Savage

Warning for minor character death***

It was closer to sunrise than sunset by the time that Taemin made his way to his bed. He and the rest of his village had celebrated well into the night, in honor of his brother’s new betrothal. It was a harsh reminder that they both were of marital age, but it hadn’t taken away from the joy. It was with a satisfied feeling that he walked into his hut to prepare himself for bed. With only the soft murmurs of people cleaning up the necessary before heading for bed on the background, he to his side and drifted off.

A shrill scream was what jolted him awake. Within a second he stood beside his bed, his heart beating so hard it might want to escape. With long strides he made his way over to the exit of his hut to find out what was going on, but he didn’t even have the chance as his mother burst inside. Before he could even ask what was going on a purple flash took over his senses and all went dark.

The next time he regained consciousness he was overloaded by sensation. His body was simultaneously being shaken and flattened by a heavy weight. A loud rumble surrounded him, and whatever may be beyond his eyelids appeared to be relatively dark. As the resent events came back to him Taemin braced himself before carefully squinting through his eyes. What he saw made his stomach turn upside down. Only a few inches from his eyes hung the lifeless face of the one woman he had loved all his life, his mother. He had to bite down with all his strength in order to keep himself from screaming. Closing his eyes he struggled for any grain of self control. No matter what had happened, he knew that making noise would probably be a bad idea.

Instead he kept still and quiet, all the while becoming painfully aware of his surroundings. It was now that he realized that the uncomfortable surface below him, and the heavy weight above him were the bodies of his loved ones. A people had raided his village, and probably left no one alive. The only reason he was still there was because his mother had saved him by tricking the people into thinking he was already dead. Tears welled up in his eyes but with great struggle he kept them back, he didn’t want to let his mother’s work be for nothing.

The hours dragged on and he had started to notice the occasional conversation in a foreign language that sounded more like a series of grunts. Still, the way the grunts were exchanged made it clear for him that they were a form of conversation. It didn’t seem very casual, though. The exchanges remained short and seemed to be orders being given and received. Eventually a loud shout was heard and a few moments later the carriage Taemin was on came to a stop. They were probably making camp for the night.

Taemin listened as the group was setting up camp. The crackling of fire confirmed what Taemin had known, these people weren’t afraid to make their presence known. Whoever they were had managed to take down his mother along with many of their village’s strongest warriors. If Taemin wanted to make it out alive he would have to be sneaky. Fortunately he was known for being light on his feet. Still, he would have to wait until his captors went to sleep before he could make his escape, and so he waited.

Eventually the camp had quieted down to the extent that Taemin decided it was time to scout the situation. Careful to cause the minimal amount of movement in the pile he was in he slid himself to the edge of the carriage. There, he peeked over the side. What he saw was tens and tens of creatures, not human, but not animal either. They were laid out on sleeping mats, and as Taemin studied them he realized they looked a lot like a drawing he had seen in the early years of his training. They were the creatures known as orcs. A shiver went down his back. He had been taught by his teacher that orcs were a violence loving folk. Where humans would do their best to avoid confrontation, orcs seemed to thrive on it. And considering that they had taken the effort to take the bodies with them, they were most likely intended for sacrifice. Once again Taemin felt his stomach tie itself into strange knots, and he pressed his lips closed to keep himself from releasing whatever remained of the foods he had eaten many hours ago. When he finally managed to calm his stomach a new kind of determination took hold of him. He didn’t know how long the journey was to their altars, and he didn’t want to take any risks. He had to escape, and he better do it now.

Once again scanning his surroundings he noticed that there were few watchers and those that were still awake were looking away from the camp. Deciding that he wouldn’t get a better chance he slowly started to climb out of the carriage, quickly dropping down to the floor and rolling underneath it once his feet touched the ground. It was from his new vantage pointed that he concluded what would be his quickest route to safety. On the other side of the carriage there was only a short distance to the foliage, and most of the watchers on that side were either sleeping or focused on the paths. They weren’t likely to notice someone escaping rather than infiltrating their camp. After setting his course Taemin got up and made his way to the foliage while making his best effort to be both silent and swift. It was only when he was well amongst the trees without causing a reaction that he allowed himself to breath. That is when he started to run.

From the moment he started running he lost all sense of time. He didn’t know how long he had been running, and had no clue of how he kept going, but he simply didn’t care. All that was on his mind was to just go. There had to be as much distance between him and the orcs as he could achieve, and then some. Not a part of him ever considered to stop, the only thing that had him do so was an unfortunately placed tree root and the lack of strength to get up. It was only when he lay there, scrapes all over his body and his face against the ground that reality caught up. A sob wrecked through his body as he finally allowed himself to submit to the pain. All that had ever known was now gone, and he would never be able to return. It was while he was curled up, with the ground soaked in tears that his body finally allowed him to sleep.

-

“Taemin… Taemin, wake up…” The voice of his best friend was pulling him to wakefulness. Taemin didn’t understand why he was being woken up, he was exhausted and they hadn’t planned any training sessions this week. Taemin was tempted to just wave him off and turn over.

“Taemin, wake up. Please.” Suddenly the desperation in his friend’s voice registered in his mind and he lurched awake. His eyes spread open at the same moment that his stomach dropped, realization setting in. He wasn’t in his hut, he was in the middle of the forest, and everything he had learned to love had been destroyed the previous day. Before he even realized what happened his body lurched as he emptied the contents of his stomach was emptied on the floor beside him. He hadn’t eaten in a while, but the feeling was still horrid. As he was heaving with his body leaning on his arm a warm hand pressed against his back, reminding him that he wasn’t alone.

Once he felt as if he’d regained control of his body Taemin wiped off his mouth while turning to the one that sat beside him. There he saw the person who had woken him.
“Key?” It couldn’t be, he had been sure that everyone in his village had been murdered. He had lain under the proof for hours, without feeling any movement that would indicate life. Yet here he sat in front of him.
“Yeah, it’s me.” His voice sounded breathier than usual, but it was unmistakable. The man still looked the same, though worse for wear. With a bit of hesitation Taemin raised his hand, slowly moving it to the other’s face. The closer his hand was, the tenser he grew until it touched warm, soft skin. It really was Kibum.

With a flash Taemin launched himself onto the other, clinging onto him for dear life as sobs shook his body. A pair of strong arms wrapped around him as the chest shook in a way very similar to his own. Like that the two of them laid there for a long while, until the sobs had subsided and their breathing had returned back to normal. It’s then that they finally sat up and faced each other. Taemin knew what followed next, but first he had other things to see to if he wanted to last.
“I’m parched, do you have any water?” During the stress of the past day he had solely been focused on surviving, not at any point having time to think of his other basic needs. Now that the massive amounts of adrenaline had subsided he finally had the capability to focus on other things, and the fact that he hadn’t had a drink since he’d gone to bad that horrible night now became painfully clear. To his surprise Kibum actually nodded and got up, grabbing a water skin that lay a short distance from where they sat. As he handed the water skin to Taemin he started his explanation.

“I was at the river when they attacked. We were out of water and I figured that since I was one of few sober people left I would fetch water. I was about to return when I heard the first scream. I rushed back as fast I could, but once I reached the edge of the clearing… Well, there were so many of them, and there wasn’t a villager left standing. They were dragging bodies to a carriage. I was so scared, but I couldn’t think of anything to do, so I hid. I planned to check the huts when they were gone, but they had burned everything down to the ground. There was nothing left, so I headed for our neighbouring village. I didn’t dare take the paths though, so that’s how I ended up getting lost. I’m not sure where we are now, but it led me to you… So maybe the Gods had some pity on us.”

Taemin bit his lip as he listened to his friend. Even if he had wanted to, he couldn’t blame Kibum. He had seen how many Orcs there had been, they were well beyond their capabilities. Somewhere deep under his skin he felt some envy for the fact that Kibum had gotten a much easier ride than he, but it was only marginal compared to how grateful he was to be with him. After taking a deep breath he shared his story with the other man, seeing the other man’s eyes. It took him longer to tell what happened, considering it had been more complicated, and he needed several moments to recollect himself. But once he finished he could feel a sense of relief. As his friend once again embraced him he knew that nothing would undo what had happened. But at least they were together now. Together they would be able to process what happened and make the first steps in building a new life. Taemin didn’t know what their future would be like, but he knew that nothing in the world could make him leave the other man.

"Here, at the end of all things, I'm glad you're with me."

Author note: This story was based on the background story I had written for one of my Dungeons & Dragons characters. Somehow it ended up going really well with the prompt, so I reshaped it into Taekey story. The character that this is based on is a warlock by the way, that's what Taemin and Key had been training for.