They were finally making their way into the village, it had been a long time since they encountered more than a hamlet. At the prospect of sleeping in a bed rather than out in the open or in a stable, their shoulders were back up despite the tiredness of their journey. It was more a big village than a town but it still had two inns, one of which was told to be of higher standing. Kai and Sehun were apparently there for a while now and were waiting for them. They found their way in front of the inn to see a crowd assembled just there in the middle of the way. Approaching, Joonmyeon saw a young woman being cornered by a tall and hefty guy holding a short sword. Even if she wasn't particularly small or thin, she seemed so frail in front of such a giant. She had absolutely no chance against this kind of guy. He could see the way she was looking around for a way out almost desperately. He spotted his two scouts leaning on a wall of the inn and wondered why they had not done anything to help her. That wasn't exactly their job but still, a damsel in distress should be saved. He then noticed the dozen armed men surrounding the coming fight, his men were good but at six against one, it would have been quite difficult. He jumped of his horse and making his way towards the fighters, asked. "What is happening here?"

Kai heard his Captain and diverting his attention from the entertainment made his way to him followed closely by Sehun. They had arrived just in time but it probably meant that the fun was over. Joonmyeon wasn't the type to let a damsel in distress fighting on her own. He had quite liked the way she had done things back in the inn. It was kind of amusing. Reaching the leader, he made his report on the situation. "The lady here had a little disagreement with one of the men of the gentleman on this side and so that same gentleman took offense and well, the result is obvious." He watched the older man nod and direct his attention to the man inside the circle. "Is this fight really necessary? You're blocking the way and probably disturbing a usually calm neighborhood. I'm pretty sure this can be resolved with some words." Totally Joonmyeon-like... Talk first, fight later... And he really have the way of doing so. Turning towards his fellow scout, he murmured. "Hey Sehun, wanna bet that Joonmyeon manage to cool that down without taking his sword out?" Sehun looked at him with a smile. "You crazy? It's like betting that the sky is or isn't blue! Don't wanna loose my money again." Looking at the sky, Kai chuckled."Well technically, right now the sky is not blue. I hope it won't take too long because I certainly don't want to be out when the storm breaks." The sky was indeed really dark.

Overhearing the last sentence, Joonmyeon lifted his head and sighed. "If we could deal with this quickly, I don't think anyone here wants to get drenched." Looking back towards the main event, he saw the man carefully observing him. He knew that he didn't look all that strong but the long sword hanging in his back could be kind of impressive for this kind of men. They didn't seemed like warriors, they were more of the thieves and brigands type. The eyes of the man then wandered towards the two scouts and finally ended up on the two that were still on their horses, his mouth tightening at the sight. A smile came to the captain's lips to disappear almost immediately. It was true that Chanyeol could be quite menacing for someone who didn't know him. His height principally and the two scimitars hilts that were showing above his shoulders added some weight to his destruction potential. All his men were heavily armed and skilled. They would have no problem against some cut-throats. He saw resignation taking place in the eyes of the man in front of him. The symbol on the wagon could have been a reason too, Lord Kim of Diantra was well known for hiring highly skilled fighters for his business. "Let's go guys, fun is over..." The man put his sword back and turned towards the lady. "And you, better not cross my way alone again!" She returned him a smirk and a small reverence. "Your wish is my command." At these words, the captain frowned. It wasn't the time to put oil on the fire but the brigands left without another word. Turning to his men, he signaled them to start unloading the luggage of Lady Hyoyeon and wondered why she hadn't made any remarks during all the time of the altercation. Opening the door of the wagon, he saw profoundly asleep. That explained things. She could be so pretty when words weren't coming out of . Too bad he had to wake her up... "Miss Hyoyeon... Miss Hyoyeon..." She stirred a little and opened her eyes. "We've arrived. If you would step out, Kai will bring you to your room." At these words, Kai frowned but stepped towards them. "Finally, I hope this rat hole doesn't have bugs..." The disgust on her face made everyone sigh but no one answered to that. She soon followed Kai inside and Joonmyeon got back to supervise the transfer of her belongings. A small pat on his shoulder made him turn around to find himself in front of the young lady he just helped. "Well... Thank you! It would have been quite difficult to fend them off on my own. Can I offer you and your men some refreshments? I think you deserve at least this much." She had a big smile and didn't seem affected at all. He observed her for a bit, she was actually as tall as he was but which meant she was a slightly taller than the average woman since he himself was more on the short side. Her long brown and curvy hairs were a little bit of a mess due to the wind which was gaining in strength. She didn't have a strikingly beautiful face but she surely had the strangest eyes he had ever seen. They were dark brown with something like a reddish sheen. "So what do you think about my offer?" A mocking smile was playing on her lips as she was starting to lose patience with this inspection. Seeing this, he blushed slightly realizing he had been staring at her for a while and pulling himself together finally answered. "Yes, I think everyone would be grateful for that, we had quite a long journey..." "Well then I'll be waiting inside. Come and find me when you're done with all this." She made a small motion towards the carriage and got inside.

The exchange hadn't pass unnoticed by the driver who was watching his leader with amused glint in his eyes. Apparently even their oh so calm captain could get distracted by some girl. She wasn't anywhere near Lady Hyoyeon's beauty but in her case it was true that the inside could make any wish of getting closer disappear in a second. Maybe Joonmyeon had seen something else. As the vehicle was finally unloaded, he led it inside the courtyard of the inn and put the horses under the care of the stable boy. His job done, he went inside to inquire about the schedule for this evening and the next day just in time as the rain started pouring down and lightning suddenly illuminated the whole area. Going towards the rooms, he ran into Kai and Sehun. Kai grinned at him and put his arm around his shoulders. "Ah Kyungsoo! Let's get down. The woman from earlier is offering the refreshments." Kyungsoo grinned back while shaking his head. Kai had quite the liking for booze and women so this kind of opportunity couldn't be wasted. They entered the dining room and scanned the place to find the lady. She was quietly sitting at one table in the corner of the room sipping on a big pint of brown ale. She lifted her head and motioned them to come sit with her. Kai strode towards the table and took a seat, his two companions soon following. "I tough you would have chosen another table to sit." Kai leaned on towards her and shot her a seducing look. Sehun couldn't help but facepalm as he looked at his now friend and Kyungsoo just kept grinning. Leaning towards him with a cocky smile, she took another sip of her drink. "This one is one of the only tables that have a clear view of the entrance and the stairs and is also close to the kitchen which mean close to the back door. I won't let go of a strategic position just because of some petty incident." She leaned back but not without sending him a small wink which widened the smile of the young man and put a look of disbelief on the face of the two others. "What would you like to drink? I'm paying so you should make the most of it." She hailed the employee and the they settled on brown ale for the two younger and on a lighter one for Kyungsoo. As there drinks were served, two other members of their team made their appearance.

"Hyung! They're here already!!" Some kind of lanky giant was waving towards them with a wide (and a little bit crazy) smile and was followed by a smaller male with a totally opposite expression. While the tall one gave the observant the will to mirror his smile, the other one made you lose it immediately. The girl checked this last one with more attention. This one was somebody you'd better be careful around, it seemed like he could go off with nothing. As the giant pushed his hyung on a chair, he stretched his hand towards her and introduced  himself. "Park Chanyeol, pleased to meet you. And this is Baekhyun-hyung." He pointed out the smaller who gave her a short nod as acknowledgement.  "I was waiting for your... leader? for the introductions but since he's the last one I'll just do it twice. I'm Melysandra but everyone call me Lys or Lizzie. And it's a pleasure to meet you too." She shook hand with him and they both sat down. They ordered in their turn while the three first arrived were introducing themselves. "I'm Sehun." Short and concise. She liked that. He was tall and had quite handsome features but looked kind of cold. Wait, not cold, more like emotionless. She turned towards the next in line. "I'm Kyungsoo, I'm the geographer of this company." This one was way shorter and had really big eyes. He was cute and didn't really matched with all the others. He didn't have the warrior look that all the others were wearing like a second skin. "Last but not least, I'm Kai." He reached for her hand and thinking  he wanted a handshake, she put her hand in his. He had however another idea and before she could retract her hand he quickly kissed it and released her. Rolling her eyes, she thought that this one must be quite the handful. He had dark hair and dark eyes with a hint of mischief. "Kai, behave." That Baekhyun guy was on the same page as she was. A little flirt wouldn't bother her but this started to be a bit too much. "Yeah. Like he says... But do you really get the girls like that?" The giant sitting next to her gave a loud laugh and Kyungsoo who was sitting in front of him answered her while Kai was too flabbergasted to answer himself. "Weirdly, yes it's the first time I see someone not answering positively. But since it hasn't been so long since I know him, I can't really say if it works all the time." Turning on his right, he asked. "Sehun, you know him the longest. What is it like?" "Well, generally there's three reactions. Most of the girl he hit on are easy so they just fall right in his arms, then there's the shy ones who blush a lot but with a little bit more effort he get under their skirt most of the time and then there are the ones way out of his category like the nobles' daughters who are scandalized but then again for those he generally end up under the skirts of the lonely moms." A few seconds of silence passed by as it was the turn of the rest of the table to look flabbergasted. Then everyone turned towards the young man sitting in front of Lys with a frown on his face.

"Yah! How can you say that in front of a lady. Don't you have any respect for your hyung!" This little bastard always have to talk on the worst moments. He keeps his mouth shut when you need him to talk but when it needs to stay shut he just keeps talking. "I don't understand why I'm still friend with you. I should know by now that you're a ing traitor." Kai was fuming as he kept insulting his friend. Unfortunately for him, Sehun didn't seem to mind at all since he was royally ignoring him. "But that's the first time I see someone react like you. You flirted with him but you don't seem to have any real interest to him." He was looking at her intensely as if he was trying to decipher her expressions. She smiled gently at him and changed the subject. "The chief isn't coming? Maybe he doesn't like to drink?" Chanyeol who was finishing his beer turned towards her. "I don't think so. He's probably helping Lady Hyoyeon. She's a real but he's kind of her butler or something so he has to do everything she asks. Or maybe he was just too tired and went to sleep already." "Speaking of tired, I really am so I think I'm gonna go to sleep." Baekhyun finished his pint and got up then turned towards his friend. "Yeol, are you coming?" Chanyeol looked at him questioningly. "I'm not tired hyung... But you can go. I'll come a little later." The older stared at him. "Chanyeol, I think you should get some rest." Lys could see that he was trying to send a message but the other seemed completely oblivious. Then a slight blush crept on his cheeks and he quickly got up. "Baek-hyung is right. I should probably get some rest. Have a good night guys and Lizzie, it was nice meeting you." They both proceeded towards the stairs with a last wave. This seemed definitely fishy to her. "They're really weird those two. Almost joint at the hip if I can say. Even Sehun and I don't need to stay 24/7 together." Kai had finally got his calm back even if he was still a bit red. She was apparently the only one noticing the blush as she was the closest to him and was watching him at the right time. These kind of secrets were her favorite and she couldn't understand how the others never caught up with it when they were travelling together. A smile slowly crept up her face. "Lys!" Kai was looking at her obviously waiting for an answer. "What were you saying?"  "I was asking about why you were smiling like a mad woman." She looked at him and answered immediately still widely smiling. "I was just telling myself that it was obvious that you two didn't need to always stay together but that since none of them is you they're probably able to stand each other for long periods." Kai watched her with his mouth wide open while Sehun and Kyungsoo were barely holding their laughs in. Between two chuckles, Kyungsoo smiled at her. "I think I really like you. You definitely have great insight on the situation." His words were enough to make the three of them laugh their off at Kai who was now sulking with his arms crossed on his chest.

"Care to explain, I think I seriously need a good laugh." Sitting in front of Kyungsoo, the Captain turned towards Lys who still had a hard time calming her breath. "I'm Joonmyeon by the way. I'm the captain of this troop of weirdos." "L-Lys." Finally catching her breath she went on. "Nice to meet you Captain Joonmyeon." Her cheeks were flushed a smile still lingered on her lips. Joonmyeon felt kind of nice seeing a woman smiling at him. Most of the woman usually around him didn't see him as a human being and smiles were never the expression directed at him. He looked at the hand stretched him front of him and gladly took it. Just as his hand touched hers, her expression changed to a frown for a second then a smile came back as she nodded knowingly. "What a surprise. If I had known..." The others looked at her and she could almost see the question marks in their eyes. "Nothing. Doesn't matters." Letting go of his hand, she dismissed the matter with a wave of her hand."So, How did you guys came to travel together?" "We were hired to accompany the Lady from Diantra to Medora. Well, except the captain who was always there. She is getting married and they needed people to keep her safe during the travel. Baekhyun and Chanyeol are deadly warriors when they are not bickering and Sehun and Kai are really discreet scouts when they are actually scouting." She couldn't help but smile at the end of the explanation. "And you are de geographer... It must have been quite a long route but Medora isn't far away now. I'm also going there except that contrary to you I'm going home." "Really? Maybe we could make the rest of the way together. I always thought it was best for a woman not to travel alone." Joonmyeon was hoping she would agree, there were some things with that girl that intrigued him greatly. "I think I'm gonna take this offer. Like you said it's safer." "We leave tomorrow at ten in the morning."  With that said they kept on with small talk until they were all starting to fall asleep. Only then they made their way to their respective rooms.

A/N: I made this one way longer to give special thanks to skyromantica who is my very first subscriber!!! Yeayy!! ( trows confetti everywhere!!\(^u^)/)