The Ring Bearer

Chapter 20

There was nothing that could calm the worry I felt in my heart. The eighth mage's ring box, I knew where it was, but I didn't know who else knew where it was and I didn't know why anyone else would have been looking for it. Much like when I found Jongin's ring box, I was worried that the mage would have gotten hurt and I wanted to find him- to find him and make sure for myself that he would be okay.

Chanyeol was a fast walker; I had realized that as soon as we set out on search for the eighth ring box. In the time it would have taken me to survey the entire floor, Chanyeol had breezed through the corridors and swept in and out of various rooms. They were empty, of course, but I could still see all the furniture that had been knocked around as well as the many papers on the ground. Chanyeol saw it too, but every time I looked up at him to see his reaction, he'd have his head turned away from me.

He wore his heart on his sleeve, Chanyeol did. When he was happy, he showed it, when he was guilty, he showed it, when he worried, he showed it- and I guess he didn't want to show it. As he continued walking down another series of corridors, I realized that the lights over our heads were starting to flicker on and off and with a gasp, I turned my head into Chanyeol's chest.

"I'll protect you." he whispered it to me and despite the fact that I didn't know Chanyeol as well as perhaps Sehun, I knew he was honest and that he would protect me. So I nodded and turned my head back in the direction we were moving in, and occasionally, we found one of the other mages in the room we were going to check next.

"Why are you carrying her?" Jongin had a stack of papers in his hand as he asked this, his eyebrows furrowed in irritance as he glanced from Chanyeol to me and back again. He had come out of the nurses' office, and I wondered what it was he had sorting through.

"She said she knows where the ring is!" Chanyeol's voice was eager and excited again, but his eyes had tightened, and I didn't know if he was annoyed or if he was worried.

"You had a dream?" that was Sehun's voice calling from behind Jongin, and when Jongin moved slightly to the side, Sehun walked up to us with a stethoscope in his hand, "Where is he?"

I shook my head, since I wasn't really sure where he was, but I knew that if we didn't start walking again soon, that we wouldn't be able to find the next mage at all. After tugging on Chanyeol's shirt, the mage of fire nodded and continued in the direction which we had been going.

We were stopped by Suho and Xiumin as well, the elder of which had actually put a hand on Chanyeol's arm to stop his movement, "Where do you think you're going?"

"To find Lay!" Chanyeol answered back cheerfully, and Suho and Xiumin shared a glance before Suho cleared his throat, his arms crossing over his chest.

"Chanyeol, you can barely find your shoes," Suho's eyebrows rose as he added on. "while you're wearing them, too."

Chanyeol seemed to be naturally curious, because he'd ask me what every room in the hospital's purpose was, and though I'd never actually been to the hospital, I answered as best as I could. When we had gone into the morgue that was still cold enough to place dead bodies in, Chanyeol refused to go in past the entrance.

"It's too cold. If I need to use my powers later, it'll take me longer to heat up." Chanyeol frowned as he said this, and without even looking at me, he turned and walked away. He hadn't been as upset when we got into the operation room, but he flinched as he saw all the surgery equipment laying around and backed out of the room like the equipment would come to life and attack us.

Then, we had gone into empty patient rooms, surveying the inside of the room and leaving when realizing nothing interesting was happening in there anyway. There was a lot of equipment laying around in those rooms, as well, though it wasn't enough to make Chanyeol flinch like for the operation room. It was enough to make me flinch, however, because my dream hadn't been as... real as this. Seeing all the equipment being thrown around and knowing someone else had been looking for the eighth mage was terrifying, and I wondered who it could be.