Taking a deep breath, Howon plopped himself down onto the small bench in his grandfather's backyard and let it out slowly through pursed lips. He hadn't even wanted to come to the countryside, would rather have stayed in Seoul itself and pursued his dream of being a dancer, but when his mother's father grew too sick to care for himself, Howon knew he had no choice. Not in a bad way, either; he truly loved the older man and he would do anything for family, but it was hard to uproot everything and give up all his dreams just because his mother couldn't be bothered to care for her father. She would have sent him to a retirement home without a thought, selling his small country home and continuing on with her life if she had had her way.

And so he had willingly packed his belongings, albeit with a large dose of sadness, and moved in with the elderly man. The last couple of months had been worth it, in his opinion, to be able to spend time with his grandfather as he lived out his last few months in his own home instead of in a sterilized room somewhere. Yes, Howon thought, staring at the forest stretching out beyond the cultured lawn and small white fence - it was all worth it.

His grandfather was resting in the house then, and Howon took the time to enjoy a bit of peace to himself. The sun was falling in the sky with the onset of evening, casting the backyard into shadow. He knew he would need to go in before true dark fell and start on making dinner, but for the moment, he just let himself relax onto the old bench. His eyes fell closed and he leaned his head back onto the rest behind him, enjoying his time alone.

Then a twig snapped. His eyes popped open and his head came up, and he peered into the deepening shadows of the forest. He was certain that the noise had come from beyond the fence, out there in the wilds, but there was nothing there. "Hello?" he called softly, knowing all along that if he got an answer then he would be running for the house to call the police. No one was supposed to be out there at all; that was private property and trespassers were not welcome.

No answer came, except for another snap of a twig. He jumped up off of the bench and took several steps closer to the fence, his eyes narrowing as he tried to see if he could spot anything among the trees. There. Was that a glint of metal, shining out toward him from the trunks of the trees? With a glance back toward the house, his mind going to his sleeping grandfather, he hesitated. Should he really be wandering around in the forest? The noise was probably a cat...

Another twig snapped and before he could stop to think about it more, he stepped over the small fence and moved into the forest. Even as a small child he had been afraid to venture into the woods behind his grandfather's house, mostly because of the stories the old man would tell about dragons who would eat wayward little boys. Now, at twenty-four, he could no longer justify his fear of the forest and so with a gulp to swallow down the inexplicable fear, he moved deeper into the trees.

The metallic glint inexplicably seemed to draw further away the deeper he got into the forest, and he gave a sigh of resignation as he realized that he was going to have to give it up for th time being. He wasn't going to waste time chasing some flicker through the woods when it was falling dark. He turned to head back to the house, intent to put the whole adventure out of his mind, and promptly tripped.

He fell before he could catch himself, something that rarely happened to him. His hands scraped on small pebbles in the dirt and he gave a grunt of pain, accompanied by a quiet curse at himself for being so clumsy. He climbed back onto his feet and brushed the leaves off of his clothing gingerly before he turned his attention to the small cuts pebbled there. They weren't so bad... what had he tripped over, though?

He turned to find the offending object, and his eyes widened in disbelief as he watched the long tail slide across the ground out of his way and back behind the griffin standing before him. "Hi!" it chirped from it's eagle's beak, accompanied by a little wave with one taloned hand, and his eyes nearly popped out. He turned to run then, and instead of tripping, this time he ran into something. Or, someone. He bounced off of a solid object and fell to land on his rump, his breath whooshing out of him at the impact. 

The first thing he noticed was the feet on the g