Third Person POV

The three friends look at each other worriedly as this is what they fear to happen - the Queen's persistence and arrogance, the human's intrusion as well as the increased difficulty for them to escape in one piece. The Queen smiles before turning towards the exit of the cave, walking towards daylight.

"No!" shouts Jimin as he darts towards the Queen, hoping to stop him. But he's then repelled by the forcefield exerted by Queen Ren. If it isn't for Wonho, Jimin would have hurt himself by experiencing a painful contact with the cave walls. The forcefield looks like an incomplete dome painted with the colour of ocean blue. It soon retreats into Queen Ren's body the moment when he proceeds his pace towards the eye of humans. His robe changes into a white long dress when he pulls the pin that secures his hair away.

"You'll know where the second exit is, Park Jimin." The Queen reminds before disappearing from our sight, leaving us dumbfounded and speechless.

These Elvish symbols are visible in both Jimin and Ping's heads except for Wonho, as he belongs to a different realm. Jimin's expression turns dark after he has discovered the Queen's plan.

"What do those symbols say, Jimin?" asks Ping when she notices the seriously thoughtful expression presented on his delicate visage.

Bracing his chin, Jimin's eyebrows are furrowed deep in concern. "If I'm not wrong," he begins. "Queen Ren's forcefield must have contained the serum he's working on to turn humans into the Crookeds. I believe for the humans who are trapped inside the range of his forcefield, they will be poisoned by the serum and turn into one of these monsters we saw in the arena."

"How do you know that there is serum contained in his forcefield?" Wonho asks while helping Jimin up from the ground.

"Because I felt a rush of power in my veins when the forcefield hit me," answers Jimin. "I remember what Queen Ren had told us about the serum..."

"Yeah," interrupts Ping as she averts her gaze from the exit to Jimin's eyes. "The serum makes Faeries stronger. That explains the rush of power that you've felt." Jimin nods as he indicates what Ping theorized is correct. "If he refuses to come with us, we can't proceed with our initial plan."

Placing his hand onto Jimin's shoulder, Wonho utters calmly, "Show us the way out, Jimin."

_____

The inner part of the cave consists of tunnels like an ant nest. Each entrance of the tunnels are decorated differently with vines and flowers and butterflies. As they enter through a tunnel with its entrance embellished with falling fairy dusts, they can feel the warmth of sunlight kissing their skin.

When they run through the very last tunnel, they realise that it is the one that leads them to the dining table, where the Queen treated Beomgyu with meals that he was too afraid to touch. Unlike the time when they first visited, flowers are no longer blooming on the trees. In fact, the leaves are turning brown before falling from the branches. Swarms of tiny fairies are fleeing with their panic chirps, signalling the other Faeries that danger is coming. Humans are coming.

"Wonho, we need you to bring us up," says Jimin as he points to the sky. "We can't leave the Queen alone, but I'm not quite sure how big that forcefield is going to be exerted."

"What are we supposed to do then?" Wonho asks.

"For the sake of FaeWorld, we can't let those humans harm the Queen despite how many bad things he'd done to us." Jimin's voice is firm, but Ping doesn't utter a word upon recalling the moment when Beomgyu and her father died in front of her. "So when things get out of control, we need to haul him away from the human's attack."

Ping's chest is throbbing due to those painful memories. Indeed, losing her family is the worst thing she had ever experienced. She knows that who's left is her sister as she can sense her signs of life from a distance. "I agree with Jimin. We should go back."

The boys look at her due to her deep, thoughtful voice. Taking hold of Ping's hand with a firm grip, Jimin's eyes are asking her what's wrong with her concerned yet dark expression.

"My sister is here. I can't let her touch the forcefield." Complicated feelings are all written on their faces. Not only they have to look out for the Queen, they have to search for Ping's sister. Clearly, the risk level has elevated.

Tightening his grip on Ping's hand, Jimin consoles, "Gwaenchana (It's okay), even if your sister isn't here, our lives are still at risk." A gust of strong wind brushes their faces and renders Ping's hair messy. Apparently, the wind is created when Wonho shifts himself into eagle form. His giant eagle form. Without waiting for Wonho to place his wing on the ground, Jimin has already floated to the air together with Ping.

Ping has had her wings spreaded before they land on Wonho's feathery back. After ensuring that the two passengers have prepared themselves for the flight, Wonho flaps his wings hard and off they go towards the sky. Some unfortunate fairies are blown by the strong wind, yet none of these innocent beings loses their lives though they are knocked on trees, stuck beneath twigs or landed in thorny rose bushes.

On the other hand, the eagle flies pass clouds before letting the force of gravity full them towards the lower ground. The hype feeling is just similar to riding on a roller coaster as this leads out Ping's loud scream and Jimin's 'woah' in excitement. "He's avenging himself for the spider ride just now, interesting!" Jimin laughs after discovering Wonho's thoughts.

Wonho leads out an eagle scream in return, telling Jimin that he's guessed the purposes right. It takes not more than 15 minutes until the battlefield enters their view. The spider is half-dead as the humans have shot it down. As for Queen Ren, the three manage to distinguish his location by identifying the tiny, meat-eating butterflies that hover on top of the trees growing around his den.

Not long after, he regains his Faerie form but with purplish and pink butterfly wings flapping on his back. Those wings are much larger and with their edges sharper than Ping's. The humans are so focused on the spider that none of them have noticed the Queen's appearance on top of their heads, until the leading hunter holds their fire.

As silence dominates the atmosphere, everyone can hear a distinct beeping sound coming from the Faerie detector. It beeps rapidly as if a bomb is about to explode. Soon enough, all the humans raise their heads skywards and there they see the Queen, exerting the ocean blue dome with his palms. "Shoot her!!" shouts the leading hunter as they begin firing at the Queen.

"There, Ying's sitting with the woman in the white lab coat!" Ping points at the jeep where my sister is seated. She is holding on her phone as she films everything that happens in front of her eyes after having her boss' permission. "I'll go save my sister, you'll go save the Queen." Jimin nods firmly with his eyes holding on Ping's.

Ping plans to use her inner-talking ability to communicate with her sister, Ying. "We have to jump."

Still having their fingers interlocked, Ping and Jimin exchange looks as they nod at each other. On the count to three, both of them jump from the eagle's back together. Their hearts race as they let gravity pull them downwards.

"I'll go save the Queen. You go and save your sister," says Jimin with his eyes holding fully onto Ping's. "We'll meet here later." Following Jimin's words, Ping could see the place where she ate fresh plums with Jimin the day after the dream elf captured her.

It's Jimin's shelter.

"Okay." They release each other's hands afterwards while Jimin watches how Ping shrinks herself until she is unrecognisable.

***

Ping

The battlefield is full of the loud noises of gunshots and merciless bullets. After taking in a deep breath, I enter the range where bullets fly without being noticed. My heart pounds so hard when I can't help myself from imagining the consequences if I'm hit by one of those deadly bullets.

Fly lower, Ping!

Jimin's voice echoes in my head as I obey and dive towards the grass. Luckily, those hunters aren't near the jeep, so I won't need to worry of being squashed by those heavy boots along the way.

Without further hesitation, I take a seat on the steps before commencing on my inner-communication with my sister.

Ying.

No response, so I try again.

Ying, can you hear me?

After a few seconds that would render me breathless, she finally learns to reply. Ping, is that you?

I can see her thoughts after she responds to my call. She prefers not to call out to me because she knows her boss will find this out.

It's me, Ping. Your sister Ping who loves egg sandwiches with peanut butter. Look, there's too little time to explain. But please, don't touch that dome. Run to this place I've visualised to you now and don't look back, we'll meet you there.

Silence answers me until the door of the jeep swings open. "Where are you going?" I can hear the woman shouting at her, but she doesn't listen. Without uttering a word, Ying sprints towards the direction where she's safe from the poisonous dome.

Please meet me soon, I'm scared.

ᴍʏ ᴍɪᴄʀᴏsᴏғᴛ ᴏғғɪᴄᴇ ɢᴀᴠᴇ ᴜᴘ ᴏɴ ᴍᴇ 🙂👍 ʜᴀᴘᴘʏ ɴᴇᴡ ʏᴇᴀʀ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ 🎆🎆🎆🎇