“Soooo — on a scale of one to ten, how screwed are we?” Baekhyun veers around a corner, as the initial direction he was heading towards was filled up to the brim with security. The group needed an escape route, not to go towards another disaster. (*The camera zooms in on Baekhyun’s face* But hey, I’m a gorgeous walking disaster. *Baekhyun winks and the camera pans out.*)

“It’s over ing 9000.” Minseok tells him with a straight face. “Heh,” he tries to laugh it off, “real funny...” Baekhyun mumbled to himself as he slides in between two castle attendants, dodging the eyes of royal security.

“Come on guys, let’s just try to leave this place already, we’re in deep anyways. The quicker we leave, the better.” Kris mobilizes the group to be split into five groups and directs them to a narrow part of the castle, “this is how we’re going to work this out. We are only going to apply physical contact once we become targeted. As of now, there is absolutely no need for us to engage in combat.” Kris lifts up his head slightly to survey the area before briefing back the group on their escape plan.

“The front of the group is going to consist of Junmyeon and Minseok, there are plants all around, so Junmyeon can sap the water and blast it on others, then it will be up to Minseok to immobilize them by freezing them slightly.” Kris gestures with his hands on how he wants the rest of the set to be like, “Then, we can have Jongdae and Chanyeol on the sides of the formation as they handle the leftover ones if us two in the front are unable to do so. It would be better to have Baekhyun pair up with Jongdae so he can illuminate his thunder to make it seem more threatening. Chanyeol partners with Sehun so that his wind creates a bigger hit range for his fire.” Junmyeon adds in, “I think that Yixing, Tao, Luhan and Jongin should stay in the middle. We all know that they excel better in their physical strength than in their abilities for this type of escape plan. With Yixing in the middle, we have the advantage of all of us being healed quickly, if he is struggling, then Tao is able to stop time to give him that chance to do so. Luhan, you would be able to gather us back into formation should anything happen for us to be separated. If we are in a pinch, then Luhan will work together with Jongin so that we are safely transported to another location in the castle.” Kris finishes giving his directions. “Alright then, Kyungsoo, Areum, and I will cover the back then. We’ll cover whatever Areum can’t.” She slightly grins at the idea of possibly fighting, still probably pissed from earlier.

“Agreed, everyone get in your formations!” Junmyeon heads to the front of the group, “everyone ready?!” They all respond back in unison, stances roaring to go. Junmyeon raises his hand in the air and gives the signal.

They quickly head out past the palace gates, the guards bid them a happy farewell — probably unaware of what happened earlier in the throne room . Thankful really, that the news hasn’t reached far yet. Areum clings to the hem of Kyungsoo’s shirt, a bit exhausted and angry. It shows a lot in her face, despite her attempt in trying to hide it. She’s fuming, giving out a few bird shrieks as she walks with the group.

“Are you okay?” Kyungsoo supports her a little.

“Some remnants of the aeons still lingers within me, so making noises is a normal occurrence.” Areum tries to hold back another squawk, covering with her hand. They tread through the bustling main streets, avoiding the excited townsfolk and a bunch of balloons extravagantly floating past their way.

“Let’s go another way, it’s too crowded here.” Areum latches onto Kris’ leg, they huddle together, so they don’t get separated within the crowd. It seemed like the amount of foot traffic increased, as if time stood still for them, silhouettes zooming by.  Chanyeol grabs the two of them and heads into an alleyway, where the others somehow ended up at.

They go through a more poor area of Terra and like every prosperous city, it has its own downsides of the community. The beggars and homeless lay their tired bodies against the brick walls, their skin is  red and painful from the sun’s rays, matched with lifeless eyes, waiting for the day they breathe their last breath. In hopes that death will be the freedom that they’ve always dreamed of and waited for. Kris makes Areum averts her attention away from the sight, but she gently pushes it away. She’s seen it before in Sele too. Sure Areum had her share of unpleasant memories but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t unappreciative of what she was given. She could’ve been an orphan on the streets and died young and yet, she thinks about it, maybe things would’ve been different, totally different.

They had managed to somehow enter the outskirts of the city, with lush greenery and stone walls outlining the road. A breath of fresh air away from the dilapidated buildings and rotting smell. The sun’s rays blinds Areum for a quick moment, her vision blurred followed by floating dots of red and blue. It’s as if the birds came back from Terra’s festival itself, singing its heart out to its wildest content. The group swiftly follows the stone road, hoping to see if they could make it back to Sele, but that would also mean getting an earful from Lan. As they tread further, you could see some of the wild life, the squirrels come out and sniffle their noses, a family of deer come out as its’ little fawn tries to keep up with his mother, and a couple of white butterflies fly past them.

Little did they know that someone was watching them from above.The winds blow the trees and sway the branches from side to side, to reveal two men perched on a branch, stealing a look. “Oooo, what do we have here? They look pretty rich. With them fancy clothes and shiny boots they got.”

“Yeah, rich on manpower,” another man scoffs, “don’t even try.”

“Whaddya mean, I mean look at em don’t they look like they got a whole loot on em? Especially that little one, she’ll sell for quite a lot.” The strange man smiles, with an eerie chuckle. Another man pops up from the tree branches, “whatcha looking at? I heard loot.”

“That one there,” one of them points to Areum, unfazed by the groups aura, “think it’d be fun if we saw what goods they got em?” The third man gets a closer look, “oh, that must’ve been the runts that one of our boys ran into, said something about a pretty boy with purple eyes or something.”

“Oh, really?” His interest piqued, “let’s ransack em boys.” One of them gets ready to jump down, but is stopped with a hand holding his chest. “How about we report this to the boss, I think he’ll find it interesting.” The man smiles, “heh, worth a shot I guess.” The three men leave their spot and slowly creep away to what seemed to be their headquarters. A bit south of where they had been earlier and nearby a small river. A small, wooden cottage is surrounded by numerous beds of flowers and the three men walk up and knock on the door. “Open up! We gotta meet with the boss!”

The door opens and it’s a woman with a smug look, “oh well, if it isn’t you three, don’t you think you’ve annoyed the boss enough today?” She snickers, covering to contain her laugh.

“Ahhh, just let us through will ya?! We promise it’s good.” She raises an eyebrow but lets them in anyway, “alright if you say so.” She steps further into the house and opens a secret door leading down, “I hope you don’t make the boss mad.”

“Don’t worry it won’t,” the man thanks her and the three of them head down a short walk into a tunnel. It slowly opens up to what looks to be a cavern, that seemed to be their secret hideout. The walls are carved, with hand-made scratches and indents. There seemed to be smalls rooms and quite spacious with good lighting. “Heya boss, don’t we got something fun we could do,” the man chuckles, followed by the other two.

“Oh? Do you?” The woman named Leena smiles. “Yes boss, you see, we saw this group of fellers with them nice clothes and fancy accessories. And one of our crew that was playing in the festival today ran into them see? Said that they’re a bunch of pretty boys too, so they must have good loot. There’s also this little girl see.”

“Oh? Elaborate more.” Leena adds in.

“It’s a small little girl boss! I think she had a necklace too! Right boys?” The man looks to the others for confirmation.

“How many are there? Would you say, hmmmm, about 13?”

“Yes boss! How’d ya know that?”

“It’s interesting really, some man in a black coat came into our den asking for a small little one who travels along twelve other men, making it thirteen. Was offering us a good price if we caught her alive.”

“So does that mean?” He pauses.

“I think it’s time to loot everyone.” She announces, and the three men yell out excitedly. “Everyone get ready for preparations!” She orders, “it’s time to get busy.”