When Hongjoong, Seonghwa, San and Jongho returned to the surface it was night time. Hongjoong dragged himself out of the water, dripping wet and shivering. It was freezing cold, and Hongjoong was reminded of the fact that deserts in his world could drop to this temperature too. He wrapped his arms around himself, his wet blue hair falling over his eyes. He curled in on himself to try and generate some form of body heat, but quickly relaxed when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around him from behind. 

Hongjoong snuggled back into the welcomed body heat, hearing a breathy chuckle. 

"You alright now?" The familiar voice of Seonghwa asks him.

"Yeah" Hongjoong hums, feeling grateful that Seonghwa was there.

The younger glances back to the lake, and the sight that he saw was breathtakingly beautiful. The lake was glowing a fluorescent aqua colour. He looked up, and felt his breath being taken away again. The moon was big, although it wasn't blue, and it had a ring of white glow around it. There were millions of stars out, and it was magical.

Hongjoong felt a tug at his heart, and an insane urge to be all like 'fuck earth, imma stay here' but he knew he would eventually miss his parents far too much. He also briefly wondered if his mother had ever been to Aurora. 

He then realised she probably had. He thought back to the stories she told him as a kid, about fairies, and Elven princes, and she even told him about this very lake (not that he knew it was real until now).

Then again, he could be dreaming. He could have just fainted, and this could all be some sort of wacky headspace he escaped into. 

"You are oddly silent Hongjoong. What are you thinking about?" Seonghwa asks.

"My mother" Hongjoong answers. "I'm honestly really starting to miss her. Hwa, I'm still going to school, I still live at home, I still have to rely on my parents. I'm not independent yet. If I am the child of the prophecy, I..." Hongjoong sniffled, wiping his teary eyes.

Seonghwa hugged him tighter, gently rocking side to side.

"Shades are here" San whispered.

Hongjoong wished to not hear him, but raised his head anyway. He roughly wiped his eyes, looking to his right to see their brightly glowing eyes staring at him, demonic growls coming from them. Their sharpened teeth dripped with the fresh blood of a recent kill, and overall, Hongjoong didn't want to go anywhere near them, much less touch one.

Hongjoong made to wriggle out of Seonghwa's grip, but the Elven prince's grip was tight, and it was a little difficult to wriggle out of.

"If anything happens, I'm right here" Seonghwa whispered as he allowed his grip to lessen just enough so Hongjoong could pull the older's arms off of him and stand up.

Hongjoong hums in acknowledgement as he takes a hesitant step forward. This was the only way to figure out if it was all true about him being the child of prophecy. However, he didn't know what would happen if it turned out he wasn't.

'Believe in yourself Joongie' his mother would say if she were there in Aurora with him.

He took a deep breath in, and slowly released it, before striding towards the Shades with newfound courage. He faltered just a little as he walked closer, only slightly stumbling over his own feet, but as he really stared into the Shades brightly glowing eyes, he saw something he never expected.

He saw what looked like thousands of years of pain contained in those eyes, and it nearly brought Hongjoong to tears. 

"Byeongkwan said that if I am who you all think I am, I can turn the Shades back to their original form. Shades weren't always pure evil then...were they?" 

His previous fear disappeared, and all he wanted to do now was release these poor creatures of the cruel fate that was unfairly forced upon them. He reached towards the closest Shade, a wolf Shade, and everyone held their breath. 

Either Hongjoong's hand would be taken off or he would be revealed as the child of the prophecy...

:::

"I hate him!" Yunho exclaims as he paces the living room of Mingi and San's house. 

"Yunho, baby, Mikaelis is a nightmare to even think about. You're both brave and utterly stupid for trying to actually talk sense to him" Mingi scoffed.

"I had to try Mingi" Yunho sighed, and promptly sat down on the floor with his legs outstretched. "He's my half brother Mingi; the only living family I have left is him" 

Mingi stared down at him like he'd said something wrong. The tall pixie cleared his throat and said, "your only other living family, you mean. You forgot to mention Mikaelis' son"

"Byeongkwan? I....I don't fully trust him, even though I know he's completely cut his ties to Mikaelis. He very nearly gave into his father once, so I have no idea what Byeongkwan will do if that happens again" Yunho explains. 

Mingi huffs out a sigh, sitting down beside Yunho. The red haired pixie crosses his legs and reaches his arms out, grabbing a hold of Yunho. The sorcerer releases a very unmanly squeak before he's pulled into Mingi's lap, his boyfriend's arms wrapped tightly around him. Mingi simply holds the older, not wanting to say anything more on the matter.

"Thank you Mingi" Yunho smiled.

Quietly, he began whispering a protection spell for Mingi. If there was one thing he knew about Mikaelis, it was that his half brother would most definitely go as far as to hurt or even kill Mingi to get back at Yunho, and the sorcerer wasn't going to take any chances. It was an unseen spell, so Mingi wouldn't know that he had that protection spell on him.

Yunho hoped that it would be enough to protect his boyfriend from Mikaelis. He then whispered a prayer to Taemin, begging him to watch over Hongjoong, Seonghwa, San and Jongho as they made their journey to the Fairy Mountains.

'Please, let nothing bad happen to them...'