Neverending Story

Never Say Goodbye Because We Are One

Hyunjin softly hummed an old tune he couldn't quite remember learning as he slowly made his way through the forest. Following the same route he did every single day, he took his time carefully observing everything around him – from the glowing sap rapidly circulating beneath the semi-translucid bark of the trees to the endless chittering of the nearby pixie nest.

Hyunjin loved doing his rounds. Or, more accurately, he loved his forest, and getting to look after it every single day was nothing short of a blessing. There wasn't anything he cherished more than Vallaheim Woods and his duty as its protector, and he took pride in knowing the forest was safe and peaceful for all its inhabitants thanks to him.

Well, him and—

'TINK' 'TINK' 'TINK' 'TINK' 'TINK'

Hyunjin paused in his observation of a slightly damaged flower, straightening up as the sound grew closer by the second. Like two thin rods of silver hitting each other, with a slightly buzzing undertone, Hyunjin easily recognized the noise as that of a Leafman approaching – or, more specifically, a Leafman riding a hummingbird (the sound was that of the saddle).

He barely had the time to turn around before the hummingbird and its rider suddenly appeared right in his face, and he immediately offering the Leafman a small smile.

"Jisung," he greeted. "What can I do for you on this fine day?"

Leafman were extremely small-sized, the tallest ones not even the size of a human nail, meaning they moved and spoke faster than bigger-sized creatures. As such, their speech couldn't be understood by most people. However, Hyunjin wasn't most people, and he was attuned enough to the forest to understand all of its inhabitants. So, he easily understood when Jisung informed him, in a frenzied state, that he and a scouting squad had just discovered a breach in the magical barrier. Hyunjin's eyes went wide at the news, a foreboding feeling filling his guts like ice-cold water.

"Show me," he breathed out.

He didn't need to ask twice. Jisung promptly took off at high speed, Hyunjin quickly following after him. He was mindful not to damage anything or hurt anyone, but he still hurried a tad recklessly, almost losing his footing more than once. It took him a couple of minutes but, eventually, they reached the magical barrier.

The frontier between Hyunjin's territory and the Human kingdom.

The barrier was the sole reason for Hyunjin's existence. He was the most powerful wizard in the world, and the only one capable of keeping up the barrier without outright killing himself, like his Master did before bequeathing his duty to him. This barrier was meant to protect Vallaheim and all of its inhabitants from the ever-growing poison that was the Human race and, to this day, Hyunjin had never failed once in his task.

Except now, there was a breach. Barely noticeable, like a thin crack starting from the ground and reaching Hyunjin's waist – big enough to let a Human crawl through. The only way they could have possibly breached the barrier in the first place, however, was if they someone got their hands on an extremely powerful magical artifact – and, ever since the magical folk had begun receding from what was coming to be known as the Human realm, those artifacts had become extremely hard to come by, if not impossible.

But someone did manage to get their hands on one and, if Hyunjin hadn't even sensed it, then it could only mean one thing: whoever had infiltrated Vallaheim was in the possession of a unicorn horn that still retained enough magic to break through. However, the magic in a unicorn horn was a volatile thing and, from the crystal-like shards he could see a little further away, they'd obviously used up all of it.