solis | svt au

14

The vine crept closer to Minghao, and he quickly stepped back. It waved about like an alien tentacle, curling and uncurling itself. Just seeing that familiar action brought back horrible memories, and he turned and sprinted away as fast as he could. From his past experiences, he knew they always caught up to you eventually, and it was always better to get a head start.

Quickly pressing his palm against a nearby tree trunk, he melted into it, transporting himself to the Sanctuary. Though he had been lucky in the past, this time his luck ran out - the vines had reached his tree first. 

The Tree's leaves slowly withered, quickly replaced with flowers dark like the night sky, and its trunk became an ashen gray. With that, Minghao crumpled to the ground, before slowly getting up again with a meticulous precision, a smile frozen on his face. Now he was merely a puppet, waiting for his master's command.

-

As he looked through the strange maps and papers from behind the pawnshop counter, Wonwoo felt the ground tremble.

"Hey Shua, did you feel that?"

Joshua looked up from some books, "Hm? Feel what?"

"Um, it's nothing - never mind," Wonwoo replied. Continuing his search for the person behind the maps and papers, he still couldn't quite shake off the feeling that something was wrong.

-

A few hours passed with no customers.

"I got it!" Wonwoo suddenly shouted, having reached an epiphany.

Startled from his sleep, Joshua shot up from the table, a paper still stuck to his face, "Huh?"

"I know who made these!"

"Who?"

Wonwoo got up from behind the counter, going to the section of his shop containing the books he sold. Running his hand along the old spines, he selected an old journal made of brown leather and inscribed with ancient carvings. 

"I'm sure they wrote this book too," Wonwoo said, carefully examining the cover for any other clues.

Joshua came up behind him, observing the book as well. Wonwoo's finger traced an elaborate letter N carved into the leather cover of the journal, "Are these the initials of the author?"

Wonwoo only shrugged, flipping through the pages. "You know as much as I do."

-

Jun couldn't run anymore. His leg felt like it was on fire, and his other wounds stung with his sweat. Sitting on the side of the narrow forest path, he paused for a moment to catch his breath before catching sight of an approaching figure. He felt a spike of panic. Could it be the bandits?

Narrowing his eyes, Jun soon realized that it was Jihoon, thankfully not trailed by angry bandits.

When Jihoon finally arrived, he slowly stood up, giving a full bow once again, "I would like to thank you again for saving my life,"

Jihoon gave him a blank stare before making a shooing gesture, "I accept your thanks, but we need to go." Readjusting the case on his back, he continued, "I only knocked them out, so they'll probably catch up to us soon."

Jun nodded, giving an uncertain smile.

"Well, let's get going then."

-

Seungcheol sat behind his counter as usual. With the bags under his eyes clearly visible, it was was evident he didn't get much sleep.

Each night he had been plagued with strange dreams, and Seungcheol couldn't tell if they were real or not. There were vivid visions of the friendly healer and bounty hunter that accompanied Chan being joined by a shadow, a still figure standing next to an enormous tree covered in black flowers, Jihoon the Storyteller traveling with someone clad in ragged finery.

What did they mean? He wasn't sure he could trust them, but a small voice in his head rang alarm bells - he needed to do something.

-

a/n 

sorry minghao - i hope your character gets therapy soon ;-;