me: wow, i've been in such a writing mood lately! surely nothing can stop me from updating this book more now!

school: i'm about to end this kid's whole career.
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"Now, on the map, that village is, like, only a centimeter away. That can't be that far."

Walking ahead of Jin next to your twin, you hummed as you took in his words and looked down for a moment to casually kick away a stray pebble that just so happened to be in front of you.

"It must just be on the other side of the..."

Noticing how Yí's voice had suddenly trailed off, you curiously lifted your gaze back up, and quickly grew to be entranced and in awe at the sight that now rested before your very eyes.

"Whoa," you breathed out, a grin slowly spreading across yours and Yí's faces.

"The Yellow Mountains," your twin added, chuckling in astonishment at the familiar image that you had both only seen through your father's pictures.

Speaking of your father's pictures, actually...

Gasping, you began to dig around in your purse; eyes scanning the area inside of the bag until they landed on a certain photo, which you quickly pulled out and held out in front of you, your eyes as wide as your grin.

"They're just how dad described they'd be!" you said, giggling brightly and bringing the picture to your chest with both of your hands as you continued to take in the terrain, eyes fluttering in disbelief because — because you were actually here. This was real.

"It's amazing..." you whispered to yourself, glancing one last time at the photo in your hands before gently slipping it back into your purse with the rest of them and closing the small bag shut to ensure that they wouldn't end up falling out and flying away (again).

However, as beautiful as the moment you and your twin were currently sharing, it was once again unfortunately ruined by none other than Jin.

"Wait. Wait." The boy walked up to stand beside you, running a hand through his dark locks of hair in disbelief and using his other hand to gesture towards the mountains that towered before you all.

"We are not going over that," he stated, as if you guys had any other choice.

"Come on, Everest!" Peng giggled, running past his cousin, "I'll race you!"

Jin blinked, watching his Peng go off with an offended look on his face as the yeti raced after his younger cousin. The teenage boy looked to you and Yí, clearly astonished, and you both ended up sharing a look before chuckling and offering Jin a simple shrug of your shoulders.

"Do you have any idea where else we could go?" you asked, giggling as you and Yí raced after the two younger members of your party, leaving Jin in the dust.

The teenager, in return, scoffed and rolled his eyes, yet still couldn't help the small smile that tugged at the corners of his lips as he (reluctantly) followed after the rest of your group.

(Because in the end, who was he to deny you of anything, anyway?)

* * * * *

"Oof." Quickly catching Yí in your arms before she could fall on her side onto the trail, you gently helped her lie down against the backside of the mountain before deciding to rest right next to her yourself.

"Leg cramp. Stop for a sec," the ravenette said, sending you a grateful glance from the corner of her brown eyes.

"Okay. I mean—" Jin released a nervous, breathless laugh and was quick to rest his own legs as well; sitting across from you and your sister "—if you really want to."

You and Yí shared a deadpanned look; shaking your heads and clearly not impressed at the boy's attempt to 'keep his cool.' However, you were both quick to put that aside, and instead went back to admiring the scenery. As you looked around — closing your eyes and breathing in softly as the wind flew through your hair, unaware that a certain boy was taking his sweet time to admire your beauty — Yí picked out a dandelion from the ground, staring down at the flower with nostalgia shining in her eyes.

From ahead of your tired trio, Peng stared hopefully at the dandelion in his own hands, and held the plant in between his palms tightly before whispering to it:

"I wish I was a basketball superstar!"

And with that, he blew away at the plant's seeds; sending them flying away with the passing breeze. Everest grunted as he curiously watched the flower's seeds fly away, wondering where they could possibly be going off to.

"Starting in the championship game:" Peng then began, his voice echoing about the area and ascending into the skies, "The Mighty Peng!"

You and Yí laughed along with the small boy, finding amusement in his shenanigans.

"Come on, you guys, we should probably start walking again—" You were cut off by a flying drone making its appearance out of nowhere, making Peng yelp and jump back into Everest's arms, all whilst you, Yí and Jin jumped back as well; gasping and eyes wide with surprise as you all stared at the robot.

"W-what—?"

Once again, before you could even continue, the blue lights on the drone suddenly began to flash red, and four more appeared — all staring down at your group menacingly.

"Oh no." Looking down — your shoulders stiff — you saw that Yí had crawled closer to the edge of the trail and was looking down. Despite not being able to see her expression, you could definitely tell that she was scared right now.

Then, as if on cue, she turned to face you with wide eyes. "It's those guys from the city," she told, making you recall your encounter with the people who had chased you about your home, obviously after Everest.

Your eyes went even wider than before with horror, and your breath hitched in your throat.

Shoot.

"See?" Jin's hand found itself grabbing ahold of your forearm and pulling you closer to him protectively. "I told you guys this was a crazy idea!" he whisper-shouted, glaring at the drones that surrounded you all as he subtly pulled you behind him.

Slowly rising back to her feet, Yí gasped when the drones began to close in on your group, making you all press your backs up against the wall out of fear.

"I wish there was a way out of here," Yí whispered, glancing up at the drones anxiously.

And that, my friends, is when Everest just so happened to spot a dandelion within your twin's hand, and remembered just exactly what that flower was mainly used for.

So, with determination shining in his big, blue eyes, the yeti began to hum; voice deep and calming as a blue aura surrounded his white fur. Your group went wide-eyed once again and looked to the young yeti for a split second, confused as to what he was doing, until you all turned to see the dandelion in your sister's hand slowly begin to grow in size, earning a sharp gasp from you.

"Uh," Jin's grasp on your arm loosened, and you barely registered it when you felt his hand slide down and encase your own.

"What's going on?" Your sister began to stumble forward; the wind catching ahold of the giant dandelion in her grasp and beginning to lift it higher off of the ground with the breeze. "Yí?"

When your sister didn't answer, Jin raised his voice. "Let go of that, it's dangerous!" he commanded.

"Everest?" Yí ignored Jin's cries and looked to the said yeti from over her shoulder nervously. "Are you sure about this?"

In response, the yeti only nodded before grabbing ahold of the young human boy next to him and racing after the flying girl, leaving you and Jin behind.

"No! Peng!" Jin's hand tightened around your own as he led the two of you up a set of stone stairs; watching as the yeti and his younger cousin joined Yí on the giant dandelion.

"All of you, get down from there right now!" Jin yelled, nearly stumbling over his own feet.

"Jin! (Y/n)!" Peng called back. "Jump!"

"Jump!" Yí repeated, eyeing yours and Jin's forms desperately, not wanting to leave you both behind.

"No!" Jin replied back stubbornly. "Get down here! Give me your hand!"

Finally listening to his older cousin's words at last, Peng held a hand out to the older boy for him to grab. Once he was close enough, Jin jumped up slightly and quickly grabbed ahold of the younger boy's hand, grinning viciously after he did so.

"Ha!" he laughed. "Gotcha!"

Unfortunately for Jin, though, it did not seem to be his (nor yours) lucky day, for he soon ended up running into the railway of the steps the both of you had run up, making him gasp as the wind was — quite literally — knocked out of him. You gasped as well (though mostly out of concern), and stopped in your tracks to make sure that he was okay.

"Jin!" you cried. "Are you alright?"

The boy wheezed; doing his best to quickly catch his breath as he shakily lifted his hand to give you a thumbs up. You chuckled awkwardly at this, not really believing him, but still nodded either way before averting your gaze back to the rest of your group, who were all now currently flying off — without you and Jin.

"Yí!" Your twin stared back at you with an expression that held both fear and concern. "Meet us at that village by the river, okay?" you yelled, both hands cupped around your mouth.

Yí, albeit hesitantly, gave you a determined nod. "We'll be there!" she shouted back, and you did your best to offer her your most encouraging smile as you nodded back.

"Okay then! See you soon!"

"AND TAKE CARE OF PENG!" Jin suddenly added, the wind having finally returned to his lungs.

But the rest of your ragtag group was already too far now, so Yí couldn't even offer the boy any sort of reassurance in response, even if she wanted to.

So I suppose that you'll have to give him that much needed reassurance, instead.

"They'll be okay," you whispered, taking Jin's hand into your own and giving it a comforting squeeze.

The boy didn't bother giving you any sort of response back, but he did squeeze your hand in return, and you smiled.

That is, until some all-too familiar drones made their reappearance.

"Uh..." With his hand still in your own, you and Jin began to slowly back away from the flying machines.

"Jin?"

The boy didn't respond once again, and instead gripped your hand even more tightly than before, turn around, and ran.

(It's times like this, if you were being honest with yourself, you really wish that those dragons your father mentioned in his stories were still around.)

* * * * *

"I hope neither of you are hurt." Jin huffed and pulled you behind him protectively as the woman took another step forward towards your duo, holding her hand out for Jin to shake.

"Allow me to introduce myself." She offered you a polite smile. "I'm Dr. Zara," she said, and you frowned, hiding further behind Jin despite the small voice in the back of your head telling you to stop and get away from him.

"Oh, we know who you are," Jin said, crossing his arms over his chest as 'Dr. Zara' gave him a look of surprise.

"Oh?" She rose a curious brow. "You do?" she asked.

"Yeah," Jin began, whispering for some reason, "You're the bad guys."

You had to hold back a snort.

Squeak!

Peeking over Jin's shoulder, your heart melted at the sight of the small creature that had suddenly appeared on the red-headed woman's shoulder, and you suppressed the urge to let out a short, "Awe."

Jin, however, ended up having an opposite reaction to your own.

"Ah!" The teenage boy jumped back; you catching him in your arms and nearly falling back onto your bum at his added weight. "Your gerbil is freaking me out!" he said, eyeing the mentioned rodent anxiously.

From behind Dr. Zara, a certain old man gave a smile of approval. "A boy that knows his gerbils. I like him," he said, nodding to himself.

"Bad?" Dr. Zara repeated, eyeing you and Jin in confusion. "Listen, you've got this all wrong. That wild beast—" Your eyes narrowed into a small glare. 'Beast'? How dare she call Everest that? "—is unpredictable, even dangerous. We were trying to rescue your friends—" Dr. Zara looked your way for a split moment "—when the yeti kidnapped them."

Your eyes widened at that statement, and you took a second to gape at the woman before finally pushing yourself to speak up.

"Hey, just hold on a second—"

You were cut off when Jin let out a scoff, bringing his hand up to hold his chin in thought.

"He...did kidnap them..." he muttered under his breath, and you ended up gaping at him as well.

"What? Jin—"

"Listen here, you twit!" You gasped, watching an old man suddenly stomp past you and jab Jin in the stomach with the end of his cane.

"I own that yeti. He is my yeti. I want my yeti back!" the old man demanded, jabbing Jin in the stomach with his cane again.

"Right?" Jab. "Just nod." Jab.

"Mr. Burnish!" Dr. Zara stepped in between the two before you could, and she gave the old man a stern look. "Please."

The old man — Mr. Burnish — scoffed and looked away, meeting your eyes for a quick second before turning away once again.

You frowned.

"Look," Jin muttered, keeping his voice low as to keep you from hearing what he had to say. "W-we just need to find my cousin and her sister and — and get 'em back to the city in one piece," he said, sighing and running a hand through his hair stressfully and taking a moment to let his gaze linger on your form.

"I can get all of you back to the city," Dr. Zara spoke up, bringing Jin back to reality as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "But the only wake I can help your friends is if I know where they are," she paused, "Do you know?"

Jin shrugged, and Dr. Zara sighed, pushing her glasses up her nose.

"That yeti is the pinnacle of my research," she frowned, almost sadly. "I really need him back."

Jin took a moment to ponder her words, and then spared a moment to look at you one last time. When your eyes met, a sudden feeling of guilt churned in his stomach, and he sighed.

Even if you would get upset at him for this later, getting you and everyone else back home to your own families — alive — was top priority.

"I don't know where they are," Jin spoke, "but I do know where they will be."

Dr. Zara turned to the boy, smiling happily, and you — who had just heard the last of his words — felt a sting of betrayal in your heart once more.