TᕼE GOᒪᗪ Iᑎ TᕼE ᗪᗩᖇK | ᑎᗩᗰᒍIᑎ (ON GOING)

ᔕI᙭TY ᖴOᑌᖇ

~Two days later~

SEOKJIN

After a decent night's rest, our little team was back on track and thriving.

Other than the fact Minho is literally drowning.

"You have wings!" Jackson bellowed, standing at the edge of the creek. We were all gathered around a rushing river where Minho was clinging to a rock for dear life, even the horses were judging. To make matters worse, it was a waterfall.

Minho was gasping and wheezing as he constantly brushed the hair out of his eyes, his entire body getting soaked. My eyes widened when his bag opened, which wasn't a good thing at all; all of our remedies and important things were in there, and they were heading straight for the drop.

I decided to just suck it up and get in there. I sighed and rolled my sleeves back before jumping into the river and flying to Minho, using all my strength to get him up. Jackson and Felix joined me while Jungkook sat at the edge of the creek; he would get swept away immediately if he jumped into the river since he can't fly like us.

"Shoot!" I hissed when the contents of Minho's bag starting spilling out. I immediately let go of the latter, letting the others deal with him, and dove down to grab everything that spilled out.

"You might want to hurry!" I shouted over the deafening sounds of water crashing around, my cloak getting soaked. I looked down again to gather all the stuff falling out, relieved when Minho finally got out. I was about to get out myself when Jackson suddenly jumped on me, pushing me downwards into the river along with himself.

I couldn't speak when I was suddenly pushed under, I held my breath as fast as I could while Jackson grabbed my cloak, which was floating around my body due to the water, and tucked it in a ball. He made a shushing motion with his finger, bringing us right to the bottom.

I was panicking. What the heck was happening? Why did Jackson suddenly jump on me? Worst of all, I was losing my breath but I couldn't go up for air due to Jackson's grip on me. I started kicking, but Jackson firmly held me, not letting me move.

"Jackson!" I tried to yell underwater, but all that came out of my mouth were bubbles and a gurgling noise, I was so lightheaded, I felt like I was gonna drown. All my limbs were slowly going numb, I could barely keep my eyes open. A few seconds later, Jackson kicked to the top as fast as possible, bringing me with him.

We gasped for air when we resurfaced, beyond relieved, regaining all consciousness. We shakily crawled to the shore, and I was confused to see Minho, Felix and Jungkook hiding in a small dip surrounded by bushes and overgrowth.

"WH-" I was about to scream my head off at Jackson for almost killing us, but he harshly clamped a hand over my mouth, shushing me.

"Shh, Prince Seokjin, please be quiet," he whispered pleadingly. I breathed heavily through my nose, so confused. I needed an explanation on everything immediately.

Jackson brought us to Jungkook and the other's hiding spot, tucking in with them. The sand and dirt was very uncomfortable while it stuck to my wet clothes.

"Can someone bother to explain what just happened?" I asked, my voice shaking with anger.

"Please calm down, hyung," Jungkook whispered, gazing at me with pleading doe eyes. I took a few deep breaths and closed my eyes, trying to calm down. Right now was a desperate time, I couldn't be angry at my team.

"Sorry, I'm just confused," I said quietly, doing my best to stay calm. I could feel all eyes on me as I took a few more deep breaths, eventually calming down. "What just happened?"

"We saw dozens of Shadow Clan members pass by up there," Jackson whispered, pointing over my shoulder and up the overgrown hill where a hidden trail was. I couldn't really see it from our hiding spot, so that meant they probably couldn't see up either.

I poked my head out of the dip, slowly moving the long grass out of my face just enough to see down the path. I couldn't hear anything over the rushing water, nor could I see anyone down the path. It made my stomach churn.

"Are you sure?" I asked hesitantly, tucking myself back into the hiding spot. The others nodded grimly, except for Jackson, who was trying to get Minho to stop clinging to him.

"Positive. We tried shouting at you, but you didn't hear us, and it would be too late by the time Jackson pulled you out of the water, so he pushed you down," Jungkook replied quietly. I subconsciously placed a hand on my tummy as I looked around at all their worried expressions. 

"But what's so wrong with them being around? Aren't we around Tenebris?" I murmured, taking out the map. I gasped softly when I saw where we were, slowly lowering the map to look at the other's horrified faces.

"Prince," Felix whispered, placing a hand on my knee. "We're not in Tenebris, we're in the lower region of Fulgaria."

I groaned and rested my face on my knees. The lower region of Fulgaria was the more abandoned spot of the Lightning Clan's home, most of them lived in upper Fulgaria which was in the sky, everything down here was very overgrown and messy because they didn't care for the land down here. Back to the main point, it was very unusual for the Shadow Clan to be entering Lightning Clan territory.

"But why are they here? Are you sure they were from the Shadow Clan?" I hissed, looking back up.

"We already said we're positive," Jungkook whispered. "And we don't know what they were doing."

"Whatever, let's keep moving, we're almost at Tenebris," Jackson murmured, helping Minho up. We nodded and got up as well, but still kept a low profile, grabbing our horses' leads and heading down the hill rather than the path.

"Be careful," I whispered. It was very steep, and the horses looked like they were struggling, so we couldn't just fly and leave them. We walked very slowly down the hill, using little rocks and cliffs to support ourselves and the horses.

We were taking so long that it already started getting dark, though it wasn't that late. The weather was very weird in Fulgaria, it really depended on the mood of the Lightning Clan royalties, like right now they must've had a long day to make it dark so quickly. Nevertheless, we were losing sight of the rocks and if we took a single wrong step, we were all dead.

"Alright, we're gonna have to bunk here tonight everyone," I whispered, stopping on a particularly large cliff with a small cave. It was gonna be a tight squeeze with four people and three horses, but it was gonna have to work.

We led the horses in first, tucking them in the back. The poor things looked so uncomfortable since they had to stand in this tiny cave, but it was better than leaving them outside on a cliff in the dark. Everybody crammed in and we unpacked out little night bags, setting up for another night.

As much as I liked to explore, I never went out of Direrock without a guardian, and now that we were just some kids on a quest by ourselves it was really uncomfortable. We didn't have the usual comfort from home, instead we were living off of stale bread and taking quick baths in the cleanest lakes we could find. 

Our mouths tasted bad from being unable to brush our teeth, our hair was knotted, we had eye bags, I'm almost a month pregnant, we looked like we crawled out of the sewer. Everything was just so uncomfortable, I wanted it to end.

Regardless of all this discomfort and complaining, I would gladly do it again and again if it meant we could save all the fairies who went missing. I'm thankful that we're close to Tenebris, after three days of non-stop traveling, this would all be worth it. Still, I can't wait to go home. If we ever do.