried into his shoulder. She tightly held onto him, afraid he would disappear if she let go.

            “Aren’t you supposed to kiss me now?” Jiyong said softly as he placed his arms around Dara.

            “Now’s not the time to make jokes!” Dara shouted, her voice muffled by Jiyong’s shoulder. Still, she felt so blessed to feel his voice resonate in his chest.

            Jiyong laughed and tightened his grip around Dara, pulling her in even closer. He closed his eyes and shakily breathed in the scent of her hair. “You’re right. Now’s not the time.”

celestetsm: lol, I added their animal bet powers in just for fun :P And thanks for liking ririn!

BigBang_VIP: Thank you for liking this story and subscribing! Sorry for the slow update, but I will try my best to update faster after this week! (*sigh* summer school...)

Starlightshine: Hmm, I had that feeling as well~~ XD kekeke, being random is one of the best parts of life :D

SuperJ13: Thank you for commenting!! Hmm, this chapter ended up a bit dark, but don't worry! More cute things will come soon!

Dreamer-T: Welcome, and thanks for the kind comments! Sorry about the slow update, but I promise to crank out a few more during the week of Sept. 12th! And I am also excited to post up some bombae moments, but those moments have to be reserved for later chapters DDD: But please be patient! >.< The bombae moments coming up will be worth the wait :P

kpopfandbgk: Hello and welcome!! I'm glad you like my storyline and couples!!! Oh! I see you are daragon fan :3 Check out this story's prequel (a daragaon fanfic)  if you haven't already :P And thank you for commenting!! I'll do my best to update soon(er)!!

erinus27: XDDDD Thank you very much for your comments!! It makes me very happy :P Oh! And welcome!! Ah, yes!! Another fantasy genre lover! Woot! :P And here's a bit of a daragon moment for you, although it's a bit dark/sad/bittersweet. Hmm, I'll think of ways to incorporate more (cute?) daragon stuff XD I was going you recommend you to the prequel, but it seems you have already found it :D Yay! I'm glad the prequel cleared a few things up for you!! And sorry for the late update!! I usually try and post once a week, but I just got caught up in school work D: I'll update faster after my finals, though!!