When Mei was five, she'd gotten lost in the woods.

In her defense, she'd seen a baby bunny and had only thought it'd get hurt when it had vanished into the bushes. So to save the bunny, she'd rushed after him and nearly given her mother a heart attack, if the way she'd been hugged almost to death was any indication.

But that came later.

While she'd stumbled around, falling and scraping her knees on the rough ground, she'd gotten off track… which she hadn't been following in the first place, she'd only chased after the bunny. And so, she'd gotten thoroughly lost and had burst into tears because she couldn't find her mom or the baby bunny and her knees hurt. So, rubbing her eyes, she'd started walking unseeingly, calling for mommy at the top of her voice and it hadn’t occurred to her to look where she was stepping and the next thing she knew, she was falling down.

And then, someone had caught her, arms wrapping around her and pulling her into a gentle, soothing hug. 'I got you, little one,' whispered in her ear in the most soothing voice imaginable, gentle and warm like the spring sun, making her forget her fear. She'd blinked confusedly at her savior, tears clinging to her lashes. 'Mommy?' she'd asked, unsure because didn't only moms protect you like this?

The smile was like a brilliant ray of light breaking through the clouds and in her five-year old mind, she'd fallen in love with the prince charming – because in that moment she knew, with all the certainty of youth, that this was what princes looked like.

Scraped knees and palms forgotten, she'd clung instead and almost fallen asleep at the gentle rocking sensation as they stepped over the rocks and broken twigs, trusting her savior to reunite her with her family.

He'd let her down at the edge of the woods, setting her down on her tiny legs and holding her hand. 'Wait,' he'd told her and she'd nodded. And kept waiting and waiting for his return but he never came back but her mother found her, standing at the edge of the woods and staring at the intimidating trees with utmost fascination.

'Where did you run off to?' she'd asked, sounding panicked and relieved at the same time. 'Oh my god, did you fall? Oh thank goodness you're okay!!!'

She let her mother smother her face with kisses and pull her into a hug but she'd dug her feet in the ground and cried, not wanting to leave the woods because he'd asked her to wait.

She almost forgot about her mysterious savior as she grew up and lost her parents to the accident that left her orphaned, moving in with Anna and her family before growing up some more and deciding she wanted to live independently.

He came back in her life through an old diary found in a junk shop where Anna had dragged her because she'd heard there were some sick indie records she'd been dying to get. While Anna haggled over the records, Mei had wandered around, picking things up to examine them.

The diary was filled with small paper clips relating to the similar theme and as she read through the first few sections, a vague memory of warm hug and soothing voice rose inside her head.

So she looked through it more carefully.

Someone had made the effort to compile all the events relating to the mysterious savior who appeared out of nowhere, at the most opportune moments to help the people of the Mellow, her home town. Xhizer, they called him, the guide, the savior.

It made her remember that event, so long ago and she couldn't help but smile. Whoever it had been – she didn't remember his face, just that it was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen – he had saved her, guided her back home. The name seemed quite apropos.

She mightn't have thought about it again – except that she did, still feeling that nostalgia and pain of leaving when he'd asked her to 'wait', though she realized he'd meant she wait for her mom, not him – but for the assignment her professor announced in their next class.

'Local folklore,' Professor Wu announced, staring sternly over the light, horn rimmed glasses perched over his nose, handsome and intimidating as ever, 'I want you all to dig into the history of our beloved town and give me a detailed account of the local folklore. Anything you find interesting…'

'Do vampires count?' Someone yelled from the back, ducking their head so Professor Wu-but-you-can-call-me-Kris wouldn't locate them.

He arched a thick brow in response. 'Long as you can back it up with authentic, archived records, yes, vampires count.'

There was a general whoop as her class fellows started talking about the local stories and myths.

'So, decided yet?' Anna asked her later that evening, finding her perched on her seat and frowning at the computer screen.

'Xhizer,' Mei spoke quietly.

'Huh?' Anna responded unintelligently, looking even more confused when Mei just slipped past her instead of replying.

What started out as an assignment turned into a fascinating venture into the myths and how she could connect it to the broader history? The pious spirit of Xhizer, seemed to have appeared in all cultures by different names but one thing in common – he appeared to help the person in need, often not revealing his identity and at times, guiding the people in mysterious ways which led to the name 'Khizr' being assigned to him, predominantly known as the 'guide' though he was also known by other names like 'the verdant one' or 'the savior'.

It was that last one she focused her energies on, identifying incidents in their history – browsing through archives and pages upon pages of dusty history – and trying to connect the dots.

The number of reported incidents was surprising, little snippets that would seem normal until you put them in perspective and when talking to some of her peers, she realized that they'd all grown up with the story of Xhizer embedded in their minds, the mysterious spirit – no one had seen him or if they had, it was only a brief glimpse – who came to help when everything else seemed lost.

It was an exciting enough topic that Anna swore she'd tape shut if she didn't quit yapping about it. Mei stuck her tongue out at her friend and continued narrating the latest incident she'd found.

'… and then, she felt the shadow fall across her face and she swears she felt fingers touch her and when she opened her eyes, there was no one around. But her bleeding had stopped – the doctors told her she was lucky to survive.'

'I still think it sounds a bit exaggerated, okay?' Anna sighed. 'Besides, why're you so hyper about it?'

'Can I tell you something?' Mei asked, looking serious.

'Did you say yes to Prof-, no, Kris?' Anna clapped her hands together excitedly.

'Wha- no! What are you even talking about??' Mei looked scandalized, making Anna burst into giggles.

'Oh come on, he's always hitting on you.' Anna teased, making Mei roll her eyes.

'No he is not!' she defended her professor – who did not hit on her.

'The only way he could be more obvious is if he asked you out directly.' Anna declared, 'and you keep leading him on, going to him after class with Professor Wu this and Professor Wu that.'

Mei threw a pillow at her head, making her fall down, dissolving into laughter at Mei's irritated face. 'Shut up! I won't talk to you, ever!' she turned away, huffing.

'I'm joking, just joking…' Anna protested, wrapping her arms around her. 'C'mon, tell me what you were saying… I'm all ears.'

Mei pouted for a few seconds before relenting. 'You asked why I'm so excited about this project…' she glanced at her friend, who nodded encouragingly, 'and why I think it's all so plausible.'

'Yeah, I think you're being stupid,' Anna told her, nodding her head so her chin tickled her shoulder, 'I mean, it's like superstition, assigning what could be pure luck to…'

'I met him.'

Anna quieted, mouth still open before she blinked and spoke again, 'Come again?'

'Xhizer… I've met him.'

Mei watched several expressions pass over her friend's face before she settled for curious. 'When? And how come you never told me before?'

'It was a long time ago and honestly, I'd all but forgotten about it before I found this diary…' Mei narrated the whole incident to Anna.

'Oh wow…' Anna ruffled her hair bemusedly, 'I'd really like to challenge that but I know for a fact that you got lost in the woods once. Mom remembers it because your mom had gone crazy, looking for you and they'd talked about calling the police.'

'What, really?' Mei was surprised.

'Yeah, but when they got there, you were standing by the edge of the woods, a little scraped up but fine.'

They both lapsed into silence, contemplating what it meant. Anna looked fascinated for the first time since Mei'd started working on her project while Mei wondered who that person had been, who'd saved her that time, excitement renewed inside her.

She fell into her work with even more enthusiasm than before, wondering if she could find anyone who'd actually seen the guy. Turned out a lot of people claimed to have seen him but their descriptions varied so much that he could've been anyone from professor Wu – Kris to Xiumin, who ran their local sports shop and looked like a kindergartner.

'I'm beginning to think I'm the only one who's actually seen him,' she told Anna, looking at the numerous descriptions that had turned up. 'Check this out, this one believes Xhizer's a woman – for heavens' sake!'

'Maybe he's just that beautiful…' Anna mused from her place, placing a last on her canvas before putting the pencil down, 'there, done! C'mon here Mei, what do you think?'

Mei opened to tell her how y the painting was before her eyes landed on the piece and her jaw almost fell to the floor. 'Wow…' she breathed, stunned.

Anna smirked, looking proud. 'Looks like your Xhizer, doesn’t he?'

Mei blinked rapidly, nodding her head. So that's why Anna had been pushing her to remember the details. Her friend was quite talented, able to draw from verbal descriptions – probably because she aspired to be a criminal sketcher/profiler – but she'd outdone herself this time.

The face that smiled back at her wasn't her Xhizer… but only because her own memory of him was so hazy. But this guy looked like a suitable approximation.

'Did you get all that from my description?' Mei asked, impressed in spite of herself.

'Nah, Sehun modeled for me.' Anna shrugged, putting her things away. 'I combined your description with his features and voila!'

'Why Sehun, though?' Mei asked, genuinely curious.

'I think he's pretty close to the prince charming description, that's why.'

'Please tell me you didn't say it to his face…' Mei groaned as Anna grinned unrepentantly.

'What? It's true…'

'His head is already too big Anna… and stop flirting with him, he's younger than you!'

'Hah,' Anna delicately ducked her hair behind her ear, 'I'm all for age difference.'

'Go away!' Mei pushed her friend away, trying to focus back on her project though her eyes kept stealing glances at the portrait Anna had drawn.

She worked on her project dedicatedly and submitted it, glowing with pleasure when Professor Wu praised her work in class. She'd even added a snapshot of the sketch Anna had made as 'local art depicting Xhizer' and Anna was insisting she would sue her for breaching copyrights or something equally outrageous when Kyungsoo suggested they go for a hike picnic that weekend.

Mei suggested the woods and they agreed and Mei regretted it the entire week because of Anna's merciless teasing about how Mei secretly wished to show Xhizer that she had waited for him, mainly because it was partially true.

The weekend dawned bright and Kyungsoo arrived early, Jongin sleeping in the passenger seat, Sehun's legs propped on the headrest and by the time noon rolled around, they'd already hiked for several hours and getting thirsty and tired of Sehun's complaints that his delicate skin was getting ruined in the bright sun.

It wasn't until after they'd had their lunch and were playing around with each other that Mei got the chance to wander. She told Kyungsoo she was going to explore and silently thanked Anna for dragging Jongin and Sehun away so she could be alone.

Not that she didn't appreciate their company but for a moment, she wanted to put herself in the shoes of her five-year old self, getting lost in the woods and getting saved by him. Was it all real or just her imagination? Probably a mix of both.

She wandered around, the heat of the sun making her feel sleepy and her memories making her nostalgic. She went from thinking about Xhizer to thinking about her mom and how, that had been the last time she'd gone out with her parents, losing them to that car accident a fortnight or so later.

Maybe she was so lost in the past, she saw it interposed on the present. Or maybe it really was wild rabbit, peeking out from behind the bushes but the sight of it made her feel like she was five again and she chased after it, laughing at the exhilaration of letting loose…

Her foot hit the protruding root of one of the old trees and she fell, face first, hands thrown out to break her fall. She managed to save her face from hitting the ground but rolled downwards, gravity pulling her downhill. Wind rushed past as a bump caused her to fly in the air and her eyes expanded when she saw exactly how high up she was.

A scream tore out of on the way down before fear made her pass out.

Just before she lost consciousness, just before she hit the ground, she was sure she felt arms catch her.

Xhizer… she thought before passing out cold.