“I don’t understand.” Eleria looks up confused, evergreen eyes wide with apprehension and Minseok struggles for the umpteenth time to hold in his laughter. Sighing in an attempt to remain as stoic as before, Minseok shoves the bowl of ice cream to Eleria.

“Eat it.”

“But why?”

“Because-”

“Because it’s everything that’s bad for you, and yet everything you need.” Kyungsoo’s voice cuts across the room, and both Eleria as well as Minseok turn towards him. The young werewolf beta is exhausted, dark shadows creeping over his face, his eyes haunted. Some part of Minseok cringes as he looks at his brother and remembers a time before this. A time when youth filled Kyungsoo’s body with strength and vigour; where his eyes were bright with hope and promises of the future. Everything seems darker now, as though energy is drained out of Kyungsoo; from the way his shoulder slumped to the way his eyes were pits of dark hunger and pain.

“I didn’t believe her.” Eleria suddenly mentions, her voice soft and chiming like bells. Minseok looks at her in surprise, the baby jerking gently in his arms and causing her to turn, a warble leaving . Soothing the baby quickly with a steady rocking rhythm, Minseok watches quizzically as Eleria continued to gaze at Kyungsoo, a mystified expression on her face.

“What do you mean?” Kyungsoo asked, voice low, finally turning to face Eleria, a mask cast over his face. Preventing anything to be read, but allowing so much to be known.

“That she meant so much to you.” Eleria whispers, and Kyungsoo looks up at her, body jilting to life at her words.

“I couldn’t understand why she could have done this. Why she would give up everything she had known for you. No, rather,” Eleria stopped, a small chuckle escaping her ruby lips, “I never understood how you could give up so much for her. You had so much to lose, so much to run from, so much to regret. She tried to explain to me. Told me there was so much to gain from it; so many possibilities and hope. But I could never understand why.”

“And you understand now?” Kyungsoo’s eyebrows are furrowed, his lips quirking in an almost smile, his eyes now showing sparkling mirth. Exactly like how she had described him, Eleria thought, a lump in . Dark oynx eyes, glittering like the sea in a summer day, waves of emotions, b with laughter and so, so, so, so much joy.

“Because she is everything that’s bad for you, and yet everything you need.” Eleria answers simply, looking at Kyungsoo unwaveringly. Kyungsoo’s mouth falls open in shock, his eyes widening as the words raced through his mind. The truth is jarring, but at the same time liberating. Indeed, she was the worst possible person he could ever meet. She was a dangerous mystic being of the sea, and rivalries, hate, ran so deep between their races it made perfect sense to avoid her. But yet, he had fallen head over heels in love. He had kissed her lips, made her his, promised a future and eternity together. He had learnt to hate her, learnt to survive her, and learnt to love her.

But he had never learnt how to live without her.

“Now will you finally carry your baby girl instead of running from her because you’re afraid of what you could have created?” Eleria’s exasperated voice jars him from his thoughts and Kyungsoo can feel his heart rate accelerate as Minseok now stands before him, arms cradling his sleeping daughter.

His daughter.

Kyungsoo can scarcely breathe as Minseok slides the heavy bundle of joy into his arms. She’s tiny, so so tiny, with her little fingers curled around each other and dark brown hair covering her face. Wispy eyelashes curl perfectly while her rosebud mouth was pulled into an almost teasing smile. She smells of the sea, of salt and biting winds. A scent Kyungsoo knows so well that it brings tears to his eyes. A soft gasp escapes his lips and he feels his body quiver as he pulls his miracle, his jewel, closer to his chest, a sob reverberating throughout his body.

“Her name’s Síriel. It means river in our language.”

River.

The river by which she would return from; where he let her go. The river where he had spent months pacing, searching, begging, howling, crying, for her to come back. The river that started it all and the river they thought would reunite them once again.

River.

“Síriel… My jewel, my precious daughter.” Kyungsoo croons, and there’s a small smile on his face even as crystal tears roll down his cheeks, twin river running down. Eleria and Minseok watch silently as Kyungsoo bends down to kiss his daughter on her forehead, and as Síriel blissfully slept on, unaware of what was to happen, and what could be.

“Síriel behave yourself, I’m warning you.” Luhan scolds, heaving a sigh as the little girl giggles, ignoring him completely. Thankfully her brother is there to save the day Luhan thinks, chuckling to himself as he proceeded to lie on top of his energetic sister, shouting for Luhan to continue the story.

Well, Luhan was tired.

And so he gladly complied.

“Alright, so here’s the plan.” Jongin hesitated, glancing at Sehun once before the map rolled out with a flick of his hands. The rest of the pack crowded around, Minseok soothing Síriel, rocking the little one back and forth until she gave in to the motion and fell asleep silently.

“They’ll be reaching Dúttërbërg in six days, their entourage is bigger than expected, travelling along the spine of the eastern coast. We’ll be able to reach there in two days easily in our wolf form. Which leaves us with four days to-”

“And what about Síriel and me? I hope you have not forgotten that we will be coming as well.” Eleria finally spoke up from beside Minseok, green eyes flashing as she stands upright, bringing herself to her full height.

“No.” Kyungsoo sharply looks as Eleria, eyes narrowing at the other, “I cannot afford to put Síriel or you in danger. For one, the merfolk will be thirsty for your blood at your betrayal, and second, eager to get Síriel back. I will not make their job easier by putting both of you right in front of them.”

“But that will depend on how you are going to deal with the Merfolk.” Eleria counters, looking up at him worriedly, “Are you going to plead for mercy and appeal to logic or are you going to fight?”

“Preferably the first. None of us want to create greater tension with the merfolk. It’s just firstly rude to separate a family, and even more so to exorcise said child of the family without asking for consent.” Jongdae replies quietly with a tinge of sarcasm, and the pack lets out a chuckle that has everyone visibly relaxing momentarily.

“Well, if you’re going to plead for the merfolk elderly to hold court, I’m afraid you will have to look at your merfolk history books.” Eleria cuts across the laughter, eyes sparkling as Síriel whines, burying her face further into Minseok’s chest.

“You can’t possibly the Merfolk’s theory of a gift for a gift still stands are you?” Junmyeon stares at Eleria incredulously, a look of horror on his face as Luhan’s eyes widens.

“It does, unless you have already gifted a mermaid who has deemed your gift worthy, and she is representing you.” Eleria straightens her back, flicking raven hair backwards, “That’s why you’ll need me. Leaving Síriel is out of the question so she’ll have to come unless someone else is willing to stay behind.”

“I’ve never heard of this before.” Luhan says carefully, frowning as he leans forward, rolls of parchment and books piled up from where the corner he’s at.

“The history books never ever explained…” Yixing trailed off, whispering to Jongdae who shook his head, murmuring back.

“That’s because you don’t understand how the Merfolk is governed. I’m guessing that all the races are democratic am I right? You get to choose who governs..?” Eleria trails off, raising a questioning eyebrow.

“The wolves are different. We do get to choose who is in charge, but any challenges between wolves are still upheld. Meaning if someone challenges a government official and wins, the official still retains his position, but loses the rest of his property, status in the packs etcetera. The faeries’ and phoenixes’ governments are both made by people, but their strength in magic is also taken into account.” Kris explains, tilting his head as he looks at Eleria.

“The Merfolk still clings to the old system.” Eleria answers drily and Luhan’s loud shriek of dismay is the loudest above the murmurs of shock.

“The old system?! You mean we have to arrive with a representative of the Merfolk too? And we need to bring gifts of exchange? Are you kidding me, you’ve got to be joking!” Luhan’s voice rises two octaves as he looks at Eleria, panic evidently all over his face.

“Gifts of exchange?” Sehun looks up now from his quiet discussion with Tao and Jongin, “What do you mean by gifts of exchange?”

“The old system deems it respectful for both visitors and host to exchange gifts of respect and appreciation. Both the visitors’ gift and the host’s must be equal in value for the meeting to take place on the same foot. If the visitors’ gift has greater value, the host is inclined based on the old system to fulfill the visitors’ request, and vice versa.” Luhan starts pacing, his eyebrows pulled into a deep ‘V’.

“Naturally, they have the gift of both Kyungsoo’s mate and their son. So unless we have gifts that are of the same value as them for an exchange to take place, a fight is definitely underway.” Jongdae continues, looking paler by the second.

“Look, we don’t have a choice. If you show respect for our Merfolk court, we might be able to put ourselves into their favour. We would at least have a chance to persuade and make them listen to us.” Eleria states, looking at Kyungsoo, daring him to object. Kyungsoo drags a hand over his face as he glances at Chanyeol and Baekhyun who both shake their heads grimly at him from their conversation with Junmyeon.

“Gifts.” Kyungsoo finally let’s out with a sigh, “Tao how long would we have to get there if we bring both Eleria and Síriel?”

“If you don’t let us travel in wolf form, even if we travel day and night and we use our powers we will never get to Dúttërbërg in four days. And that’s if you only take two days to prepare the gifts that you have to bring along as well.” Tao answers, pursing his lips as Kris curses under his breath.

“What if we take an alternative route?” Jongin suddenly speaks up, “With all the exploring Baekhyun and Chanyeol have been doing in our territory, I’m sure there’s an alternative route that includes rivers. Eleria can swim with Síriel and our speed won’t be compromised if we can float our gifts down.”

“Jongin, you are a genius!” Baekhyun declares loudly before darting over to the map, Chanyeol still speaking in low voices with Junmyeon. Head bent over the map, Baekhyun eyes the route Jongin had previously chosen. Specifically dirt tracks, easy for wolf form and the shortest. But if they were looking for rivers, and a journey of four days, they would have to cut through the forest via the streams. Take the upper turn away from the lagoon, and come to think of it didn’t they have a summer beach house around that coast? They hadn’t used it before, which would explain why they had never ran into the Merfolk…

“We have a summer beach house at Dúttërbërg.” Baekhyun picks up a yellow pin and pins down the beach house location, nestled somewhere in the trees a short distance away from the coast.

“Oh! I forgot we had that.” Tao speaks up in surprise, peering over Baekhyun’s shoulder.

“If we have a house, we’ll be able to create the gifts there. The only problems we would have are provisions.” Minseok says, eyes drawn to the map as Baekhyun makes a quick mental calculation of the distance. Nope, too far; Baekhyun picks up the next white pin, frowning as he looks at the map. This doesn’t make sense. Why would the coastal area near Dúttërbërg, or their house in general, not head past a stream? When building the summer house, the wolves must have chosen it to be near a stream, or how would they get their water. Which must mean…

“This map, is faulty!” Baekhyun shrieks, staring at the map in disbelief. His statement has everyone, even those in their mini discussions whirling to stare at him as he shakes the offensive parchment at Jongin in distress.

“But you and Chanyeol plotted it with us!” Jongin protests as Sehun and Tao begin rapidly discussing their voices rising.

“But why would our summer beach house not go past a stream?! We need water so it makes sense to build it near streams. But the map has no streams near Dúttërbërg at all!” Baekhyun is staring at the parchment in dismay, racking his brain to see if Chanyeol and him had missed that out. No, he specifically remembered running to the summer house without a stream nearby. They had spent a great hour or so there even as Tao kept complaining that there was water gushing-

“TAO!” Baekhyun shouts and Tao snaps his mouth shut as the elder grabbed him by the shoulders, eyes wild, “Remember how you said you kept hearing the sound of water gushing?” Tao’s eyes widened as he shared a look of disbelief with Baekhyun.

“This map was plotted just last year. And the summer house has been unused ever since its construction six years ago.” Kyungsoo is looking wide eyed at Eleria who looks horrified.

“They just moved the exorcism site to Dúttërbërg four years ago.” Eleria pales and she grabs the map, only to let out a gasp as golden lines creep from her arms, entwining around the map. Minseok makes a sound of despair from his throat and takes a step forward, only to stop as Kyungsoo yanks him back. The map is shining with a yellow glow as golden spun threads of light weave out from Eleria’s hands before finally fading, the mermaid sinking into Luhan who catches her and mentally shifts a chair out or her to rest on.

Baekhyun picks up the map and lets out a snort of laughter. Before, there had been absoloutely no streams or any of that running to Dúttërbërg, cutting off specifically once it reached near that part of the territory. Now, ink black lines representing streams of water are twisting over their territory that end up becoming a big river that runs past their summer house. Picking up the white pins, Baekhyun easily figures out the route to be taken while the rest of the pack stares incredulously at the map.

“Strong concealment and memory spells. That’s why none of us ever returned to the summer house, or even remembered it existed until we actually dug for the memory. Remember how Sehun had woke up wet and we thought it was a freak rainstorm for Sehun only?” Baekhyun stops as Sehun’s face dawns with comprehension.

“I fell into a stream!”

“And Tao must have heard the river gushing.” Eleria speaks, shaking as she gratefully downs a cup of hot chocolate, “Because concealment spells only affect what you see. Not what you hear or what you can feel. The moment Sehun fell into the stream he would have seen it, but once he climbed out the concealment and memory spells would come into effect. He has the memory, but it’s pushed far away until he actually looks for it.”

“So he forgot a memory?” Jongdae is gob smacked before he shakes his head, “If that’s the case how can we remember the route?”

“Once you know of the spells’ existence it doesn’t affect you anymore.” Eleria reassures him and the pack murmurs.

“I hate not knowing my territory.” Kris’ face is dark as he looms over the table, Junmyeon nodding his head beside him, “Pack meeting dismissed. We all have jobs to do. Time to bring our family back home.”

The pack splits.

“Brats, did you drink water.” Luhan stops, peering at the two children who both shoot him identical sheepish grins.

“Do you want to get dehydrated our scolded?” Luhan lets out an exasperated groan before shooing the children off to get water. Only to roll his eyes as they both come back with a plate of cookies and glasses of milk from the kitchen.

“You’ll both be the death of me.” Luhan mutters under his breath as he helps himself to a cookie.

So, I thought that this story would end by this chapter but err, nope. The story had other plans hahahah I think it'll end in Chapter 10 or maybe 12 if the plot decides to take a longer time to form. One thing for sure, the ending is going to be quite unexpected in a way. Have you guys been surprised by this story so far? Were there any moments where you just went: I did not expect that? Please comment and tell me if you do hahaha author-nim would like to know :D Oh and does anyone sense an Eleria x Minseok ship coming up CAUSE I DO~~~~ Sarangahe and sorry for the lack of updates :x