“We mustn’t linger,” Daesung ordered, grabbing Minji’s hand gingerly, “There’s no time, sister, I mustn’t let you fall.”

The two Daegrents flew off from the land away from the angry crowd of different voices of yells, growls, and odd strangles of noises. The sky was burning red and volcanoes were erupting. Trees were scattering to the ground from simple winds.

Minji felt odd in her skin, her black marks wildly moving around in her skin, forewarning her Daesung was alert, anxious perhaps. Something was wrong, incredibly deeply wrong, and for the first time she had to flee from creatures.

  “What happened?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper, clutching on to his hand as they flew at an uncharacteristically fast speed, “Daesung, what is going on?”

  “Panic,” he simply said, “Everyone is panicking.”

Minji furrowed her brows, her crystal blue eyes piercing into his, “Why so?”

Daesung pulled himself on top of her, gripping her elegantly dressed in white waist, leading her in a sudden direction. Minji felt no panic within herself; as being a Daegrent, one must control themselves to the point bothersome issues could not let them boil. It took decades of self control.

  “The Royal Family,” Daesung informed, letting go of her waist, feeling the outline of the top of her white wings cautiously, “Something has attacked our family, child. Our family crest is falling to the Earth.”

Minji felt the weight on her shoulders, her eyes widening as she grabbed Daesung’s wrist hastily, not apologizing as she roughly pulled him from on top to the front of her, a pain in her chest, “Brother, we are falling? Is the Prophecy truly occurring? But that couldn’t be for another four centuries to come!”

Daesung growled at her roughness, taking back his wrist and grabbing her, “Forget the prophecies symbols! Something is occurring and we must make haste! Save the children, you must, Minji. I need you to do that for our kind.”

The situation fell on her shoulders. Her brows furrowed, following her brother in obedience, “Why are we falling?”

Daesung calmed down, sighing as he observed the colorless land, “We’ve been plagued. Something has poisoned our dear Warrant and the elders and we can infer the younger generations are targeted next. The others are panicking of the prophecy and killing one another—they may as well be trying to murder us, as well, dear Minji. Our crowns are falling to shambles upon the unknown’s feet.”

  “Which Warrant passes your tongue, Daesung?” Minji asked, voice almost feeble at the thought of any of them passing on to another dimension.

  “Bom,” Daesung clenched his teeth, “Bom has died less than a pass of hour.”

Minji partially gasped, but not of shock or in horror; it was the first time she just couldn’t manage to breathe, “My elder?!”

  “We shall mourn another time, sister, for she will be hidden for the future generation,” Daesung urged, “We have our creatures to defend.”

Minji shook her head, pressing, “What of the prophecy, Daesung?”

The male grunted in irritation, but slowly tried to let it slip aside. Minji was not asking if it was the prophecy, only what was differed.

  “Water has not been set fire,” he said, “The time has not arrived that it is possible to make pure liquid turn to white flames. It is poison, Minji.  Bom’s breath cut short and her body curled; uncannily turning into something different. It was parallel to the elder. The elder aged into some other . . . creature.”

Minji looked down, watching as two elder Ritros sunk their teeth into each others’ shoulders viciously, trying to tear each other apart alive. They were frightened—they resulted to killing. Was it unintentional or were they asking for the other to pass them on?

  “Mind your wanderers,” Daesung warned, turning her face from the brutal battle, “They are not for such scenes.”

Oddly irked, Minji growled, defending herself from his touch, “If this is what our Earth’s becoming, there is no void. It is everywhere, brother; I may as well look at the plagues of the other creatures. I’m not a newborn—do not shield my sight as to what is in front of me.”

Daesung slowly took hold of her hand, wings flapping faster, “Spoken true, my dear. I apologize.”

Minji watched as she could see their home appear afar from her. She was growing speechless. The tan bricks and mud were becoming . . . gray and dingy.

  “This poison, brother,” she looked down around her, watching as groups of children of all sort ran around without a parent, “What creature does it make you become?”

Daesung’s eyes flashed, mouth turning oddly, “Those creatures we protected. The natives of the land. The ones who look like us when we are not this way. We do not age, my dear, you know that, but they do. Their skin will sag, their movements will limit, their voices will shrivel. That is the poison that is spreading. Our families die minutes after infection. The children, Minji. The children do not belong there—at least not yet.”

Minji said nothing as they quickened their pace, along the way finding dead creatures from battle, not infection.

She hadn’t let the foul sight sidetrack her. Although it was a saddening sight that deserved mourning, the ones amongst the living are more important for her attention. Her vision attacked her heart deeply, but Daesung kept her calm with a squeeze of her hand.

They landed at the doors of their home, hurrying themselves in. Minji was more than terrified of the sight.

The mass amounts of Daegrents: some ailing, children running, many very, very still.

  “No . . .” her voice escaped her as she ran forward, forgetting to be light on her feet, but stomping over as loud as she could. They could wake up if she was loud—they could wake up!

  “Queen,” a child lowly called, voice almost lost in a sore throat.

Minji looked down at the child, his hair bright orange, but slowly dimming down from the crown of his head and slowly covering him. He was holding a paler-than-ideal hand, tears running down the pale wrist.

The still Daegrent was the height of an early teenager, more proof when Minji saw the face. The face of a very young friend. This girl was only fourteen—not even a thousandth of her life was lived before she stilled.

  “Hyunja,” Minji held the boy’s shoulders, recognizing him finally, “Hyunja, are you sick?”

The boy looked up at her, dark rings under his eyes, eyes too dark, yellow patches of skin around his face.

  “No,” she locked her jaw, pulling the boy into her arms and picking him up, “Not you, too. No one else!”

She saw Daesung attending to the elders who’ve passed, inspecting them with suspicion written all over his stone face.

  “Daesung, please, we have to . . .” she stopped herself, widening her eyes, “I don’t have an answer! Why do I not have an answer?! What is this?!”

  “This is beyond our knowledge,” Daesung closed a still elder’s eyes, kissing the forehead before the elder blew to ash, frightening Minji for once, “We can only save the unaffected.”

Minji bit her lip in emotion she never recognized. Her lips wanted to escape downward and water filled her eyes. She didn’t like this feeling—this feeling of helpless sorrow.

  “Hyunja,” she whispered, petting the boy’s hair, “How do you feel?”

  “Like my sister, Queen,” she breathed, his head under her chin, slowly breathing, “I can’t feel.”

Minji tried to keep herself composed with the impossible situation, hushing him like a baby, slightly bouncing him as she kept petting him, “It’ll be alright Hyunja. It’ll soon . . . be over.”

  “Queen,” Daesung proceeded over to her, forcefully taking Hyunja, “They need you. I will see the boy to the end, don’t fret.”

Minji regretfully stared at Hyunja, kissing his head cautiously before whispering a ‘good night, child’ to him and sending herself away.

She had to save the rest of the children. The rest of the unaffected.

But where was she going to go with them?

----Note~----

History lesson. ccccc:

This has a whole chaptered-thing in itself. I don't think there's very many though, don't worry. xD

I don't have very much to say right now because I can't focus, but tomorrow morning, I'll upload chapter two!

Thank you to everyone! <3333

~FlaMinhoe