"If what you're saying is all true, then you very well could be able to save Tao, but don't you know? I'm crazy. I'll do anything for my mate. If this doesn't work, who says I won't take you to the fae to have your heart ripped out?"

Jinki gulped. He really didn't know how to control his powers yet, wasn't even sure if he could heal a wound as bad as Kris was describing... but why else would he have these powers if not to help others? He'd always felt powerless, but now he had the chance to make a difference. He straightened his shoulders from where he sat and said, "I'm willing to risk it."

Kris grunted in mild approval, but sighed after. "Not that it matters, there's no way I'm getting out of here. Magic chains, remember?"

"Oh right, they don't really effect me so I guess I hadn't noticed..." Jinki commented, tugging experimentally on one of the chains, then wincing when it snapped to metallic fragments in his hand. He really did need to work on this new found strength of his before he ended up hurting someone.

"So let me get this straight. You have healing abilities, strength, you're immune to magic, and you have super sonic speed ? Anything else I should know about you?"

"I like chicken?"

"Uh huh," Kris said, stepping out of the door Jinki had easily broken down. "Well, lover of chicken, best we get on our way before the other dragons catch up. If that roar was any indication, gramps is deciding whether or not to off me."

"But... why?"

"Because now we have a new dragon to take my place," he shrugged, then hopped onto Jinki's back. When Jinki turned to stare up at him like a crazy person, he shrugged. He was rather used to that look by now. "Hey, you're the fast one. Or so you claim. We'll have a better chance of getting there with you flying." Jinki made a face, but eventually nodded, heading to the nearest window, before free falling out of it. It's still just as terrifying when you do it willingly.





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"Hey, I'm the one who was injured the most, and I say don't kill him, so that should settle it," Jonghyun argued.

"He's unstable. Has been for years, and now he's attacking his own kind? He needs to be dealt with," the old one retorted back.

"I disagree. Sure he's an , but he's been here for years. I'd rather try to help him before kill him off. He's our own kind," Joon said, clearly on Jonghyun's side. When no one said anything after that, instead looking to Minho, he glared at all of them.

"He's a threat to Jinki, in my opinion. I don't want to have to watch my back every second of the day."

"You treat him like he's a baby," Joon scoffed.

"He IS. Are you forgetting he just turned two days ago? He can't even shift into his full form yet, and you want to say he can take care of himself?"

"I'm just saying you should give him more credit."

"Oh of all the bulls-" Minho stopped mid curse, sniffing the air. Jinki's scent had just absented itself. He'd left the castle, and by the other scent now gone as well, he could only conclude one thing: Kris had kidnapped Jinki.






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"Believe me now?" Kris sighed, his hand resting on one of Tao's pale, motionless ones. The boy didn't look dead, just, sleeping. A deep sleep. The only thing giving away his lack of health was the huge hole punched through his chest. That was kind of a dead giveaway.

"This doesn't look like a spear wound to me..." Jinki said, looking up to notice Kris looking away and ignoring him. "You didn't do this, did you..."

"Why the would I do this to him? Am I trying to kill myself?" but then he growled hesitantly, "I don't remember."

"You what...? It hasn't been that long..."

"I'm not saying my memory's bad, I'm saying someone tampered with it. All I remember is Tao bleeding and dying in front of me, I don't know why, but if I told you I couldn't remember what had happened to him, there's no way you would have believed me." Jinki couldn't argue with that.

Resting his hand over Tao's pale exposed chest, Kris tried to control his anger but ended up pushing Jinki away just the same. "Look, I have to touch him for this to work," Jinki explained slowly, as if talking slowly would make Kris less crazy.

"I haven't let anyone look at him, let alone touch him, since this happened. I haven't even seen him myself in over a month," the dragon whispered, guilt and pain lacing every word. "It's not that I haven't wanted to, I want to live here with him, but the elder... and it's a two day journey with my wings, yours it's a couple hours... but I'm making excuses. I'm sorry, just save him. I really don't want to have to kill you, Jinki. I'm not even sure if I could catch you to do that."

Jinki half smiled, half grimaced, not sure if that was a threat or a compliment, but slowly got up off the floor to once again place his palms over Tao's chest. He watched as bones, muscles, and organs slowly, inch by inch began to mend beneath his spread fingers, but winced as the process became slower and slower until nothing was healing after a time. It would work, eventually, but it looked like he could only heal so much at one time.

"This might take a few days," Jinki mumbled, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth.

"That we have. Like I said, it'll take them days to get here. At least most of them. Minho.... I don't know what will happen when he gets here. He no doubt thinks I've either kidnapped or killed you already."

"But Minho would probably go to the forest first, right? Talk with the fae?" But Kris shook his head.

"When Minho used to live with us, he was our tracker, our enforcer. He can hunt down anything, and once he gets on the trail, he only has blood on his mind. That's one of the main reasons he left. Felt he was being used."

"Well, was he?" Jinki asked, though his mind was off elsewhere. He hadn't even known Minho had lived with them before, though it made sense.

Kris stared blankly at Jinki, though the crazed look was still deep within those coal black eyes. "We all are."





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"Now how the hell did he get out of that room? Those chains were ensorcelled by a friggin' wizard!" Jonghyun said, attempting to pick up one of the chain links, but ended up dropping it when it burnt through the flesh on his hand. "It's still in effect, too."

"I think perhaps Jinki has more powers than he realizes," the elder dragon drawled, his eyes glowing for a brief second before being snuffed out like a flame, his expression bored once again.

"In any case, I'm the fastest and the best hunter here. I'll be going alone."

"But we don't even know where Kris lives, let alone if he's going there."

"Leave it to me," Minho growled, storming off.

"It's good to have him back," the elder smirked to himself.

"I guess, but to me it doesn't really look like Kris kidnapped Jinki, seems more like Jinki released him of his own accord," Jonghyun muttered.

"Yeah, but Jinki's a sweetheart. He probably let him out because he felt bad for him, got knocked out, and was captured. That's all I can come up with," Joon shrugged. Kris is in trouble. Why else would he have freaked out like that earlier? he growled into Jonghyun's mind. The former dragon merely made brief eye contact, before shrugging. It wasn't well known that they could talk to each other telepathically, and they wanted to keep it that way.

"Anyway, I'm hungry. It's too close to dinner time to be talking about this stuff. Minho's got it covered, I'm not worried," Jonghyun joked in a sing song voice.

And with that, the three dragons walked off to the dining room, though the two younger kept their distance from the eldest dragon. What was really going on?

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A/N: YAY we're actually getting somewhere woo! AND TAO MAKES AN APPEARANCE! Even though there's a ing HOLE IN HIS CHEST xD Man, reposting this story really makes me wanna write more Taoris in the future TAT Just exo fics in general. I'll see what I can do! <3