Elemental Strays ll Stray Kids AU

Chapter 9

They were following Hyunbok to their carriage, which would take them to the "Moon Kingdom", as Hyunbok said. They walked out of the inside of the castle and saw a carriage and two white horses with...wings?
The boys were amazed at the horses' beauty, but they might be Pegasus, since they have wings.
"This is is Hera and Zeus. They are the Royal pegasus and will be taking you to your destination." Hyunbok explains.
"They're beautiful." Minho says.

The boys then got into their carriage, as they do not want to be late. The carriage had eight seats, four on each side, and the doors had windows to look out of. Hyunbok closes the doors and bids fair well to the kings.

Hera and Zeus began to run and flap their wings, making the carriage shake a bit as it rolled on the ground. The pegasus then began to lift off the ground and we're soon in the air, along with the carriage. The boys look out the two windows and admire their kingdom from the sky.

"I really hope this isn't just a huge dream." Jeongin says with a smile plastered on his face.
"This place is amazing!" Jisung exclaims.

Chan laughs along with the boys, until he turns to Felix who is sitting next to him. The younger looks dazed as if he was thinking about something.
"Felix?" Chan says, causing Felix to come put of his thinking state, "Everything okay?"
"Well...sort of." Felix admits. All the boys' attention is now on the freckled boy.
"It's just...don't you think everyone back home would be worrying about where we are?" Felix states.

The boy had a point. They've been gone for three days now, and even though most of them didn't live with their parents, they still had some friends back home.
"And neither of us brought our phones either, except for Minho-hyung." Jisung says.
"Yeah, but when we got here our outfits changed, and my phone was in the pocket of my old clothes. " Minho admits.
"We're going to have to find some way back." Chan states. Everyone nods in agreement.

They talk some more in the carriage, until outside the window, they saw a huge castle, so they assumed they were almost at the Moon Kingdom.

They pull up on the path that they assume would be okay to land, which is somewhat next to the castle entrance. The boys walk out of their carriage, one by one, and walk towards the castle's entrance, where the boys saw four of the five men standing at the door. The boys walk up to them to greet them.

"Welcome to Moon Kingdom." Jaebum greets.
"It's a pleasure to be here." Chan greets, a bit nervous as he's still new to this whole "royalty" and doesn't exactly know how to act.
Jaebum took note of Chan's nervousness, "You're a bit early, so how about we wait inside and talk for a bit?"

The boys nod and start to follow Jaebum and the other three men inside their castle. The guards open the castle doors and they all walk in.
The inside of Moon Kingdom's Castle was a lot more dark and open compared to Levanter's Castle.
"If you don't mind me asking," Jisung says, "but I remember meeting only five of you. Where's-"
At that moment, Jackson came rushing down looking irritated, but there was another boy with him. He was tall, probably the tallest amongst all of them, wore black and had black hair.

Jackson noticed the eight boys standing in their main hall, causing his expression to change.
"Oh, you're here already?" Jackson asks.
"Yeah, we didn't want to be late." Felix says, letting out a small nervous chuckle.

Jackson turns to the boy next and whispers, "Be nice."
The boy took in a deep breathe before speaking, "I'm Yugyeom, It's...nice to meet you." 'Yugyeom' states.
"Nice to meet you too." Chan says nervously, as he feels like the boy doesn't seem that pleased to meet him and the others.

Jaebum decides to break the awkward tension that he feels is present. "Why don't we take a seat at the dining table?" Jaebum suggests, "We can talk comfortably while we wait for our food."

They all start to walk towards the dining area and choosing out their seats. Once they were all seated, they start engaging on conversation.
"So, how long have you guys ruled Levanter?" Youngjae asks.
"Only for two days, three if you count today." Seungmin replies, "So we're still pretty new to this whole thing."
"I see." says Youngjae.

"So you guys are still new with meeting each other?" Jackson asks.
"Oh no, we all new each other since we were children." Jisung replies.
"Wow, you guys must be really close." says Jaebum.
"Yeah, almost inseparable." Chan says, letting out a small chuckle.

"So, who's the head ruler?" Jinyoung asks, which confuses the boys a bit.
"Head ruler?" Minho questions.
"Yeah, like Jaebum. He's basically the leader out of all of us." Mark states.
"Oh...we never really...discussed that yet." says Felix.
"Well you are new, so I guess that's understandable." Jinyoung says.

The boys continue to talk about random topics in order for no awkward silence to slip in. Everyone is talking, except for one boy, until Jeongin asked a specific question.

"So who's the oldest and youngest out of all of you?"

"I'm the oldest," Mark says raising his hand a little, before pointing to a silent boy, "Yugyeom over there is the youngest."

That's when Yugyeom finally decides to speak, "Only by a few months, BamBam and I are the same age."
"Yugyeom, we agreed not to bring him up." Jackson says quite stern.
"Why can't we? There's no evidence that he's dead." Yugyeom questions.
"Just like there is no evidence that he's alive." Jaebum states.
"Well I'm working on proving that he's still out there."

The eight boys just sit there, not knowing what to do as the six young men have their argument. Youngjae gets up from his seat and walks towards the eight boys, "Follow me, I don't want you feeling awkward while you're visiting."

The boys just nod and get up from their seats, eventually following Youngjae upstairs, still being able to faintly hear the argument happening downstairs.

The argument eventually starts to consist of yelling that could be faintly heard from up stairs. Jackson, Mark and Yugyeom are doing most of the yelling. Jinyoung is trying to stop the argument from getting worse, while also trying to calm down Jaebum, who is sitting in his seat, looking as if he's about to explode any second.
"He's been gone for more than a year, Yugyeom! Just give up!" Jackson yells.
"No! I refuse to believe that he's gone!" Yugyeom yells back.
"You've been looking for months and have still found nothing!" Mark argues.
"Well atleast I'm doing something to find him! Atleast I didn't give up on the fact that he is still out there, alive! You guys just stood around doing...nothing!"

That's when Jaebum lost it. He bangs his hands on the dinning table, giving everyone a fright. He stands up from his seat and turns to the younger.
"Kim Yugyeom! Another word from you and I will make sure you stay in this castle!" Jaebum shouts, with utmost seriousness, "Go to your room, NOW!"

Yugyeom, holding back his tears, runs away from the dinning table and up the stairs towards his room, ignoring Youngjae and Levanter's new rulers. When he's in his room he slams the door so hard that the others up stairs flinch at the loud noise.
"Is he...okay?" Jeongin asks.
Youngjae sighs, "We've tried to convince him to stop searching for BamBam, but he refuses to listen."
"Is BamBam the one that went missing?" Felix asks, only earning a nod from Youngjae.

Jaebum then appears in the hallway, ritually making eye contact with the eight boys, a look of guilt on his face. "I'm sorry that you had to be here to listen to that."

"Sounds like he's really close to this person." Chan states. Jaebum nods in return.

Jaebum takes in a deep breath before speaking, "Well, let's not let that ruin your visit," that's when he got an idea, "How about we introduce you to another kingdom? I'm sure they would love to meet you."

The boys look at each other with a bit of concern, but did not want to question his sudden mood change.

"We'd love to."