Suho's POV
I found myself in a library. Not the one from before, but a different one. This one was way bigger and had many floors. J-Hope was already awake, anxiously walking around, trying not to knock over things with the other half of him.
"We are in a library," Ren said, standing up from the floor.
Sehun awoke too on the floor. We were again in the center of the library, where it was furnished with nice chairs and coffee tables. The ceiling was decorated with fine chandeliers and such, like the ones at my own house.
Ren went over to the table, picking up a paper, which I assumed was the objective paper.
"In this room, there are a bunch of hidden clues that would lead you the key that would let you out of this room," Alan's voice said over on the mic.
"The exit is really obvious: Those two large double doors at the end of the library. Read the objective paper for more information and good luck."
"Don't you think this would take awhile then?" J-Hope said, half-heartily laughing.
"It should not take that long. I know a spell to be able read books quickly ," Ren said, giving us a small smile.
Sehun was reading the paper.
"Books may or may not contain traps," he read from the paper.
"Well. We're supposed to find this key with wings on it. It's hidden in a book."
"Is there a range limit for your magic?" I asked Ren.
"Not really. It's supposed to take all the books in the library that relate to one topic," he told us.
"Don't you think that's a bad idea? Since the books "may or may not contain traps"?" J-Hope quoted from the paper.
"Hm. I suppose he's right," Ren said, thinking again.
"Why don't we just look?" Sehun asked, already reaching for a book.
"Hey wait! Don't touch anything-" Ren said, trying to stop him.
Sehun pulled a rusty gold colored book out of the shelf and there was a clicking noise. From the ceiling, a trap door opened and a lion dropped out from there. It looked around, a bit confused.
"...No sudden movements..." I whispered.
Then it craned it's head toward us, then spotted J-Hope. He sighed.
'It's really bad to smell half-horse right?" he groaned.
The lion leaped toward us, hungry. Sehun threw the book in shock, somewhere under the table. J-Hope told us to run. I pushed Ren towards Sehun, almost tripping on my own feet as we started running down the long aisles of books. I heard J-Hope not far behind me, along with the lion's growls.
"I need you all to find your way back to the middle! Don't split up!" J-Hope yelled out.
"I'll deal with the lion!"
"Are you sure you don't need help?" I turned my head slightly to the right to face him.
Bad idea, because I crashed into a wall of books. I heard a lot more clicks being activated, and that couldn't be any good. I didn't see Ren or Sehun anywhere, and I think that was the least of my worries right now. They must've split off. I felt myself being lifted up and I was suddenly thrown on to J-Hope's back.
"Well, you're with me now! Hold on!" he said.
I held on to his shoulders, the hungry lion still chasing after us. I heard Sehun screaming somewhere as we appeared back into the middle of the library. I took the chance to jump on to the couch. I bunch of song birds then flew past my head and I ducked. J-Hope kept running around, trying to keep the lion busy.
"A little help would be nice!" he screamed.
"In order to save my friend, we have found a means to your end!" Ren shouted a spell, aiming at the lion.
There was a spark of light from his hand, but it faltered, failing.
"Oh, why?" he muttered.
I watched as the lion chased J-Hope in circles. Noticing on the left, there was a flower vase with water in it.
"...I'm sorry Lay, but this is to save a life. You can always grow the flower back," I apologized mentally as I knocked over the vase, spilling the water on the floor.
Thankfully, J-Hope lept over it gracefully. The lion instead slipped in it, sliding into another book case. I quickly willed the water to freeze, like how I learned back in the summer. The lion's body froze and it hissed unhappily towards us. J-Hope collapsed on the floor, suddenly in his human form.
"Return the books back into the shelf to make the creatures disappear," Ren read from a book as he was holding hand up to a rather large mosquito.
Ren pushed the mosquito back with his elbow swiftly. Sehun swatted the song birds away, who desperately tried to peck his eyeballs out.
"That would have been good to know!" he yelled out, grabbing the book with the song birds.
He threw it back into the shelf and the song birds vanished. Ren tossed him the book with the large mosquito.
"Where does this one go?!" Sehun asked.
"I don't know, probably at the end where Suho knocked into that shelf," Ren said quickly.
The ice was cracking as the lion struggled, since mine wasn't as strong as the ones who controlled the ice element as their main. I looked for the book with the gold on it.
"Where did you throw the book for the lion Sehun?!" I yelled.
"I don't know! Look for it!" Sehun shouted back.
J-Hope pointed to under the table from the floor.
"Over here! The book is over here!" J-Hope said, sighing a bit.
"Never in my life have I felt so threatened!"
I grabbed the book out, placing it back on the shelf again. The lion vanished as well and I took a breath. The mosquito was gone by the time I looked back to Ren. He was reading another book and it suddenly flew out of his hands, gliding away. J-Hope sat up, watching it fly away.
"Hey! Ugh. How will we get that down? That book had important information!" Ren said, running over to me.
The book flew in circles around the light and it didn't seem to be coming down at any moment. A second later, a couple of more books joined in with another yell from Sehun. He ran back here, trying to grab on to a book.
I looked at J-Hope on the floor. He stared back at me.
"What?" he asked, giving me an offended expression.
"Nothing," I said.
"It's just that you turned to a human you know. Not half-horse. Nothing much. You know I would like an explanation too, but that's okay."
J-Hope laughed.
"Oh, it's an on and off thing. When I get tired, the centaur part of me turns off and gives me human legs to rest because I can't rest standing up at most times," he said.
"Anyways...those books. Why are they flying?"
Sehun pouted as he failed to get the book who joined the group of books on the ceiling. A paper fell out from one of them and he caught it.
"Clues. You found one! More are hidden at the top of the shelves around in this library. Go find them," he read from the paper.
Sehun paused, craning his head up to the shelves as we all did. My eyes widened. How could we possibly get up there? They were way over our heads.
"Do we have to climb up there?!" Ren yelled.
"You know...if this was a library, there would be a ladder?" I said.
"Or Sehun can fly," J-Hope suggested.
"Fly?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
J-Hope nodded.
"What? He smells like the fresh winds and all that stuff," he described, inhaling the air.
"I assumed that's how he gets a lot of the girls. Well, other than his maknae side, I'm sure he can control the wind."
J-Hope placed his legs out, stretching them. Ren blinked.
"...Do you think those books let out anything else in the library?" he asked.
"I don't think so. They're just resources books. I'm guessing they have a time limit on how long you can read it before they fly away," J-Hope said as if he knew from the back of his hand.
"How do you know all of this stuff, hyung?" Sehun asked.
"Ah...I'm one of those guys who help out other people who are my age that are new to the magic world," J-Hope said.
"I kind of studied along with Jin and Suga about it, you know? We've been together for awhile to experience rooms and traps like these."
"What about Je Ri? I never really talked to her that much," I said, now that I thought about it.
"The half-dragon? Oh, she has a nice soul. All happy and bright. I think she knows a lot of these things," J-Hope said.
"Eh, especially that cold looking Guardian. He's knowledgeable. Anyways, who wants to start climbing? Or flying? I know! Sehun, let's work on controlling your wind abilities."
~~~
Sehun's POV
"Wee~" I said happily as the wind carried me up to the top of another book shelf.
I stood on top of one proudly, looking down at the other boys on the ground.
"Do you perhaps see a ladder from that view?" Ren called from the bottom.
Looking around the area, I spotted a ladder at the end of the library on a wall.
"There's one at the end!" I told them.
"Thanks!" Suho said, grinning.
"Look for clues while we get the ladder then!" J-Hope called.
"Don't be afraid to fall! Be confident!"
"I know, hyung!" I said, waving at him from the top.
Flying from shelf to shelf, I spotted a paper finally. Landing towards it, a gust of wind I accidentally made it blow over the edge. Jumping to grab it, I slipped on the edge. Yelling out in shock, I summoned another wind to hold me in the air. It was almost like traveling on a tornado literary. I caught the paper as well, landing back on the floor. From one end of the library, I heard a ladder being moved. It's wheels made a rolling noise against the floor, with a sound of a creek as if the ladder has not been used for awhile.
Walking down the aisle, I saw the ladder being pushed by Suho and pulled by J-Hope as Ren was at the top, navigating the way to see where to go. He looked pretty cool, face all serious, his jacket and blonde hair flying out behind him. I flew up to where Ren was, following them as they moved along the shelves.
"Hyung, I found a clue!" I told him as the ladder turned and he held on tighter.
"Hey, stop!" Ren called down to the boys who were pushing the ladder.
They pulled the ladder to a halt.
"Sehun found a clue. Hold on for a moment," I told them.
They both nodded. Ren climbed up to the book shelf and I landed down next to him. Showing him the paper, he read it.
"The key is hidden in away in a book," Ren read.
"Alright. Bring this message down to them. Ask Suho or J-Hope to go look for the book. It doesn't give a description of what it looks like, but might as well let someone look for now."
"Okay hyung," I said.
He gave me back the note and I flew down to Suho and J-Hope.
"So, what did you find?" J-Hope asked.
"The key is inside one of these books," I told them.
"Ren hyung told me to tell one of you to go search for it for now to speed up the process."
"Suho, you should go do it. I'll go back to my original form to push the ladder," J-Hope said.
"Okay then," Suho agreed.
As we all split up to search for our own things, there was an occasionally thing where a book would suddenly fly up to the ceiling or hit my head as it went. Sometimes creatures would appear and vanish as soon as where they came from when a book was removed from the shelf Suho or I was exploring.
Ren's POV
"Heads up!" I yelled down to J-Hope.
A griffin (a creature with a body of a lion, tail, and legs; the head and wings of an eagle; and talons of an eagle at it's front feet) flew over his head. I jumped down from the ladder. The dragon circled back, diving towards us both.
"Forget the ladder. We already got the second clue," I told him.
"Run then!" J-Hope said, pushing me.
"Back to the middle!"
"Sehun!" J-Hope called from behind me when he spotted the boy above us.
He looked down, waving to us. Then spotted us running away from the dragon. Suho was running from the other aisle, colliding with me.
"I accidentally pulled out a trap book that FILES," Suho exclaimed, helping me up.
The griffin flew up to Sehun, trying to scratch him. The boy flew out of the way, launching wind back at the creature. The griffin was thrown to the back of the library wall, falling with a thud and a loud squawk came from it.
"Sehun! Go get the book!" I yelled, continuing to run towards the middle.
More griffins flew out from behind the shelves, and they were angry.
"Okay hyung!" Sehun said, flying towards the books that were huddled around the ceiling, flapping their covers like birds.
J-Hope turned back into a centaur, backing away from the creatures who surrounded us again.
"Do I feel deja vu or what?" Suho said nervously.
I looked up to Sehun. He tried to find the book for the griffins and one of them hit him, making him fall on the couch next to us.
"It won't let me up there!" Sehun said, frowning.
'Well, nice try. Any other ideas before we get eaten?" Suho asked.
"I'll shoot down the book! All centaurs are trained for archery," J-Hope told us with a grin.
"Get to it then," I said to him.
"We'll keep the griffins back while you do that."
Out of thin air, his bow and arrows appeared. He searched for the book. As he did that, Sehun sent the griffins back once more with his wind. Suho used the water from another vase, with a sad expression towards the flower, and held it in the air to smack any griffins that wanted to eat us.
J-Hope was still deciding which book it was when a griffin leapt toward him. Sehun jumped, having a one on one battle with the creature on the ground. J-Hope didn't seem to notice and was focusing on his aim.
I pushed a griffin back with my arm, running through my mind for spells.
"A common mistake is to stop in place," I whispered, closing my eyes.
Feeling magic fly from my body, I opened my eyes to griffins who were stiff in place. Sehun pushed the griffin off of him, with a grim expression on his face. Suho was also fighting one, on it's back in the air. I took a breath, leaning on a griffin's back.
"Aha!" J-Hope exclaimed in the silence.
He fired the arrow and it pierced through the book's cover. It immediately stopped flying, landing on the floor, squirming. J-Hope went over to the book, picking it up. He pulled the arrow out from it, putting it back into his quiver. He frowned.
"Sorry book. Back to the shelf you go," he told it, straighten it's pages.
"Ren, can you fix the book?"
"Of course. Give it here," I said.
J-Hope threw the book to me. The book tried to fly away in my hands. I held it tightly, preventing it from going away. The arrow had hit a rather large hole right through the cover of the book to the middle of the book. I placed a hand over the book.
"Mend together, make it all new," I whispered.
My magic transferred into the book. When I took off my hand, the book was fixed. On the page that was opened, there was a picture of a griffin and words in ancient text written all around it. Closing the book and holding it tightly, I gave it to Suho.
"Hurry and return it to the spot you find it," I told him.
"This spell is going to wear off in a few."
He nodded, running into the library again.
J-Hope's POV
Sehun was touching the books carelessly again. I watched him as he ran his fingers along the spines of books. A butterfly landed on his hand and he turned his focus to that for awhile, before letting it go. I'm sure he learned his lesson about the books, so I turned around to examine the griffins that were frozen in place. Ren was standing there, touching the griffin's fur.
I imitated some of the faces the griffins had, laughing to myself.
"I've never seen a griffin up this close before," I told him.
"Mostly because we're in modern days and I don't go travel around to the other worlds a lot."
"Oh, really? I go back there every summer to my family," he said.
"Is that why you don't use conjunctions?" I asked him.
"Excuse me?" Ren said, looking offended.
"Nothing, nevermind," I said, grinning.
"Are you inquiring about the way I talk?" he asked.
"Kind of. It sounds nice, like you're from the medieval times or the way Edgar Allen Poe writes," I said.
"Right. Edgar Allen Poe? Of course you had to suggest him," Ren said plainly.
"We did study him in class," I muttered.
"Enough talk about him. I only speak like this is because slang never got to me and everyone in my hometown speaks like this," Ren said, pointing a finger up at me.
"For the fact I stay there every year, I do not think there is anything wrong with speaking like this."
"Whoa. I'm sorry. I was just asking why," I said, frowning and holding up my hands.
"I was trying to be friendly too. You seem like a person who wouldn't open up that easily."
Ren sighed.
There was a scream again from Sehun and a whole bunch of flying keys flew up to the ceiling from somewhere in the library. We both turned our heads to the ceiling, watching as over a thousand keys flew around happily out in the area. The griffins vanished then and Suho was in the middle with us again.
Sehun appeared too, looking up.
"I found the book!" Sehun cheered.
"Well, that's a lot of keys," I said, eyeing all of them.
"How are we going to find that one key?!"
"Match up with the picture, of course," Suho said, waving the paper with the picture.
"What if it says "not drawn to scale"?" Sehun asked.
"Well, it doesn't. So we can trust it right?" Suho said.
"Sehun, you want to try going up there again?"
Sehun nodded, the wind lifting him up to the top of the book shelf. I smiled. I taught him well. He flew up to the keys, looking around. The books that we didn't put back came towards him, smacking him back down. He fell again, landing on the floor this time.
"Sehun, are you okay?" Suho asked, rushing over to him.
He stood up, rubbing his back.
"I think so..." he said, checking his arms for anything broken.
"So. We he cannot go up there again without being attacked by books. Again," Ren said.
They all turned to me.
"Sharp eyes, go shoot down the key," Suho said, reaching to pat my arm.
I back up a bit, my back legs hitting the coffee table.
"Oops. Uhm, okay then," I said, looking up.
"It's a gold colored key, with a pink ribbon...why pink...? It also has about three teeth, one small in the middle and a circled handle."
I zoomed in, spotting it. I grinned.
"Found it," I said.
It was flying amongst the others like a normal key. Nocking another arrow, everyone stood back watching me. The keys seem to notice that there was danger and moved out of the way. All except that one key, which is the one we needed. Firing the arrow, the key was brought down, landing on the floor.
"Bulls-eye...again!" I cheered.
Sehun went to go get the key, coming back with it excitedly. He gave me back my arrow. Sehun gave Suho the key.
"Ah, we did it!" Suho said joyfully.
"Let's get out of here now," I said, jumping over the couches and going over to that large door.
Not giving it much of a glance before, it was a rather nice, two golden double doors, with designs of birds flying across it, along with dragons and many other mythical creatures. Suho opened the door with the key, pushing it open with one hand. He held on to the key, which suddenly stopped from contact with the doors.
I looked back to the library one last time, thinking about how many more challenges awaits for us in the future.
"Let's go, J-Hope," Sehun said, noticing I was lagging behind.
"Oh. Right. I'm coming," I said, entering the portal with him.
____________________________________________________________
Author's Message:
Ah, Happy Chinese New Year everyone! We're finally out of these rooms! Yay! Hopefully there will be another update soon. No more promises because I'm kind of four days late for Monday's promised update xD.
Anyways, this song is from the game Maple Story .-. Don't judge me, I play it usually. It's an amazing game but it's gone downhill after awhile. I just really like their background music. It's all magical and stuff and woooooooooow it gives you feels sometimes, plus inspiration. So, I might use it here and there.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! <3
Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday to J-Hope! May all his wishes come true uvu !