The rest of the way consisted of almost eight more dreadfully boring days stuck in Xiumin and Luhan's palanquin. D.O told her that if they kept going for five more, they could reach the ocean. The concept surprised Lucy, it meant the island was much larger than her kingdom had been, but, while she had always loved the sea, she was not mentally prepared to travel for much longer.

Most of the scenery consisted of dense jungle. She had once asked Sehun if they purposefully avoided roads that passed villages, but he said that they didn't. Locals didn't like setting up their towns between the trees. Despite the plentiful resources, they were too superstitious and the forest got too dark for comfort. Only tribal people who worshipped obscure jungle gods lived there.

They had nests in the trees,— Baekhyun had drawled from nearby, close to falling asleep— like birds. Chanyeol, whose lap he was resting on, shook his head. The aborigines were not like birds, he said. They were simply savages. They performed human sacrifices and took hallucinogens to speak to their "gods".

"Sounds just like some African tribes." Luciana thought out loud.

"Did you read a lot of books on them?" D.O asked her.

It was high morning and they were giving the horses a break from the heavy heat by a stream that cut through their path. The princes had settled, in couples, on rocks bordering it, following Luca's example. 

"Hmm," She thought. "Not really. We crossed paths with them a lot on southern excursions, though." 

"What types of excursions?" Chanyeol asked her.

Tao, the person nearest her, visibly stiffened. Sehun noticed. 

"Military, mostly." She said. "Preparation for campaigns."

"And you participated in these southern excursions?" Chen asked. She could hear the amused skepticism in his voice.

A small fish jumped briefly out of the burbling water a few feet away from her. The bright light, filtered by the dense foliage, glinted off of its silver blue scales. It left bubbles in its wake. 

"I..." Luca started. "Didn't participate. I was taken along."

"Why?" Tao asked her. His tone was always different from his brothers. It made her uncomfortable every time.

She shrugged, but she could feel his eyes on her, waiting. Another couple of fish jumped up. She her lips, eyes following them further this time, downstream. Where their steely bodies blurred into the foamy white waters, indistinguishable, her gaze rose to the opposite bank. Luhan was sitting there staring at her, Xiumin napping on a stretch