10 // Kidnapped

 

 

"...AeMi!..."

 

"AeMi!"

 

The familiar voices sounded both distant and close as she felt her body being shaken and her consciousness returning. AeMi's eyes finally fluttered open to the sight of her worried brother, along with the equally as concerned Daehyun and Yongguk. Seeing her awake and otherwise unharmed was a great relief for Youngjae, who naturally assumed the worst case scenario when the trio initially saw her in that condition.

 

"AeMi, are you okay? What happened?" he asked after he helped her up into a sitting position. Youngjae did a quick scan of the room. "And where's Yumi? She's not with you?"

 

All grogginess left the girl's body with the mention of Yumi's disappearance. "She's not here?!" AeMi released a heavy sigh of distress when she realised what must've happened. "She must have been captured by that guy after he knocked me out..."

 

All eyes widened on hearing this piece of information. "What?!"

 

Daehyun knelt down to her height. "Who was it?!" he asked impatiently.

 

"I-I don't know," she stammered unsurely. "But Yumi seemed to know him. He was a similar age to yours and had short dark hair and dark eyes. All I can remember is that he wore a cloak, and..."

 

She looked over to the corner of the room where she heard a small, subtle groan.

 

"...and..."

 

The figure moved around on his bedding before sitting up slowly and rubbing his eyes. All eyes in the room were now focused on him.

 

"and... he was a spellcaster."

 

Everyone remained quiet as they watched the tall, young boy scratch his head cluelessly as he tried to remember where he was and what he had been doing. Yongguk was the first to speak.

 

"Zelo, you're awake!"

 

The boy blinked at him. "Uh, yeah?"

 

The older of the two couldn't conceal his happiness as he went over to ruffle his young apprentice's hair. "But how? You were possessed by a level-2 demon!"

 

Realisation struck Zelo's face as his memory of what had happened finally settled within his head. "Yeah, that's right... I was."

 

"It was the spellcaster," AeMi declared. "The same guy in the blue cloak who knocked me out and kidnapped Yumi."

 

Daehyun whipped his head towards her. "Hang on, did you just say blue cloak?" The gears in his head spun rapidly as he easily figured out who the perpetrator was. "It's that guy we saw from last night when Yumi went off by herself."

 

His eyes hardened as he strode towards the door. "There's no way I'm letting him get away with this."

 

"Wait!" Youngjae urgently called, causing Daehyun to stop in his tracks and look at him. "If his purpose was to capture Yumi, then why did he free Zelo?"

 

Yongguk nodded. "Youngjae's right. And how did he even manage to do it?"

 

All eyes turned to question AeMi.

 

"He chanted a spell," she replied. "It was in a foreign language, so I had no idea what kind of spell it was. But he effortlessly disposed of that demon possessing Zelo."

 

Youngjae's brow creased in thought. "A foreign language?" For AeMi to have called it foreign meant that the perpetrator could not have been from this land -- which also meant that this person had come from one of the other lands of the terrain. And there was only one nation in mind that could have so effortlessly conjured such a powerful spell.

 

The nation that in history had previously dealt methods in order to counter the four Guardians of this snowy land.

 

His eyes slowly glowered into a glare as the name of the culprit left his mouth as a growl.

 

"KangRang."

 

 

~~~

 

 

Yumi lay unconscious on the floor of a small, wooden storage cart as it was pulled along by a galloping horse. The ride was bumpy due to the sleed at which they were travelling, and a particularly large shake of the cart caused her head to crash against the wooden sides.

 

She slowly awakened, groaning as she tried to move her hand up to touch the sore part of her head, but found that she couldn't because her hands were tied behind her back and her legs were bound together tightly. With a bit of effort, Yumi managed to sit up and took the time to look at her surroundings. Tall stacks of rolled up hay covered her view of the entrance of the cart, and she noticed that she had been lying on a soft material cover that someone must have laid down for her comfort.

 

She raised an eyebrow immediately after thinking that. It was obvious that she had been kidnapped, so it was highly unlikely for her comfort to have even been taken into consideration

 

As Yumi struggled to stand on her tied feet, the cart suddenly made a sharp turn that easily threw her off balance. She let out a yelp as her whole body crashed into the sides before it crumpled onto the floor.

 

The person outside must've heard the sound, because the cart suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, causing Yumi to freeze in panic. She quickly shut her eyes close and pretended to sleep when she heard the rustle of the material cover over the entrance lifting. A person stepped inside the cart and went over to where she lay. With her eyes closed, she couldn't see what her kidnapper was up to, but she could definitely feel his eyes on her.

 

"I know you're awake," the deep voice rang out. "So you can stop pretending now."

 

So he noticed.

 

Seeing that there was no use in continuing to do so, Yumi sat up against the wooden back wall and opened her eyes to glare up at the tall figure of Chanyeol.

 

"You," she stated in detest.

 

So he really was her kidnapper. The image of an unconscious AeMi lying on the floor flashed across her mind, instantly reminding her of what had happened earlier.

 

"What did you do to my friend back at the hut?!"

 

Chanyeol kneeled down on a knee and looked at her with a neutral expression. "Your friend is unharmed," he cooly replied. "I just used a special technique to render her unconscious for a while."

 

*Just like you used on me* she thought scornfully to herself. Yumi kept her glare on him. "What do you want with me?"

 

"It's not what I want. I'm just fulfilling my task." He looked at her pointedly. "To capture the snowy land's legendary Guardian of Water."

 

Yumi's blood ran cold and her face turned pale. He knew who she was. "W-Who are you?" she asked in a wavering voice when she found the strength to do so.

 

For a few seconds, the young man just gazed at her wordlessly before his lips curled up into a small smile. "Just another lackey following some higher-up's orders," he finally said.

 

Chanyeol straightened up and turned to leave. "So don't bother trying to escape."

 

"You lied to me about everything." Yumi's voice was hard and cold. "I hate people who lie to me."

 

At this he smiled softly to himself, which she couldn't see since his back was towards her. "I did not lie to you Yumi." He angled his head to glance at her over his shoulder. "Never have, never will."

 

Chanyeol quietly left the cart, and soon she could feel it moving along the roads again, the horse letting out a little grunt as it exerted its strength to get it going. Yumi struggled to free her bound hands since she could not find something sharp enough to cut it with. The wooden cart had been strategically chosen for its smooth interior with no protruding areas whatsoever -- meaning that she had to find another way to set herself free.

 

 

She glared up at the entrance where she knew Chanyeol would be on the other side of the material cover.

 

"If he thinks that I'm just going to sit here and let myself be kidnapped, then he's in for a big surprise."

 

Or so she thought.

 

By now, nightfall had come, and she was still trapped helplessly inside that very same wooden enclosure.

 

Her earlier attempt to escape had been foiled by Chanyeol's sharp eyes, who had noticed the particles of snow surrounding the entrance of the cart convert into small trickles of water that she had tried sneaking into the cart.

 

"I guess I underestimated your abilities, Miss Yumi," he had remarked with a hint of amusement. "Even with your hands tied behind your back, you can still manage to manipulate water."

 

Yumi had huffed to herself with annoyance as she tried to ignore him.

 

He sent her a sideways glance. "But you might want to sit still and not try to escape, otherwise I will have to do more something more extreme about it," Chanyeol had warned before leaving her alone again.

 

Yumi's thoughts were broken by the cart suddenly halting in its place as she heard the horse outside whinny with its abrupt decision to stop. She didn't even have time to wonder what was going on when the entire wooden cart caved in on her without a warning. She let out a yelp when she felt the sharp pieces of debris cut into her body -- which also conveniently severed the bindings on her hands and feet.

 

With a strenuous grunt, she managed to shove away the heavy wood that covered her body, and finally saw what had caused the sudden change in circumstances. Standing right before her was a large water-wielding demon resembling one of those that she had encountered many times with the others. The only difference here was that this one assumed the appearance of a prehistoric reptile that had horns protruding from its head.

 

Yumi stood frozen in her spot as the creature loomed closer and closer towards her until it practically towered over her.

 

"T R A I T O R ! ! !" it boomed in its low, demonic voice.

 

Her breathing turned haggard as she remained shell shocked on her feet and did absolutely nothing but stare at the demon as it lunged at her with an outstretched limb. But before it made contact with her, she was pulled off to the side and carried to safety by none other than the calm and collected Chanyeol.

 

"Stay here," he told her before he leapt in to engage the demon in battle.

 

It was the first time she had ever seen him fight, and for a moment there Yumi almost mistook him for Daehyun. Like the experienced demon-slayer, Chanyeol used a katana in his battles and combined it with his spells for a swift and sharp disposal of his opponents. He alone had no trouble with dealing with a level-3.

 

Chanyeol was such a skilled fighter that it would have been impossible for Yumi to escape from him in a normal situation. So she did what she thought was best -- and fled from the scene without another moment's hesitation while he was still occupied with the demon. This didn't go unnoticed by her kidnapper, who watched in surprise as she disappeared into the woods before his attention was brought back to his water-wielding attacker.

 

"Damn it," he hissed as he just managed to dodge a stream of water flying at him. "I don't have time for this."

 

He needed to finish it off quickly so that he could go after Yumi, and he had just the right assets to do so. He stared hard at the oversized creature, a quick strategy forming in his head, before hastily jumping in for the final blow.

 

 

~~~

 

 

The uneven ground Yumi ran upon was a catalyst for her to lose balance -- and she did just that as she tripped over and tumbled unceremoniously into a tree. Ignoring the aches in her body, she picked herself up and continued on her way. She had absolutely no idea where she was going, but figured that going backwards in the opposite direction would bring her closer to where the others were. Every second that went by was crucial to her, because with every second came the growing possibility that Chanyeol would find her and recapture her.

 

There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that his battle with the demon was done and dusted and that he was already hot on her trail.

 

With an unfaltering determination, Yumi continued to run as fast as her legs could take her. She didn't look back even when she heard sounds and only picked up on her speed -- only to find a second later that the ground was collapsing beneath her feet. With round, frightened eyes, she reached up into the darkness with a scream that was cut short by someone calling her name, grabbing onto her outstretched hand.

 

The dark of the night concealed the man's identity, but she knew that he had ended up in the same predicament as her when she felt their bodies collide before falling to the bottom of the lightless pit.

 

By now, she was on the brink of unconsciousness from the blows to her head as she felt it spin painfully. She couldn't move her body and only heard the low groans of pain coming from the person beside her.

 

But who was it? All she knew was that the voice she heard was a male's, and he seemed familiar. But in her light-headed state, she couldn't figure out who he was.

 

Could it be Chanyeol, who managed to catch up to her? Or was it someone else?

 

Yumi was quickly losing consciousness and didn't have the strength to fight it.

 

She would have to find out when she woke up again.

 

 

 

---

 

Well, who do you think it could be? :P

Welcome new subscribers and thanks for reading once again!

 

--- Mistlea