Zendala sat behind a very large desk, which was covered by a very big map. The woman stared at the map, seemingly thinking about something. She didn't even register that the door of her office was opened by Reinhard until the hunter with the red crystal spoke up.
"Everyone wants to take action, Zendala", he said with no emotion in his voice while his eyes focused on the fable warlock in front of him. "I know that but the right time hasn't come yet", the woman answered not looking up from the map. She scanned over it multiple times still thinking.
Reinhard narrowed his eyes at her, looking displeased. "We haven't attacked anyone in one month. We haven't even touch the moon pack like we had planed", Reinhard argued, slowly having a bit of irritation in his voice but the hunter's face remained unmoved.
"Yes, because three vampiric royal guards got away. It is too risky to attack the moon pack. They might have been warned but you know that because you aren't stupid, so why argue about it again", Zendala responded still not looking at the hunter with the red crystal. She let the fingers of her right hand lightly drum against the surface of the desk while she continued to memorize every little detail of the map.
"Every little supernatural creature is now hidden and on guard because we gave them the time to do so. We won over the vampire palace because they weren't prepared but still lost some good men. Now everyone is eager to do something but you keep them waiting", the hunter said, crossing his arms over his chest. Zendala slowly looked up to meet Reinhard's eyes. Her sky blue eyes alway had something mysterious in them but most of the time it made them unreadable.
"Why are you coming with this topic to me again? We have already talked it over and agreed on waiting to let your hunters heal, so what do you really want, Reinhard", the woman hissed, narrowing her eyes at the man. They sparkled with irritation and a badly hidden threat.
Reinhard was unfazed but that and simply took out his phone, tapping on the display a few times before putting the device onto Zendala's desk. The female warlock raised and eyebrow but looked at the device anyway. It showed a picture of two boys. Both were rather young, very handsome, one with black hair and one with blond but something was wrong with the blond boy's eyes. They glowed in a weird orange tone and seemed to pierce through someone's soul.
"My niece Lilian and her hunter friends have been snooping around her hometown, Yellow Wood a lot the last weeks. If you believe Lilian she only wants to find a class ten male winged beast she believes to be an angel-demon mixed blood but there is no evidence for that. Still she has been investigating a lot of people to reach her goal. Most of the people she talked with were in her age and she came across those two very special ones", the hunter explained and gestured to the phone with the picture of the two boys.
Zendala slowly showed a smile. "Well look at this", she mused and took the phone into her hand to get a better look at the picture of the blond boy with the strange eyes. "I haven't seen a pure blood kitsune in twenty years and by the looks of it the other boy is also some kind of supernatural creature", Zendala said, grinning. she put the phone back onto her desk, focusing her attention on Reinhard.
"When was this picture taken?", she asked Reinhard. "Three weeks ago. My niece hasn't really seen those two ever since, which was why the topic of the two only came to my attention now. Apparently they took cover or something like that", the hunter answered.
The blue-haired woman nodded, almost looking a bit disappointed when she handed Reinhard his phone. "But that wasn't it, right?", she questioned and leaned back a little. She looked directly into Reinhard's eyes like she was trying to read him.
"Yes. According to my niece it's every hard to decipher supernatural creature from humans without using special tricks but over the course of her research she has created a theory that the supernatural creatures began training and preparing to fight against us", Reinhard explained while stuffing his phone back into a pocket of his pants. Zendala raised an eyebrow. "Why would she think they started training?", she asked, folding her hands on her lap.
"My niece is a very cunning young huntress. She observed that there are a lot of young supernatural creatures on the streets of Yellow Wood. We know, thanks to you, that some of the most dangerous groups, packs, organizations and clans have their headquarter in Yellow Wood and she concluded that those experienced and older supernatural beings might train the younger ones somewhere. This would also explain why a sly creature like a kitsune would walk on one of Yellow Wood's busiest streets in bright day light", Reinhard told the blue-haired woman.
"So your point is we should hunt down all supernatural creatures as soon as possible, so they can't even get strong enough to fight back. That was the reason for bringing up our delayed plans?", Zendala concluded, looking attentively at the hunter in front of her desk.
"Yes", Reinhard answered, folding his hands behind his back. He was looking at Zendala with a certain intensity in his eyes. "Let's wait with our plans for the moon pack and decapitate the vampire king and queen now and officially declare war. Let's make it public that there are monsters living among us and that they even took a innocent human captive to torture her", the hunter said. Zendala's sky blue eyes scanned over Reinhard's masked face until her gaze rested on the hunter's eyes once more.
"Are your hunters ready for a war?", she asked with an emotionless voice, her eyes void of sympathy or guilt. "They always have been. Injured or not. Besides I'm sure when the public knows what has been living beside them there will surely be a lot of people, who want to join our side", Reinhard answered. The hunter showed no emotion in his eyes, just cold, calculating madness.
"You want to use Emily for propaganda?", Zendala questioned, slowly standing up from her seat and resting her hands on top of the cold surface of her desk. "She would want it this way and maybe it can even benefit her rescue", the hunter answered, not hesitating.
"Alright but we won't focus on just one thing. You and I along with a selected few of your hunters will go through with the decapitation of the vampire rulers and the war declaration while your blood thirstiest hunters are send to the Moon pack. Let them take the Alpha and his mate, some werwolves and wolf hybrids for experiments and kill the rest", Zendala instructed walked around her desk to Reinhard's side. The hunter gave her a short nod.
"For now I will prepare a public decapitation while you organize the attack on the moon pack. I will let you know when you can join my side again", she added. "Now you are my queen again", Reinhard said and you could almost hear the malicious smile that he must have on his hidden face.
"I always have been your queen, Reinhard", Zendala responded and send a sickeningly sweet smile into the direction of Reinhard. "Of course", the hunter replied before he turned and left the room. Zendala's smile dropped from her face when Reinhard was out of the room.
"Never anger a queen, my dear Reinhard or you might feel her rage", the blue-haired woman said to none in particular before she walked out of the room as well.
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"I'm super excited for this extra lesson, Mark-hyung", Hyunjin beamed while walking beside the other siren, gripping a bit more tightly onto the straps of his bag out of pure excitement. he still couldn't believe he got to train with another siren, who had a lot more experience than he did.
"Hopefully I can teach you something Doyoung- hyung didn't already", Mark joked a little. "Well even though Doyoung-hyung is a great teacher, he is not a siren", Hyunjin chuckled. "That's true", the older male replied and paused a short moment, seemingly thinking about something. "Oh, by the way Jungwoo will maybe join us. This morning he said he wanted to go for a swim later today", he then added.
Hyunjin's eyes lit up even more when Jungwoo was mentioned since he really wanted to spend more time with the merman. He had only briefly met him while training but it was enough to want to get to know the other better. Besides Hyunjin was really interested to learn more about mermen and mermaids since they were similar to sirens in some ways.
"This would be so cool. I have always wanted to learn a bit more about mermen and mermaids and I have never seen transformed before but that's beside the point. Jungwoo-hyung seems like someone I want to get to know", the young siren marveled. Mark laughed at the younger males excitement.
"First off the transformation of a merman is not even that special, so don't be too disappointed but I do get that you want to get to know Jungwoo", the older of the two chuckled. "We will see if I think the transformation of a merman is nothing special or not", Hyunjin giggled.
The two sirens reached the indoor swimming pool of the NCT headquarter not long after this little conversation. Mark opened the door and revealed a beautiful, grotto-like room. Hyunjin looked around in awe when he walked further into the room. His nose was filled with the smell of wet stones and his ears heard the regular dripping of water. It was calming to him and made him feel welcomed.
"It's so beautiful here", Hyunjin commented, closing his eyes for a brief moment and inhaling the scent of the grotto. Mark chuckled but it soon turned into a rather fond, small smile. The black eyes of the older siren glimmered with a certain warmth like he just remembered a memory he treasured.
"Yeah the grotto is beautiful. Taeil-hyung, Taeyong-hyung, Yuta-hyung and Sicheng-hyung created this place shortly after I moved into the NCT headquarter. They wanted me to feel safe, welcomed and at home", the older told Hyunjin. The younger siren turned his head towards Mark and looked at the other, who just looked at the water with nothing but fondness in his eyes.
"Until this day I don't know how to repay them for this", he lightly laughed but Hyunjin could tell he wasn't just talking about the grotto. NCT must really be like a family to Mark. It reminded Hyunjin a bit of the lesson with Mr. Kim about groups and what they meant to some people.
"I think you don't need to think about ever repaying them, hyung. As far as I can tell you are like family to them. They just want to keep you safe and happy. That was probably also the case back then", Hyunjin said, smiling brightly. Mark looked a little surprised at him but then mirrored his smile.
"Well said", the older siren commented. Mark looked back at the grotto fro a moment and took a breath, collecting himself. The smile on his lips grew a bit wider, getting a bit playful and a lot more happy. He turned to Hyunjin shortly after that.
"We should get changed before he grow roots here" the older siren joked, still smiling. Hyunjin nodded in agreement and let Mark lead the way again. The door to the changing room was almost invisible since it's dark color and uneven surface let it blend in with the rough stone walls of the grotto.
The two sirens changed into their swimming trunks rather quickly since they both just wanted to jump into the water. "Whose faster in the water!", Hyunjin yelled shortly after he had changed. Without hesitating the siren was sprinting to the water, ignoring that he almost slipped before even exiting the changing room. Mark shouted a "That's unfair" after him but there was nothing but amusement in the older's voice.
Hyunjin let out a happy laugh before diving into the water without hesitation. The young siren enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by water with closed eyes. He felt how the little bit of pressure the water had on him slowly disappeared. A giggled escaped his lips when he felt the tingling sensation of his fins forming on his legs, back and arms. His lungs slowly combined with his gills, which were visible as little slits on the sides of his neck.
The young siren finally opened his eyes, looking around in the water, which seemed as clear to him as the world above the surface. The pool was pretty deep as Hyunjin noticed. The bottom was around five meters under him, giving the young siren plenty of room to swim around.
Hyunjin brought his hand up to look at it to check if his body was already finished with transforming. The young siren could mentally confirm that his transformation had ended when he saw the light blue webs between each of his fingers. His nails had changed too. They became a bit pointier as well as sharper and could easily be used as weapons but this thought had never crossed Hyunjin's mind until now.
"What are you thinking about?", the young siren suddenly heard Mark's voice echo through the water. Hyunjin turned his head in search for the older and spotted him not far from him. The young siren was slightly impressed by the older male's siren form.
Mark's skin glimmered in a beautiful light red tone but the red fins on his arms, legs and back had a much more intense red color. The webs between the other's fingers mirrored the color of the skin even though they stood out a bit more. Mark's hair also changed it's color to scarlet red finishing off the red color scheme.
"Nothing important, hyung", Hyunjin answered the question a bit late, making the other laugh a little. It sounded like a vivid melody underwater. "Impressed by my siren form?", he simply asked, earning a nod from Hyunjin. "You don't look so bad yourself", he teased but the younger could tell he meant the little compliment.
Hyunjin was stunning, even for a siren. His skin glimmered in light blue while the fins on his legs, arms and back had a more intense light blue color. Flat, smooth, light blue scales lingered on Hyunjin's cheekbones and sides, which glimmered in the dim light that was filtering through the water. The scales on the young siren's cheekbones highlighted his perfect facial features while the scales on his sides, which diagonally painted themselves towards the siren's stomach seemed to just hug Hyunjin's rather thin but defined stature. But the most remarkable thing about Hyunjin's siren form were his eyes, which shimmered in a beautiful ocean blue. They seemed so playful and endearing there was no way you wouldn't fall for him in seconds. To put it more simple the young siren looked breathtaking even for his species.
"Shall we start training?", Mark asked after a short silence with a smile on his lips. Hyunjin eagerly nodded, making the older smile again. "Alright. You probably had enough of vocal training with Doyoung-hyung. He is an expert at that, so I will just show you some siren tricks for underwater fighting and then you can ask me whatever you want", the older suggested and the younger nodded along.
Fighting underwater was more like dancing for sirens. Their movements were so graceful and yet powerful it was simply mesmerizing for anyone you watched them. If anyone would have seen Mark and Hyunjin train some of the siren specific fighting techniques underwater they would have just watched them thinking it was a dance choreography of some sort. It was just the way a siren swam around their opponent swiftly to land perfectly placed hits that reminded so many people of dancing.
Hyunjin enjoyed learning these techniques from Mark since he barely knew anything about the siren's fighting style. His mother never taught him underwater specific things for sirens after all but he still managed to learn the techniques Mark showed him very fast.
"You are good", Mark complimented the younger after he had managed to perfect the second technique the older had shown Hyunjin. A wide and proud smile drew itself onto Hyunjin's lips in an instant. He wanted to politely thank the older for teaching him the technique so well but they were interrupted by a rather loud splash.
Both sirens turned around looking towards the sound only to see Jungwoo and Yukhei. Hyunjin gasped when he saw how Jungwoo transformed from his human to his merman form. The rather big fish tail was glimmering in a beautiful pink color but still managed to look very powerful, at least in Hyunjin's opinion. Still the question where the merman's swimming trunks were now remained.
"Sorry we joined you so late", Jungwoo excused himself as well as Yukhei as soon as he had his gills. The merman swam gracefully towards the two sirens while dragging Yukhei along, whose nymph form didn't really differ from his human form. His skin just glimmered a bit and his eyes shined in a silver color, which looked not much different from his normal grey eyes.
"Don't worry about it, hyung", Mark laughed. Jungwoo looked almost relieved before his gaze fixed itself onto Hyunjin. "Nice to meet you again, Hyunjin", he greeted the young siren with a sweet smile. "Likewise", Hyunjin beamed. he really couldn't wait to spend some time with Jungwoo and Mark underwater. It just felt so different from being above water.
"Does nobody care that I am here too? I feel offended", Yukhei chimed in, putting his hand on his chest unnecessarily dramatic. The three other males laughed at the nymph's antics. "Anyway. I'm Yukhei but most people call me Lucas", the brunette nymph introduced himself to Hyunjin. "Nice to meet you", the young siren said smiling wide.
"Why has Byungho such cute friends and never introduced me to any of them", Jungwoo huffed, earning a confused look from the two sirens. The merman laughed a little at their puzzles looks.
"I'm friends with Byungho since we were little. We were really close but lost each other in our middle school time and it didn't get better when I joined NCT but when we realized we went to the same school but were in different classes we got back into touch. Primarily through texts we send to each other from time to time", the merman explained with a smile, which showed a bit of nostalgia. Hyunjin blinked while processing this information. Had Byungho ever mentioned he was friends with someone of NCT? Did the older ever talk about something personal to him?
"Byungho-hyung never mentioned you but thinking about it he barely tell us stuff like that... Okay, now I am getting concerned because my brain can barely think of things I know about Byungho-hyung, which he told me personally. Why did I never notice this!", the young sirens stressed a little, ruffling his hair while the older males only laughed.
"Don't worry about that, Hyunjin. Byungho tends to be very quiet and a bit secretive. I probably know not more than you do and I have known him for years but it's not a bad thing in my opinion", the merman comforted the stressed siren, patting the younger male's shoulder. Hyunjin sighed deeply letting some little bubbles float to the surface.
"Don't worry, be happy", Yukhei said out of nowhere in a rather simple English, making Mark and Jungwoo chuckle. "Why are you laughing! This was serious!", the nymph complained only making his fellow group member laugh harder. The brunette huffed dramatically and crossed his arms over his chest while turning his head away from the group, acting like an pouting child.
Only now when the nymph had turned his head away, exposing a bit more of his neck to Hyunjin did the young sire noticed that Yukhei didn't have any kind of gills but he seemed to be breathing just fine even though they were underwater. Still, it was enough to make him curious.
"How do you breath underwater with no gills?", Hyunjin asked himself out loud without noticing. Yukhei turned his head towards the young siren with a goofy smile on his lips while the other two laughed again. Hyunjin felt a little bit embarrassed but it wasn't anything that made him uncomfortable.
"Good question, my dear student", the nymph began, acting like he was a professor from a long forgotten time while Jungwoo and Mark couldn't stop laughing. "You see, nymphs have something called aqua pellis. It's latin and means water skin. Every nymph is born with this water skin, which helps us talk and breath underwater like every other water creature but beside that it also has an unexplainable, magical factor", the brunette explained, smirking a little when he paused and saw the pure excitement in Hyunjin's eyes.
"This magical factor allows a nymph to help a land creature breath underwater for a specific period of time by transferring a bit of their water skin to the other creature. Of course this doesn't damage the nymph's ability to breath and talk underwater but it can have an affect on the one give a part of the water skin if this ability is used too often in a short span of time", Yukhei continued and Hyunjin looked absolutely amazed by what he was told. In the meantime Mark and Jungwoo had calmed down from their laughing fit and couldn't help but smile a little at the young siren's amazement.
Yukhei wanted to go on but the dulled sound of someone calling out Mark's name interrupted him, making him look up with a light scowl. Mark looked up to the surface as well. Hyunjin's followed their gazes only to spot a creature with violet hair hovering over the edge of the pool.
"That's Donghyuk", Mark said before swimming diagonally upwards, so he would reach the edge of the pool faster. Hyunjin followed him and so did Yukhei and Jungwoo.
The four came face to face with the violet-haired warlock after their heads were above the surface. "What's wrong?", Mark asked Donghyuck rather concerned but his worries disappeared when the young warlock just pouted like a child. "I was searching for you because I missed you", he simply mumbled.
Hyunjin didn't understand that, making him look pretty confused while Yukhei and Jungwoo broke out into laughter, which bounced off the walls of the grotto-like room. They couldn't laugh very long though because Mark dunked them back into the water, successfully muffling any sound they could make. Hyunjin only blinked at Mark in confusion while he felt like he was missing something very important.
Mark noticed the very confused look of the younger siren, which made him sigh a little. "Look at Donghyuck and me while using your powers and you will see what Jungwoo and Yukhei were laughing about", he said. Hyunjin let out an "Oh" sound, already understanding what the older was referring to when he said 'your powers' but he used his siren powers anyway.
The young siren immediately noticed a red string connecting Mark and Donghyuck. It was floating around them being very prominent and also seemed very strong. "And what do you see?", Mark asked while he was dragged into a back hug by the warlock, who was sitting on the pool's edge cross-legged.
"A red string", Hyunjin answered, watching how the string began to surround Mark and Donghyuk like a sort of magical shield even though the young siren was sure it was nothing that could protect the couple from an attack. "Do you know what this red string means?", Mark asked, seemingly unbothered by the fact that he was now caged in Donghyuck's embrace. Hyunjin shook his head.
"It means-", Mark began but he was cut off by Yukhei and Jungwoo. "It means Mark and Donghyuck are destined to be together forever", the nymph said dramatically like some kind of philosopher. "Not even death could part them", Jungwoo added with a smile, which seemed a bit teasing. Hyunjin chuckled at that because he could now clearly see the red string between Jungwoo and Yukhei but he didn't comment it since he had no clue if they were a couple or not.
"Well you two aren't any better", Mark huffed, leaning back a little so his head rested on Donghyuck's chest. The warlock had a small smile on his lips and rested his chin on top of Mark's head. They seemed quite comfortable like that.
"True. But we aren't complete right now. Our third is missing", Jungwoo chuckled. Hyunjin looked at the merman with mild confusion in his eyes. What did he mean with 'Our third is missing'?
"Would you mind making that more clear?", Hyunjin asked Jungwoo rather shyly, hoping he wasn't annoying the other. "Gladly", the merman smiled widely.
"As you may have already seen there is a red string between Yukhei and me but the two of us are also connected to another person", he explained. "This person his Doyoung-hyung", Yukhei added with a wide grin. Some things finally clicked in Hyunjin's brain.
"So you two are in a relationship with each other and Doyoung-hyung?", the young siren asked for clarification. Jungwoo and Yukhei both nodded while seemingly being a bit proud of themselves. "That's so cute", Hyunjin cheered a little. Jungwoo got a little red at that while Yukhei just grinned even wider if that was even possible.
"So we got that out of way. Any more questions, Hyunjin?", Mark asked, gaining the younger siren's attention again. Hyunjin thought for a moment, sorting the things he learned to today and trying to find knowledge gaps, which needed to be filled. Just glancing at the two couples in the room let a question pop up.
"Oh. Why are the red strings between Donghyuck and you as well as Yukhei and Jungwoo so clear? I think I have never seen this before", Hyunjin wanted to know. He had such strings connecting his friends but they were faint and not very strong.
"Well red strings are something special since they are also referred to as "visible destiny" but they still need to get stronger over time. I have known Donghyuck for quite a while", Mark started to explain. "We have known each other for five years and started dating two years ago", Donghyuck chimed in with a wide smile. "And over those five years of spending time together the string got stronger and more visible. The same thing happened with Jungwoo-hyung, Yukhei and Doyoung-hyung", Mark just continued.
Hyunjin nodded in understanding. It made sense, so it could be that some of his friends were concerned by such a red string too but it just needed to get stronger over time. With that out of the way Hyunjin stopped using his powers, which made the red string actively visible to him. It was fascinating that even now Hyunjin had the feeling to still see the red strings surrounding Mark and Donghyuck and Jungwoo and Yukhei.
"Alright then I only have one question left", the young siren stated while turning to look at Yukhei. "How can nymphs make other creatures breath underwater with the help of their water skin and can sirens as well as mermen and mermaids do something similar?", he asked being very specific, making the older males chuckle a bit at his thirst for knowledge.
"Well a nymph has to kiss the land creature on the mouth to give them the ability to breath underwater", the nymph said and then looked past Hyunjin to Mark and Donghyuck. "Mark, can I borrow your boyfriend for a second to show him?", the nymph asked without the slightest bit of shame or consideration.
"Oh hell no", was the answer he received from not only Mark but also Jungwoo and Donghyuck. Hyunjin laughed at this because just looking at Jungwoo's and Mark's irritated mimics and the disgusted look on Donghyuck's face was hilarious. Yukhei raised his hands in surrender. "Never mind then", he said while Jungwoo punched his shoulder lightly.
"To your second question, no, sirens as well as mermen and mermaids can't give someone the ability to breath underwater or can do something close to it", Mark answered Hyunjin's second part of the question. "But there is a technique where you can keep someone from drowning", Jungwoo chimed in. "There is?", Mark questioned with a confused look on his face while Jungwoo nodded.
"I learned it from my mother. It's fairly simple and can be continued for a very long period of time. While being underwater your gills are filled with water. That's basic knowledge. For this technique you hold your nose and kind of push all the water out of your gills so the only thing that remains in your mouth is oxygen. And this oxygen you give to the drowning person by lip contact", the merman explained while making some gestures to underline the things he said.
"This sounds almost gross", Donghyuck commented, scrunching up his nose. "So you would rather drown?", Jungwoo questioned with an raised eyebrow. "Well no but I can't drown anyway because I have Markie", the warlock huffed, making everyone - except Mark because he got a bit red - laugh at his pronunciation of 'Markie'.
After they calmed down from that Yukhei suggested a little underwater race. Jungwoo and Hyunjin immediately agreed but Mark said he couldn't participate since Donghyuck wouldn't let go off him. The warlock confirmed this without the slightest bit of hesitation.
So the race was just between Yukhei, Jungwoo and Hyunjin. Since the pool wasn't really long they decided to race to the bottom of it and then back up again so Mark and Donghyuck could distinguish the winner.
The race was easily won by Jungwoo but Hyunjin as well as Yukhei still had their fun since they kind of had an alliance against the merman. Their great plan to sabotage him obviously failed but at least they now knew that a merman's tail was pretty damn strong.
Hyunjin was glad Mark offered to train with him since he never really had the chance to learn and train water bounded siren things. It just was an entirely new experience to him and it made him realize how much fun he had playing in his element with other water creatures like Yukhei and Jungwoo. It made him wish he could share this with his close friends and a little part of him also wanted to go swimming with his mother to see, which effect the water had on her as a mixed blood between a siren and a kitsune.