“Let me warn you: The heart of this island is

full of jagged mountains, dark jungles and terrifying creatures.”

– Alexander, Journey to the Mystery Island

At first light, Sohee was pacing around in the living room in the burrow. She glanced over at the room where Luhan was sleeping in. Should she wake him? Or should she let him sleep a little more?

Just as she decided to let him sleep a little more, Luhan emerged out from the room with a bright smile on his face. “Good morning,” he greeted her softly, careful not to wake the others. He sauntered over to her and pecked her forehead lightly. “Are you ready to go?”

Just as he expected, the peck threw her off guard and she blinked a couple of times, shocked. But she tried to compose herself and nodded, holding a picnic basket up to him. “I’ve prepared food,” she told him with a proud grin, “I made enough so that it would last the whole day.”

He chuckled lightly, taking it from her hands so he could be a gentleman. “Let’s go, then. Lead the way.”

The two of them began hiking uphill but Sohee took a different direction than the way to the waterfall. Luhan wondered where she was taking him. All he could hear other than the occasional rustles of the leaves as the wind breezed upon them, and other than the footsteps, he could hear water burbling from a river nearby, but he saw no river.

Just then, Sohee pulled to a stop and turned to him with questioning eyes. “Hmm, Luhan-sshi, do you know how to swing on vines?” she asked him all of a sudden.

“Vines?”

“Yeah, you know, like how Tarzan can. It’s a faster way to get up the mountain.”

Luhan blanched, totally unprepared for this question. “You want me to be like Tarzan and swing on vines?” he asked back stupidly. He looked up warily to the thin vines. “Um, Sohee, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it without breaking my neck. I mean, I don’t have any experience so I don’t think I’ll be able to do it as easily as you would be able to.”

“Oh, right, we’ll have vine-swinging another time, then.” Sohee nodded thoughtfully. “I guess we'll have to take a ride.”

“Take a ride?”

She smiled and cocked her head upward to the mountain. “Just a little bit more and we’ll reach the Elephant’s Sanctuary,” she explained. “Then we’re going to hop onto one of them and it will take us up to the mountains because it is so much easier than going on foot.”

“Wait, we're taking elephants? And I didn’t know that elephants would go up that high due to their heavy weight,” Luhan blurted out.

She nodded. “I guess our elephants are special.” She let out a laugh. “Come on.” With a small smile, she continued making her way up. He followed her, wondering what he was getting himself into. Sohee led Luhan upward until the sounds of the water gradually growing louder. Then they came to a clearing where there was another lake, where a lot of elephants were leisurely bathing and drinking from it — but then he realized it was the same waterfall, except that it led to another waterfall, the one they were at yesterday.

“The waterfall, in a way, is like a staircase,” Sohee described to Luhan, pointing to the top to the bottom of the mountain. “It flows from the top, which would be the top floor. Then down the staircase, it has many landing steps. You could say that the Elephant’s Sanctuary is the landing step before the waterfall we went to yesterday.”

“So the water from the waterfall we went to yesterday came from here?” Luhan glanced around and she nodded. He glanced back at the elephants.

The elephants were huge but then again, elephants were always huge. How were they going to climb on the elephant? There was no saddle or anything to help. What were they going to hold onto? But he knew that Sohee would have a plan, even if it was a crazy one. And as crazy as he knew it was going to be, he thought it was even crazier that he knew he was going to find himself agreeing to this plan. As long as he got to be with her.

Sohee only grinned, going into the water. She motioned for him to follow and he walked into the lake until he was knee-deep in. He shivered because the water was freezing. “Don’t worry, it’s not as crazy as making you swing on vines,” she said as if she had read his thoughts. She placed two fingers into and let out an ear-piercing whistle. “Watch,” she said to him, nodding her head toward the elephants.

Luhan turned his head in time to see an elephant in the herd perking up its ears as the whistle sounded, turning its head toward their direction. Then it broke off from its family and wandered over obediently. It was huge, and with every step it took, the earth trembled. Luhan cowered behind Sohee, who remained unfazed by the tremor. Much to his relief, it stopped a few feet away, flicking its trunk in greeting. However, to his horror, when it swished its trunk, droplets of water drizzled onto him.

Sohee didn’t seem to mind, as if she was used to it by now. “Hey, there’s a good boy,” she smiled at the animal, extending a hand over to pat its trunk. The elephant nickered slightly. “How are you doing, Tantor?”

“Tantor? You mean, like in Tantor from Tarzan?” Luhan crinkled his nose, furrowing his brows at the familiar name. “Does this mean he’s a big scaredy-cat?” He snickered. Tantor was actually his favorite character in Tarzan.

She nodded. “Yes, just like in Tarzan, but there’s nothing cowardly about this big guy.” She patted his trunk again. “And Tantor’s going to take us on a ride.” She smiled affectionately at the elephant. “Tantor, down, boy.”

Tantor laid down in the water and another elephant came over and stood next to him, waiting expectantly at Luhan. Sohee giggled, knowing that Luhan wouldn’t have a clue of what to do and tread lightly on the water before reaching the two elephants. She then propped herself on the other elephant's trunk and it hoisted her up on Tantor’s back.

It felt a little uncomfortable as the elephant wrapped its trunk around Luhan’s waist. What if it squeezed a little too hard? What if it thought he was good instead? Its tasks looked quite sharp too. Before he had time to think of more scary scenarios, he let out a gasp as he found himself dangling in the air, his heart pumping wildly with fear. Even though he wasn’t so far off from the ground, he was still afraid of heights. He squeezed his eyes shut but it was no use; he felt himself going numb and dizzy and he was sure he was going to pass out.

But then he felt his making contact with something solid and when he felt around, his hand touched what felt like a leathery, wrinkly surface. He opened his eyes to a grinning Sohee who was looking at him over his shoulders. “You okay?” she asked him softly. She could tell that he was scared senseless but he was trying to be brave.

He nodded, trying to catch his breath. He could not believe he had looked like a total dork in front of her again. “Y – Yeah . . .” he stammered a bit, his voice shaking. He gulped hard and tried to compose himself. “I’ll be fine.”

"”Hold onto me so you won’t fall down because Tantor would not be aware of it,” she told him with a slight nod, turning back to the front. She grabbed a bit of Tantor’s skin and lightly tapped his side with her leg. “Yip, yip!”

Tantor abruptly stood up and Luhan quickly grabbed the nearest thing he could grab onto to prevent from falling. It was only when Tantor was already walking on land did he realized he had grabbed onto Sohee’s waist. His cheeks flamed with embarrassment and he was grateful that he was behind her so she couldn't see his expression upon the realization. If she had felt his hands on her waist, he had no idea what her reaction was like.

Sohee, on the other hand, was only thankful that Luhan was sitting behind her so he couldn’t have seen how red her face had become when the fact that his hands on her waist dawned upon her.

The ride uphill was silent and peaceful as Tantor and the other elephant followed the trail of the river. They found out that there was no need for words when they can just relax into the day's song of chirping birds, the rustling of leaves as the wind danced among them, and the flow of river streaming down from the top of the mountain. Occasionally, Tantor would blow his trumpet, scattering away whatever danger that might had laid before them if they had been going up on foot.

After what seemed like half an hour, they had reached a cave where water gushed out from its mouth. Tantor flapped his ears and knelt down. Sohee easily slid off him and waited for Luhan to do the same. When his feet landed on the ground, she smiled at him. “You made it!” she encouraged.

Luhan nodded, still a little shaken up. He felt a little dizzy. “Y – Yeah . . . “ Damnit, stop stammering! You’re looking like a fool in front of Sohee. She’s going to think you’re a sissy! he mentally scolded himself.

“I hope you know how to swim just in case anything happens and you need to swim,” she told him as she led him toward the cave.

The elephants stayed behind as they knew it was far too dangerous to go inside the cave. Luhan uneasily skipped along the rocks behind Sohee as they entered the cave and saw why her warning was needed. Inside the cave was filled with nothing but water. There was no waterfall, only a great vast of water that could have come from the ocean below. He looked up and saw jagged rocks that if one was to fall, it would make a huge impact into the water and might cause an earthquake. There was no sunlight streaming down, so the cave was dark and if they were to venture deeper into the cave, there was a chance they might slip and fall into the water and it would be impossible to get back to the surface since everything was pitch black. Chances were, they would be taken down to the waterfall — if they survive the toothed rocks shaped like canine teeth at the entrance.

“This is one of the many wonders of the island we have found while living here for the times we’ve been here,” Sohee told Luhan as she carefully sat down not too close to the water but not too deep into the cave either. “We’re not really creative people so we decided to call this place the Dead Man’s Cave.”

“Except that literally you could die if you fall into the water.” He sat next to her, glancing around in amazement. “Do you have a place here called Skull Rock?” He was indicating of the story in Peter Pan, where there was a cave shaped like a skull, hence the name.

She shook her head. “No.” She paused. “Honestly, we never come here; it’s actually off-limits,” she said. “Suho Oppa and Kyungsoo Oppa discovered this place by accident when they first came to the island. They were exploring and wondered just how high the mountain could reach the sky. Then they came here and decided that we shouldn’t even come here, let alone climb higher.”

“So you’ve never been to the top of the mountain?”

“Nope,” she said again, shaking the head while popping the ‘p’.

“If this is off-limits, then why did you take me here?” Luhan wanted to know. “Won’t you get into trouble if they find out that you've taken me here?”

“You said you wanted to see all the wonders of the island,” she reminded him of the words he had spoken the night before and he grinned, “and I’ve never been here before. So I thought, why not?”

He grinned wider. “Well, now that I’ve seen this place, why don’t we get out of here? To be honest, this place is starting to give me the chills and I’m not talking about the cold because of the water.”

Sohee smileed back and nodded, getting up to her feet. “Let’s go.” She held her hand out to pull him up. “It’s time to show you the other wonders of the island.”

Luhan purposely laced their fingers together when he grabbed her hand. He smirked, pulling himself up as a blush crept to Sohee’s cheeks. Cute, he chuckled to himself. He did not let go of her hand as they walked back to the elephants. “So, where will you be taking me to next, tour guide?” he joked.

“Hmm, well, we’ve been to Dead Man’s Cave, you’ve seen the Elephant’s Sanctuary — although there wasn’t much to look at — and you’ve also been to Hangman’s Tree,” Sohee listed each down with her fingers.

“Hangman’s Tree?”

“What do you think we called the tree where you’re living in?”

“Oh . . .” He now felt stupid.

“This island has a lot of caves,” Sohee mused thoughtfully to herself. “Hmm, I haven’t taken you to Shell Cave yet, have I? It’s a cave where we found a shipwreck in; that’s how we get all our clothes.”

“Shell Cave for such tragic thing.” He raised an eyebrow.

“It will be frightening to call that place Shipwreck Cave, as frightening as it is to go to Dead Man’s Cave,” she reasoned. She climbed back on Tantor’s back.

Luhan braced himself for the fear that would follow as the other elephant (whose name he later found out was Pampy) wrapped its trunk around his waist again and hoisted him up onto Tantor’s back yet again. However prepared he was this time for the sudden lift, his heart refused was not as prepared and he found himself losing his breath as fear gripped him once more. Feeling humiliated, he groaned and leaned his head forward, pressing his forehead onto Sohee’s back.

Sohee smiled softly. “Don’t worry, this will be the last time we need to ride Tantor for today,” she reassured him. “Once we’re back at Elephant’s Sanctuary, we can take a break for lunch before making our way on foot to Shell’s Cave.”

Luhan will honestly confess that he was very relieved to hear that and began to enjoy the ride back down the mountain. He s his arms around Sohee’s waist and comfortably rested his head on her chin.

In front of him, Sohee bit her bottom lip as she felt his warmth pressing onto her back and it was all she could do to stop from turning around to kiss him. She didn’t know why her heart was racing so fast and why she couldn’t stop grinning. All she knew that this was Luhan’s doing but she wasn’t particularly complaining about it.

She liked the warmth of his hug.

So needless to say, she was disappointed when they had arrived at Elephant’s Sanctuary and Luhan extracted his arms from around her waist. She was already missing the presence of his arms. But she masked a poker face expression as she let Pampy and Tantor back to the rest of the herd while Luhan set the picnic up for them.

When she turned around, Luhan was flashing that brilliant smile of his that made Sohee nearly buckle her knees. Shyly she approached him and sat down on the picnic mat as he handed a plate to her. They ate in silence yet it was comfortable, as they watched the elephants play with one another in the water.

The sun had already been lifted up high in the sky and was blazing down on them. Clouds danced in front of it, shielding Luhan and Sohee from the sun’s hot and sizzling rays. It was a good day for picnic; it was almost Mother Nature was in agreement of their date. Luhan couldn’t help but smile at that thought.

“Why are you smiling?”

He batted his eyelids, being brought back to reality, as he cocked his head over to Sohee who was looking at him inquisitively. “Huh?” he said blankly.

She gave him an amused smile. “You seemed to be far away,” she said, her soft voice ringing in Luhan’s heart and he swore he forgot his name when she smiled at him.

“I was?”

Sohee nodded. “Come back; where are you going?”

Luhan smiled softly, locking his gaze with her and holding it until she blushed and looked away. “I was just thinking about what a good day today is,” he spoke his thoughts aloud. “The weather is perfect and . . .”

“And?” she pressed on.

“And I get to spend this glorious day here with you.”

Sohee’s face flushed red and she hung her head low in embarrassment at his cheesiness but Luhan saw that she was smiling, and that made him smile even broader. When she dared to look up, he was still gazing at her. “Stop doing that,” she mumbled, feeling self-conscious.

“If I am allowed to gaze at a glorious sunset, why am I not allowed to gaze at a beautiful face of an exceptionally beautiful girl?” Xi Luhan had a way with words that could melt a girl’s heart, along with that suave voice of his — and it definitely melted Sohee’s heart.

She was rendered speechless and suddenly had an interest in the egg sandwich she was nibbling.

Luhan chuckled and turned back to his own sandwich. He shot a sideways glance at her when she wasn’t looking and he knew that Sohee could show him all the wonders she knew about on the island, but to him, the greatest wonder of this island wasn’t any of the landscapes or landmarks she had took and would take him to.

In Luhan’s opinion, the greatest wonder on this island was Sohee herself.

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Okay I admit, this was a bit cheesy um ;u;

And please, someone kick me in the because I was supposed to update this yesterday. AND I WAS ONLY ONE AND HALF PAGE TO FINISHING THIS CHAPTER WHEN MY MOTIVATION DIED OFF AND OMG IT WAS TORTURE, STARING AT THE WORD DOCUMENT, NO WORDS NOR THOUGHTS WERE ENTERING MY MIND /SOBS

Anyway so I've decided that in order to let you know when I'm updating soon, or to kick my to update soon, since I am actually quite frequent on Twitter, follow me at @psxthurism. Mind you, this is my PA and I do tend to tweet often and frequently and sometimes really random s though I do sometimes update on my progress in the fics I'm writing on.

So if you see me there, and there's no updates, feel free to kick my ;u; cheers o//