Minseok hands the letter of introduction to Terra’s land border control, who’s heavily armed in corroded silver. He waves the group over, and leads the group past the looming gates. “Terra’s nice and all, but finding some precious stone to prevent war is over the top no?” Sehun starts, recalling Lan’s words. It’s a bit frightful, being told that you might have been reincarnated with the responsibility of preventing a tragedy to happen sounds a bit too much for just a group of young people and a kid. “Well, if you think about it again, it is just a prophecy,” Jongin rebuts, who’s walking beside Areum. “Right?” Jongin looks to her, “haha...yeah,” it's an uncomfortable laugh she gives him. Even Areum herself can’t quite grasp how crucial the situation is itself, yet she feels that if she wasn’t forced to do this, probably no one else would’ve stepped up to the job. The thing is, they could’ve sent anyone to do it, not just her. Areum mostly blames the prophecy, it’s just a bunch of words on paper anyways.

They hear blaring horns from far away, getting closer to Terra’s main street and they start to see over-the-top festivities going about.“Whoa...what’s going on?” Tao’s eyes grow big, a big smile on his face.

“Wow!” Areum yells in amazement. “You act like you’ve never seen one. We’ve had plenty of festivals back home.” Luhan laughs, “not ones like these though!” She squeals in excitement, the street vendors are filled with food, games, and trinkets. At the far back, they sight a main stage hosting street performers, entertaining the crowd with acrobatics. “Excuse me sir," Junmyeon taps an elderly man’s shoulder, “can you tell us what you are all celebrating?”

“Gladly sonny! We here folks are celebrating the young prince’s birthday! A fine young man he is. He’s well known to be distant but he never fails to pay attention to the people’s needs. You should visit the castle sometime!” Junmyeon thanks the man with a wave. Like the man said, there was a castle similar to the one back home in Sele, both of equal prestige. “Well, what are we going to do now?”

“Let’s enjoy ourselves for now--who knows when we’re going to have carefree days like this? They’re hard to come by ever since we started.” Luhan wants to make this trip a bit worthwhile. “Yay!” Areum cheers, “that one! That one!” She points at the petting zoo stall, dragging Jongin by his shirt. “You must really love animals huh Areum?” Jongin picks her up. She eagerly nods, causing him to laugh. The stall had all sorts of animals: alpacas, llamas, sheep, dogs, cats, pigs, cows, horses, white tigers, bear cubs, wolves and even more. Areum squealed in delight when she spotted the baby animals. “Areum, calm down--they’re not going anywhere.” Minseok quickly reminds her, who sheepishly smiled at the warrior.

Suddenly, blaring horns could be heard in the distance. The townspeople quickly turn their heads around and rush out of the stalls, even the owners left their vendors unattended. “Come on! Let’s go see!” Tao pushs them towards the open streets, so much noise had accumulated in such little time it was a bit overwhelming. Thankfully, they found a spot on the sidewalk with just enough room for all of them. Areum tried to stand on her tippy toes, wanting to catch even just a glimpse.

“Areum come here.” Kris called out her and picked her up. “Better?”

“Better.” She rewarded him with a bear hug, Kris laughed, “no problem.”

“Seems like there’s a parade, I can see them coming up the street.” Jongdae points to the cavalry coming up the street.

“Valen,” his aide breathes, “after the parade you will have time to rest until we receive confirmation from the King and Queen about you being able to go to the meeting. If that doesn’t go as planned then we’ll be putting the finishing touches on your garb for tomorrow’s celebration.” Valen replies with a curt nod.

To the people, Valen was a wonderful prince--always smiling and greeting the citizens, but to everyone close to him, he was like another person. A blue blood trained to do whatever is best for his citizens, who hides behind a mask, his true nature formed by his cold personality and his ‘gift’.

One day he was busying studying laws, the other day was learning royal etiquette, next comes fencing, then swordsmanship! And when he wasn’t up and about--he had to read! He was getting tired of being stuck in his private quarters, papers after papers piled high on his desk. Soon, exhaustion took over and he dropped his head on his desk in annoyance. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I hate it. All of the other kids get to have fun too. Why not me?” Valen mentally groaned. “I just want to be different.”

But you are different.

Valen was frightened but decided that it was the work getting to him.

My boy, you don’t know what great adventures will be upon you once you get older.

Okay, now, things were turning out bad, very bad. He knew he was dead tired but now he’s just hearing things.

One day you will meet the Guardian, and become the Protector.

Valen was quick to remind himself that he was simply tired, he shook off the thought and continued his work. Then his door opened and closed, unlike the usual loud noises that erupted whenever Diran or other attendants entered his room. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to attend the meeting till later Diran.” Valen says, focused on his paper, but he receives no response, so he looks up. “You’re not my aide…,” Valen furrows his eyebrows.

“No...I’m not my dear prince." The man slowly unveils his dagger underneath his cloak, and steps closer and closer, his laugh gone mad. Valen immediately gets up from his chair, targeting the door as his escape route, going through the window would’ve been disastrous, considering how his body wouldn’t survive the fall. Valen dodges the first blow, as the small sword sinks in his chair. The attacker roughly pulls it out and throws the furniture at boy, and Valen falls face first. The attacker takes the opportunity to jump on Valen and pins him down. Valen struggles, he knees him in the stomach, making the man falter, but he returns a hefty punch in the face, making him slightly paralyzed. The man’s laughs goes a pitch higher, “die!” With the knife in his hand, he aims straight for his heart. Valen, not ready for death to welcome him, closes in eyes.

Suddenly, a dark portal opened behind the man and swallowed him whole. His screams became distorted as the vortex closed by itself. Valen watches the man get eaten up by the black void, his breathing becoming shallow, and the young boy begins to shake in fear, “what’d just happened?”

"Prince! Prince!” Valen could hear behind the door, it busted open with Diran and guards rushing in. Diran was horrified at the mess, “thank goodness you’re alright. Come, let’s take you to the infirmary.” Valen was unresponsive as his attendant led the Prince to the castle’s private hospital quarters and saw that he was properly taken care of. Valen was unable to grasp what had just happened -- a strange voice and a man out to kill him?

A few days later, Diran is quick to report to the King and Queen, concerning about their son’s safety. They decide that it’s best to keep him inside his room, but Valen sees it like he’s become a caged animal. His wishes of wanting to be outside are immensely diminished, afraid to see what’s out there. Thankfully Diran is there, if not, Valen believes he would’ve killed himself a long time ago. When the sun is down, and the moon rises out, he feels more at peace with himself. Valen is curious about that particular day, wondering if he could conjure up that black hole again. He twirls his hand in different motions, but that doesn’t work. Next, he focuses his attention on a porcelain vase, but his concentration breaks, interrupted by noise of the wind hitting the window. Valen ponders in deep thought, as time slowly passes by, the light of the moon catches his attention, then he realizes something, maybe it only comes when he’s in danger?

The next morning, Valen eagerly sits on his chair, waiting for Diran to come in, ecstatic to get a favorable answer from his attendant. Valen hears a knock on his door, “come in,” the boy says.

“Good morning, my prin--,”

“Diran, I want to be added to the royal palace’s military.” Diran is caught off guard, “the military my prince? Why the sudden thought of that?”

“I want to try something new, get out of this room and plus if I’m going to be attacked again, there’s no better way to do so by learning how to protect myself no?” Diran crosses his arms, it’s clearly too early to deal with this. “I’ll consider it Valen, but it has to be approved by his highness first, if I catch ear of their decision I will notify you immediately. Now, be well-behaved until I come back for you later with your breakfast.” Diran leaves Valen’s room, Valen is satisfied, ready to try out this idea of his.

“Valen, his attendant pauses, are you even listening to me?” Valen snaps out of his daydream, “yes, Diran, I am.” He mumbes.

“No you weren’t, now greet the people.” Diran nags, sighing.

Valen doesn’t talk back, knowing he’ll get an earful of it later. With a deep breath, he stands from his seat, exposed from an open carriage. Hiding behind his usual mask, he waves to his citizens and smiles. Acting like a prince wasn’t his forte, but he had a title to keep. As he was scanning the crowd he spotted a young child like himself, she was being held up by a tall man. He furrows his eyebrows, this has been the longest time he has his eyes on someone else other than his parents and his aide.

Areum feels an eerie presence, as if someone was looking at her like underneath a microscope, she looks around and makes eye contact with Valen. The sound of a click locks in place, and their heads get thrown to the side as if they got shot in the head and the two go into a hypnotic state. Valen jumps out of the carriage, walking to Areum.

Areum jumps out of Kris’ arms surprising him. “Areum?” They were both mindlessly walking to each other, their senses are numbed. Diran runs after Valen, his hearing is muted, while the warriors tread their way through the crowd. When the two of them start to get inches within each other, they gain back their consciousness, gazing into each other’s eyes. A surge of warmth spreads throughout their bodies, their hands reaching out for one another. Their hands touch, and a bright light blinds everyone.

Protector and Guardian intertwine yourselves towards death and serve us well.

“All we needed to do was to get info, but how the hell did we all end up in jail?” Yixing is quick to groan in annoyance, as they all sit cross-legged on the floor. Chanyeol is sitting next to him, cradling the unconscious girl.

“We have to make sure to ask Areum later, what happened.” Junmyeon is quick to point out, trying to put the pieces together, probably what everyone else was trying to figure out on their own. They hear the door of the jail cell rattle, and the soldier shoves it out of the way, “the king and queen request your presence in the throne room.”

“Great.” Kris murmurs under his breath, Areum awakes from the noise and Luhan comes over to her hair,“hey, how are you feeling?”

"Hungry,” Areum held onto her stomach as it growlsloudly, Luhan just laughs ,"wait a bit okay? We’re going to meet some important people.” Areum nods, getting help from Chanyeol to stand on her two feet, gripping on his shirt. Kris saw that Areum was awake and walked over to the two, “Areum.” He said in a firm voice. Areum flinched and carefully turned around and saw an angry Kris. She smiled sheepishly and greeted him. “Hi…”

“Don’t 'hi' me. You scared me when you ran off like that. And then you faint in the middle of the street, during a parade! Do you even know how much you worried the others?! I expected better behavior.” Areum wants to say something in her defense, the thing is, what would she even say? She can’t even comprehend how they all ended up in this situation in the first place.

“Kris just give her a moment--” Luhan gets cut off.

“No, she has to learn that she can’t do that.” Kris immediately looked at Areum and his face fell, it's like he could feel how terrible she felt and held her head down in shame. Kris takes a deep breath, and leaves the cell.

“Areum it’s okay. Just learn from this experience yeah?” Luhan says as he calms her down, she nods, but she really can’t come up with the words for a proper explanation. The guard leads the way up to the what seems like the main floor, and through the castle until they’re before a large door.

“We have arrived.” The soldier opens the door, the first thought they think of is that they’ve arrived to the throne room. Who could mistake the lavish paintings, covered in expensive furniture, with the windows open, letting the sunlight come into the room. "Come," Diran calls, soldiers begin to forming a line behind them, their weapons forcing them to get closer to the front of the room. And before them, was Terranian royalty; named after the great city, King Terra, alongside with his wife, Queen Aqua. "I demand you to tell me what you have done to my son." King Terra’s deep voice bellows.

The boys look to each other, at bit irritated and rushed, trying to see who would come up with the excuse. King Terra is displeased at the commoner’s silence, “bring me the papers.” He announces, Diran receives the papers from a soldier and hands them to his king. King Terra skims through it and speaks once more, “I see that you lot are from Sele, so tell them, on my son’s birthday. What has caused you to create such a ruckus on a wondrous day of ours?” King Terra says with such disgust.

“My king, you see, there has been a misunderstanding between both parties and we would likely to clarify it further.” Kris starts. “Well then, please, be my guest, and explain how this trouble came to be.” Kris becomes unsure and stops talking before the king.

“What’s this? Have you not prepared a sufficient explanation for your unruly actions? And to think we made a truce pact with people from Sele, are you people intending to break that?”

“No my king, we just --,”

“Excuses, excuses! I won’t have anymore of this, you lot have wasted my time, like your excuses, you’re all worthless.” The king casts a mean look at them, the queen stares them down, as if she never acknowledged them in the first place.

"That’s it!” Areum yells, stomping her way towards King Terra, and as she gets closer, she notices the boy she had saw earlier, sitting in his throne next to the Queen. “I could care less if you're damn royalty. If you dare insult them one more time, I won't hesitate to kill you both." Areum snarls, baring her teeth. At the sound of the threat the soldiers grip their swords with their shields in front. King Terra furrows his eyebrows at the young girl, "how so? You’re just a little girl." King Terra chuckles to his wife.

Areum smirks, "Who said I couldn’t?” She jumps backwards and clings onto Sehun, briefly touching his bracelet and glows, creating more distance. Areum lands on all fours. She roars, her bones protruding from her skin, it stretches far and long, with rows of feathers growing into her wings and body. With a whirlwind of feathers, she screeches and sways her body, making the soldiers cower in fear and run out of the throne room. Areum flaps her wings together to have the wind knock down everything in sight, ruining the layout of the throne room. “I guess it’s time to wreak havoc.” Sehun chuckles, cracking his knuckles, charging first into the fray. An arm stops him, “not today, Areum we’re leaving now,” Junmyeon orders, sensing the tension that they all have created, especially on friendly land. She barks in defiance. “Areum, change back right now,” Kris orders her, she wails back in disagreement, “now, Areum.” She squawks, quickly reverts back, and clicks her tongue. Areum is the first one to lead everyone out of the room, the military creates an open path, her angry aura emanates every part of her being, constantly telling herself not to break anything--well more like anyone. A trembling soldier, continues to roll his spear in his hands, his breathing becomes erratic, vision becoming blurry, then he screams charging at Areum. She isn’t fazed and quickly dodges his attack, Areum heeds the soldier no attention, and she continues to find a way out of this stupid castle. The soldier is terrified still, having his comrades bring him up on his feet, “that girl isn’t no child, she’s a demon,” the soldier whispers.

Back in the main room, King Terra collapses on his throne and clenches his fist, “how dare these  Sele plebeians make a ruckus, in my throne room! I demand a letter of apology from Sele, see to it now!” The king yells, his face red.

“Prince Valen, are you alright,” Diran helps the prince get up on his toes. Valen breathes out a shaky breath, “yeah,” with the lingering thought of Areum, burned into his mind.