Friendship is like a book. It takes seconds to burn, but it takes years to write.

Unknown

“Um, excuse me?”

Huiyin blinked. She felt her breath hitch in . Slowly she turned her head around to see a girl around her age sitting in front of her. The smile on the girl’s face made Huiyin calm down a bit and she would’ve smiled back if the stranger didn’t raise her arm. Huiyin instinctively jerked backwards, only to find that the girl was merely rubbing the back of her neck and holding up her own red flag. "I mean no harm?"

When the girl received another blank stare, she gestured at the flag in Huiyin's hand. "If it’s not too much trouble for you, could you sort of let my jacket go?" Looking down, Huiyin stared at the red flag in her own hand and then looked beyond that to see that she was standing on the back of a black jacket. When the two clicked, her eyes widened and she stepped back, her cheeks burning hot, offering the other girl a sheepish smile in return.

"Sorry about that."

The girl laughed. “That’s alright. Looking for your teammates?” It was such a casual question, as if they were just two people who met on a walk in the forest. It was like this girl didn’t care that she could get hurt at any time.

“Uh, yeah,” Huiyin answered, watching as she sat down again, playing with the flag in her hands. “Are you?”

“Not really,” she replied. “They told me to stay put.”

The scientist instantly thought of the two she had nearly encountered earlier, presuming they belonged in the same team. Despite the girl’s friendly outlook, Huiyin was still weary as it was still a game where the fittest survives. If the girl reunited with her team, then she would stand no chance against them. In the worst case scenario, she would probably be used to threaten Chanyeol and Yixing to get them flags. Being a hindrance to her team was the last thing she wanted.

“I’m Kyujin, by the way,” said the girl, breaking Huiyin’s chain of thoughts. “You’re welcome to join me in waiting this whole thing out, if you want.”

“I’m Huiyin,” she introduced. Kyujin gave her a grin and pat the seat beside her; an invitation for Huiyin to sit down with her. “You’re not worried about another team finding you and taking your flag?” she asked, continuing to stand.

Kyujin shrugged. “I’ve been sitting here for the past twenty minutes and nothing’s happened so I’ll deal with that when the time comes. What kind of power do you have?”

“Weather.”

The other girl beamed. “At least one of us will be useful when it comes to defending our flags then!”

Huiyin was baffled by the girl’s optimism. Why was she so sure that Huiyin’s powers would be able to defend their flags? Why was she so sure that Huiyin wouldn't just steal her flag for another team? Countless thoughts roamed her head as she thought of the possible scenarios that could potentially happen.

Humans are unpredictable, which is why they are dangerous. Just as Huiyin was about to sit down, something caught the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see an arrow hovering inches away from her heart. The metallic object shook in its position for three seconds before turning into dust.

“I never thought my powers would come in handy,” said Kyujin, standing up. “I have the power of substance time control. I can control the time of any matter. Pretty useless most of the time, but hey, it just saved your life, right?”

“Thank you.” Huiyin muttered - still dumbstruck by the whole incident.

“Thank me after we’ve sent our visitor a gift. It is common courtesy to return a gift, after all.”

*

Meanwhile in the heart of the forest, Yixing and Chanyeol is still trying to look for Huiyin.

“Okay, this isn’t fun anymore,” Chanyeol panted, pushing himself up from the ground. “I think that was the tenth shot that nearly hit me!”

“You were having fun earlier?” Yixing sneered, continuing to chop the thick branches in his way with his pocket knife.

“Well yeah, up until Jongin tried to kill me.”

Yixing rolled his eyes this time. “If I recall correctly, I was the one who got hurt.”

“I was about to get hurt too!”

“And did you?” Chanyeol huffed, turning away from his companion in a childlike manner. Shaking his head, Yixing looked around. Green and brown stretched out as far as he could see and he chewed on his cheek, trying to work from Huiyin’s perspective.

‘If I were a weather user, where would I go to maximise my power if I needed to use it?

A familiar voice caused the healer to halt his footsteps. He shot Chanyeol a quick glance, but he didn’t seem to catch on.

“What’s so great about that stinking Luhan’s team that I cannot touch? I almost had that subordinate of his!”

Chanyeol blinked, immediately recognising Jongin’s voice. The scientist rolled his eyes before glaring at Yixing.

“Why do we see him everywhere we go?!” He spoke in a hushed whisper, loud enough for the healer to hear. Yixing put a finger to his lips, signalling him to stay quiet. He slowly brushed a branch away with his pocket knife to see the Prince Team’s resting spot.

“Minseok is no subordinate and you are forbidden to say that.” Joonmyeon said, standing up in front of the Prince.

“Why are you speaking for the Prince? Who are you?!” Jongin bellowed. “It’s so obvious that they’re the Peace Worriers. We should get rid of them now! This is the perfect chance!”

“Keep quiet! Do you want them to target us?” Joonmyeon said between seethed teeth. He was losing patience with Jongin. “There are reasons why we’re doing this. You cannot attack that team. This is an order!”

Jongin glared daggers at him before giving the Prince a quick look, waiting for a response of some sort. When the Prince remained silent, he let out a aggravated huff and teleported to another part of the forest.

“Thank you,” said the Prince quietly. “I didn’t know what to say to him.” He looked down solemnly as if thousands of troubles were circling in his head.

“I understand. It’s my job to help you, my Prince.” Joonmyeon smiled as he turned towards Jongdae, giving him a slight bow.

“It hurts when you know something but you cannot say. It’s suffocating, really. I’ve never had this sort of pain. Perhaps I’ve lived too well.” The Prince let out a dejected sigh.

Yixing carefully pulled his dagger back, allowing the branch to fall to its original position.

“What are they talking about?” Chanyeol asked in a whisper.

“A sad story, maybe,” Yixing replied. “I feel like Jongin has become a magnet – attracting us to him wherever he goes. We have to quickly find Huiyin. Luhan’s team is safe, but ours isn't.”

Chanyeol nodded in agreement and the two resumed back to their search. They didn’t have to search far until a streak of light divided the sky in two. They all flinched at the brightness of the light. Yixing cursed under his breath when he caught glimpse of a green dragon emerging from the light.

The sky was coated with grey clouds in a matter of seconds. Flashes of light flaunted its beauty amongst the darkness and roaring thunder soon followed.

“Quick! She’s losing control!” Yixing said, running to the direction of the blinding light with Chanyeol following behind.

*

When Yixing and Chanyeol arrived to the site, they saw Luhan’s team and a couple of bodies lying on the ground. Minseok was holding onto Kyujin’s body.

“Yixing, please help this girl!” Minseok cried as he shook the unconscious girl.

The healer quickly rushed over. “What happened?! You know this girl?”

“No! But I hurt her. Please, just save her or she’ll die!” Minseok panicked. Yixing quickly placed his hand over the girl’s stomach and a soft lilac glow appeared. “One of my ice daggers went through her body and now she’s ice cold!”

“Basically Minseok was trying to protect these girls so he was attacking the others, but this girl ran in front of him.” Luhan explained.

“That’s because that guy has the powers of reflection. He can reflect any attack. She was trying to save him.” said Myungsoo who was leaning against the tree with Zitao and Sehun by his side.

“Just save her.” Sunggyu sighed, lifting his hand up to feel water gather in his palm. “It’s raining.”

“You don’t say,” mocked Luhan. “If we don’t stop this dragon, the whole forest will be gone and we’ll probably all die.”

“Is it that bad?” Zitao asked. “Can’t Sunggyu use his powers to stop her?”

“If I could, I wouldn’t stand here waiting for lightning to strike me.”

“Your sense of humour never fails to fascinate me," Luhan said dryly. His attention diverted to a energy radiating behind him – Chanyeol. A fiery red illuminated around him before the energy engulfed him and the crackling sounds echoed in the air. With a blink of eye, a majestic phoenix stood in front of them with wings made of delicate flames with a scarlet tail trailing behind. The creature stretched its wings in the air and flew towards the dragon, dancing with his friend in the skies.

The rain got heavier and lightning crashed down, splitting the ground in two, effectively separating Minseok, Yixing and the girl with the rest.

“Can she be saved?” Minseok asked as worry consumed his eyes. The glow from Yixing’s hands vanished and slowly, her eyes opened and she lurched forward with a cough. Yixing threw him a smirk before standing up to observe the situation. In a hurry, Minseok rushed to help her.

“How are you feeling?”

She smiled weakly. “Alive?” Her eyes widened when she remembered Huiyin. “Where’s Huiyin?”

Minseok sighed as head gestured towards the sky.

“Aren’t they beautiful?” Luhan questioned in a daze as he admired the two mystical creatures. The dragon swam through the clouds whilst the phoenix danced rhythmically around the dragon, attempting to tame it. The dragon roared whilst the phoenix screeched and it was as if they were speaking in a language only they understood. It was beautiful in it’s own way, but more terrorizing because no one knew what would happen.

The phoenix flew in circles until the people below could only see a fiery ball in the sky. The ball of flame gradually grew until it devoured the dragon and then slowly, shrunk in size before landing back on earth with many eyes fixed on it. The rain stopped and the clouds started to part, the sun coming out once more.

Soon, a pair of wings flung open, revealing Chanyeol carrying Huiyin unconscious in his arms. He set her down when he was close enough to the group, gingerly lying her down on a warm rock, and took the red flag in her hand and joined it with his blue one. Kyujin immediately ran around the massive crack in the ground to reach the other side.

“I’m so sorry! This is all my fault! If I didn’t ask you to wait with me we wouldn’t be attacked. If we weren’t attacked then I wouldn’t have lost my flag, if I didn’t lose my flag then my teammates wouldn’t try to attack you. These guys wouldn’t have had to save you and try to attack them, but I tried to help by taking the blow because my teammate has the power of reflection. I didn’t realise it was going to be an ice dagger, or otherwise I could’ve used my powers. So then it all turned out…”

Her voice became muffled as Sehun placed a hand over . “You talk too much.”

“It’s okay. This game is over.” He panted with a fragile smile.

Kyujin chewed on her inner cheek, pulling back from Sehun’s hand. She hoped so.