"Eat up all thirteen of you, your next destination will be a library located near an oasis that is south of here." Faela explains as everyone busies themselves stuffing their stomachs with much needed nutrients to survive through the journey. "It will not take longer than a day but don't take your sweet time to get there either." She arches her eyebrow and points with a spoon.

"Why go to a library?" Minseok asks after drinking his water.

"Not a clue really; although it's explained in a letter that Lan sent me a few days ago before you lot came here." She brings out a crumpled paper from her pocket. Faela smoothes it out, reading aloud.

"Thank you for agreeing to taking care of the kids. I'm a bit worried that they might not give you a great first impression, so I'm expecting them to be on their best behavior.”

"We totally nailed that." Tao grins.

“After they have rested a night or two please guide them to the Junas Library and have them research the Forgotten Books. And I know this is a lot to ask, but please tell one of the boys to look after Areum when it is time for sleep. She tends to get nightmares. Thanks Faela. P.S. Daena says hi!"

"That explains a lot." Kris looks across the table and spots Areum.

"Junas Library?" Jongdae says carefully.

"It's a historical landmark with numerous books that contain a lot of information about Ascernia, Sele and origins on Jopu and what not." Faela explains.

"Maybe this is what Lan means when he wants us to do," Kyungsoo folds his arms,"he needs us to understand the importance of our duty by educating ourselves."

Areum listens intently, while consuming her food. She glances down to her wrist where her bracelet is and thinks about the couple and wonders if they're alright. "Stupid Lan...," she mutters. "That was supposed to be a secret."

"That's why rest for a few hours and we'll have you leave before noon begins." Faela finishes her toast.

"Please help our guests prepare for their awaited departure!" She announces, leaving her seat towards the kitchen area to be answered by the workers in unison.

One by one, everyone leaves to do their job or enjoy time together clumped in small groups.

Areum stays behind seated in her chair, watching people walk past her, before deciding that she wants some fresh air. She pivots her body and holds onto the frame of the wooden chair for support as she lowers her feet to the ground. Areum also figures that it'll be really hot so she treads back to her bed and picks up the blanket from her quarters to envelop her body to preserve its moisture. As she's leaving, she looks left and right to make sure no one is watching her.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Areum is pulled back by the blanket, and she loses her footing, landing on her bottom with a soft bump. She faces forward until she catches sight of a growing shadow looming over her. She holds the blanket tighter around her and nervously gulps as she looks upward to her captor.

It's Sehun—she hopes that's his name.

"Are you cold or something?" He asks with disbelief, slightly tilting his head. "It's the desert for Pete's sake."

Areum doesn't answer and this makes Sehun a bit angry. She tries to get up, but Sehun keeps his firm grip on the edge of the blanket.

"Leave me alone already." She says it loud enough for him to only hear, slightly annoyed but trying her best not to come off rude.

"Says the one who thinks she's all that." He retorts back.

Jongin walks into the scene with a confused expression and does a double take between the two. He backtracks and hides behind the curtains, seeing as he was to interrupt a moment. He turns around to see Junmyeon nearby and waves him over to silently watch.

With ceased eyebrows and a deep breath, Areum stands up again with more strength going towards her legs and slowly charges ahead. Each step with more power. Sehun is taken aback by how he is being pulled along for the ride and yanks her back like a game of tug-of-war.

"Hey you brat!"

She whips her head around, eyes glowing yellow and growls.

"I'm not a brat," she breathes.

"Calm down, he's just a bratty prince, calm down Areum, calm down Areum!" She closes her eyes tight.

"Well you're acting like one." He grins.

"I'm not a brat!" She screams at him as her teeth are dangerously pointed. She lets go of the blanket as she runs outside of the tent, her voice heard loud and clear.

Sehun is surprised at her outburst, thinking that she was a robot the whole time, and doesn't realize swirls of smoke go by his peripheral vision. Jongin and Junmyeon simultaneously slap the back of his head, causing the youngest one to fall flat on the ground.

"You call her a brat," Jongin starts, "but you're the biggest one of them all," Junmyeon finishes. Both are furious at what he has done, even though it was quite obvious that she was nearly close to dying, trying to get them all to Jopu. It’s as if that wasn’t a good reason to try getting along with Areum better. Junmyeon's veins are pulsing on his forehead and the heat isn't making it any better.

Jongdae runs in with Chanyeol, both curious as to what occurred.

Chanyeol looks at where Sehun is. "Why is Sehun on the floor? Why are you both angry? And who the hell was yelling?"

"Long story short; this prince thought it was okay to call Areum a brat and she got angry and ran out." Junmyeon glares at a pouty Sehun, whose eyes are elsewhere.

"What an idiot." Jongdae says and Sehun scowls. "Well someone needs to cheer her up." He continues, folding his arms across his chest.

"I volunteer, I wasn't doing anything in the first place, where is she?" Chanyeol scans the room.

Junmyeon sighs. "Outside."

"Fine with me." Chanyeol could handle the heat.

"I'll go too." Jongin follows, his dark hair bouncing as he catches up to Chanyeol.

Junmyeon gives a curt nod to them both and now, all of his attention is on Sehun, who's facing forward with a frown. Junmyeon sighs, too tired to say anything to him. He pats Jongdae's shoulder signaling him to go somewhere else. Understanding, Jongdae leaves first, "get some rest before we go," Junmyeon says softly to Sehun, before pushing away the fabrics dividing the tents.

Sehun just sits there, I messed up big time didn't I? He furiously tousles his hair.

Areum sits on the painful, hot sand, but at least it's helping her take her mind off of things, people specifically. She closes her eyes and lets the dry wind blow her hair in all directions.

She feels like crying but knows she can't. Just to cuddle up in bed and sleep it all away, not wanting to admit that she can't express herself very well and that she wants to go home. Back in Sele with Lan, Daena, and Colin. But, no. She's stuck here in the desert, unsure of when she'll be back, or even if she can go home at all.

Even with all of those long, boring seminars of what her duty was to do, it...it didn't really make any sense to her. She wondered about a lot of things — would it be different if she wasn't born with this kind of power? If she was just a commoner? If her parents were still alive? Areum was skeptical, but not enough to really take action to find answers.

"You sure are having deep thoughts huh?" Chanyeol sits beside her, startling her a bit.

"Don't think too hard." Jongin says with a smile and takes the other side.

Great. She huddles her body and grunts as she buries her face into her knees.

Chanyeol and Jongin awkwardly look at each other as they watch Areum be moody. They both were thinking of a plan to brighten her day even just a bit, but it was all going downhill, without even starting.

"Hey, have you guys seen Areum anywhere — Sehun, why are you on the floor?" Kris enters the room and notices the blanket that he's clutching onto looks oddly familiar.

Sehun reluctantly gets up, "I just felt like it," he doesn't even spare Kris a glance and leaves.

"And he didn't even answer my question." Kris takes a breath and puts a hand on his hip, watching Sehun exit with the blanket.

"I've checked everywhere possible and asked some of the staff...is she outside?" Kris starts marching out. "Maybe, that's the only place I haven't gone to yet."

As he steps out, he's blinded with the sun rays and covers his eyes with his hands as a form of shade. He spots three bodies not far from him, where the smallest one is in between the tall ones. He gets closer look to make sure before he has to search through the tent again. Thankfully, it's Chanyeol and Jongin, but he can't really tell what they’re doing.

Jongin starts to communicate by using his hands and mouthing the words to Chanyeol.

"What do we do?" Jongin points at a sunken Areum.

"I don't know." Chanyeol shrugs his shoulders.

"What do you mean you don't know?! You're the one that wanted to do this!" Jongin aggressively points at him, then at Areum.

"I didn't think it would be this difficult!" Chanyeol makes an X with his arms.

"How is this difficult?!" Jongin fervently shakes his hands, staring straight at Chanyeol.

"Then you do something about this smarty pants! You wanted to help too!"

Kris comes up with a rough translation of Chanyeol's and Jongin's violent gestures towards each other. Or maybe they're being idiots and Areum was accidentally caught up in it.

"What brings you three out here when it's cooler inside?" Kris questions with a voice overpowering his friends bickering.

The duo turn their heads, all of their focus goes to Kris, then back to Areum.

"Uh..." Jongin tries.

"Nevermind, I'll hear it later. Just...just get inside." Kris waves it off.

They both comply and heads towards the tent, "that means you too Areum," Chanyeol pats her back.

She removes her face away from her knees, showing a cover of sweat starting to appear. She messly wipes it off with the cuff of her shirt and walks away without acknowledging Kris' presence.

Kris turns around, not frustration or confused, just concerned.

"Hey Kris," Chanyeol speaks up, "what are we going to do with her?"

Kris furrows his eyebrows trying to come up with a solution. He sighs, defeated. "I don't know."

"Is it time to leave yet?" Jongin starts walking first.

"Yeah," Kris sees Areum enter into the tent, "Let’s go get ready, it's not like we're making any progress here."

"You boys got everything right?" Faela talks to Junmyeon and Kris.

"Yeah, just need to make a head count." Junmyeon turns around, mentally jotting down who is here and who is not. "Hey where's Baekhyun — oh, he's with Tao; Kyungsoo is there, Yixing is with Sehun...and Areum is there."

Areum is calmly sitting in place, in her dragon form already, where she is being prepped for the short flight.

“Everyone’s here.” Kris helps scout out.

"Ok then, let's get the show on the road!" Faela walks towards Areum, who raises her head and bows.

"Hey, I hope things work out between you and the boys. Don't hurt yourself out there or Lan and Daena are gonna have my head."

Areum blinks up, her ferocious eyes looking more gentle at the mention of Lan and Daena, and nods with a snort. Faela the bridge of her nose and Areum feels more alright.

The boys saddle up, replacing their backpacks with satchels, given by Faela, as each individual is carrying items of a specific category and with a slightly larger canteen filled with water. They also changed clothes too, wearing matching beige colored tunics and pants with shoes made of out leather.

"Thanks for all of your help Miss Faela!" Kyungsoo calls out as Areum is slowly getting off the ground.

"Remember! If you see an oasis south of here, then you'll be there! Just keep on going straight!" She yells, looking upwards.

"Got it! Hope we'll see each other soon!" Baekhyun waves and Areum springs off into the skies. The force of the launch, makes everything flutter and once it has settled down, the people of the tent go back to what they were doing originally, leaving Faela all alone outside.

"We'll surely meet again." Faela smiles, looking into the distance.

Areum is annoyed, the only thing she could see was sand and the squiggly heat waves. She wanted to rub her eyes but realized that she could only do that as a human, which resulted in an upset grunt. There was nothing majestic about this part of Sele, where was the color?! The pizazz?!

"Hey, where'd the reins go?" Minseok asks, noticing two tufts of fabric that had been slashed off.

"Got rid of it." Kris replies.

"Oh." Minseok says, cutting their conversation short. Everyone is tense from all of the heat, so it's nice that they all understand to stay quiet for each other's sake and know that they will be  able to talk more later. But for now, they're trying to enjoying the breeze that Areum is providing to them as much as they can.

While hovering over the wasteland, Areum notices that animals were starting to appear. Where there are animals, there are plants, when there are plants, there's water and when there’s water, there is a wonderful thing called civilization nearby. Areum happily rejoices on the inside. She was finally going to see some amazing sights. “Let’s see what Jopu has…,” taking a peek to her left, she sees a human.

Oh, there's monsters, and a human. Now where has Areum seen this before? She thinks.

But there's monsters, circling around a human? Maybe the human was going too slow for them and walked around to speed ahead. Oh wait, those monsters are stopping and turned around and made the human halt. And now this human looks scared—

Areum's eyes grow in size and quickly darts down to her left side, and the boys are shifted from their place. She flaps her wings, increasing her speed. Areum flies over and sees that it's an elderly woman. She skips the safety precautions for landing and touches down behind the  deadly circle and swishes her tail around to get rid of the desert fiends. Areum does a 180 and fires out a light beam, vanquishing away those trying to attack the woman.

"Hurry get on!" Areum says with a roar as she deflects back a monster. Unsteady, the befuddled woman tries to hurry towards the lizard where everyone else is seated, afraid of a talking dragon but looking at the situation, she’d rather not stick around to be someone else's lunch. Yixing is the first to catch sight of the woman’s sluggish pace and venerable appearance and jumps out of the saddle to help the lady. Luhan jumps out too, by providing them protection by summoning a purplish barrier.

"We're going to leave now!" Areum announces.

"Hold on tight okay?!" Yixing informs her, while him and Luhan ensure the woman’s safety.

Ready to deal the final blow, she soars up and wrings her neck back. This time, a lavender color with a green hue orb forms from , it's size grows bigger. It’s velocity is so immense that its sheer power is pushing down pressure on their bodies.

"Go!" She releases the shot and springs into the skies. An explosion hits and the backlash throws off Areum’s momentum. It's raining sand and everyone covers themselves as Areum hastens through the sudden debris, trying to get everyone to safety. A severe blow of wind sidetracks Areum, making her turn wildly. Everyone is screaming like their lives depended on it. Panicking, Areum howls and brings in her violet wings and propels out of the mini sandstorm. The ride is bumpy and quick but it drains Areum to exhaustion, she expands her wings, hoping to find her balance.

Jongdae shakes off the sand and sees the tip of what looks like a tower, turn into a huge building and to the right an oasis. "Areum slow down a bit or else you're going to miss the Library!" He hollers.

"I'm going to what?!" She shakes away the sand from her face.

"The library! The library!" He repeats.

"The lib—" Areum doesn't get a chance to fully respond back as she crashes into the ground. She didn't even realize that she was flying so close to the floor either. A gathering of palm trees beside the oasis provided the stop, but hardly smashes against the same place where her injuries from a few days ago were, giving out a terrible cry.

“Hurry! Get off!” Kyungsoo pushes Tao. They help the woman get out of the saddle, while reassuring her that everything is alright. And it's a good thing that they got out on time or else their weight could've squashed Areum to death before reverting back to her human form.

"Yixing!"  Sehun frantically cries, pulling out the passed out girl from under saddle.

As Yixing is ready to leave, the woman tugs on his tunic, "Wait. Please have her treated at the library, we have rooms to tend to her injuries. It’s just over there." Yixing bites on his lip. He looks and the distance is quite far from here.

"Jongin!" He runs to him and grabs his shoulders. "Can you teleport us to the entrance?! If we walk there Areum might not be able to make it!"

"Grab somebody!" Jongin calls out.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but you're going to get sick and it might be a while depending on your body..." Luhan informs.

"What you should be worrying is about her not me! I'm stronger than I look!" She answers.

Luhan lips form into a thin line before taking hold of her shoulder.

"Ready?!" Jongin doesn't even wait for a response and everyone topples to the floor in front of the library, creating a rowdy scene.

"Are you alright?!" People in cloaks come rushing out.

"Miss Minco!" A man shouts, "I knew we should've sent bodyguards with you!"

"Tell me that when I'm dead! Take her to get treated! Hurry!" She points them to Sehun and Areum.

"Understood. Tell our doctors that we have an emergency!"

"Yes sir!" Men rush into the building.

The man giving out the orders runs to where Minco pointed. "My name is Gare, I'll lead the way to the infirmary. Come."

They follow in a train, going up the stairs. Tao notices the library's wide collection of books but shakes out of his awe when he should prioritizing Areum's safety first.

"How much farther?!" Kyungsoo's voice bellows.

"It's right up there!" Gare points to where someone is waving their arms.

Sehun looks down on Areum, she is unconscious and has blood running down her face. There’s no time!

"I can get us there!" Sehun yells as a gust of wind comes under their feet. They trip but get whisked away up one floor and gently land but Sehun bolts into the room once the tip on his foot touches the ground.

"Place her on the bed!" A doctor gets his tools ready. It’s noisy and rushed, making everyone anxious. Sehun sets her down on the bed as best as he can.

"I'm sorry sir but I'll need you to leave the room." A nurse tells him, but Yixing comes rushing past by them.

"Please let me help, I'm a healer in Sele." Yixing spurts.

"From Sele?!" The doctor is stunned.

"Please!" Yixing bows.

The doctor is skeptical,"... Alright."

It's already night and the commotion has died down but, there's no news of Areum's condition stabilizing yet. Yixing joined them a few hours ago, fidgeting in his seat.

"So Minco, mind explaining what happened earlier?" Gare questions as everyone is eating at an elongated table. Clinks and clanks of the silverware and plates are the only noises that are giving this conversation life.

She knows she’s a fault and pulls it off with a smile. "What — can't an old woman get some fresh air once in a while?"

"Not by yourself you won't. You not even aren’t aware of how much trouble you’ve placed upon yourself are you? Even dragged along all of these folks in it.” Gare gets irritated.

“She didn’t do that, she —” Minseok gets cut off.

“I’m fine Gare, worry about your life, I don’t have much of mines left anyways.”

“Grandmother!” Gare darts up from his seat.

“Gare,” she pauses, “we have guests, let’s continue this conversation later.” Minco says with a eerie smile.

Gare slumps back down and clears his throat. The boys were watching the scene so intently that Gare harrumphed a few times, attracting their attention. “Sorry about that, let me reintroduce myself. I am Gare and I am the head librarian of the Junas Library. This is Minco, my grandmother, whose is the head of the Linguistics Department and the Second Head of the Mythology Department, yours?” He looks towards them with a now calm disposition.

“There is no need to do that, well, maybe for Gare you might.” Minco interrupts.

“You know them?” Gare looks surprised.

“Of course, they’re the boys in the letter remember? From Lan?” She brings up.

“Oh! You are the warriors from Sele!” Gare recalls, clapping his hands together.

“You’re acquaintances with Lan?” Baekhyun asks.

“Well more like family, I’m his grandmother also.” She chuckles.

“Then doesn’t that make Gare his…” Baekhyun shifts his attention to Gare.

“His brother, yes I am the youngest. I’ll have you meet my wife later, she’s attending to the children’s studies.”

“Wow, you’re in Jopu while Lan’s at Sele.” Chanyeol speaks up.

“Yes, you made quite the travel — oh, thank you for helping me out in the desert."

“It was Areum who saw you in danger, not us, we weren’t aware of what was going on actually.” Minseok gets to say what he wanted to mention earlier.

“I’ll give her my thanks when she gets better then. Come I’ll take you to where the Forgotten books are.” Minco stands up and walks slowly, while everyone follows. The library is humongous and vast, filled with books stacked neatly in wooden shelfs. The stairs are colored gold and are arranged in diagonals. The moonlight illuminates the floors with the open windows and some of them gaze at the bright moon.

“So got any questions boys?” Minco starts.

“Why are we here specifically?” Luhan comes up with.

“To learn about your heritage, why else would you be here? It’s not like Lan to let someone leave his eye sight without having any proper knowledge on what they are set out to do.”

“Yeah, he did but, I don’t really get it. I know we’re warriors and all, but we get to have cool aeons like Bahamut fight alongside us in order to prevent the takeover of the darkness...or am I wrong?” Jongdae questions.

“Well that’s why you’re heading to there; to have everything answered, but from what I’m hearing I guess you have to hear the whole story.”

“And how long will this story be?” Kris asks.

“Depends on how fast your cranium understands it.”

“Oh, I knew that.” Kris replies back.

There was a long pause, as everyone is silently making their way to their desired location until Minco decided to pop it. “Here it is.” They arrived at a door, with a rusted lock on it. The arch of the door had strange writing engraved along the walls. Minco began to recite an unknown language and the script began to glow faintly. It faded away and the doors opened on it’s own.

“Ready for a history lesson?”