We spent the rest of the day in the cool shadows that the tall palm trees provided us.
Dozing off by the edge of the water and enjoying its soft, calming sounds as the surface broke against the rocks along the sides.
San had followed Seongwha's example and decided to take a well-deserved nap beside the darkness elemental, the previously lush green grass surrounding them now glinting brightly in the sun, covered in a thin layer of crisp white frost.
Jongho had shuffled over to the sand by the water, sitting down on the warm surface where he had begun building a series of sandcastles by sheer force of will.
He looked absentmindedly into the distance, the tops of the palm trees swaying slightly in the soft wind.
Mingi had been hell-bent on finding something to eat but had come up mostly empty-handed after a while of searching through the lush plant life of the oasis.
Now, he was working hard on creating strong gusts of wind and sending it into the trees above us in an attempt to get some of the coconuts to fall down.
Despite his admirable efforts, it hadn't seemed to work, and the redhead had flown up to grab them instead.
Yunho had willed the water to become drinkable; a skill I didn't know that he even possessed. Wooyoung was still floating around in the lake, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the cool water against his skin.
Everything seemed to be more than perfect, at the moment, though I didn't want to get my hopes up in fear that I would jinx it.
I decided to join Jongho on the sand, wanting to get away from the others for a little while.
I sat down beside him and admired his work for a couple of seconds, impressed that the earth elemental had been able to conjure up something so beautiful with nothing but his mind.
"It looks like a city," I said.
Shuffling a little closer, I realized that what had looked like a cluster of random sandcastles at first now resembled an entire city instead, with small roads connecting the houses, intricate details cut into the sand.
"Is it-?" I began, wanting to ask Jongho if he had been trying to recreate his home, District 3, but he cut me off before I got the chance to finish.
"It doesn't look like it at all," he mumbled, and I could clearly sense the tone of sadness and disappointment in his voice.
Jongho was younger than the others, I remembered.
It must've been hard for him to be washed out of his home like that, a bunch of strangers pulling him along without as much as asking him first.
"Can I try?" I asked, wanting to brighten the mood a bit.
Jongho nodded and watched me with curious eyes as I tried my best to build my own sandcastle.
The sand was either too dry or too wet, and I couldn't make it stay where I wanted it to.
It kept falling down the side of my small building, if you could even call it that, forcing me to start over again.
"Let me help," Jongho said, shuffling over to me and putting his hand on top of mine.
Immediately, the sand in front of me began to change.
The building seemed to rise on its own, towers and spires shooting up from the ground, walls growing all around the sandcastle as small indents appeared in the sides, almost like windows.
I looked down at Jongho's hand that was still resting comfortably on top of mine.
For a moment, I felt a strong desire to interlock our fingers, wanting to know how it felt to hold his hand.
Jongho was a lot like Yunho and Seongwha, calm and kind, but he had been keeping to himself a lot as well.
Unlike Wooyoung and Mingi, he was less forward, which made me want to know more about him.
I shook off the thought off almost immediately, though, my cheeks flaring up once again as I tried to focus on the sandcastle instead.
"Is that your home then?" Jongho asked, and I nodded my head as we both stared at the miniature version of the Royal Palace where I had spent my entire life; isolated, hidden away, living in secret.
Despite how much I had hated the place sometimes, I felt a wave of sadness wash over me at the familiar sight.
I immediately understood Jongho's feelings from before.
We stayed like that for a while, almost holding hands as we admired District 7 and the palace, trying our best to save up as much energy as possible before we had to keep moving again.
We desperately needed it.
And so, as the afternoon sun finally began to sink into the distance, disappearing behind the tops of the swaying palm trees surrounding the oasis, we reluctantly got off the ground, following the others as they once again made their way into the desert.
Darkness once again crept its way over the dunes, covering the sandy mountains in a strange blue colour that was unlike anything I had ever seen before.
The lack of light made it easier to see the stars, though, and I stared into the sky above us with awe as I tried to focus on as many of the small glinting lights and faraway galaxies as possible.
I had ended up beside San.
A heavy silence hung over the two of us as we walked, only broken by the occasional awkward coughs and clearing of throats as we caught each other's eyes when occasionally glancing to our side, quickly looking away again.
"I wanted to say thank you," I said, my voice almost a whisper in the dark night.
San turned to look at me in surprise.
As if he wasn't quite sure that I had been meaning to talk to him.
"For what?" he asked, catching my eyes before quickly looking away again.
I did the same, wanting to stop the recurring shiver of nervousness and curiousness I experienced every time I stared at those grey eyes.
"For coming to help us even though you didn't want to at first," I said.
"I'm really grateful, and I promise that I'll make it up to you somehow."
"You don't have to. It's fine, really."
"I'm just-" I began, but San interrupted me before I got the chance to finish my sentence.
"Beautiful," he said, sounding almost breathless as the words slipped past his lips.
"I'm sorry, what?" I blurted out, mentally rolling my eyes as the third blush of the day crawled across my cheeks.
I whipped my head around to face the ice elemental.
"Look," San said, stretching his arm out to point at something.
I followed his movement, my jaw going slack at the sight that lay right in front of us.
Nestled in between the tall dunes lay the city of District 6, shining so bright in the darkness of the night that I had to concentrate to keep my eyes open and not look away.
It looked almost like another oasis, or mirage, even; almost too good to be true.
In the middle of the desert, a small paradise of lush green grass, tall palm trees, bushes and whispy plants lay the foundation for a beautiful city that looked as if it had been built from the sand itself.
In the center of the city, a beautiful temple reached high into the dark blue night sky, and everywhere, golden flames flickered brightly in the darkness.
The sight of fire warmed my heart, and I watched in awe as I tried to take in as much of the city as possible, admiring the light sandstones, beautiful lights, houses, and towers.
"It's beautiful," San repeated, and I completely agreed with him.
A soft breeze blew past us, caressing my hot cheeks before disappearing into the desert again.
It was the middle of the night, and we had to be careful, the seven us of trying to stay as silent as possible as we moved through the empty streets of District 6 as we didn't want to attract any unwanted attention.
Unwanted, as in any attention at all.
"Who sleeps with this much light on at night? Geez," Seongwha mumbled under his breath.
He glared distastefully at the bright oil lamps that lined the streets, bathing the beautifully cobbled roads in a warm golden glow.
We slowly made our way toward the temple that rose tall and proud over the rest of the buildings in the city, glowing almost unnaturally in the dark desert night.
We wanted to use the darkness, or what was left of it in the light elementals' city, as a cover and take the gemstone with us while people were still sleeping peacefully, unaware of our strange group of intruders as we sneaked through the empty streets.
Though the more I thought about it, I realized that our discretion would probably go down the drain anyway once the temple crumbled down on top of us, as it would probably wake up every last elemental in District 6 despite our efforts to stay silent.
We didn't make it that far past the silent buildings and shops, though, before we hit our first obstacle.
A man stumbled onto the brightly lit street, his white hair glowing in the light from the streetlamps above as he turned around to face us, his golden eyes locking with mine as all eight of us froze.
"You," he said, breaking the silence that had been clinging tightly to us since we entered the city.
He pointed a finger at me, and I felt my heartbeat involuntarily pick up.
"Excuse me?" Seongwha said, his dark eyes boring into the light elemental.
Just like San and I, or Yunho, for that sake, the two of them were each other's opposite elements, and the tension in the air seemed to grow even heavier as they sized each other up and down.
"You're in trouble," the white-haired man said.
And then, without any further explanation, he turned back around and walked down the street before disappearing behind a corner.
Leaving the rest of us completely baffled and at a loss for words.
"What in the world?" Jongho gasped.
Yunho furrowed his eyebrows in absolute confusion as he looked toward the corner of the street where the light elemental had just disappeared.
But my thoughts were elsewhere.
From the moment the man had locked eyes with me, a look of recognition and seriousness had flash across those golden eyes of his.
He knew who I was, I realized, and thus, his words weren't to be taken lightly.
I took a step forward, hesitantly at first, but then I followed the man with the white hair's footsteps and turned around the corner as well.
Wooyoung shuffled after me, "What are you doing?" he whisper-shouted, pointing in the other direction than where I was headed.
"The temple is that way. You're not seriously expecting us to follow some lunatic that we just happened to stumble upon on the street, are you?"
But I didn't answer him. One look at the fire elemental, my eyes flashing a deep crimson red in warning, made him shut up as he followed along quietly, the others not too far behind.
I could hear Mingi snickering, but I shrugged it off.
I could see a flash of white hair disappear behind another street corner, and I began walking faster.
I couldn't lose him, I told myself.
Though I didn't know why I was feeling like this.
And so, we made our way through the city of light, quietly and unnoticed, though completely visible in the bright lights from the streetlamps above us.
Taking one last turn, we found ourselves standing face to face with the light elemental again, this time in front of a spacious tent from which warm lights from within.
The man sent me a strange look, those golden eyes of his glowing with all kinds of mysterious emotions that I couldn't make out.
The strange thing was that I didn't feel intimidated by him.
"Now that we're all here, we need to talk," he said, beckoning us into the tent.
A/N:
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