"The world is full of monsters with friendly faces, and angels full of scars."
                                   -Anonymous

The trees rustled above you, the sunlight shining in through the green leaves above your head. Your eyes took in the green forestry that was all around you, from the grass, to the trees, to the bushes and the occasional flower.

The forest was quiet. The only sounds to be heard were that of the birds' song and the sound of horses hooves as they hit the dirty path below them. The sound of your horses breathing was also heard through the quiet.

You released a small sigh as you looked at the men around you.

They all insisted that you be placed in the middle, so that if you were attacked they could defend you. You, of course objected, claiming you could take care of yourself, but they didn't exactly care too much. Jimin was at the front followed by Nathaniel, Taehyung, Jungkook, you, Yoongi Jin, Namjoon and Hoseok.

You looked down to the animal you were riding. It was a male horse who went by the name Duke, his pelt was black, purely black with not a single white spot on him except a single spot that covered his right eye. You and he had become good friends in the four hours or so that you'd been on the trail towards the dark forest.

You'd pet him, he'd like it. Y'know, it was that kind of friendship.

Your eyes drifted up in front of you to eye the back of Taehyung's head. You frowned remembering the argument you had with him before you had left the castle. You didn't mean to be so rude towards him, especially after everything he's done for you. When he said those things he just made you angry.

You made a mental note to apologize to him later.

"Keep your eyes up, we're coming close to Umbra territory." Jimin spoke from the front of the line. You watched as the men began to pull their swords out of their shieves, their bodies becoming highly alert and tense.

"What's an Umbra?" Your quiet voice asked.

A deep chuckle resounded from behind you.

You turned your body to look at the raven haired prince. A smile was present on his face as he held onto the reigns of his brown horse.

"An Umbra is a small green little monster, about the size of a bean." Yoongi explained.

You nodded in understanding, pursing your lips.

"Doesn't sound that scary." You stated.

"It isn't," Namjoon started as he poked his head out  from behind Jin. "But it's jaw can open up to two hundred times it's body size, and it can swallow a man whole, and it has poison in its teeth that could kill a person within seconds."

Your eyes widened and your mouth hung agape.

"Oh." You breathed out.

"That's not even the worst part," Jungkook started from ahead of you. "Whenever it's done eating, it uses whatever's left of its victims and builds onto itself." He stated.

You almost gaged at the information.

"So your telling me, that it uses human body parts to make itself bigger?" You asked.

Jungkook nodded.

"Exactly. If they're fully grown, they usually already have quiet a few parts attached to them. However, if they're young they are extremely hard to spot, so be careful where your horse walks just one of those things could swallow it whole."

You nodded, and gulped casting your eyes down onto the ground and watching it carefully.

"Don't let Jungkook trick you, lady Y/N," Jin said from behind Yoongi. "Umbras live in caves and they can't move until they've added enough on themselves, and by the time they have enough to move, they are extremely hard to miss, in fact when they are near the air becomes infested with the stench of rotting flesh , they aren't going to swallow your horse, Jungkook is jesting you." He explained.

Your blue eyes shot to Jungkook, who was chuckling at your falling for his trick. You glared at him.

"Meanie." You spoke.

Jungkook continued in his breathless laughter.

"You looked so scared!" Jungkook laughed, removing his right hand from his horses reigns to clutch onto his stomach.

You smirked as a thought popped into your mind.

"At least I'm not engaged to marry a child." You stated smugly. "Pedophile."

Jungkook fell silent at your words.

You smiled victoriously.

You could hear Jin wheezing from laughter and you saw a small smile make its way onto Yoongi's lips.

"That isn't fair! You should not have brought that up!" Jungkook whined. "I don't even know what a pedophile is!"

You shrugged.

"Don't dish it out if you can't take it."

Jungkook frowned.

"What does that mean?"

You cocked your head to the side as you looked at the boy.

"I believe it means you shouldn't make fun of her, if she cannot make fun of you." Namjoon stated.

You nodded.

"Yup. That's basically it."

Jungkook frowned, turning back to face the front.

Everyone fell silent again.

You frowned at the lack of conversation among everyone. Movies like the lord of the rings had always led you to believe that road trips through a new land while being hunted by monsters was exciting, but man were you wrong, this was boring. You've been in an uncomfortable saddle for over four hours, your butt was starting to get numb, you were hungry, thirsty and very hot.

You sighed, untying the top part of your cotton shirt allowing it to show some of your cleavage, even though it was only a small amount more skin you knew that the men were probably thinking you were indecent, but you were hot and you couldn't care less.

You began to feel a ton better, the breeze swept through the trees and hit your sweaty chest, cooling down the hot skin. You arched your neck, trying to allow your neck to feel some of the cool breeze.

You didn't notice Jungkooks eyes trailing down your body, or the way that Yoongi licked his lips.

You began humming a small tune as you played with the reigns in your hands.

The song you were humming was a song called I will go to you like the first snow, it was one of your favorite songs to listen to. You listened to it almost every day, you liked to sing it when you felt happy.

A few minutes past, just like that. All of you traveling in the quiet of the forest, the only noise being the soft melody you were humming.

It was peaceful.

It was nice.

"You have a lovely singing voice." Came Hoseok's deep voice.

Your eyes widened slightly in embarrassment, a deep blush covering your face.

"Thanks."you spoke softly.

"I've never heard that melody before, where did you learn it?" He asked curiously.

You frowned slightly.

"My mother sang it to me when I felt sick." You stated.

Jimin turned in his saddle, trying to get a glimpse at you.Last night you had told him about your mother and how much she meant to you, how you feared never seeing her again. Jimin tried to make sure you were okay.

Hoseok nodded in response.

"Your mother has an ear for music." He said.

You smiled and nodded.

"Yeah she does, but she can't sing at all." You laughed.

Hoseok frowned.

"Is she mute?"

Yoongi turned to look at the boy with an incredulous look on his face.

"No, stupid, she means her mother had no talent for singing." Yoongi stayed.

Hoseok released a nervous chuckle.

"Oh. Forgive me, lady y/n, I did not understand."

You chuckled shaking your head.

"Don't worry about-"

Your words were cut off as the horses suddenly came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the path. You froze in your seat, your body becoming still.

The forest no longer made any noise. No birds chirping, or trees moaning.

Everything was quiet.

Too quiet.

A breeze suddenly blew your (h/c) hair out of your face, softly. The wind was sour.

It stank of rotting eggs, and sulfur mixed together.

A sound swept past you, a fast movement that you couldn't catch. Your head snapped in the direction in Came from.

Then it ran past you again, frightening the horses each of you sat upon. Duke bucked slightly, his feet coming a few inches off the ground, startling you effectively.

You pet his neck softly, running your fingers through his black mane.

"Calm down." You told him.

Another whisk of air shot out right infront of Jimin, causing the white horse he sat upon to buck and neigh a few times.

Jimin calmed his horse down and drew his sword.

"It's an Umbra." Jimin stated.

You watched as the rest of the men clutched their swords tighter.

You really wanted to punch Taehyung for not giving you a weapon.

Suddenly the whisking of air stopped and everything was silent again.

The stillness of the forest unsettled you in a painful way.

It's like in horror movies when someone is about to open a door and you know there's a jump scare coming.

Your eyes began scanning everything infront of you, searching desperately for the creature that sought to kill.

Silence.

Suddenly, a body connected with yours, dragging you off your horse and slamming your body into the trunk of a nearby tree.

You released a scream of shock as the bark stabbed at your back.

The creature hovering above you was hideous.

It had no face.

Only a huge mouth, with rows of razor sharp teeth that pointed inwards. It's body was made up of different body parts, just like Jin had described to you. Arms, legs, toes, fingers basically any part of a human were all gathered into an odd shape. It almost looked like a spider, the way it bunched together in the middle and used four legs to walk around on.

Drool fell onto your face as the monsters mouth came closer to you, a hiss escaping its throat.

The Umbra used one of its legs to grab onto your left thigh and squeeze, effectively holding you in place, and causing a scream to rip out of you throat.

The monster was shoved off of you by Jimin. You watched breathlessly as the eight men stabbed at the monster, until it hissed in pain and shriveled up on itself.

All of the men breathed a sigh of relief at the monsters death.

You relaxed against the tree, thinking the fight was over.

You were wrong.

Your body was picked up off the ground and slammed back into the tree behind you. White spots began to cloud your vision and you released a groan of pain.

Jin's eyes widened as he took in the sight of the Umbra pinning you to the tree. You clawed at it's appendages that held you against the tree, your blue eyes shining as you tried to escape its widening jaws.

He pulled his sword out of the Umbra they'd just killed and rushed over to you.

His eyes flashed as his sword sliced at the monsters back.

The thing turned around to face the sorcerer, dropping your body in the process, Jin hurried over to stand infront of you, using his body to shield your own.

From the corner of your eyes you began to notice more of the monsters coming closer to the rest of the men.

It seems they noticed as well.

They all picked a separate monster and began fighting for their life.

The monster infront of you used one of its legs to pull Jin's feet out from under him, causing him to fall right smack on top of you.

You groaned in pain and rubbed your head.

Jin was smirking down at you, his golden eyes trailing down your body as he delivered you a small wink. You rolled your eyes in annoyance.

"Really?! Now?!"

The Umbra grabbed your right ankle and pulled you out from under Jin. You began trying to squirm away from it as it tried dragging you further into the forest. You kicked it in what you presumed to be it's nose and it released its hold just long enough for you to stand up and start to run away.

Just when you though you were free, it grabbed your shoulder, pulling you backwards into it's mouth, it's teeth digging into your shoulder and and shoulder blade, ripping the back of your white cotton shirt.

You released a scream in pain at the monsters sharp teeth, and bit your lip in pain, tears falling down your eyes.

You cringed as you could feel its slimy tongue licking away at the blood that spilled into its mouth

This is it.

You were never going to see your family again.

The Umbra's teeth were suddenly gone and you fell forward onto your knees.

The sound of struggling was behind you, but all you could focus on was the pain in your back and the blood you were loosing.

You breathed heavily as you stared at the ground. Tears began to fall from your eyes and onto the dry earth beneath you.

The pain was almost unbearable. You could feel the poison moving through your body and your body beginning to shut down.

You were scared.

You didn't want to die in a place like this, and definitely not under these circumstances.

Reaching behind you, you grasped your shoulder, trying to find a way to ease the pain.

"Y/n! Get down!"

Your eyes shot up infront of you as you watched Jungkook charge at you, fear evident on his features.

You raised your eyebrow and turned to see what he was looking at.

In a swift movement the Umbra was pinning you down to the ground, ifs mouth inches away from your face, giving you a clear view of its throat.

You began trying to move your hands but to no avail.

Suddenly, a sword pierced through its head, barely missing your face in the process.

The monster shriveled up and all of its once attached limbs fell to the ground beside of you.

It was quiet.

You glanced around from your spot on the ground.

Jimin was helping Hoseok to stand up a few feet away from you.

Jin and Namjoon were resting against a tree, Yoongi was cleaning off his sword, Nathaniel was picking himself off of the ground while Taehyung was running in your direction.

Jungkook was standing above you, breathing heavily.

There were no more monsters.

All the monsters were dead, everyone was alive.

You sighed and pushed yourself to sit up, groaning at the pain in your shoulder.

"Y/n! Are you okay?!"  Jungkook's voice rang through your head and you watched as he dropped his sword to the ground and ran to your form.

You tried nodding, but you found yourself becoming lightheaded instead, falling backwards. The poison was taking its toll.

Jungkook dropped on his knees and slid next to you on the ground, catching your body before your head hit the dirt.

"I'm just a little lightheaded." You stated softly.

Jungkook nodded, brushing away hair from your face.

"Namjoon!" He called out, his golden eyes never leaving yours. "Don't faint y/n, I mean it."

You shook your head.

"I'm not going to faint, my shoulder just hurts." You complained.

The rest of the boys rushed over to you, Taehyung kneeled down to your level, worry evident in his lavender eyes.

"Are you okay?!" He asked.

You nodded, leaning your heavy head back into Jungkooks chest.

"M-my shoulder."

"The Umbra's poison." Taehyung breathed out.

"I'm fine." You gasped suddenly, your eyes beginning to drift shut.

"No,no,no,no,no." Jungkook was beginning to panic.  "Don't you dare die. Namjoon! Do something!"

Namjoon moved Taehyung aside, and sat on the ground beside of your figure.

You could feel yourself beginning to drift away into unconsciousness.

Namjoon raised a small vial of a golden liquid above your head and began to spin it around in circular motions, his mouth moving to recite words you couldn't understand.

The liquid in the vial began to glow, at Namjoon's words.

And your body began to go limp as the Umbra's poison rushed through your blood stream.

"Hurry!" Jimin's voice called.

Namjoon continued to recite the words, the liquid glowing brighter and brighter.

Silence.

You gasped as your body shot up in Jungkook's arms.

Everyone's eyes widened at your revival, and a select few breathed a sigh of relief.

Your chest heaved as your blue eyes darted to each and everyone's face. Your heart pounded in your chest and you hunched forwards to gain your breath back.

"Oh thank god." Jungkook breath as he pulled you back into his embrace.

Your face was smushed against his broad chest and you found his grip suffocating.

"Hey, pedophile, let go I can't breath." Your words were mumbled by his chest.

Jungkook released you and you pushed his body away from you.

"I still don't know what that means." He grumbled out.

Jimin released a sigh of relief and leaned forward to grab your hand and help you to your feet.

"Thank you." You stated.

Jimin only nodded, releasing your hand.

You began to brush the dust off of your pants.

Trailing your eyes over to Namjoon, you smiled.

"Thank you." You breathed out. "For saving my life."

Namjoon nodded, his eyes flashing down, before a deep blush spread across his cheeks. He turned his back towards you, rubbing his neck nervously.

You raised an eyebrow at his behavior.

"Wow." Jin whistled. "Maybe we should get attacked by Umbra's more often."

You watched as Taehyung delivered a punch to Jin's arm.

"I'll say." Yoongi added in, his orange gaze trailing over your body as he bit his lip.

You frowned in confusion and look down.

Oh.

You had forgotten about your shirt being ripped. The white cloth was barely hanging onto our body, your black brazier now on display for all the males around you to see.

You gasped and pulled up the remnants of your shirt, trying to cover as much as you can.

"Crap." You breathed out. "I need a new shirt." You stated.

"I think you look perfectly fine in that one." Yoongi said smugly.

Jimin sent him a disapproving look, and pulled a blanket out of his saddle bag, handing it over to you.

You thanked him and pulled the blanket around your shoulders.

Suddenly, you were enclosed in a warm embrace. Your eyes widened at the close proximity.

"I'm so happy your safe." Taehyung breathed. "I'm sorry."

You nodded, wrapping your arms around his torso.

"It's okay, Taehyung." You stated, pulling away. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have yelled at you back at the castle."

Taehyung smiled.

"Apology accepted."

You smiled brightly at him.

"Now, can I have a weapon?"

A/N,
Okay so this one is kind of cringe worthy. But you'll have to suffer through it. I needed to introduce the Umbra's. They're not the only "monsters" in this book.🤭

P.S.
shout out to that anonymous reader who messaged me about the character Lillian.😏
        -Max