scarlet heart | exo

Back in Time

The exhibit was beautiful.

It was... Enticing.

Gorgeous...

Onyx Zhao swished her hair away from her eyes and smiled.

She was pretty, too. Most of the other guys in the museum was staring at her like she was the one being exhibited, actually. But she paid them no heed.

Of course, the guys were not staring for no reason. Her ebony hair shone in the dim light of the museum, falling just slightly above her waist. Her eyes were darker than obsidian, and they glittered, and yet they were so warm that you could lose yourself in them. She was thin, well proportioned and well... Beautiful.

"Jade hairpin in the shape of a magnolia flower." She read the description. "A gift, from the Fourth Prince, the soon-to-be Emperor Yongzheng, to his beloved wife, the soon-to-be Empress Xiaojingxian." The jade was intricately carved into the shape of a magnolia flower, on a golden hair pin. Admiring it for a few seconds, she went on to look at the hand embroidered clothes of China's Qing dynasty.

Onyx is an athlete. A very very well known athlete. She does the modern day Penthalon, which requires her to be good at horse-riding, fencing, shooting, swimming and running. So she didn't usually have a lot of time to spare. But when she did, she would spend them at museums.

Somehow, the past held a great, great attraction for her. Her mother had always joked that she was born with a hundred year old mind, since she had been interested in history ever since she was little. Because of her fascination with horses, bows and arrows instead of cars, guns and the like, she had decided to become a Penthalon athlete.

Onyx loves the past.

Actually, Onyx is the name she uses for competitions, since her Chinese name is hard to pronounce by foreigners who dominated the Penthalons. Not that she hasn't been winning, just that old injuries tend to hinder her movements sometimes and she can't do things as well as some of the foreigners can. She always places in second or third though, so it isn't much of a worry for her, at least.

Xuefeng is her real name. Snow Phoenix.

So she came to the next exhibition.

This was a curious, round shaped item that had somehow escaped the friction of time. There were small gems on the relic. It almost looked like some kind of witch's circle, but there were chinese characters of "Time", "Seconds", "Minutes", "Hours", "Years" engraved on each of the small gemstones.

Onyx stepped closer.

It was strange... No one else seemed to have noticed this relic. She touched the description board, which was empty.

Weird.

A flash of lightning broke her out of her thoughts. The museum's large window reflected the light into the relic, which started shining. Shining. Shining. She saw her reflection in the black gemstone, and she was... She was just Onyx. Black hoodie, worn out jeans, tattered converse sneakers and an old leather bag slung over one shoulder.

The lightning flashed again, and the gemstone suddenly turned larger.

The glass window melted away like it was air.

Onyx took a step back, and somehow, she couldn't move.

And her reflection changed.

Her hair was longer. And piled up into a bun on her forehead. Her fingers were adorned with Jade rings, and beautiful crystal bracelets climbed up her hands. And instead of the simple, modern wear, she was dressed in the ancient robes that she had been admiring mere moments earlier.

Her bag disappeared.

And then the cluttered din reached her ears.

It was loud. Ridiculously loud. Almost like it was a market place filled with chickes and horses and ancient people...

SQUAWK.

A chicken ran to her ankles and clucked at her feet.

Onyx jumped.

Her reflection moved with her, and she glanced up.

"Oh my god..." She gasped. "Oh. My. God."

It was no longer the relic that she was looking into at the museum.

It was a small bronze mirror, held by a young merchant.

"Miss, would you like to buy this?"

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