The most voted option was C;

On the end of the chapter we'll tell you guys how the story would have gone if you chose either a, b or d ^^

I hope you enjoy the chapter, even if your option wasn't chosen <3

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Luhan’s father went back to the village with a heavy feeling on his chest. Was he doing the right thing locking his only son in a shack in the woods? That seemed cruel, really, to leave such a young boy alone at the night, and he was sure Luhan would be crying a lot.

Should he come back? Should he bring his son home and try to hide him there, risking that the boy was found by the king? He couldn’t just leave Luhan up there, he would be doing to the boy exactly what he was trying to stop his king from doing: taking his freedom away.

He was actually thinking of climbing back to the top of the mountain and getting his son back when he realized something was wrong in the village.

Some houses were opened and a lot of people’s stuff was thrown on the ground. He looked around and saw the horses of the guards of the palace and quickly ran to find someone known.

-Eunkwan. – He panted as he found his friend. – What’s happening?

-They are looking for a blonde little boy the king marked. – Eunkwan whispered back. – They are looking for your son!

-Oh my God. – He panted.

-Where is he? Is he safe?

-Yes, he’s on the hunting shack on the top of the mountain.

-Great, they won’t look there.

-My wife, I have to warn her!

-I told her already, I told everybody. Everyone said they didn’t know the boy, but still they are searching every house on every village.

-Thank you. I’m sorry for what I’m causing you all…

-I would do the same if it was my child, so don’t worry about that.

The man thanked Eunkwan profusely again and then he went home, looking for his wife. When he arrived, he found the guards in the front of his door, talking to the woman.

-We are looking for a small boy at the age of seven or eight. – The tall man said, intimidating. -He is really pale and his hair is blonde. Also he has the king’s mark on his ear.

-Oh, there isn’t such child around here. – The woman answered. – Pretty much every child here is brunet, I would remember if I saw a blonde one…

-Well, then you won’t mind us searching your house, is that right? – The man asked, but didn’t wait for an answer and shoved the woman aside, making way inside of the house for him and two other guards.

She fell on the arms of her husband, who ran to catch her and she exchanged a worried look with him.

-Everything is going to be alright. – He whispered into her ear as the guards searched their house.

They broke stuff and tore things apart on the search and, once they were satisfied, they left.

-If you see him, take him to the palace. – The last guard told the couple. - The king is offering a colossal reward for him.

They nodded in confirmation and could finally breathe when the door was closed. Now they just had to wait until it was safe to go and get their son back.

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It was midnight already, the moon was high in the sky and the owls had come out to hunt. Everybody slept on the kingdom, but a small boy that lay on the floor of a shack in the woods, staring at the wooden ceiling.

Like always at that time of the year the days were hot and the nights were cold, and Luhan couldn’t wait for the morning so his father would come back to get him.  There were two windows on the shack, one over the bed and one near the door. The one to the side Luhan could reach if he was on the bed, so he closed it with a cloth. The other, however, remained open and the boy trembled in fear and cold.

He slept for some hours, but now he woke up and wasn’t sleepy anymore. Instead he lay on the floor, thinking about why he was abandoned there. At first he thought his father left him there because he was somehow a bad child, but thinking about the cut in his ear, he understood his father was doing it for his sake, to keep him safe from some mad man on the kingdom.

He didn’t understand who that man was and what he wanted to do with him, but the cautious way his father explained things to him and asked him to keep quiet on the shack made him scared. Very scared.

Now he was expecting his father to come on the dawn, with food hopefully, but the man didn’t come that morning and Luhan was starting to freak out. He was about to, until he heard noises of metal scrapping the locker and the door being forced open.

Luhan exhaled in relief and ran to the open window.

-Appa, thank God, I… - Luhan froze when he saw the person outside wasn’t his father. It was someone way smaller than the man was.

-Oh… hi there. – A boy seemed to be outside the window, sounding surprised to know there was someone in there.

Luhan turned around and stuck his back on the wall, and then he slid his body until he was sitting on the bed. What should he do now?

-I’m sorry. – Came the raspy voice from outside. – I didn’t know someone lived here.

Luhan crossed his arms over his knees and buried his face on them.

-Hey? – The voice called again. – Are you there? I really am sorry!

“Go away, go away, go away” Luhan muttered into his arms, fear taking control of his whole body.

-Ok then, I’m sorry, I’ll be leaving.

The young went away and Luhan, still shivering, raised his body and peered outside the window to see the back of the child walking away.

He exhaled in relief, but then a perturbing thought came to his mind. Could the boy know the bad men? Could he be working for him? What if that boy told the bad men where he was?

He was nearly crying now and he just wanted his father to show up quickly. He was scared and had been hungry for hours with nothing to eat in the house but the dirt on the floor. And he really didn’t want to eat dirt any time soon.

He checked the window once again and, as there was no one outside, he threw his shivering body to the bed and grasped his pillow, clutching it tightly to his chest and burring his face on it.

-Please appa… - He murmured, his words muffed into the pillow. – Please come soon…

A few minutes later, however, the boy was back, and he appeared on the window now. Luhan gasped. The boy had a piece of metal in one of his hand, with what he was trying to open the shack’s door, and in the other he held a loaf he was eating. He peered inside and Luhan, for his turn, covered his mouth, holding a scream in his hand.

The boy giggled while looking at the other. He didn’t know why the boy was acting so weirdly, he just wanted to ask why he was living so far from the kingdom, if he lived alone, what was his name, among many other curious and innocent things.

-I’m Xiumin. – He told him. - What’s your name?

Nothing, not a single word, only the glare of those two shining and miserable eyes. Luhan couldn’t keep his eyes away from Xiumin’s bread though, and the brunet noticed it.

-Are you hungry? - He let go of the metal and offered him a piece of his food. – I bet so, you are really skinny.

Luhan eyed him suspiciously and took a step back.

-It’s good, it’s meat and bread. – He told the boy, taking a bite of the sandwich, then speaking with his mouth full. – It’s yours, you can take it.

The blonde finally crawled to the window, grabbing the piece of food and he took it to his mouth, shyly nibbling at it.

Xiumin smiled. –If you open the door, I can give you a lot more to eat.

-I can’t. – He finally spoke and Xiumin tilted his head.

-Why not? Are you scared of me?

-A little, yeah, but that’s not it. The door is locked.

-What do you mean, you can’t get out?

Luhan shook his head.

-Oh… - Xiumin seemed to finally understand. The young wasn’t living there because he wanted, he was locked on the small house. – Wait, I’ll try to get you out of there.

-No, please… - Luhan whispered. – Don’t open my door.

-I don’t understand. – Xiumin tilted his head one more time, confused. – Are you locked there or not?

-Yes, and no.

Xiumin tilted his head, yet more confused, and Luhan sighed.

-I’m waiting for my appa to come back, he has the key. – He explained.

-And when is he coming back?

-I don’t know he was supposed to be here already. – Luhan muttered, but then he glared at Xiumin’s eyes and raised his voice. – He’ll come. There’s no need to worry about me. Thank you for the bread… You can leave now.

-How do you know he’s coming if he isn’t here?

-Because I’m an oracle and I can see the future. – He argued, even though he couldn’t see anything from his own life. He just wanted Xiumin to leave, so he said it anyways.

Xiumin wanted to argue with the young, but he saw the determined look on his eyes and sighed.

-Then do you want this? – He passed the rest of his sandwich through the bars of the window. – Or else you’ll starve to death.

-Thank you. – Luhan whispered taking the food and Xiumin smiled.

-I think I’ll be going then. – The brunette said, getting down from the piece of wood he had been stepping on so he could reach the window.

He was hoping the blonde would try to stop him, to call him back, but when Xiumin saw he wasn’t going to, he ended up actually going away, reluctantly leaving the other. He felt the strong smell of tobacco and he ran to the dirt road nearby.

-Appa! – Xiumin came running, almost bumping into the man sitting by the road. – I found someone, I found a boy, in the forest.

-By himself? – The man spat the tobacco he was chewing on to the floor and Xiumin nodded quickly.

-He’s waiting for his own appa.

-Well, then we have nothing to do with it, do we?

Xiumin pouted, but nodded, sliding his body to the floor. He watched the man chewing and chewing and he decided to share what he learned with him.

-He’s blonde, and he has a cloth wrapped on his ear and he’s an oclaro, he said. – The boy told the man, who frowned.

-‘the hell is an oclaro, kid?

-Someone who can see the future.

-An oracle, you mean?

-Oh, yeah, that’s it! – Xiumin seemed content that he could remember the right name. – He’s one.

The man froze for some seconds.

-Are you sure?

-He said he could see the future...

The man gasped and dropped the tobacco paste to the dirt, quickly gathering his things.

-Well he might be needing some help, right? Being in the woods, by himself. – He said, arranging everything on his wagon and pulling his horse by the leash. - Come on, show appa where he is.

Xiumin smiled and happily did it, taking his father to the clear. The man looked over to the small house nearby. It looked so abandoned, so closed to the world; it didn’t look like anybody could live in there actually.

Still, Xiumin said there was a blonde oracle living there, and he needed to check with his own eyes and see if that was true.

He used one of his tools and, even if Xiumin protested, he forced the door to open. As Xiumin said, there was a boy in there, a blonde boy, and the child gasped, running to the other side.

-Don’t hide, little boy. – He said softly, stepping inside. - I mean you no harm.

The boy bit on his lower lip nervously and didn’t say anything, but even if he wanted, he wouldn’t be able to run away either.

The man approached and knelt on the floor in front of the boy, who was visibly startled.

-Calm down boy, and tell me, where are your parents?

-I don’t know. – He said truthfully, so the man tried again.

-Do you know my name? - He asked, and Luhan nodded. - What is it?

-Sangwoo. – The boy murmured.

-And who am I?

-A merchant? – The blonde answered, uncertain. He didn’t know if he was supposed to get the questions right or wrong and he hopped that, if he got them right, that man wouldn’t hurt him.

The man nodded, satisfied and then pointed to the curative in his ear.

-Can I take a look at that? – He asked and the boy shook his head. – Why not?

-It hurts.

-Well, I can make it feel better.

-Promise?

The man confirmed, so the boy allowed him to remove the cloth and see the cut in his ear. The man bit on his lips and patted the boy in the shoulder.

-I’ll take you to your father, show me which way to go.

The boy nodded and ran outside, pointing to the place he saw his father’s carriage go the day before.

The man let out a fake gasp and knelt beside the boy again.

-I’m sorry kid, but we just came from there. – He said, solemn. – There’s nothing left there. The king had them all killed, that’s why Xiumin and I are leaving.

-They are… dead? - The boy murmured, tears already falling from his eyes.

The man confirmed and he started crying, but Xiumin shook his head.

-We didn’t come from there, we came from the right. – He reminded the man, who shushed him.

-You wouldn’t know Xiumin, you weren’t paying attention. – Sangwoo said. The boy tried to argue again, saying he remembered coming from another village, but the man told him to stay quiet.

Meanwhile Luhan sobbed and Sangwoo embraced him.

-The bad men found them… - The boy muttered in between his sobs. - They left me here, but they forgot to run from the bad men as well.

-Come here. – The man picked the boy up and called Xiumin, urging the boy to walk with him to the road.

He sat Luhan on the back of his wagon, then picked Xiumin up as well and put him beside the other boy.

-We are taking him with us? – The brunette boy asked and Sangwoo nodded.

-Since I’m already stuck with you, how bad can it be to have another child, right? – He said, climbing to the front of the wagon and urging the horse to walk.

Xiumin almost smiled. He was glad he would have company now, but he couldn’t bear how sad the other boy looked at the moment. He passed his arms around the blonde and hugged him, talking and soothing him until the wagon left the forest and they stopped again.

Now that he was under sunlight and could see well, Sangwoo sewed the boy’s ear together as the blonde cried tears of both pain and sadness. He was a little orphan now, so what should be of him? Who would look after him and protect him from the bad men?

He asked that to Xiumin when they were back in the moving wagon again, and the brunette pointed to Sangwoo.

-He’ll take care of you. He isn’t my real father either. – Xiumin said with a sad smile on his face. – My parents and I were in a group of war refugees… me and Sangwoo are the only ones left.

The blonde nodded, but he still couldn’t believe his parents were dead it just hurt too much. They kept quiet for minutes until he finally spoke.

-My name is Luhan. – He told the other.

-Luhan? – Xiumin called and extended a hand to the other. The blonde nodded and held on Xiumin’s hand, entwining their fingers together.

From that moment on they stopped talking and just stayed there, staring at each other while listening to the sound of the wheels and the horse’s shoes on the dirt floor. While he sat there, Luhan started the long process of accepting his new situation.

From now on he might not have parents, but he would have that man and that hyung.

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On the next chapter... 

OMG the D one, you know you want to vote for D, just to spice things up xD

The other options for this chapter

a. A wiser oracle who teaches him – Luhan would understand his powers well and yet develop another whole set of powers while growing up. Having an experienced oracle as a mentor, Luhan would probably escape getting caught for a long time.

b. Some barbarians that adopt him – In this version Luhan’s parents would have died, but he would have been taken by a group of Vikings, “adopted” by their leader. They would worship the boy because of his powers, believing he could speak with the gods, and Luhan would become something like a prince for them. When Luhan becomes old enough, he would have a romance with the son of the leader.

c. A boy of his age who helps him

d. None, his father comes back to get him. – This would be the saddest I think, because the king would get Luhan right after, since he stayed at the village.