Sehun slipped deeper into his tattered couch pillow, trying his best to block his eyes from the rising sun. He let out a little groan before digging himself further. He was exhausted and he wasn’t ready to take on an unknown planet at the moment. He thought about forcing the curtains close with a strong gust of wind but was shocked awake by a loud bang and the yelling that followed. He blew a heavy breath, the strength of it lifting him from his pillow and sitting him on his knees.

“I’m guessing you heard that too,” Jongdae said from the pillow-less couch, clearly being awake for some time now.

“Loud and clear,” Sehun mumbled as he shook the one closest to him awake.

The scientist instantly rose, “I was hoping that sound was from my dreams,” Chanyeol sighed.

“You and me both buddy,” Sehun sighed as he rubbed a fist into his eyes, “At least then I could go back to sleep. What is that noise anyway?”

“Quiet for a second, you two,” Jongdae ordered in a rare serious tone as more loud bangs rang throughout the room, “I think know this sound.”

“I was hoping that you wouldn’t say that,” Chanyeol mumbled before Sehun’s eyes snapped to him.

“What do you mean,” the raven questioned harshly, “Don’t tell me that you did something stupid! Really Chanyeol, we just got here! What could you have possibly done stupid already!"

Chanyeol,” Jongdae called with his voice dipped in false honey, “How exactly did you and Kris stumbled across our humble abode?”

“Oh, EXO, no,” Sehun mumbled.

“Well, we flew around for a while,” Chanyeol began.

“Uh huh,” Jongdae prompted as he shook Kyungsoo awake. He had a feeling that he wanted the little hot-head awoke for this.

“And we found the empty room,” Chanyeol spoke again his voice becoming smaller.

“Why are you waking me so early,” Kyungsoo mumbled drowsily before the loud sound repeated, waking the other up fully, “Holy, what was that?

“Oh I just want you hear Chanyeol fascinating story of how he and Kris found our sleeping quarters,” Jongdae said, “And he was just getting to the part where he and Kris asked the owner for permission for us to stay here, right Chanyeol?”

“You did ask right,” Kyungsoo asked as he shook Yixing awake.

“Not exactly,” Chanyeol whispered, another loud bang ringing through the room, “I kind of just melted the lock off the door.”

“You did what,” Kyungsoo yelled as he raced over and grabbed the other by his collar, “Are you telling me that we’re sleeping in stolen accommodations – ON A FOREIGN PLANET?”

Chanyeol froze in the man’s grip, “Kris said that it was ok for now!”

“Of course he did,” Jongdae sighed as he flopped to couch once more.

“We’re all going to ing die,” Sehun sighed as he sat next to Jongdae.

Jongdae shrugged, “Couldn’t agree with you more, Hun.”

“Yah! Wake up Kris,” Kyungsoo shouted as he accidently stomped on one of Kris’s raven wings in his anger.

Kris shot up rod straight with his eyes still closed and his hand wrapped firmly around Kyungsoo’s throat, “If you ever do that again I will kill you.”

“You’ll kill us all anyway with your incompetence,” Kyungsoo growled as the wood from the floor below ripped from the ground and pointed their sharp edges just above Kris’s Adam’s apple, “And I’ll kill you before I let that happen.”

Another loud bang sounded through the room. The two warriors didn’t move but still eyed the direction of the loud sound.

“Now is not the time for this,” Sehun snapped as he hopped back up and gave the door and window hard stares.

“He’s right. Drop it Kyungsoo,” Yixing ordered as he stepped to the other.

“Me drop it,” Kyungsoo questioned as he shifted his glare towards the other, “Oh, so I’m in the wrong?”

“An Anegilian’s wings are their pride,” Yixing responded, “You know better than to damage them so carelessly.”

“Carelessly? Oh, you mean like how Kris carelessly led us all into a death trap,” Kyungsoo yelled.

“Kyungsoo,” Yixing spoke softly, “Stop.”

 Kyungsoo gave a deep sigh before dropping the wood with a clunk and giving Kris a deep glare, “You are supposed to lead us. I’ll be damned if I let you lead me to my death.”

“Guys,” Jongdae spoke, “We have more pressing things on our agenda at the moment. You know, like not getting shot! We can have a power struggle later.”

Kris stood, eyeing Kyungsoo darkly before shaking his wings and giving Jongdae his attention, “Shot?”

“Yes,” the tactician said as more bangs sounded, “If I’m correct those bangs are gunshots.”

“How do you know,” Kris questioned.

“Because unlike you idiots,” Jongdae began, “I actually read. Guns are weapons used by primitive species to, oh you know – kill things. Things like thieves or trespassers.”

The bangs and screams began to get louder, the boys jumping from the sound.

“What should we do,” Chanyeol asked.

Kris took a deep calming breath before looking to the window, “We get out of here. Sehun, I’m pretty sure you know what I’m thinking. Can you handle lowering the non-fliers to the ground safely all at once?”

Sehun threw open the window and looked down the seven stories with an unsure face, “I think I can.”

“You think or you can, Sehun,” Kris questioned.

“I- I can.”

“Good,” He then turned towards Kyungsoo once more, “I need you to barricade the door.”

“Consider it done, Leader,” Kyungsoo said before he paused and turned to Kris with a guilty face, “I apologize. I was wrong. It’s just that I expect better from you.”

Kris stopped and looked at the usually insensitive warrior in shock, “Kyungsoo-“

“Not now,” he said as dug his fingers into the wood and found the concrete ground below, “Just get us out of here.”

Kris nodded before he turned to Jongdae and Yixing, “Get ready to-“

However his words were cut short, the door rattling as it was harshly kicked from the other side.

“Kyungsoo,” Kris shouted.

“Just get the other’s out,” Kyungsoo yelled as a thick sleet of concrete rose from the ground and slammed itself onto the door, “I got this.”

“But Kyungsoo,” Yixing said as he reached for his friend.

“I’ll be ok,” he said as he gave a small smile despite the sweat beading on his forehead, “Plus I have you to patch me up.”

“I can’t raise the dead, Kyungsoo,” Yixing said as he turned to the window.

“I wouldn’t ask you to,” Kyungsoo said.

Giving a nostalgic smile to the familiar words, Yixing took a running swan dive out of the window with Jongdae following right after. Both landed on Sehun’s strong wind currents, the air keeping them steady as they were lowered to the ground. Behind them were Kris and Chanyeol as the two sprouted their wings and took to the sky. Sehun stayed behind, standing on the windowsill, grunting with the weight of the two he was trying to keep afloat.

“You ok there air-head,” Kyungsoo grunted as he worked to keep the many gunshots behind his concrete wall.

“Never better, dirtball,” Sehun grunted back as he moved his arms back and forth as he lowered the others to the ground. He breathed a sigh of relief as they were finally placed down safely.

“Please tell me that was a sigh of completion,” Kyungsoo said in a panic as he watched his concrete creation crackle and break under the bullet barrage, “Because I’m not too sure if I can hold him off any longer.”

Sehun cracked a smug smirk, “Never thought I’d see the day an Eriagon asks for help, especially from an Areon.”

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Kyungsoo said through clenched teeth, “You are literally my last option. You know what? I would rather die than have to work with you.”

“Oh shut up,” Sehun snapped.

“, I can’t hold it anymore.”

The concrete slab burst as Kyungsoo ripped his fingers out of the ragged ground and rolled from under the falling wreckage. A burly man, at least twice the size of both Kyungsoo and Sehun combined, stood on top of the fallen debris with a sadistic grin and a ticking eye.

“Finally caught you little freeloaders! You little brats really thought that you were going to break into Bud’s dwellings,” the man spat as he pulled his long gun back and cocked it, “Did you really think that Bud would have let you play Bud like an old country fiddle?”

“And I’m assuming that you’re ‘Bud’,” Sehun asked.

“You ing with Bud!”

Sehun looked down at the double barrels that were pointed at him, “No! Bud! I – I was just asking!”

“Look, Bud,” Kyungsoo said as he grabbed Sehun by the elbow and slowly led them to window while keeping Bud’s eye contact, “I’m so sorry that these idiots I’m stuck with don’t understand the meaning of manners.”

Kyungsoo gave Sehun a dirty look.

“Hey!”

“We really didn’t know that this was yours,” Kyungsoo continued, ignoring Sehun, “We’ll just be leaving and you won’t have to worry about us anymore.”

“Leaving,” the heavy man said as he held the gun tighter, “You’re not leaving until you pay Bud first.”

“You see about that,” Sehun said when he felt the windowsill press the back of his thighs, “We would love to, but... SEE YA!”

Sehun used Kyungsoo’s grip in his elbow to shove the other out of the window, taking a backwards leap right after him. They could still hear his shouts as he screamed out the window and feel Bud’s bullets as they rushed past them. Sehun waved his arms frantically in a circular motion, the wind spinning around the two as they freefell. The wind cupped underneath them before dumping the two to the ground with a thud.

“Get up,” Sehun said to Kyungsoo who seemed a little green in the face, “We’re not in the clear yet.”

“R-Right,” the warrior stood on shaky legs as more bullets rained down on them, “Where is everyone else?”

 Sehun bit away a chuckle before pointing to a forest across the highway from them that was blocked by a silver railing, “I can see Chanyeol’s wings from here.”

Kyungsoo shook his still dizzy head and followed the finger, spotting Chanyeol himself, “Alright let’s go.”

“Can you even walk,” Sehun snickered.

“Just shut your trap and lead the way,” Kyungsoo snapped.

“Sure you don’t need me to carry you,” Sehun teased, “Don’t want you to follow the wrong me, because I’m pretty sure that you’re seeing three of me right now.”

“Just shut it and walk,” Kyungsoo mumbled weakly.

“Right,” Sehun hummed but still secretively gave him an elbow to lean on as they crossed the thankfully empty highway.

Kyungsoo grabbed Sehun tightly just before they met the rest of the group, pulling him down and whispered into his ear, “I’ve seen you in action, you little brat. I know that you can pull off a better landing than that.”

Sehun gave a sly smile before roughly shrugging Kyungsoo’s hand from his elbow now that he was safe, “Maybe, maybe not.”

“Don’t think that I won’t remember your little stunt.”

With that Kyungsoo stomp pass to regroup with the others while Sehun laughed just behind the fuming warrior.

“What’s up with them,” Chanyeol asked.

“I don’t know,” Jongdae said, “But I can’t wait to find out.”

“Are you serious,” Jongdae laughed as he ducked under a hanging branch, “You must really have a death wish.”

Sehun gave the tactician an unconcerned look, “Oh, please, like a dirtball could kill me.”

“Maybe not,” Jongdae shrugged, “But he definitely will try.”

“He can try all he wants,” Sehun said as he pushed a branch out of his face, “But he’ll never get the job d-“

Sehun’s words were knocked back into his mouth as the branch he pushed away came back full force, knocking him off his feet and to the forest floor below. He landed with a heavy thud, the noise startling the animals nearby and the princes walking ahead. Kyungsoo stood over the loud mouth raven with a smug smile on his face.

“You know,” the earth warrior began, “I was going to pay you back for you little prank earlier but it seems nature took care of it for me.”

“Kyungsoo,” Yixing began to chastise.

“Don’t look at me,” he said with raised hands, “I didn’t do it this time.”

“Well isn’t karma quite the ,” Kris commented from behind.

“I wonder what your punishment will be for setting us up this morning,” Sehun snapped as he used his wind to pick himself back up.

“Sehun,” Jongdae smiled as he wiped the moss from the other, “Sassy.”

“Guys,” Chanyeol shouted from further ahead, “Do you hear that?”

“What more gunshots,” Sehun sassed as Kris gave him a dirty look.

“No seriously you guys,” Chanyeol said as he rushed back to the group, “It sounds like an animal growling or something.”

The group quieted down at Chanyeol’s words as they all listened for a disturbance.

“I don’t hear any,” Kris began before the group’s healer stopped him.

“There,” he said as the boys turned to the direction, “A canine of some sort. It seems angry.”

“Cut us a break,” Sehun whined, “I’m still sleepy from this morning.”

“Sorry kid,” Kris said as he broke a heavy branch from a nearby tree, “We have bigger fish to fry.”

“Wait,” Yixing shouted, “Don’t harm it.”

A large canine, just as Yixing predicted, pounced as a menacing growl erupted from its mouth. It snapped its teeth threateningly at the group as it stocked slowly towards them.

“Really,” Kris asked, “Look at the thing! Really?”

“I suggest you listen to the animal expert,” Jongdae said as he gave Kris an unimpressed look, “He may have some expertise in this field.”

“Fine, what do you suggest we do then, Yixing,” Kris barked as he dropped his club to the ground.

“Yixing stopped listening to you idiots a long time ago,” Kyungsoo sighed as he sat on the forest floor, his bruised knuckles playing in the soft soil below as he used the trees to gently cage the other princes in a way that they wouldn’t notice.

“Are the trees hugging us or something,” Chanyeol said. It was then that the others noticed that they were trapped.

“No, just keeping you guys at bay just in case one of you,” Kyungsoo began as he gave Kris a pointed look, “Decided to attack a foreign animal when we have someone who can speak to animals.”

They couldn’t disagree with that logic, so they sat and watched. The boys looked at the two as Yixing bowed low in front of the canine before sitting in front of it as his growls lowered.

“Do you know what Yixing’s saying to it, Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol asked.

“No idea,” Kyungsoo replied with a smile, “But it always fascinated me how it was always the right thing.”

 “Calm down,” Yixing whispered as he bowed low to the animal, “Neither I nor my friends will harm you.”

The canine blinked at the foreign voice, its growl lowering. “How can you, a two legged creature, communicate with me,” it asked in a low baritone.

“I am special,” Yixing said with a smile.

“You are suspicious,” the other barked, “You are not of this land and I want you to leave it.”

“Trust me when I say that I want the same.”

“Are you being condescending,” the canine growl at Yixing as he stepped to him, “You should consider it an honor to step foot on such prestigious and fertile land.”

“I do find it an honor,” Yixing returned calmly, “However it is an honor that my pack and I stumbled upon. Just look at my companion as he relishes in your soils. He lives and communicates with the flora and fauna. He finds peace in you lively land. A peace he hasn’t felt for a while actually.”

Yixing whispered the last of his statement as he waved a hand to a quiet Kyungsoo. They watched as the usually cantankerous man was peaceful and still, his hands deep in the soil as the branches and leaves of the forest bent and swayed under his will. Yixing found himself smiling at the peaceful smile that spread across Kyungsoo face. He hasn’t seen the other look like this since the walks they shared in the forests of Kyungsoo’s homeland, Eriagon, years ago... before the wars.  

“A two legged creature that respects and finds joy in our lands,” the other questioned bitterly, “You do not come across that often.”

“Your words are true,” Yixing sighed, “Even among my pack, that is hard to find.”

“I can see,” the animal said sourly, “Your bird like friend shows the truth in your words.”

Yixing laughed, “Indeed. However he comes from a war hardened land. He only knows how to use strength.”

“War can ruin people,” the other said as he looked behind him with a whine.

“You’re fighting too aren’t you,” Yixing asked, “That’s why you’re so protective of you territory.”

“Exactly,” he answered, “My men have been fighting with a rival group that wishes to invade our land.”

“Do you have any injured? If so I can heal them.”

“No, my pack mates are fine. So you are a healer as well,” the animal teased, “You were not lying when you called yourself special.”

“Do the beings that inhabit this planet not have these abilities?”

“No.”

“I see.”

“Nor do they have wings,” the canine said was he motioned his muzzle to Kris, “Or control the land. Be careful who you share these things with. The people here don't like things that are different from them.”

 “Thank you for the advice,” Yixing bowed once more.

“What is your name?”

“Lee Yixing, Crowning prince of Zeveria and son of her rulers Lee Hyukjae and Lee Donghae.”

“Lee Yixing,” the other began, “Son of Lee Hyukjae and Lee Donghae, prince of Zeveria, I, Ok Taecyeon, permit you and your pack passage through my land.”

Yixing stood and bowed deeply to the other, “Thank you so much.”

“Of course,” Taecyeon said as he turned to return to the forest before Yixing stopped him.

“Do you know of any dens for two legged creatures nearby?”

“There in one just on the outskirts of my land,” he answered, “Continue north and you will stumble across a wooden cave. My pack sees various two leggers come and go, so it seems as though they accept wanderers.”

“Thank you once more,” Yixing bowed.

“Be careful young one and good luck.”