The carriage stopped right in front of the grand entrance of Everlasting Sapphire palace. Out stepped the occupant, her white silk dress bounced lightly as her foot touched the ground. There was a sense of lightness and illumination shrouding her, an identification that gave the palace guards enough assurance to grant her entry into the royal house.

Her feet carried her through the grand hallway with one of the palace guards escorting her. The place looked almost the same as it was the last time she visited it, which was a year ago. Except for at that present moment, she noticed a few fresh marks left by a siege - the torn carpets, ripped curtains and disfigured statues. Palace maids were carrying their duty in restoring all they could, sweeping the crumbled pieces of the statues, sewing up the torn carpets and removing shattered glasses from windowpanes.

Gone were the war men in their emerald green suit and an army in sapphire blue capes were taking their place. Sombriety and desolation filled up the air and it intensified the further she went. The guard led her into a hall where Siwon and the rest of the royal subjects were gathered. Her presence was immediately acknowledged, thanks to the glow that emanated within her.

She bowed. "Your Majesty."

"Leeteuk. You came right on time," the Sapphire Blue king commented. "But not early enough, I am just about to send my men off because we're running out of time."

The fairy kept silent as Siwon's curt tone cut through the silence of the room.

"Very well. First thing first. I need you to tell me where is Princess Min right now."

The fairy godmother obediently nodded, closed her eyes as her hands began to dance, conjuring a crystal ball that manifested as a shimmering hologram before her. Everybody in the room watched as white rays throbbed from within the sphere. Leeteuk's forehead creased slightly as she shifted her focus into her subconscious mind, the throbbing rays intensified a she did so. With one final blaze of light that swept throughout the room in a split second, a familiar face appeared from within the crystal ball for everyone to see. It was the Princess of Everlasting Sapphire, wandering down a path that led her towards what appeared like a cottage in the middle of nowhere.

"I sense the energy coming from beyond the hills of the Enchanted Forest," Leeteuk murmured, the movie rolled on inside her crystal, revealing more details about the Princess's location.

Siwon's forehead creased. "Where is it, exactly?"

Leeteuk twirled with the crystal. "Over the Seven Jewelled Hills, deep beyond the Seventh Fall. In a cottage at the heart of the forest."

"Sweet," Siwon spoke. "For this, I assign Yunho and Changmin. Find the princess, and bring her back here. I don't care how you're going to do it, but it is better for her to be alive."

"She's not alone." It was the fairy who interjected, "Someone is with her. A peasant girl,"

"A peasant girl won't harm any of us. Now go, before she gets to Far Far Away."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Ouch, easy on that." Sungmin winced in pain as Kibum carefully peeled the bandage from her wounded shoulder. Five days were not enough to cover up the gash completely. The poison had caused the flesh to burn that it stuck to the cloth as Kibum slowly took them off. But Sungmin knew that it could have been worse, if it wasn't for the medicine that Donghae had given.

"Sorry," Kibum muttered while she dropped the bandage into a bowl filled with water. Another clean piece of cloth was soaked up and used to wash the wound.

Sungmin bit her lips as her mind wandered to the time when she was running up the hills, away from the knight that had attempted to kill her. She then thought about what Donghae had said to her ealier, imagining what could have happened if Kibum did not happened to stumble upon her, and Donghae was not there to cure what could have been fatal.

He thought drifted further as she wondered about how were things going back in Everlasting Sapphire at that moment. Did her kingdom survive the siege? Did her parents escape unscathed? What about Kangin?

A heavy weight settled onto her chest the more she questioned and it didn't help at all that she couldn't get a definite answer to all of that.

"Kibum," she called.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know the way to Far Far Away from this forest?"

The snow princess left the question hanging in the air for quite some time. Just as Sungmin was about to speak again, she began, "I know the way around this forest only as far as the Fifth Fall, because that path leads to Shining Sapphire."

"There's a direct route from Shining Sapphire that leads to Far Far Away, but I'm not sure how could one possibly get through. I mean, the empire is probably heavily guarded by Siwon's army."

Sungmin bit her lower lip a bit as her thoughts worked up. "How heavily guarded?" she asked, pondering over the fact that it was about two years since the Sapphire Blue king tore the empire down and that Siwon's attention at the moment was mainly upon Everlasting Sapphire.

"I'm not sure myself," Kibum muttered in reply, fastening a pad onto Sungmin's wound with a bandage around her shoulder. "Are you leaving?"

Sungmin could not help being slightly disturbed by the hint of dejection in Kibum's voice, as if the former princess of Shining Sapphire was inwardly upset at the idea of no longer having her around.

"I'm running out of time, Kibum. My kingdom needs help."

"I know, but your wound isn't completely healed yet," was Kibum's response.

It was not like the wound matter much more than the current situation of her kingdom. Well, obviously, it might render her with some complications along the way - restricted movement, the possibility of the wound getting infected - but in the end of the day, if she was a second late, and it costs her the life of her kingdom and her parents, Sungmin would rather let the poisoned sword kill her. She would rather die trying than just sit and wait as Siwon bring down everything in her kingdom to their knees.

There was a long silence as Sungmin immersed herself into her dillemma, trying to figure out how to convince Kibum that she had to leave for Far Far Away no matter what. The snow princess seemed to be deep in thought as well, as she collected the bowls from the dining table.

"Alright, if you really have to go, I'm coming with you."

Sungmin glanced up towards her, mildly surprised. "Are you sure about that?" she pressed on as the latter walked out the door. "I mean, it's dangerous..."

"Says the one who insists on going with a bloody shoulder," Kibum deadpanned as she poured the contents of the bowls onto a bed of daisies, albeit rolling her eyes when Sungmin tried to reason her off her decision.

The Everlasting Sapphire princess sighed in defeat, watching Kibum scooping up half a pail of water from a small well just in front of the cottage. Underestimating the snow princess's capability in the face of crisis was apparently not the right thing to do, she realized, remembering Kibum's account of digging the well and doing the plumbing to acquire water supply from the creek just a few walks from the cottage all by herself. 

Then she realized that Kibum was the princess who fled from a war all by herself, ventured into the wilderness deep into the Enchanted Forest, with nothing but the white dress she had on. Thanks to Donghae, an alchemist hailing from Sapphire Blue turned river mermaid by curse, the snow princess was able to survive and start anew, despite being isolated from the rest of the people. 

"So am I coming or not?" Kibum interrupted her train of thoughts as the snow princess made her entrance back into the cottage with the clean bowls in her hands.

The setting sun set a picturesque triple gradient of sapphire, pink and orange across the dusk sky. However, it was no more breathtaking than the soft brown eyes that gazed back into hers at that moment.

He was the most beautiful human being she had ever seen. Pale white skin, plump pink lips, and thick brown locks; there might be hundreds of men across the land who shared the same feature, but Kyuhyun rocked those features the best.

"It's over now," he said to her. "You are mine; now, and forever."

Her heart thundered against her ribcage as he leaned in, their face drawing closer and closer. He slowly closed his eyes, and tilted his head. It's the moment she had been yearning for, she ought to make the best out of it. She had to-

CLANG!!!

Sungmin jolted in her bed as her eyes snapped open. Her mind spiralled in frustration as her dream was interrupted by the sound of items being thrown around and Kibum shrieking in distress in the other room. As she soon came to the sense that her homie was in trouble, the princess instantly leaped out of bed and grabbed her sword from under it.

Her night vision was not as excellent, but thanks to the soft moon light that illuminated the room, she could see a figure slipping the snow princess into a sack. She silently tiptoed into the room, lifting her sword up in preparation.

She was already in front of the figure, about to swing her weapon when she felt a blunt, hard object from behind hitting her hard below her skull. Before she could recover from the shock, the blow came again the second time. Then in no time, came the third strike. Just like that, the snow princess cursed under her breath as she eventually  out.