Stay Gold

The Powers Magic beholds

Elizabeth's POV

We heard a loud roar echo throughout the cave which only further panicked everyone else, the cave shook roughly and I knew that the Lycaonia had broken through Taehyung's barrier. Taehyung immediately put up another barrier behind us, covering the entrance we had come through. I panted, leaning against the rocky wall and looked up at Taehyung who stood at the forefront of the group. "That should hold it back at least for a little while." Taehyung panted, turning his head towards the rest of us behind him. "How do you know that?! Your last barrier was supposed to hold that beast back and you said yourself that it wouldn't be able to get through it!! And guess what?! You were very wrong about that because it seemed to break through your 'most powerful' barrier with ease. How long is this one going to hold up?" Yoongi snapped, I watched as Taehyung grew agitated with Yoongi's statement. "Yoongi," Hoseok started, "Listen here, if you have a better way of stopping that rampaging beast that keeps coming after us then by all means go right fucking ahead!" Taehyung snapped, Yoongi let out a growl and turned his head towards the barrier. "Yoongi, no." Hoseok stepped forward, "Let me, Hoseok." He started, "No!" Hoseok raised his voice, "I'm not letting you send yourself into a fight that you cannot win! Those beasts have killed most of your kin already, you are the last one in your family and I am not going to let you die because of your own stupidity. Do you hear me?! I'm not losing my best friend!" Hoseok shouted, Yoongi stared at him for a moment and sighed. I could see the different emotions running through both men, they both cared deeply for one another. I was shocked to hear that Yoongi was the only left in his family, he really did lose everything. "Fine. I won't go after the damn demon dog." Yoongi sighed, running his hand through his hair. "And you," Hoseok turned to Taehyung, the look in his eyes said everything he was feeling in the moment. "You need to keep your mouth shut and not egg people on. The next time you start an argument, I will not hesitate to punch you. I'm not letting you rile someone up enough to get them to risk their life." Taehyung didn't say anything and just stared harshly at Hoseok, I ignored the building tension between the two and turned my attention away from them.

"Can you two ever just get along and stop arguing all the time?" Jin quipped, sounding annoyed. I turned to Namjoon who had the map, Jungkook and Jimin were both looking on with him. "Not until he learns to care about others around him." Hoseok retorted, "Excuse me, for your information, I do care about those around me. I care enough to keep all of you safe from the creatures that live in these very woods. Without me, none of you except Namjoon would be alive." Taehyung snapped back, getting in Hoseok's face. The two once again stared each other down, different colored auras surrounding their bodies. I rolled my eyes, feeling just as annoyed as Jin and everyone else was with the two of them constantly butting heads with one another. "Will you two cut it out?" I pushed in between the two of them, separating Hoseok from Taehyung. Both angels looked at me somewhat surprised that I had been the one to come between them, it seemed that they weren't the only ones surprised.

"Liz," Jimin softly spoke.

"No, I'm sick of the animosity that you both carry for one another." I looked at Taehyung and Hoseok, "The most important thing that we are trying to do is stop a crazy warlock who attacked my home, took my brother, attacked Namjoon's hometown and won't stop coming after me. He's never going to stop until he kills me. Right now, we need less arguing and fighting and more coming together as a team to get this done. You two and everyone else needs to learn to get along because when the time comes that we need to actually fight Him, we will need to work as a team. Not on our own." I walked away from the two of them and headed towards Namjoon, who was still looking at the map. Taehyung and Hoseok looked at one another, looking away and quieted their anger.

"Does the map show any way of getting out of the cave?"

"No, but I think I can help with that." Namjoon smiled.

"Help how?" Jin quirked an eyebrow at Namjoon, "You three might want to stand back a bit." Namjoon warned, Jungkook, Jimin and I collectively took a step back from Namjoon. He waved his hand over the map, which glowed a bright pink color and floated into the air. "Uh, Namjoon.. What are you doing?" Yoongi asked, "I'm checking to see if there was a previous spot on this map has been marked by another caster. It's possible that whoever had this map before it came into Elizabeth's possession could have ended up in this cave and magically marked a different location." Namjoon explained, his eyes stayed on the map. He let out a sigh when it seemed that he came up with nothing, "It doesn't look like anyone who had this map before marked a different location.. But I can check to see if this map has a route we can take to get out of the cave." He waved his hand again, the wind around us slightly picking up as the map began shine.

"Proegris." Namjoon said calmly, his brown eyes glowed blue for a moment. I watched as a blue dotted pathway appeared on the map, changing the layout slightly of the current area we were at on the map. The map stopped glowing and Namjoon's eyes stopped glowing and the map safely floated down, landing perfectly in Namjoon's hands. All of us stood quiet, taking in what Namjoon just did to the map. "Ah, there we go, looks like there is a way out of the cave on this map." Namjoon smiled, his dimples poking out as he looked up from the map.

"How?"

"What?" Jin leaned over Namjoon's shoulder and snatched the map out of his hands, startling Namjoon slightly. "Whoa," Jin shouted, making Jungkook and Yoongi grimace with how loud his voice was. "Jeez, Jin. Burst our eardrums why don't you?" Yoongi sucked his teeth, making me giggle as he glared at Jin, who only ignored him. "There really is a path on the map now showing us the way to get out of this cave!" Jin exclaimed, looking up at the rest of us in shock. "How did you do that?" Jungkook looked at Namjoon, his eyes shone bright with awe of Namjoon. Even Jimin was looking at Namjoon in awe, "I don't think I'll ever understand magic the way you do, Namjoon. That's incredible." I smiled at him, "The spell I used was actually something that i used to help my Dad when he made maps for adventurers and merchants. It's nothing really," He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, his dimples once again becoming pronounced. "Cute." I poked Namjoon's dimples, "Thanks, Joonie. If it wasn't for you making this happen then I fear we would have been stuck trying to explore the cave for a way out." I stood on my tippy toes and pecked Namjoon on the cheek, leaving him slightly stunned. I walked over to Jin, taking the map from him and looked at the path that was now visible to us. "Okay, let's get going." I started walking, leading the group ahead but I stopped when I heard nobody make a move. I turned back around, spotting their stunned faces and tilted my head in confusion. "Guys, are you coming or not?" I quirked an eyebrow at them, wondering why they were just standing there. "Right." Jimin snapped out of his trance and walked forward, the others following after him. I stayed in the lead, keeping my eyes on the path ahead of us and the map.

"She really just.." Taehyung trailed off, looking at Elizabeth's back. "Yeah, she did." Hoseok said, "She kissed my cheek." Namjoon smiled, Hoseok patted him on the shoulder. "You aren't the only one to receive a peck from her. She kissed my nose back in your hometown, bud." Hoseok walked forward, catching up with Jin and Jungkook. "Guys, don't fall behind. We can't afford to get separated in this cave." Yoongi called.