"We need to get the druid to our side." A gravely female voice said in the large space, sounding annoyed, and urgent at the same time.

"What good will gaining a druid to our side do?" An older male voice, laced with arrogance and age snaps back at the woman, his Russian accent faint but still noticeable.

"Valackines is right, Valiancia." A younger female voice replies, her Chinese accent stronger than normal. "We don't need a druid to tear down the wards, we need to throw our best warriors at the wards to break them down. They are weak along the border to the Korea's."

"She's not a normal druid, Fen." Valiancia replies, her own Russian accent strong in her voice. "She's a hybrid's child. She's a shape shifter. She's the one prophesized."

"ENOUGH!" Another male voice roars, silencing those around him. "I will go to this druid and determine if she is the one my grandmother said would save us from death."

"My Prince, with all due respect, you should not let the idle chatter of a few misguide you to our utter destruction." Valackines turned to the young man who sat upon a raised platform.

"I am tired of the arguments." The Prince snapped, anger coloring his face a pale tan. "If we do nothing, we die. I will not let inaction be the demise of our race!" His voice grew quieter the angrier he got.

The room grew quiet, the men and women shifting uncomfortably under his gaze. Finally Valackines stepped forward and bowed, his long sliver hair falling over his shoulder. "We will follow what you say."

The Prince smiles coldly at the group. "I will leave in the morning. Fen, you will come with me to guide me to where the wards are the weakest."

"Yes, my Prince." Fen bows deeply as the Prince leaves the throne, a frown on his face.

**

Northern border territory....3 days later

The whispers of the crowd annoyed the Prince as he and Fen walk along the wide dirt path that followed the short, crudely built wall that was the cover for the edge of the territory between vampires and werewolves.

Standing alongside where the wards were the weakest, at least to his eyes, the Prince gazed about the ruins of what used to be a large estate back in Joseon/Qing days.

"Right here, my Prince." Fen stood stiffly next to him.

"Fen, may I offer some advice?" The Prince turned to her.

"Yes my Prince?" Fen refused to look at him, instead choosing to stare out across the nearly invisible barrier.

"We are not in court." The Prince smiled patiently. He almost wished he could have left the constituents of his court behind, but that would cause his enemies to think he'd abandoned his throne. "While we are here scouting the situation, treat me like a friend." He said.

"I don't know if I can do that, sir." Fen seemed to relax a little though she still treated him with utmost respect.

He sighed. "I'm giving you permission as my trusted scout to call me by my given name."

What he said must have shocked Fen, for she looked up at him for the first time since they'd left their hideout, and stared into his eyes for a moment before blushing and looking away. "Point taken, Luhan."

Luhan smiled, his light tan face lighting up as Fen caved to his wishes. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?" He teased.

Fen cleared , a hint of a smile on her face. "I know, we have to go through this every time the damn old geezers in the court want to resist change." Her tone softens as she speaks, easing back into a comfortable stance.

"I hate the posturing too." Luhan agrees amiably. "What do you think our chances of luring the druid to our cause?"

Fen looked around and leaned in closer. "If we can separate her from the wolf pack she's been staying with the past 2 years, I think we have a very high chance of gaining her.” Fen sighs, a hand absently going up to nest in her thick black hair.

Luhan can tell Fen is uneasy about something. He wouldn’t be a Prince of a large vampire territory if he wasn’t quick to read others. “What is bothering you my friend?” Luhan switches from Russian to Mandarin, knowing Fen is more comfortable with their mother tongue.

Fen looks up at Luhan’s thin face, studying the way his dark eyes are framed by his baby face, hiding the fact he’s several hundred years old. She clears when she realizes she’s been staring too long at him, averting her eyes and blushing. “Your grandmother didn’t just see this druid as a way to save our clan,” She begins, moving ever so slightly closer to the edge of their territory. “She saw this druid as the future Consort to the Clan, and the mother of your children.”

Luhan stiffens. “Did she out rightly say this to the scribes who took descriptions of her visions?” He hisses softly, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

“No. She only told myself, and her own guard.” Fen replies. “We were sworn to secrecy that we would not spread rumors around that you would wed and breed with a human.”

Luhan snorts. “Then there is something she didn’t say.” He smirks, thinking he’s gotten the upper hand on the crotchy old woman who’d ruled their Clan with an iron fist. “My Consort is required to be a vampire of noble blood in order for us to be wed.” He says. “My grandmother wrote the decree on her deathbed.”

Fen nods. “A way to stave off the other heads of the nobles who wanted to claim rights to the throne.” She replies. “I didn’t come here to discuss politics of court, my Prince.” Looking back at Luhan, she smiles. “I came here to push you into action towards saving our Clan.”

Fen turned at that exact moment, grabbing Luhan’s arms and throwing him over her shoulder at the barrier faster than he could comprehend what was going on.

The last thing he remembers seeing is Fen’s face, an apologetic look marring her unnatural beauty.

Luhan’s world goes black.

A/N: As expected, I didn't write a single thing on our hiking trip. We kind of pushed ourselves a bit hard, and did a different National Park nearly every day for 8 days, the exception being Zion National Park and Arches National Park, which were the two biggest places on our list to hike. We didn't get to hike nearly enough at Zion as we wanted, partly due to one of the trails being closed, and Arches was surprisingly small for it being a world famous area. We hiked Arches in less than 5 hours.

The reason why I took so long after coming back from vacation, for those who didn't know, on Tues, June 2nd, we got a call from the friends who were watching our pets for us. The ferret we'd inherited from a friend had been found unresponsive, but breathing. They thought he'd had a seizure, so in to the vet he went. Unfortunately, it was not a seizure, but becoming toxic due to a urinary tract infection that seemed to have bloomed overnight. Because of his advanced age (he was 8 years old), and the probabilty of other health issues (ferrets are notorious for having cancer), his chances of suriving just the surgery to unblock his bladder were less than slim. We made the choice to let him go, and be free of pain, even though there was a part of me who wanted to fight for him. 

This is by far not the first time I've said goodbye to a pet. It does not get any easier either. Even though our cats did not get along with him, they still mourn for the ferret, and even now, 10 days later, I still find myself wanting to go out to the living room to play with him. He's gonna be buried with his first owner, who was a dear friend of ours. 

I can't say with certainty that updates will be regular as of right now, but they will come. Real life has decided to rear it's ugly head and demand that the costumes I'm doing for DragonCon in Sept get done now while I still have time to adjust the design and whatnot, and seeing BTS in 42 days, and university starting up again the end of August. With that, I want to say thank you and HI!!!! to all the new subscribers!! And thank you all, my lovely readers!!  Please do let me know what you think, and I promise that I'll have a fun chapter soon. Its hard to write funny comedy like stuff (even if it's based off a BTS bomb) during sad times.