“Where am I?”

He had this habit of asking this question everytime he wakes up and he always has different answers.

“Where am I?”

“ I’m in my bed, my sisters are waking me up for breakfast”.

“Where am I?”

“ In the basement, the mistress is coming to me with a whip in hand”.

“Where am I?”

“ On the ground, outside the master’s tent”.

“Where am I?”

“ I don’t know”, he mumbled when he tentatively opened his eyes to find himself in a room. He was lying on something soft. “A bed , he thought before chuckling to himself. He had never sleep on a bed since he ... since he...

“ Since I left the house. That’s it”, he reminded himself, controlling himself from retrieving the unwanted memories which came with his leaving.

He looked around, noting the huge cupboard which held numerous weird-looking objects and a row of books sitting on the top shelf.

The moonlight entering the room via window shone on a disorganised desk, scattered papers and drawings covering it.

Even though he was at an unknown place, he felt safe and that worried him.

Everytime he feels safe, someone would come and happily dragged him away, crushing his hopes which he believed was gone entirely.

It happens everytime so why could this be any different?

The sound of the door creaking caused his senses to be on high alert. If it is his master of his mistress, he would immediately lower his gaze to the ground but if it is a stranger, he would show them that they could not do anything to him.

His eyes widen which was the same way the familiar and innocent-looking boy was looking at him too.

They both did not say anything, the boy was looking back and forth at him and over his shoulders as if deciding to stay or not.

He took a deep breath, trying to assure himself that the person in front of him could not harm him (yet) when a sudden realisastion hit him.

He could not move his hands and feet but the problem was there’s nothing to restrain him.

That set him off. He was so used to chains and leather cuffs that he freaked out by something he could not see and that was enough to scare him.

He screamed and shouted and the boy at the door quickly rushed towards him, saying words he could not comprehend.

But the tone was soothing, which brought back a hazy memory of his mother singing and he calmed down before the more comforatable darkness engulfed his sight.

The next time he woke up, he knew his answer.

“Where am I?”

“ I’m in an unknown room and there’s one nice person here”.

“ Hi, you wake up already”, a friendly voice caused him to jump, noticing the invisible restraint on his hands and feet were still there.

Sitting on a chair beside him was not the boy from before. He was smiling, the sunlight made him looked like he was radiating joy which Hongbin thought was impossible to do.

The smiley guy slowly put a tray on his lap, the smell of the porridge in a bowl served on the tray caused his stomach to growl loudly much to his embarassment.

The guy just laughed with amusement but he said nothing.

From his years of experience, when people gives him food, eat it and just receive whatever they are going to do with him later.

But to his surprise, the smiley guy just smiled and put away the tray , more like clicked his fingers and the tray flew away. He gasped but he took a deep breath, trying to not freak out. His hunts with the master revealed that there are something more in this world and that included magic.

Now, he felt ridiculous for screaming over some magical, invisible restraints.

“ Are you okay? I hope my healing magic did the trick. You had a lot of injuries and I am worried that there may be some side effects from using that unicorn’s horn concotion”.

“ A sorcerer”, Hongbin thought. “ The master can sell him for 50 blocks of gold”. He quickly shook his head, knowing that it was a cruel thing to think of since the sorceror had just feed and healed him.

“ It’s ok if you don’t want to talk but if Wonsik comes to you, you better have some answers. Hakyeon and him had been bickering about what to do with you. Poor Taekwoon and Sanghyuk. We could have leave for their village yesterday but they had to wait here for a moment. Oh, my name is Jaehwan”, his talk stopped when the door opened, revealing the boy who had comforted him before.

The sunlight made it easier for him to recognise the boy.

“ Oh this is Sanghyuk. You gave him a quite a scare last night but somehow he managed to calm you down”.

“ You are from the village. You and the other boy with the ball”, he blurted out, the memory from days before were coming back to him and he realised it was not pretty.

Flashback

" B..but, Sir, aren't they the kids from the village?", he asked only to earn a slap.

" Watch your place, kid. Of course, they are not. What type of kid will be hanging out with that creature? Anyway, if they are from the village, we can't let them blab about our hunting here. Our cover as a travelling group will be exposed and the head villager will punish us for illegally entering the woods".

Then things happened so fast. The huge wolf howled and the two kids disappeared.

The wolf moved in a blur. A few seconds later, all the hunters were on the ground, injured but not dead except for the leader who was his master who was still standing, his gun was out of bullets.

“ Hongbin!! Come help me or your sisters are dead!!!”, his master shouted before he was pounced on by the wolf.

He had no choice. He watched in horror as his own knife left a huge cut on the wolf’s hind leg and it was enough for his master to escape.

“ Hahaha, look at the mighty Alpha!! Bested by a boy with a knife. Don’t worry. I’ll be the one to kill you for what you had did to me years ago!!!”, he was cut short when the wolf swiped at his feet, causing his master to fall to the ground hard, leaving him to face the wolf.

The wolf slowly limped towards him, Hongbin’s own legs was frozen on the spot, thniking he would be killed.

The wolf let out a howl and it left. It left him alone and disappeared to the darkness of the woods.

Suddenly, a boy with an angry face appeared out of nowhere yanked his hands and dragged him to somewhere unknown. His grip was so strong that he could not escape.

“ Why in the whole wide world did the Alpha asked me to save you?! You hurt him and then he told me to get you to safety?? What so special about you anyway?”, the boy ranted on when suddenly a mudslide hit them, causing the stranger to let go of his hands.

He was carried away with the mud, the other boy did not make an effort to safe him.

He woke up dazed and disoriented, walking with no direction. He was starving, his body ached and he was angry.

At his father who left him, at the mistress for forcing him to leave his home, at all of his previous masters for making his whole life a living hell, at his current master who could harm his sisters anytime and at the boy who left him to die.

They were all monsters to him and he wished they could just die.

At least he could get back at the boy if he finds him. He was truly excited when he did found him.

“ Tell me again, why we are bringing him to the village?”, the boy he loathed so much, Wonsik asked.

“ You hear what Taekwoon said. He said that Hongbin can help bring down the hunters. He is an important witness. Unless you want to bring him back to the settlement and get more trouble with Alpha since you disobeyed his orders”, the tanned boy , who from  what Jaehwan told him, was Hakyeon.

Wonsik just grunted and kept walking forward.

Hongbin was still restrained at his hands and he had Jaehwan and Hakyeon walking beside him to prevent him from escaping. In the middle was Sanghyuk and Taekwoon. He knew for certain that they were from the village but something about Taekwoon kept bothering him. It was something he should remember.

He agreed to follow them because he knew he had no choice in the matter, as usual. But as they continued walking, he felt something was off.

“ Umm, is this the Old Witch’s road?”, Hakyeon asked nervously, his non-stop chattering with Jaehwan had stopped.

“ Well according to the crystal, we are at the right place”, Wonsik answered before continuing to walk.

“ Wait!! Wonsik!! Wait!!!”, Jaehwan shouted before he unexpectedly dropped to the ground, his face pale and and breathing ragged.

Hongbin began to feel dizzy and through his blurred gaze, he watched everyone fainted  before his own legs suddenly lost the ability to stand.

It’s deja vu when the familiar darkness began to cover his sight. But this time, he briefly saw a huge looming figure above him before the world turned completely dark.