Nearly three months late, but here's the new chapter!

 Hyunsu rolled the edible leaves into a cylindrical shape before she started biting off parts of it, she had long since gotten used to the bitter taste. ‘It’s not fair,’ Sungjong sighed and rested his square chin on his palm, looking out at the night sky. ‘Why do you get to go to the floor?’

 ‘Because,’ Hyunsu tapped her nail against the wooden bowl they had laid out in front of them as she ran through her vocabulary mentally. Deciding she didn’t have the vocabulary to finish her joke, she changed to a sentence she could say. ‘I’m not supposed to going down there, am I,’ she questioned. She smiled in amusement as he snorted and rolled his eyes. He didn’t notice her sentence change, he never noticed when she made mistakes or changed what she was saying midway through. She had learnt so fast that sometimes he forgot she needed correcting. That was the magic of being fully immersed in another culture, it made learning the language a necessity.

 ‘Of course not, my brothers are always breaking the rules.’ He sighed as he stared at the stars with a wistful glint in his eyes. ‘I wish I was old enough to go through the coming of age ceremony.’

 ‘I already had mine,’ She picked up one of the roasted acorns, running it in between her fingers. What had originally been a lesson in constellations and finding the north star became them chatting. They had already been up in the top of the trees for a couple of hours. In fact most of his lessons become talking, she hadn’t actually learned much from him. ‘I was sixteen.’

 ‘Really?’ Sungjong looked interested, yet as quick as he was to get excited he was once again looking annoyed. ‘Even the humans are considered adults after sixteen rings, why do I have to wait for twenty?’

 ‘Rings?’ Hyunsu frowned as she ate the acorn.

 ‘Do you not use rings?’ Sungjong muttered, more to himself than to her. ‘Every year a tree grows it gains one ring, so we count someone’s age by rings. I’m nineteen rings, L is twenty rings, Woohyun, Hoya, and Sungyeol and twenty-one rings, Dongwoo is twenty-two rings, and Sunggyu is the oldest at twenty-four rings.’

 ‘Rings,’ she reached for another acorn, ‘you have strange counters.’

 ‘So do you,’ he shrugged, not bothering to ask her age. ‘I heard you measure things by cows.’

 ‘Cows?’ Hyunsu scrunched up her nose, the idea of it seemed foreign to her. There were not enough cows to count with either. They only had two cows and one calf in her village. The animals tended off to die off too quickly. ‘Why would we measure things in cows?’

 ‘L told me you did,’ Sungjong ate a berry, his face twisting in distaste from how sour it was.

 ‘How would L know?’ She watched as he paused before huffing realising that L probably knew less about the human life than he did.

 ‘They think I’m so gullible, just because I haven’t left the village yet.’

 ‘Yes you have,’ Hyunsu’s tone was light and singsongy as she grinned at him. She had taken notice of how he would casually slink out of the village, heading straight for the bottom level of the forest.

 ‘Yes, I have,’ he nodded and looked up at the sky, seemingly just remembering that he was supposed to be teaching her something. ‘Sunggyu told me once, that a friend of his from another village ran into a griffin.’

 ‘What’s a griffin?’ Hyunsu asked as she looked up at the stars, trying to read the constellations he had taught her.

 ‘It’s a creature that has the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion!’ Sungjong’s voice pitched up in excitement as he imagined the beauty of the beast. Hyunsu, however, was clueless as to what a lion was. She knew what an eagle was, she had seen enough of those lately but she had never heard of a lion.

 ‘What’s a lion?’

 ‘It’s a feline, a cat, but it’s huge! They live very far away, in places that have far less rain than we do.’

 ‘I want to see a lion one day,’ Hyunsu stated ignoring the incredulous look on Sungjong’s face.

 ‘Not a Griffin?’

 ‘I have a better chance of seeing a griffin than a lion, don’t I?’ She was quite right, of course, not that Sungjong would tell her that. Hyunsu would have to travel a far distance in order to make it to the land that the lions lived, yet Sunggyu’s friend had met a Griffon, that meant that they weren’t restrained to the same place as lions were, so she had a higher chance of running into one.

 ‘I guess,’ he huffed as the corner of his lip dropped, he had forgotten that she thought differently than him. He supposed it was apart of what she was taught when she grew up with the humans. Sungjong and his brother’s had gotten used to the way she would make odd comments, that always ended up making sense later. ‘We should go griffin hunting!’ His excitement lit up his dark brown eyes, making the gold flecks in them stand out.

 ‘Griffin….hunting?’ Hyunsu spoke the last word slowly, she had asked them what the word meant repeatedly but they had never explained to her what it meant. But she recognised it, she knew it from when she watched them attack the humans. She watched as Sungjong’s smile faltered, wavering as he debated what to say to her.

 ‘Let’s go find one, hm?’ He grinned lopsidedly but his lips shook as if he was trying to keep his expression light to keep her from seeing his discomfort.

 ‘Does it mean finding something?’ She asked as she pushed herself up. Hyunsu brushed her pants off, her fingers stuck to the rough spots of her pants as she ensured there was nothing stuck to them. She had stopped wearing the dresses they had for her after awhile because it was impractical, some Nymphs could manage but it was just troublesome for her when she still had trouble climbing at times, so they gave her the standard tight pants that most of the Nymphs and Nix had. It had taken her awhile to not feel as if she were being overly ual with the tight fitting pants. But the pants were necessary, because the dress was more loose, it was impractical and got caught on things.

 The tight fitting aspect of the pants wasn’t the only thing that was new to her, the pants had parts of it that was tough with a strange texture. Those rough spots were intended for the trees, it helped with clinging onto the bark as it prevented the legs from sliding down from the lack of friction with normal pants, it also ensured that tough spots on the bark wouldn’t tear clothes. Though Dongwoo’s pants had some tears in the front and he didn’t care, nobody really did.

 ‘We aren’t going too close to the ground, right?’ Hyunsu chewed on her lip as she slowly walked along a narrow branch with her arms held out at her sides, trying to remain steady. She breathed in a deep breath, the earthy scent of the forest was becoming more therapeutic to her and was quickly becoming the scent that reminded her of home. She could barely remember what her house had smelled like with the humans. Had it been musty? What did musty smell like? Everything was fresh in the forest. Had it smelt like candles? What did the candles at home smell like? Did they smell like herbs or like flowers as well?

 ‘I guess not,’ Sungjong shrugged before holding his hand out of her. ‘Do you want help?’

 ‘Help?’ Hyunsu stepped next to him, her shoulder pressed against his arm as they stood at the point that was closest to their village. From their close proximity she could smell his scent, he smelt to her like music. It didn’t make sense, she supposed, but he was always playing music. He had the faint metallic scent that came with playing the strange string instrument that produced music. And he had an almost spicy aroma like the scent of sap. It smelt familiar, and nice. What did her brother smell like? He couldn’t smell like sap, did he smell metallic as well? ‘I’m good,’ she grinned at Sungjong and stepped forwards letting herself drop until she hit one of the branches not far below them. One of her ankles sparked with pain as a thump made her aware that Sungjong had dropped down beside her.

 ‘You need to bend your knees more,’ he tapped her knee as emphasis. ‘It helps to absorb the impact.’

 ‘Alright,’ Hyunsu nodded to show she understood then continued dropping down from the branches. As she fell, some small branches would hit her face making her sputter as she made there was nothing in , Sungjong usually just laughed at her as it was the most common thing for her to do.

 ‘You just need to keep your mouth shut,’ would be his comment before he would continue on his way, laughing.

 ‘Yeah, yet you talk the whole time,’ she muttered to herself before dropped onto the platform for the top layer of the village. Where the humans were always out in the day, thriving off of the sun, the Fae were always out at night, absorbing the light of the moon that leaked through small gaps in the foliage. There were always more Nymphs outside at night time and that much was true tonight as well. As they walked they were constantly greeting people they passed, it felt as if there wasn’t a moment that went by when her forehead wasn’t being kissed or someone wasn’t pressing their palms to her cheeks with a kindly smile and inviting salutations. It was nice, it was home.

 A smile bloomed on Hyunsu’s face as she took in the night village, there were firefly’s buzzing around lighting the area up with a pale yellow light. She always wondered how they got so high up but no one told her how they got them up, she figured it was something she didn’t need to think about so she never asked. There were barely any fires, there were small pits in the middle of clearings but those were kept to a minimum and always watched by an older member of the Fae.

 ‘Are we going to find a griffon in the village?’ Hyunsu questioned with raised eyebrows as she followed alongside Sungjong.

 ‘No, I forgot how late it is, you should be going to bed,’ Sungjong smiled as an annoyed look flashed across Hyunsu’s face, leaving her with pouting lips and creased eyebrows.

 ‘Why do I always have to sleep when things are getting more exciting?’

 ‘You still work like a human,’ Sungjong answered, his tone light with his tinkling laughter. ‘You need to sleep in the night, or else you will be tired and irritable during the day. Eventually you won’t have to worry about such restrictions, but until then you need to sleep at night.’

 ‘Yeah,’ Hyunsu huffed, not looking any more pleased with his answer. It was irritating that she worked so differently, it meant she missed so much of what happened and didn’t get to experience all of their daily lifestyle. Sometimes she wondered if that was the point, if they didn’t want her to know everything about them yet.

 ‘Just sleep,’ Sungjong led her along the bridge that led her to Dongwoo’s room. She still hadn’t gotten her own room but she didn’t mind, Dongwoo’s room was nice. She opened the door and the familiar warm smell of it soothed her as she stepped in. ‘May your dreams enrich your spirit,’ Sungjong pressed his hands to her cheeks with a warm smile.

 ‘And may the moon light your soul,’ she responded smiling weakly at him before she closed the door. Hyunsu pulled at the gloves on her hands off finger by finger until she could remove them, then placed them on top of the desk. Her fingers glossed over her journal, she was honestly too tired to write in it and was glad Sungjong had called the night off when he did, however, that didn’t make her any more pleased, she still wished she didn’t have to sleep as much as they did.

 Her eyes fell upon the plants that were lining the window, she leaned towards them and breathed in their scents. The smell of the herbs sparked memories of her house at the village, they hung up herbs in their kitchen, so her house had smelt like herbs. Pleased with her deduction and strangely not bothered that she was already losing familiarity with the human village, she sat on her bed. She pulled her boots off and placed them beside the bed before laying down and snuggling into the mattress. Her eyes fluttered closed barely hearing the sound of singing in the background. The Fae were always singing or making noise of some sort, it was a soothing background noise that helped her relax. It felt like home with them.

 ‘Yeonjung! Yeonjung,’ her nose scrunched up as she felt someone gasping her shoulder and squeezing it. ‘She’s not waking up.’

 ‘I’m tired too, brother. Maybe we should sleep too,’ the sound of yawning made her mind cloud over again and remind her that she wanted to sleep.

 ‘Alright, we just won’t head out at all then,’ Hyunsu pried her eyes open to see L shrugging his shoulders and making his way to the door. Sungjong pouted before looking at her, she regretted not closing her eyes immediately because instantly his eyes lit up and he started smiling at her mischievously, making it clear that her sleep was not going to continue any further.

 ‘She’s awake!’ At Sungjong’s exclamation L turned and smiled at her, his chin dipping in greeting.

 ‘Good morning, Yeonjung.’

 ‘Good morning,’ Hyunsu sat up and rubbed her eyes with a yawn. ‘What’s going on?’ She asked drowsily.

 ‘We’re going out,’ Sungjong handed her, her boots urging her to put them on. ‘Brother agreed to take us out!’

 ‘I thought we weren’t supposed to leave the village?’ She pulled on her boots, her fingers slipping and fumbling on the smooth leather.

 ‘L never told you did he,’ Sungjong smirked as he looked at his older brother, though not by much, ‘he and I always sneaked out of the village during the rest period.’

 ‘I’m not surprised,’ Hyunsu stood up and caught her gloves that L tossed at her, pulling them on. L shrugged, not looking affected by her words at all, he seemed neither offended, nor pleased. Her eyes rested on the dagger she was given on her first day in the village but she ignored it, there was no need for a weapon. Nothing was going to happen.

 ‘We’re heading down while the village is relaxed,’ Sungjong opened the door and practically shoved her and L out into the fresh air, ‘everyone is winding down around now.’ Hyunsu nodded before stretching her arms out into the air, breathing out as she continued stretching her body to wake it up.

 ‘If we’re lucky Sunggyu won’t have caught on,’ L rubbed the back of his neck as his nose scrunched up. None of them knew how but Sunggyu tended to know everything that was going on, regardless who was involved or what was happening. He always said it was a talent that came from having so many burdens, but nobody believed him.

 ‘What’s our excuse?’ She questioned as she stepped over the gap that used to send her shaking, and continued walking to the dropping spot. The dropping spots were named for what was done there, those were the places that the Nymphs used to get to the floor of the  forest because it had the least resistance in terms of flyaway branches.

 ‘The official story is that I’m taking you to look at more plants,’ L remained unfazed when Hyunsu lazily attached herself to his back, laying her chin on his shoulder tiredly. Scoffing he adjusted her legs making sure she wouldn’t hurt herself on the way down, ‘lazy.’

 ‘You woke me up, you take me down,’ Hyunsu hadn’t needed their help for a while to get down, but from time to time she decided she didn’t want to and got one of them to carry her down. L was the only one that she grasped onto without warning, he was really the only one that wouldn’t react. She would never have dreamed of doing that at home, never. But then, nobody seemed to care here, she had witnessed Nymphs doing far stranger things to their male counterparts and it was considered normal.

 ‘Alright,’ he nodded, seeing it as a fair trade.

 ‘You never carry me down,’ Sungjong sighed dramatically before disappearing from view, making his way to the floor level.

 ‘Hold on,’ L leapt into down the hole without a second thought. Hyunsu’s breath caught in as he grasped onto a branch and pressed his knees into the bark of a tree part way down before pressing his feet against the bark, focusing the pressure to his heels before using the momentum to push him away from the tree, dropping again. It was always more exhilarating when she was with one of them. Whenever she tried to drop down she always dropped from branch to branch, but they would freefall and catch themselves whenever they thought best. She was excited for when she was skilled enough to do the same.

 L hit the ground moments after Sungjong, as soon as she saw the familiar nature covered ground she detached her limbs from his body and dropped to the ground herself. She sighed and smiled as she smelt the difference before the village and the forest floor. It always tended to smell more compressed and like soil closer to the ground whereas the village smelled more of sap, bark, and the flowers that were grown up there.

 ‘So, who’s lessons do you like the best?’ Sungjong asked as they started walking along a barely noticeable path.

 ‘I don’t know,’ Hyunsu smiled as both brothers sent her disbelieving looks. She enjoyed everything, she really did. Even Sunggyu’s etiquette training, it was just interesting. Well, maybe she didn’t quite enjoy Hoya beating her up and calling it fighting training, but it was still intriguing for her.

 ‘Obviously she enjoys me teaching her the ways of the sky,’ Sungjong grinned at her, huffing when L’s lip curled in amusement.

 ‘Teaching her about the sky, or blabbering about meaningless stuff?’ L retorted, Hyunsu smiled watching as the boys sent each other the same challenging look. The group of them did things that still didn’t make sense to her, and one of them was fighting. There was playful banting a lot of the time but sometimes it escalated into actual combat. It just felt so out of place to her when they fought that it sent her head spinning, but they always assured her that it was normal, and was their way of staving off boredom whenever it hit.

 ‘What is, blabbering?’ Hyunsu looped her fingers through one of the loops on her belt as she frowned at them, not recognizing the word.

 ‘Blabbering is,’ L frowned looking for the words to describe it. Something they had all realised was just how much knowledge about language was based upon feeling, not all words were easily defined and were usually described by themselves. ‘It is talking mindlessly, without meaning or aim.’

 ‘Oh,’ Hyunsu blinked owlishly as she thought through her lessons. ‘We blabber a lot,’ she smiled at him.

 ‘Don’t look so pleased!’ Sungjong whined out, ‘it’s not good to blabber! It’s an insult!’

 ‘But it’s fun,’ Hyunsu frowned, her attention getting caught by the plant life that was around them. She found that as she walked she was recognizing plants L had shown her and she was mentally describing them and their uses as they went on.

 ‘Oh, well, I guess she likes my lessons the best then,’ Sungjong beamed at L, though his smile was hidden by his mask, suddenly looking pleased by what was previous an insult. L, however, didn’t respond. Instead he froze, tilting his head. ‘What?’

 ‘Do you hear that?’ L’s fingers hovered over the dagger that was at his side as he listened to nothing that Hyunsu could hear. ‘Get back to the village,’ L frowned as he stared at Hyunsu, hissing something under his breath that sounded strangely like a curse to her. Her gloved fingers raised up to her face, touching her skin rather than the hard face of a mask. She didn’t hear it until it was too late, whistling filled the air, not like the sound the Fae made, but like a weapon. Next thing she knew she felt pain as an arrowhead burrowed into her leg.

 Hyunsu cried out in pain and collapsed, her hands shook as she touched her leg, the black of her gloves glistened with her blood. She could feel her head spinning with pain as she stared at the shaft that was buried in her flesh. Sungjong was frozen with shock, he stepped back before he whistled, it was piercing and panicked, a call for help.

 Sunggyu was going to kill her.

 Perhaps that wasn’t the most appropriate thought to have when she had an arrow buried in her leg, but it was the only thing that crossed her mind. She was sure he would be really and truly angry. L pulled out his dagger as two human ran at him and Sungjong stood frozen, only moving when Hyunsu felt someone grabbing her by the stomach, lifting her up. Her mind seemed to go white with pain as the arrow head cut into her skin more.

 Fight, she had to fight. Hyunsu tried to dig her elbow into the strangers stomach, she tried to hit him with her good leg, but nothing worked. She could hear frantic words, the speech itched at her ears like a healing scab but she was too worked up to realise that she knew the language. Hyunsu shrieked as she watched one of the humans slam the of his sword into Sungjong’s head. She watched appalled as he staggered before turning to the human, hissing like an animal before he attacked him. The blacks of his mask where his eyes were focused on her, she watched as he ran to help, only to get tackled to the ground. Her shaking fingers went to her belt but there was no dagger hanging on them, she forgot it on Dongwoo’s desk. She didn’t think anything would happen.

 There was a reason why they weren’t supposed to go to the ground, there was a reason why there was an age limit. They had ignored all of that, and were now facing the consequences. If they had stayed in the village they would have been fine, the humans would have passed by with no trouble until they were scared off by scouts. This wouldn’t have happened, they wouldn’t have been overwhelmed. She knew they weren’t weak, she knew Sungjong and L could take them on but the shock of the attack left them unguarded and there were so many. L could barely get them all himself while trying to watch Sungjong

 ‘Sung-’ She cried out, her voice cracking with fear for the youngest Nix as she watched a sword barely miss him. Hyunsu had barely stopped herself from calling out his name, they couldn’t know names, they couldn’t. The humans couldn’t know anything, they couldn't. Shock made her stop fighting against the person pulling her along, the humans? Since when had she referred to her people as such? Since when did she view herself separate from them?

 ‘Yeonjung,’ she could hear L’s pained cry from where he was holding off four human men that were attacking him. He looked at her, she could imagine what he looked like behind the mask, his eyes shadowed with regret and disappointment, angry that he had failed to protect her and his brother.

Sunggyu really was going to kill them, was her last thought before she felt a thump to the back of her head and her vision darkened to black.

 Sungjong cried out in anger as he watched Yeonjung fall limp in the arms of one of the barbarians. Brandishing his dagger, he used it to disarm the man attacking him, growling like one of the lions he was talking about with Yeonjung. He then used the man’s sword to stab it through his stomach. His nose flared with his heavy breathing as the man’s blood spurted from the wound, warming his hand. Clenching his jaw Sungjong planted his foot against the man's chest, kicking him off of the blade. The left over men scattered, running as fast as they could for the edge of the border. Sungjong burst forward, crying out in outrage as he felt his brother restrain him, ‘let me go! Let me go! We need to save her!’

 ‘No!’ L grunted as he struggled to keep a hold on his younger brother. ‘They would have already crossed the border to the grasslands. We can’t charge in alone, just two of us? That’s stupid Sungjong.’

 ‘We don’t know what they’re going to do to her!’ Sungjong snapped as he elbowed his brother’s stomach, pushing away from him before pointing the dagger at his elder, threatening him to stop him.

 ‘Don’t be a fool,’ L snapped as he threw one of the human swords he was holding to the ground. ‘She’s not one of us. They won’t harm her.’

 ‘Not one of us?’ Sungjong repeated slowly, disgust clear in his tone. ‘Then what was she when we accepted her into our family? What was she when we taught her our traditions? Was she a monster? An outcast? A failure? What was she if not one of us! What was she!’ Sungjong released a shriek of anger, and threw his knife as hard as he could at a tree. It was more than imbedded inside the wood. In fact, the handle was nearly invisible, buried far too deep into the trunk.

 Both brother’s felt a palpable change in the air as seven Nymphs walked in. It was clear where the dark foreboding energy came from. ‘What are you two doing down here,’ Sunggyu’s voice was low and screamed dangerous to everyone listening. The humans who were lying on the ground still coherent shuddered in fear at the sound of his voice.

 ‘Brother,’ L started shutting his mouth as soon as Sunggyu’s head snapped to look at him. L felt like groaning out of annoyance when he noticed that Minhee and Miyoung had dropped down into the area, talking seriously with Dongwoo. The twins usually had their scouting trips with Dongwoo, and were known to be vehemently for the rules when it came to traversing around the forest. No doubt he and Sungjong would get scolded by them as well as Sunggyu, and their scoldings were always much worse.

 ‘Where is Yeonjung? Where is she?’ Sungjong gulped, his fingers shaking as he rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t want to answer, he was scared to. He wasn’t supposed to leave the village, he wasn’t supposed to be involved at all. Yeonjung most certainly wasn’t supposed to be gone, and she was absolutely not supposed to be taken away by the humans. ‘She’s gone isn’t she?’ Sunggyu stared down at the human by him, his teeth grinding against each other.

 ‘Yes,’ Sungjong nodded, wincing as Sunggyu removed his sword and stabbed it into the slowly dying human’s chest, making his writhing body freeze.

 ‘We had a duty, remind me, what was it?’

 ‘We were to protect Yeonjung, teach her our way,’ L answered, his hands clasped behind his back as he spoke.

 ‘Tell me, was she allowed to be on the ground level?’

 ‘No.’

 ‘Was she supposed to be kidnapped by humans?’

 ‘No,’ L shook his head.

 ‘But she’s not kidnapped,’ Dongwoo spoke up from his spot beside Sunggyu. ‘She’s one of them, she’s a human, she’s not kidnapped if they take her back. Good on her, I say.’ None of the Fae there needed to see Sunggyu’s face to know that he was angry, it was evident in his body language. His shoulders were perfectly straight and his fingers were flexing as he tried to control the rush of energy that was flowing within him.

 ‘That is enough!’ Sunggyu glared at Dongwoo, the air almost crackled with the energy he was emitting. ‘You may have been reluctant to accept her but she is one of us. She is no longer viewed as a human. You have failed at every one of the duties I have set for you. You did not do your job of teaching her how to speak, instead you let her learn from children. You did not accept her into our folds, instead you made it clear that you thought she would never be one of us.

 ‘You have not done your job as a son of the balancers. You have acted without grace or kindness, and allowed your superiority to cloud your judgement. You will have your own punishments, as will you,’ Sunggyu looked at L and Sungjong with obvious disappointment. ‘I would have thought you would be more wise with your choices. However, what's done is done. All we can do now is recover from it.’ Minhee stepped by Sunggyu who sent the rest of the two living human men disgusted looks before leaving.

 ‘Come on,’ she rubbed Sungjong’s back soothingly before guiding him away from the spot they were fighting at as Hoya and Woohyun picked up the two humans who started weakly fighting against them. L sighed mentally in relief when he noticed Minhee being gentle with Sungjong, perhaps they wouldn’t get scolded later that night.

 ‘Let’s give them a warning they’ll never forget,’ Miyoung hissed as she glared at the humans, her twin sister shot her a scolding look that was efficiently hidden by her mask. ‘Nobody takes one of our own without retribution.’