The streets of their town were ghostly silent. That morning, the news about San's accident had spread its word amongst the town folk's mouths. In horror and shock, they had retreated into their houses, hiding away shivering behind closed doors. The attack had been no more but half an hour's ride away from their safe haven. The pixies moved right among them, brushing through the alleys invisibly and bringing dread and sorrow upon the people.
Nobody dared to go out. The vendors had taken a day off to show their respect to San, and only the occasional hooded figure dashed between the houses.
Uncomfortable with the emptiness of the streets and the many barricaded shutters, Mingi rode down the street. Seonghwa's store was also locked, the curtains closed and the inside dark. Mingi glanced at the stony guard when he tied his horse to the same spot he had occupied last time. It wouldn't bother anyone today.
Pondering the lack of guards given the newest developments, Mingi wandered into the alley left of Seonghwa's building. He knew the man was in; he lived above the atelier, after all. But even as Mingi rapped his knuckles against the backdoor, no answer from inside came.
Frowning, Mingi glanced up at the windows on the second floor. Seonghwa knew he would drop by, so he likely expected him. Or had he left the town impromptu to visit his parents in the southern kingdom?
With a grumble, Mingi returned to the front door and knocked there, too. He couldn't peek through the curtains, but nothing moved inside.
The guard threw him a funny gaze. Mingi smiled awkwardly.
"I'm not here to make trouble. I wanted to visit my friend, but he seems unavailable."
The jarring crunch of metal plates followed the nod of the man's head.
"I saw you around, yes. The tailor said nothing about leaving. I didn't see him go since yesterday." His voice was lighter than Mingi expected, relieving the servant massively. Together, they glanced up at the windows. All were shut, the curtains closed. Mingi eyed the ground for a suitable stone he could throw. Not that Seonghwa would react to those. They were the oldest trick suitors used to get his attention.
Before he could bend over to pick one up and annoy Seonghwa as long as needed for him to show up, a crash sounded from inside the shop. Frozen, Mingi's eyes widened in the middle of his movement.
The doors were still closed. Nothing to see.
The guard and Mingi exchanged a stare that silently asked for agreement whether they had heard the same just now. They couldn't both have mistaken it.
Mingi peered at his horse, trying to find an incentive whether it had kicked the wall or something like that.
Then they heard something else. A muffled yell, followed by a softer thud than before.
The guard was faster than Mingi. With one step, he reached the door. The back of his halberd came down in a brutal strike poised at the lock of the door, shattering the iron. The bent bolt slipped from its fixture and the door swung open to the inside.
Years of clumsiness and practising how to preserve the people around him from said clumsiness had Mingi duck to the side when something whizzed at them. A body met the guard behind him, going down with him in a fight. Mingi only glimpsed at the flashes of black armour and a long black cloak that wrapped around a body much smaller than that of the knight. The halberd was useless in close combat like this, but the demon held up.
Not wasting any more time, Mingi dashed inside of the shop to check on Seonghwa. And again, it was only after he had entered the dim room that he remembered the pixie was by no means alone.
Mingi detected Seonghwa on his desk, bent over until his chest was pressed to the tabletop. On his back and holding a gruesome weapon that had Mingi's stomach churn upon sight, sat another one of the cloaked figures. Seonghwa struggled against him, but all twisting and bucking were in vain as the attacker merely tightened the hold of his thighs around the taller demon. A dainty hand adorned by horrible claws was wrapped around one of Seonghwa's horns, while the other one hurried to sink the blade of the ornate saw down on it.
A piece of cloth muffled Seonghwa's mouth, but his scream chilled Mingi's body to the bone when the blade bit his horns. A horrible crunch sounded and blood sprayed everywhere when the pixie brutally ripped the blade back and forth.
Mingi scrambled in their direction, helpless under the overwhelming need to intervene. He nearly slipped on the clothes that had tumbled to the ground, just barely catching himself on another pile that also got sent falling.
Tears streamed over Seonghwa's face. His body twisted like a snake pinned down when the saw dug into him again and again.
It was over faster than expected. The moment Mingi's hand grasped onto the cloak to rip it back and the pixie off Seonghwa hopefully, the sense of urgency reached the attacker, too.
Seonghwa's horns had never been thick, only a third of Mingi's in girth. And yet, the horrible crack when the pixie merely broke off the second half he couldn't saw would haunt Mingi into his nightmares.
Seonghwa slumped onto the table, passing out with tears and blood covering his face. The stump of his horn bled and bled, never stopping to bleed. The sight petrified Mingi, his heart still in his chest as he gazed upon his friend.
The pixie whirled around, cape effortlessly disconnecting from Mingi's fingers. The sudden movement had the hood slip, and for a moment, they stood face to face. Tears brimmed in Mingi's eyes as he stared upon the smaller male full of hatred, but his sight was clear enough to see his long blue hair slip free, hidden in two loose pigtails under his hood. His ears were pointy, poking out behind his head in their length. More piercings than Mingi could count on the brief occasion adorned them, some dangling, some rings that held a plethora of intricate, filigree decorations on them.
His features were just as pointy. A pointy nose, a pointy chin. Bowed lips that had pulled back in a snarl to expose his small pointy teeth and the double tips of his split tongue peeking behind them.
His eyes were chillingly silver. And they held all the malice and deviousness in their lands combined.
The pixie stared back at Mingi, assessing him as a threat. Then his eyes flicked to the door.
He was fast. Faster than Mingi could turn his head, he jumped off Seonghwa's back and pocketed the single horn he had stolen from him. Then, he dashed out onto the street with his hair and cape flying behind him.
Mingi barely heard the commotion on the street, the multiple voices of the guards nearby assembling to chase the flighty pixies over the roofs. The rushing in his ears nearly took over. Before he could collapse, Mingi willed his legs forward to Seonghwa. A broken sob spilt from his lips at the sight of the man. Unable to help, Mingi just pressed the first cloth he saw to the man's horn stump, trying to still the bleeding. He didn't have enough hands when he tried to exchange the cloth regularly, brush Seonghwa's blood clotted hair back, and free him from the painful bindings that held his arms trapped on his back.
"Please-" Mingi sobbed. The blood was too much, and he wasn't sure if Seonghwa's life was in danger. His fingers trembled so bad, and he was afraid to hurt Seonghwa even further when he heard a weak groan from him.
Once the rope slid off, Mingi slumped to the ground with Seonghwa in his arm to cradle him close.
The stump looked so gruesome, Mingi couldn't look at it. Unlike San's, which were cleanly cut off, Seonghwa's dipped even further on the part it had broken, leaving jagged edges and a nasty gash where it connected with his skin.
The pretty ribbon on his second horn was stained with blood, hanging lifelessly.
Mingi didn't notice how he swayed them back and forth, how he babbled under his breath to remind Seonghwa that he had to come back. The next time he remembered his consciousness through an empty mind was when heavy steps thundered through the door and kicked a stool aside in their hurry. Mingi startled, protectively holding Seonghwa closer. If the pixies returned, he would gladly die first before they would do anything worse to his friend.
But the voice behind him wasn't that of a vile pixie. It belonged to a certain prince, and it sounded in a rush of relief.
"Mingi," Yunho breathed as he came over, struggling just as much with the terrain as Mingi did earlier. When his eyes found the person Mingi was kneeling above in the shady corner near the table, he sucked in a harsh breath. He dropped to his knees next to them in an instant.
"Here, give him to me." Yunho carefully traversed Seonghwa into his own arms. He didn't look up at Mingi's quiet crying, knowing he was fine. Still, his jaw tightened as he took the cloth away to exchange it with a different fabric that soaked blood better.
"Are you two hurt? Apart from this?"
Mingi soundlessly shook his head. Pitiful trembles wracked his body. He wanted to throw up, but his stomach didn't get the rest of him to cooperate.
"We'll treat him in the castle. Come." Cradling Seonghwa in one arm, Yunho tied the cloth swiftly around his head. Seonghwa muttered something and his lashes fluttered without opening. Wobbly like a newborn, Mingi got to his feet.
Outside was a mess. The street was filled with knights. Some scouted the area, others kept their post to shield the prince. Mingi spotted Jongho's alleviated features when he tumbled from the entrance.
The people in the surrounding houses peeked out of their windows. Curious gazes mixed with fearful ones.
The grim tension in the air told Mingi they hadn't caught the pixies. They had fled once more.
Mingi couldn't mount his horse. He just slumped into its side, collapsing to his knees once more when a fresh wave of terror paralysed his limbs. As if through a cloud, he heard Yunho instruct a guard about how to hold Seonghwa safely in his saddle.
Confused by Mingi's behaviour, Mingi's horse shifted its weight away from him. Just as he fell over to crash mindlessly onto the rough pavement, a strong arm wrapped around his waist. Mingi was hauled up, momentarily weightless. Then, his legs adjusted on their own as he landed on a saddle in front of somebody. Ave's mighty horns appeared in his direct line of view.
Yunho wrapped his arms around Mingi, holding him securely against his warm body. For a moment, his face nuzzled into Mingi's neck, hiding a comforting kiss to his nape in the gesture. All he could do for now. Mingi fell into his body. Heavy, his head sunk onto Yunho's chest.
"Back to the palace! Ride as fast and as safely as you can!"
They left a group of knights in the town for the search, but their labour would bear no fruit. At a speedy gallop, the prince's group returned to the volcano. Yunho held Ave's reigns with one hand, trusting her to find her way as his other arm held Mingi tightly. Most of his embrace sought to soothe, less so to keep Mingi's cramped form in the saddle.
Every so often, Mingi glanced over at Seonghwa. The pale demon hung in the grip of the broad demon behind him, still unconscious.
Mingi bit his lip until it bled. He prayed to every deity out there that Seonghwa would make it and that he could heal.
Whenever Mingi's thoughts emptied as his mind tried to provide him with the much-needed stress relief, the face of the pixie flashed again in his mind. His delicate features. The horrible weapon and the strength with which he had pinned the demon. Those poisonous eyes.
When Mingi shivered again, Yunho held him tighter. He mumbled something into Mingi's ear, but Mingi didn't hear him.
This was what the enemy they all underestimated looked like. What a pixie looked like. Terrifyingly otherworldly and beautiful. But deadly.
Kim Hongjoong.
Now that he had attacked Seonghwa, it was personal. And even Mingi's peace-loving heart wanted to see him restrained as soon as possible.