Boys of a Daytime Star

TOGETHER: Part ∞ + 22

Trees made of mushrooms were lightening the gloom of the soulless night. The last star left in the universe was on the top of the sky full of sorrow. However, that wasn't the only thing lightening the night; the aimlessly flying fireflies were existent in the magical forest.

Paikek and I stepped through the giant leaves of the mushroom trees as I held my phone in my hands, seeing the blue point getting closer to us on the map.

Across the dark path covered with vines, Paikek and I walked for meters as fireflies were flying around us. And eventually, we reached the entrance of a giant maze made of tall bushes. The walls of the maze were ten times taller than me.

"Who do you think we'll find inside this place?" I asked Paikek when I noticed that my phone displayed the blue dot's location inside the maze.

"Right! I don't know. It looks like a place for Seanyung. Our smarty likes mazes." Paikek replied with a breathy laugh.

"Makes sense." I nodded and we entered the dark maze through the gate which closed after we got in.

Inside the maze was darker than outside because it doesn't have any mushroom trees to light it up. We turned to random directions towards the blue dot. From left to right, we tried every way, trying to reach our friend.

"Are we lost?" I turned my face to Paikek, after realising that the path we took didn't reach anywhere. Besides, the walls of the maze seemed to change the paths consistently.

"I think I'll fly and look from above." Paikek suggested.

"Why we didn't think about that before?" I laughed and he smiled back.

Paikek tilted his head back and opened his arms as the angelic wings appeared and grew gradually from his back. He widened his wings and thrust upward to the sky, above the walls of the maze.

"What do you see from up there?" I shouted to him from where I stood in the maze. However, he looked like he was still searching.

"It's so dark, I can't see anything." Paikek stated from above.

I sighed and checked back my phone, noticing that the blue dot was no longer existed. The part of the map where we were at, was blank.

"Paikek, come here!" I called Paikek as soon as I saw the abnormality on the map.

"I am here." Paikek came back, landing his feet to the ground.

"Something is off. The blue dot just disappeared." I showed him the part of the map which went blank.

"Right. Maybe it's because you lost connection. We are in a forest so it's usual." His eyes widened when he checked the map.

While we were discussing, I noticed that a bush on the maze's wall was started moving, strangely.

Suddenly, a weird creature came out from the maze's wall. It looked like an extremely thin wolf with a bat face and its body was covered by black liquid. The gloom on its reddish eyes was frightening as it seemed hungry, wild, evil.

"What's that?" I hid behind Paikek's back when I saw the monster walking towards us.

"I never saw anything like this before. But Karu, I'll protect you." Paikek lowered his eyebrows as he opened his wings against the creature, keeping me safe behind him.

The creepy creature advanced onto Paikek, but he pushed it back with the back of his wing causing the monster to screech. Paikek kept knocking them away from us every time the creature attacked with its paws.

The monster screeched again, looking to the sky, and lots of other creatures with a slim body and a wolf's face began coming out from the walls. They surrounded us from all directions.

The creatures jumped onto us individually, and Paikek struck them with his wings one by one, pushing them away.

"You can't keep doing it. We must find another way!" I suggested as I hid behind Paikek while the monsters continued to attack him.

"Karu, I am the strongest magician in our group. I am fine." Paikek forced a smile, pretending he was okay, as he kept striking the creatures with his angelic wings.

One of the monsters grabbed Paikek's wing, and it began biting it. Consequently, the other creatures jumped onto him, punching and biting his wings.

Paikek fell onto his knees as a black liquid came from the scars on his wings. He looked like he was in pain and I regretted that I couldn't help him. But, it wasn't too late.

"Get away from him!" I pointed my wand towards one of the creatures, creating a magic wave which pushed it away.

I kept shooting magic waves to keep the bat-headed weird monsters away from Paikek. However, they kept attacking back and it became exhausting.

The creatures caught my legs and dragged me down to the ground as they started biting me. Each of their bites was so painful, making me suffer, it felt like torture.

Unexpectedly, a strong wave of water came from the entrance of the maze corridor as it carried all the monsters around me away.

Paikek and I looked at the point where the water wave came from. Our friend Bomyu was there, standing still, pointing his magic wand to the dark creatures.

"Am I late?" Bomyu's mouth curled up slightly. And, he created a swirl of water in the air, directing it onto the creatures by just pointing his wand to them.

None of the creatures could resist Bomyu's attack, and they all got drawn away from us.

"Bomyu!! I was expecting to see Seangyung!" Paikek's teeth shone brightly when he smiled with the joy of seeing Bomyu again.

"I miss you both." Bomyu ran to us and hugged me and Paikek tightly.

Then, Paikek grabbed me and Bomyu by our hands and flew us over the tall walls of the maze under the shine of the last star left in the sky.

"Let's find Seanyung now!! I am so excited to be all together again." Paikek beamed as he brought us back to the floor. Three of us kept walking in the magical forest.

"Me too! I miss our pyjama parties." Bomyu recalled the great days we had.

"Let's see where Seanyung is." I checked the map on my phone, trying to find the last blue point.

"Before that, can we eat something? I am hungry." Paikek pleaded, lifting his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I am hungry too." Bomyu agreed with Paikek.

At first, I sighed as a reaction, because I wanted to find Seanyung as soon as possible, but...

"Fine. It's a nice idea." I accepted as I didn't eat anything all day.

We walked out of the magical forest in the freezing night. I couldn't take my hands off my pockets as I was shivering.

Eventually, we found an old bus stop on the road outside the forest.

While waited there for a bus, the things that Mrs Kimiko told me came to my mind; and her assumption that the person who stole the star book is one of my friends.

Firstly, stared at Bomyu's eyes, he looked thoughtful but he had an innocent look. Then, I turned my eyes onto Paikek as we waited for the bus. He had the most innocent look I had ever seen.

"Guys, I have a serious question. I am confused, so I have to ask." I put in.

"Yeah, you can ask." Paikek smiled and Bomyu said "Sure, you can." at the same time.

"Okay. What happened the day you disappeared? I mean the day I came to the apartment and found nothing but blood on the walls."