disfunctionality | HwanHee ✅

Twenty-second Toll

The area around us started to become familiar and I knew we had to be getting close to the city. "It feels nostalgic..." "I've never been to the city before. What's it like?" I began to rattle things off as I recalled my adventures with my friends. "And so Geonhak had gotten stuck in a transbubble. You can imagine how upset people were." I sighed as I had started to miss them all. "Lets hope this goes quickly so you can get back to your friends." "Ye-" I never thought of what would happen afterwards if we won. Would things go back to normal? Would Keonhee go back to living in the deep woods? Would things be like we had never met? The thought of never seeing Keonhee again hurt, and I had recently become aware of why.

"He means more to me than I realized..." I snuck a glance over at him and wondered how he felt about the after situation. I could at that moment say confidently that I liked him, despite the fact that he was indeed a male. "You've been looking at me for a while. Is there something wrong?" "Have I? Sorry. There's nothing wrong..." I looked away and saw familiar buildings in the distance. "We're almost there." I suddenly felt uneasy as the trip here went by quite smoothly. I stopped short as a flaming arrow was shot into my path. I tried backing up but it suddenly circled around me and created a wall of fire. It extended high above to the point that even a bird transformation was useless. "Is Keonhee safe? What about our sprites?" I wished I could see through, I needed to know if they got away. The fire suddenly disappeared, but I was immediately chained and rendered useless. I felt something hit my neck and I instantly blacked out.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw I was in a brightly lit room. It was a room full of the color gold with navy banners hanging about. I looked down and saw I was chained to the floor. "So you've come back. Terrible mistake." I sat up then saw someone approaching me. It was a cougar that looked like Youngjo. "What's your intention with Dier?" "Whatever do you mean? We the council are only acting in the interest of the creatures." "Then why am I chained up in this pretty room?" "You don't belong. Simple." I snarled at her and received a chuckle in return. "You can do whatever you please, but there's no way you're breaking out of those chains." "Tell me! What are you going to do to Dier!?" "Fine, fine. I'll play into the villain tells the hero his evil plan. It's nothing hard, just a simple brainwashing to make everyone do our bidding. Take over the human world and expand our race." I couldn't believe it. She really was going to kill innocents for her own gain.

"You coming here on your own saved us time looking for you. Now we can proceed without worries." "You're starting now?" "Of course. Waiting never did anyone any good. Just like those stupid okapis." I wanted to kill her. She sauntered away then someone else had entered. "H-Hwanwoong?" "Youngjo..." I tried charging at him but only got so far with being chained to the floor. "I can't believe you're in on this." "I-" "Save it." I turned my back to him then flopped onto the floor. I was more hurt by the fact he was playing dumb rather than him actually being a part of it. "Hwan, I'll free you." "Don't be ridiculous. You can't do anything." "I literally led Keonhee to where he needed to go." My ears perked up at the mention of Keonhee's name. "I even brought Lutin." I looked over and saw my sprite fly over to me. "You're okay! You don't know how hard it was for us to get Keonhee to hide. God..."

I happily held him close and felt thankful that I'd at least have a companion while I'm cooped up. "So, about getting you out of here..." I desperately wanted to get out. I had a job to do, creatures to save. However, I was still hesitant as he probably was working with the council. "How can I trust you?" Foletto had appeared then sent a blue light towards the wall in front of me. "As you can see, Keonhee is fine." "How can I tell it's not a fake?" "It's not." I looked at Lutin who now had his hands touching the small projection. "Then, how do I get out of here?"