Chapter 2

Minseok awoke, on an unfamiliar bed. The mattress was much too soft to be his.

He sat up slowly, remembering that he had just had a concussion. “Where am I?” his voice came out groggy.

“In my house, my dear,” He recognized the voice of Mrs. Han. She was sitting in a rocking chair in the same room.

“Mrs. Han, thank you,” he coughed, clearing his throat. “How long have I been unconscious?”

“A couple of days, son. Out like a light.”

A couple of days? He left Sohee alone for a couple of days?

“Where is my cousin? Have you seen her?” The rocking stopped.

“My lovely apprentice.. is nowhere to be found.” She said quietly.

“Gone? Since.. since when?” He was fully awake now. “Did she leave to find family?”

“No, she did not leave. She was..”

His stomach dropped, expecting the worst. “Taken?”

“Taken,” she agreed reluctantly. “Carried off by those damned birds, and none of us could do anything about it,” she sounded angry with herself.

No- oh, no no no no no. Those monsters, large enough to carry away a human, took his cousin from him.

“Where did they go? Did you see which direction they went in?” He asked frantically. He needed to find her, fast. He was already two days behind!

“North, inland. We do not know anything else. We only heard her,” her voice cracked, “screaming your name, and found you bleeding all over the ground.”

He pulled himself out of the bed. “Thank you for all you have done for me, Mrs. Han, and the information. I must get going.”

“Where will you go? You cannot survive beyond this village, especially without..” she trailed off.

Without sight. He knew she was right, but he either lived with Sohee or did not live at all.

“North. Inland,” he repeated her earlier words. With a final bow, he opened the door and stepped into the night.

The walk back to his house was quiet. Crickets always chirped from the roof of the cottage; following their song, he found it.

Packing was relatively easy and fast; he only brought food, water, clothing, his knife, and a drawing Sohee made of them and his parents before the attack. He would never be able to see it, but he would always treasure it. He would miss the house, but it would be even worse to stay there alone, living without a purpose.

He had no idea where he was going. He had no idea where Sohee was taken. He would probably die- but when he thought about what those horrible monsters might have done to his cousin, he figured it did not matter.

Walking through the forest outside the village was peaceful. Night shadows and rustles of leaves did not bother him. His footing was unsteady but sure enough to tread safely through the underbrush. Owls hooted, more crickets chirped.

How far will I walk, he wondered. Once the forest ended and he could not use the moss as a way of direction, he would have to rely on a person.

When he felt the slightest touch of the sun’s rays on his cheeks he realized it was morning. He had walked through the night and was beginning to tire.

I cannot rest in the forest, who knows what or who is out there, he thought. He had to find civilization, somehow.

His prayers were answered when he smelt smoke. Someone must be burning a fire! He followed his nose.

When he no longer felt trees and plants all around, he called out, “Hello? Is anybody here?”

No answer.

He stepped forward tentatively. “I would like some help! I cannot..” he swallowed, “see..”

Something rushed by his ear. Before he could react, a blow was landed on his head. For the second time in two days, he was rendered unconscious yet again.

A few nights before

Ten men followed another as they walked through a field. The white-eyed one who led the way emitted light from his palm, guiding his companions.

“How will we know who it is we must find? It could be anyone!” the yellow-eyed one, named Jongdae, grumbled.

“And why do we need him? Are the eleven of us not strong enough?” Baekhyun huffed, the light in his palms weakening for a moment.

“Concentrate, Baekhyun,” Luhan reminded him gently. Baekhyun was the last one to join their force, merely one year ago.

“It is always fun to make new friends!” Sehun bounced behind Luhan, his bright green eyes darting everywhere in excitement. “And we get to go on a mission, so who cares?”

Luhan ruffled his hair. At fourteen years old, Sehun was the youngest of EXO, next to Jongin, who was turning fifteen soon. Sometimes Luhan wondered if it was right to make the two part of the group; they seemed too young to kill.. or be killed.

A giant red dragon soared through the sky, sweeping in a large circle before landing gracefully in front of the group. As the wings closed in, it morphed into a tall man.

“Did you see anything, Yifan?” Zitao asked in A’nihcese, the language of the country neighboring Aerok. Yifan, Tao, Yixing, and Luhan migrated from A’nihc to Aerok after hearing about EXO. Jongdae, despite being Aerokan, learned the language after living in the country for a while.

Jongin and Sehun grumbled about not understanding anything, but Luhan ignored them in favor of Yifan’s report.

“A village up ahead has been attacked. It lies on one of the minor roots, branching off of the First Root.” His eyebrows furrowed. Luhan knew Yifan would do anything to prevent death, but sometimes it simply could not be helped.

 Zitao slipped his hand into Yifan’s and murmured into his ear, and Luhan just looked forward.

“Then we shall go there, and ask the villagers about what happened.”

They arrived at the village an hour later. The moon and stars were still in the sky, and other than the few buildings that were destroyed, there were no signs of the monsters.

“The claw marks..” Jongdae felt the indents in the beams of wood from a building still standing, “..these are from rocs.”

Luhan sighed. “Any victims were probably carried off. We will wait until the morning to talk to the villagers, find out if anyone is missing-“

“Luhan, over here!” Chanyeol’s lanky form leaned over a figure lying on the ground, illuminated by the fire in his palm. They immediately rush over.

“He is alive,” Yixing determined, feeling his pulse. “No bones broken. He may have a concussion.”

“He is bleeding,” Jongin pointed to the gaping wound on the boy’s palm. Yixing placed his own palm over the wound, emitting an emerald green glow, and the wound healed.

“Nothing fatal. He just lost a lot of blood.”

“What should we do with him?” Sehun blinked. “We cannot just leave him here, what if the rocs come back?”

“We cannot wake the villagers either, and I doubt they would let us in after whatever happened earlier,” Chanyeol replied.

“I guess we will have to watch over him, until dawn,” Luhan decided.

So they stayed with him until the sun began to peek over the treetops, and they knocked on all of the doors until one woman finally answered.

“We have a boy out here, and we do not know his family or friends. Do you know him, by any chance?” Kyungsoo, the decidedly kindest-looking one (and most normal, considering his eyes were brown), looked wide-eyed at the elderly lady.

“A boy? What does he look like?” She responded kindly.

“Short stature, has a round face-“

“Oh, that must be Minseok. Of course. Do you think you could carry him in here? I will take care of him. Did you see a girl nearby, one that looks like him?”

They denied seeing a girl, then Yifan and Chanyeol hauled the boy into her house and placed him on a bed. After bidding their thanks, EXO decided to move east.

After a day of walking, Luhan sent Jongdae up to check their location. With a sonic boom, he leapt into the sky and soared away.

“I saw the First Root,” he saod when he lands back in front of the group. “We are headed in the wrong direction- the root is north from the village.”

Collective groans rose from all ten men receiving the message and Luhan made them redirect their course, which took another day.

By nightfall, they found another village, but it was void of human life. They figured it was alright to help themselves to whatever food is left, which was still a meager amount and the carnivorous ones ended up having to hunt anyways.

Luhan contemplated whether or not they should continue moving forward, but seeing Zitao, Jongin, and Sehun struggle to keep their eyes open and stifle their yawns he thought it should be okay to sleep a few hours.

Junmyeon and Kyungsoo volunteered to guard (with a stern warning from Luhan to concentrate on guarding and not each other’s lips) and the rest pair up and find a house and sleep.

Come daybreak, Zitao and Jongin returned with a freshly-killed buck- Luhan sniffed and refused to watch Chanyeol cook it, focusing on his wild greens instead- and they enjoyed breakfast together.

Nobody spoke. As boys, eating was much more important than chatting.

Suddenly they heard footsteps, crushing foliage in the forest. Everyone tensed. The youngest quivered, their shape-shifting abilities not mastered like the older ones.

A familiar boy stepped into view, his eyes closed. “Hello? Is anybody here?” Baekhyun snorted, and Luhan knew they were all thinking the same thing. Maybe if he would open his eyes, he would know.

“I would like some help! I cannot.. see..” he trailed off, his hands reaching for something that was not there.

Before he could even think, Jongin teleported right next to the boy and knocked him out with a single blow to the head. They gathered ‘round.

“Hey, is this not the boy whom we saved a few days ago?” Yixing picked up his hand, seeing a scar. “It is him!”

“Why did he not open his eyes?” Sehun said what they were probably all thinking.

“Maybe he has an eye infection or something.”

“This is suspicious,” Luhan inspected the seemingly-innocent person. “Do you think he followed us here?”

“I do not understand how he could if his eyes were closed the whole time.” The eleven boys murmured, wondering just how this strange boy came to find them.

“Well, we do not have any time to spare. We need to either take him back to the village or take him with us.” Yifan said after a moment of thought.

“We should take him back,” Luhan said just as Sehun interjected, “What if he is the one we are looking for?”

They fall silent. Then, “How could he be? He does not open his eyes, and he does not exhibit any powers.”

“We do not have time to spare to take him back, we already wasted a full day re-routing. And if he is the one, we could be making a grave mistake by leaving him behind.” Jongin stood by Sehun.

Though they were the youngest, Luhan had to agree. “Alright. For now, we will bring him with us. Who will carry him until he awakens?”

Everyone turned towards Yixing. “Okay,” he agreed like the generous soul he was, before morphing with a flash of green into a pure white, winged horse. They lift the boy onto his back, then leave the empty village behind.