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Namjoon was now in the middle of the room again. He looked around at the hollow space in the room, a fear of falling into it haunted him.

He had lived through his worst nightmares when he stepped on the blue tile. At first looking at it from closely, he knew that it was going to be pretty but without wasting any time, he still kept his leg on it, with on leg still on the white one.

The ground beneath him moved and he quickly traced his leg back. He still couldn't believe that he was about to stand with both legs on the tile, he surely would have lost.

He now knew what all those tiles did so he could now plan out a perfect path. His shirt which was securing all the pieces was on his hand, already stuffed half even though he still had more than half yet to pick.

After thinking for a while, he opened his shirt carefully and kept all the pieces on the ground as the middle tile would not fall off.

He then started on with his new path now. Each of his step was shaky yet sure showing how determined he was to pass through every challenge that will come on to his way now.

He successfully managed to get most of the pieces. Everything was going well but then he saw that he had mistaken a blue tile for a white tile.

Right next to the blue was a red tile. It didn't help that he was standing at an edge of the room with no way to go but further considering the tiles behind him had already disappeared.

The tiles next to him was the last one to disappear leaving him with only two options, either red or blue.

Since the size of the tiles were remarkably big, Namjoon wanted to avoid walking on the blue one so his initial choice was the red one. But looking around, he felt that the poisonous fog would be more dangerous there as there was no support.

The only thing next to the red tile was the blue tile and the blue tile was unavoidable as it was on the way of a gold piece.

Contemplating his choices, Namjoon decided it would be best to use the blue tile. The last thing he needed in that moment was to deal with dizziness.

But to do that, he would have to be quick. He would have to take a very big step and reach pass the tile as quickly as possible.

Taking a deep breath, he stretched his left limb forward and in a quick second, he leaped and finally was in the safe area.

Exhaling as relief washed all over him, he continued his work until all gold pieces were in his hand.

He then carefully walked back to the middle and kept all the gold pieces next to the ones he had earlier kept.

Surprisingly, the floor next to him reappeared and the door opened up again revealing the man and his bird.

Namjoon quickly wore his shirt again while the man took his time to walk there.

Namjoon managed to pick all the pieces together and offered them with a bow.

"Please allow me to use you boat to cross the lake."

"Wish granted." The man said the bird flapped it's wings again making the gold in Namjoon's hand disappear.

The man then turned and started walking to the exit with a tired Namjoon following him like a lost lamb.

The big gate closed behind him and then he saw the boat in front of him.

"It's all yours." He said and walked away. Namjoon looked at the weird boat and hoped it would not sink away.

He looked behind and even the shadow of the man and his bird was gone.

Reluctantly, he got on the boat and for a moment stayed still, hoping the boat would move on its own like it earlier did. But it didn't.

He exhaled and grabbed the oars positioning them to his side and pushed the water backwards, internally thanking his memory for knowing how to row a boat.

The question that kept flowing in his mind was that if the bird with the man was the one doing the illusions and tricks. He noticed how every time something out of ordinary happened, the bird had flapped it's wings or flew away, it always initiated it.

He remembered Hyeri's words when she talked about this task. This challenge was conducted by the universe where extinct or endangered or falsely mutated species were sent so he wondered if the bird was one of them.

He wondered if magic was really something real and accessible.

Pushing his thoughts aside, he continued rowing his boat in a medium and steady rate fearing that if he went too fast, the boat would lose balance and drown him.

He couldn't wait to go back and see Hyeri. Even in this short time apart, he had terribly missed her. Everything about her was in his memory palace and he wanted to unlock that as soon as possible.

After rowing for what he felt like a long thirty minute, he finally saw the land. It was covered with dark colored fog like the other edge was but he was still very thankful to see it.

After reaching the end, he carefully placed both the oars back on the boat and the weird shaped boat started rowing again, he figured it was going back to it's owner who was probably still looking at the amazing gold pieces that he got him.

The gold pieces were all so beautiful, something that you would want to give your loved ones. He wanted to bring one for Hyeri, as a replacement for her oak branch that he had lost a few days ago but he couldn't.

This world wasn't supposed to be of a materialistic type and he respected that.

He was amazed how gold kept on repeating itself in his second, third and fourth challenge.

It told him that gold was something ancient, a proud possession and still a false identity.

After all, all that glitters is not always gold.

The Fallen Angel // A Kim Namjoon FanfictionWhere stories live. Discover now