CHAPTER 11: CIVILIANS AND PARTISANS

The gargantuan snowman roared ferociously. Its eyes darted at Kris. He steadied his shaking hands and stared the snowman in the eyes. The buttons spun around clockwise and the snowman gave out a blood-curdling laugh.

"Stand back," Kris instructed gruffly to Eun-soo. "I'll handle it."

"A puny Earthling and a clumsy Wonderlander. Easy targets of sorts." the Snowman boasted. "Make me lose... or else."

"Never belittle your enemy! Take this!" Kris thought that he could disarm the snowman by, obviously, chopping its sharp twig arms. He swayed his sword and aimed for one. The attack was successfully evaded, and instead, he was knocked down by a sweep of its hand. The thorns were breaking his skin. He winced.

"You Wonderlanders are too loud!" the snowman bellowed. "Loud but inefficient! All noise and no brain!"

Kris gripped his bleeding left arm. "Yeah? Then, you're the biggest noisemaker I've ever met!" He raised his sword again, and as expected, the sharp pain stung him. The sword slipped out of his grasp. He snarled in anger.

"Stop, Kris." Eun-soo yelled behind him. "No more physical attacks!"

Kris glanced at her, the upper right part of his shirt drenched crimson. "Now what?"

"Try to destroy it without even touching it!" suggested Eun-soo.

The snowman leaned forward, driving its creepy drill nose towards Kris. He rolled to the left and miraculously missed the drill by a hair's breadth. He sure was safe, but the pain gored him.

"Shocked, little Wonderlander?" the snowman laughed watching Kris in anguish. "The head is a deadly weapon, after all."

Suddenly, an idea hatched in Eun-soo's mind.

Another note from her Physics class.

The snowman's head!

"Here's the deal: snowflakes in an ocean. Remember?" She was so freaked out that she couldn't put her thoughts properly into words. "They melt!"

"They what?"

"They melt!"

"Got it. Thanks." Kris fastened his gaze on the snowman and focused on his target. He hoped that his last solution would work. With a newly-acquired knowledge in mind, he lifted his index finger and pointed it at the snowman.

"What are you trying to do?" The snowman was puzzled with what it saw. A glint of light blinded its button eyes. Spheres of water floated from the lake and flew straight in its direction.

 Bull's-eye!

The impact had blew the snowman's head off entirely. Its remaining body collapsed to the ground in a mount of snow. Little by little, all the snow melted, leaving only a shivering, confused man lying in a pool of cold water. His eyelids were half-closed and his face was deathly white.

Eun-soo and Kris waded through the pool and approached the man. They immediately stopped walking the moment he started to move.

"Thank you. Both of you. I thought I'd been eaten alive by a snowman!" The man got up slowly and bowed. "My name is Xiumin."

"Hi, Xiumin. My name is Eun-soo, and the man beside me is Kris." Eun-soo studied Xiumin's features. He looked quite familiar. There was something about his round, white face and deep-set eyes. He reminded her of something both pleasant and unpleasant. To confirm her hunches, she asked, "Have I met you before?"

"Yes, of course." Xiumin nodded. "You're the drowning girl, right?"

The drowning girl.

Memories of the Ocean of Death played before her eyes.

She was drowning.

A man held her safe in his arms.

She remembered his face.

The face of eternal youth.

You're not drowning.

She was right! The man was Xiumin! He had saved them all from drowning!

"Thank you very much, Xiumin." she wrapped her arms around his waist. "We owed you our dear lives!"

"Oh, Eun-soo, there's no need to thank me." Xiumin pushed her away gently. "I'm just a normal civilian and nothing more."

Eun-soo blinked back her tears.

"It's so cold and I can't find my way back." Xiumin looked at Eun-soo, then turned to Kris. "Can I stay with you guys for the meantime?"

"I'm afraid that we have to ask Suho first. We're staying at his, uh, cave now." Kris propped his injured arm with his sword.

"If that's so... I don't mind." Xiumin shrugged and walked away. "Well, then! It's nice to meet you two here—"

"Wait! Come and join us!" Eun-soo quickly grabbed him by the shoulder and beamed. "You had saved our lives, so now it's our turn to help."