Wonsik knew he was a heavy sleeper and nothing could wake him up when he was sleeping.

Except when he had to go do his business.

He drank too much green tea and he regretted that decision. Not because he lose his precious minutes of sleep, it was because he had to face an angry mob.

When he was at the bushes, he heard a rustling noise and in the darkness, he caught sight of Hongbin leaving the camp. He called out to him but there was no response so Wonsik followed him from behind. They walked some distance until suddenly Hongbin stopped.

He looked around with confusion and Wonsik thought he was just sleep-walking until another person came out from the bushes.

“ Hello, kid. Enjoying your time away from your master, huh?”, a man said with a scowl.

Wonsik let out a silent gasp. It was the hunter, the one who got a grudge on the Alpha. Behind him were a group of other hunters, some he had never seen before. They made a loose circle around Hongbin and the head hunter.

“ How do I get here?”Hongbin asked, Wonsik saw his hands were shaking, his eyes were wide with fright.

The hunter just waved his hands and Hongbin dropped to his knees, his hands on the choker. The choker was glowing purple and Wonsik noticed the same colour was emitted by the hunter’s ring.

“A little toy I got from your first mistress before I burn down her house and you forgot to call me, Master, boy. I’m the one who asks the questions. Now, who are you with?”

“ No one, Master”, Hongbin slowly replied before receiving a punch from the hunter.

“ Don’t lie to me. I see that your bruises are gone. Must be a work of fairies or something. Come on, Hongbin, tell me. You are absent for a while and you can put off your punishment if you make your master happy, eh?”, the hunter went towards Hongbin and cupped his chin roughly.

“ He’s going to tell”, Wonsik thought, him readying for a run.

“ I travel with a group of pixies but they figured out that I’m useless to them so they left me”, Hongbin said with a soft tone. “ I was on my way to return to you master but I was tired so I went to sleep under a tree until you summoned me, Master”.

The hunter smiled and let go of Hongbin. Suddenly, he put his hand down and the action caused Hongbin to fall flat on the ground.

“ There’s only one truth coming from that layers of lies. You are useless, good you realise that, kid. Now I don’t like people lying to me so before I do something worse, you better tell me what you know about the woods”.

“ The wood is a terrible place and I understand why Master don’t like it”, Hongbin said, this time in a monotone voice.

“ Man, I know you are useless but I forgot you are stupid too. You are not really lying but you don’t answer my question. So you want to do this the hard way, eh?”, the hunter released his invinsible grip on Hongbin causing him to quickly stand straight. Then, he circled Hongbin with a malicious smirk on his scarred face.

“ Let me remind you who you are. You are a son of a woman who can’t get her act together after your father left. She then owed a rich lady some money and she could not pay it back because she used it to pay for other debts. The lady was furious and she wanted something precious from your mother so she asked for one of your sisters”.

The hunter chuckled. “  Then, suddenly a boy volunteered to take his sister’s place, thinking he could be a hero. The lady agreed anyway because in her eyes, the boy held something that could help her break him. So she become your first mistress. She like owning people so she opened an exclusive slave trading. But among the slaves, the boy was her favourite. She put a deal with other buyers that they had to return him after a few months so she can play with her favourite doll again”.

“ Until I bought him. Now, the boy was stupid and doesn’t listen to orders well enough. I found out about his sisters and used it for my leverage. But the boy disappeared. It’s fair to punish him if he returns right? So I met up with the first mistress. She was creating some magic-infused device that control any slaves that wear that choker. I wanted it. She won’t give it. So I killed her and burned her house to the ground. When I checked back, I found two necklaces from the wreckage and I think you must know who were the owner was”, the hunter threw down two simple bead necklaces in front of Hongbin.

Hongbin’s eyes widened when he saw it and his frail form was now shaking uncontrollaby.

“Noona”, he only muttered one word before he let out a long sorrowful wail of dispair that sent goosebumps on Wonsik’s skin. When he finished, he dropped to his knees with powerful sobs shaking his body. The hunter leaned down with  a sadistic smile.

“ You want to know something? I knew that your sisters offered themselves to the lady, in hopes to make contact with you. They worked as her servants in return for meeting you. Too bad they were in the house when the fire started”, the hunter was grinning widely, seemingly to enjoy the sound of Hongbin’s cries.

After a few minutes, the sobs died down and Hongbin was staring wordlessly at the ground. The hunter then clicked his fingers, the ring  and the choker glowed a bright purple and its light engulfed Hongbin for a few seconds before it disappeared... with Hongbin too.

“ Where’s the boy?”, Wonsik heard the hunter growled but he ignored as he ran with Hongbin on his back. He need to get him away from the monster. When he thought they were far enough, he stopped and checked on Hongbin.

He was unconscious, his breathing ragged. Wonsik looked around the area, hoping to find some helpful herbs that Ilhoon the elf had taught him to find during emergencies.

He could not find it because he got knocked out from behind. Before he passed out, he saw Hongbin holding a large stick, his eyes were glowing purple.

Wonsik woke up to the sound of people shouting and bickering. He opened his eyes to see he was in a cloth-covered cage with chains on his wrists, ankles and neck. He struggled to move into a better position but to no avail.

“ Ladies and gentlemen of this peaceful village, I understand your plight. The sudden disappearence of two children started this abduction of other children of this innocent village. But I have a lot of questions. Why there was no action issued from the head villager? Why could he not take this problem seriously from the start? His only son was missing yet he did not organise a search party to find him and Mr. Han’s only family, his beloved son, Han Sanghyuk”.

“ Yeah, my dear Sanghyuk is missing and no one did anything to find him”, a voice from the crowd shouted with anger and others seemed to pick up on his mood.

The hunter continued.

“ Now, we had more children missing. They were gone without a trace and the obvious place to search them is the forbidden woods. Still, your leader kept his stand on keeping you away from searching your beloved children in the woods. They must be trapped or hurt and obviously scared with no food and drinks and they were hoping for someone to save them. But, you guys did nothing but follow your leader who does not even tell you the truth”.

Wonsik heard some people gasped but he could not blame them from believing the hunter. He managed to arouse their concerns and worries with his sympathetic tone yet he managed to divert the blame to the head villager.

“ In the woods, there are creatures. But not just ordinary creatures like deer and rabbits. There were supernatural ones like terrible werewolves and trickster elves. I gurantee that any of those monsters were holding your child as prisoners, forced to do who knows what. I know some of you are laughing at me but I have been travelling wide and far and I see what I see. You see these men around this hall. They had followed me on my adventures of travelling  and they will vouch for me”, Wonsik heard  footsteps were coming nearer to the cage.

“ In this cage was one of the said creatures and I will show you so you can see with your own eyes”.

The cloth was lifted and Wonsik had to squint against the sudden brightness. He heard exclaims of surprise and even anger but from the whispers  he heard, they did not seem to believe the hunter.

Still, Wonsik could not stand to look so vulnerable in front of a large group of angry humans but he knew that pretending to be weak would at least botched whatever the hunter was planning.

“ Oh, I know he is a boy but looks can be decieving. So, I have in my hand a dart filled with a  concotion that if taken will cause great pain. Why do I need this? Werewolves shifted from human into a wolf when they are in terrible pain as a boost of strength to defend themselves. But it only lasted for a short time before they shift back”, the hunter explained, giving Wonsik an evil side-look before shooting the dart at him.

Wonsik felt a sting on his arm and seconds later, he felt whatever that got into his body was burning him alive. His vein felt like it was poured with lava and coursed throughout his body. His body was wet from too  much sweat and his breathing  was constricted.

 He tried to ignore the pain to avoid shifting into a wolf but soon it was too much for him to handle. He screamed in pain, hoping someone to stop it  but no one comes to save him. Now he understood how Hongbin felt when he did not save him from the mudslide.

”But remember Wonsik. Sometimes the things you did can come back to you”,  he remembered his father said that before he left the room.

His screams now turned into growls and his clenched fists transformed into paws with claws. He slammed against the cage, the wolf inside him was furious of being trapped.

When he was fully transformed, he howled in anger and slammed and slashed against the cage repeatedly. He did not care if the spectators were afraid of him, he just wanted to get out of there.

But his burst of energy ran out and Wonsik found himself turning back into a human. He still felt the throbbing pain but it was less intense than just now. He slumped against the cold bars of the cage, feeling so exhausted.

“ So, now you see, smart people of the village how violent can this seemingly innocent boy can be. Now you see what you are dealing with yet your leader kept it a secret from you. Don’t you have the right to know about this threat? I suggest that we conduct a search party during the day since it’s safer and search for any clues of the missing children. If we find any of these creatures, then we kill it so we can ensure the safety of the future generation. After this, my men would collect the names for the search party and distributed the weapons needed. Don’t worry, from our years of travel, we had gain considerate amount of experience for this matter”, the hunter ended his speech, leaving the villagers noisily discussing it among themselves.

Then, the door of the halls bursted open, revealing a cold-looking boy whose stare silenced the people in the hall. He walked to the front, the villagers gave way for him with surprised looks on his face.

“ Taekwoon!! Oh, you are safe. Are you okay? Are you injured anywhere?”, a woman exclaimed and hugged Taekwoon. They hugged for a while before Taekwoon let go of his mother and walked on the stage. Then he pointed to a man who was at the front beside his mother.

“ My father had made a mistake”, Taekwoon said simply, causing an uproar from the crowd. He put up his hand and they all went silent.

“ As a leader, he failed. Because of his decision, I had to watch Sanghyuk died in front of my eyes in the hands of that wolf and his fellow monsters and I have to starve myself so I don’t stop running from them”, now Taekwoon was pointing at him who was very confused. Clearly, there was something going on but Wonsik kept quiet, not wanting to ruin Taekwoon’s act.

“ So I urged villagers to think about it before signing up for the search party. It will be dangerous but I knew you will do anything for your children. So I propose myself to be co-leader with..”, he glanced at the hunter.

“ Lee Jeowook”, the hunter introduced himself with suspicion in his eyes.

“ with Lee Jeowook so I can help to do what my father refused to do. As for him, I want to put him on house arrest so he can learn from his mistake as a leader”, this caused another uproar. Taekwoon just waited silently until they stopped.

“ You don’t trust my father anymore so you need a new leader. Jeowook may be a suitable candidate but the head villager must be someone from this village itself. And I expected Jeowook to help with the security of this village so no harm will befall on me and the villagers. Who knows when they are going to attack? Is it agreeable to you, Jeowook?”, Taekwoon sent a cold look at Jeowook.

“ Yes, I agree”, Jeowook grunted his answer.

“ As for the werewolf, I...”, Taekwoon made his way to the cage.

“ I want him to be excecuted tomorrow morning”.

Wonsik widened his eyes, not believing what he had just heard.

Taekwoon leaned forward and slammed the cage.

“ He had murdered an innocent in front of my eyes, I won’t let him live another day”, Taekwoon  retreated and walked to the exit.

“ Get him out of my sight”, he added before leaving.

Wonsik’s cage was moved away but he heard a faint rattlle at the base of his cage.

It was small flat gold stone with a picture of a black cat on it. Behind it was a message.

“ Stay put”.

 Wonsik let out a small smile, holding the stone tight.