COUNTDOWN: 4 DAYS TO FULL MOON #2

D.O. popped his head in the living room where several of his fellow pack members were piled on the couches, “Dare I ask where Kita is?”

                His answer came from Chen’s muffled voice that peeped out from underneath Chanyeol and Suho, “Where she always is.”

                D.O. sighed, “And Kris?”

                “With Kita.”

                Nodding, he headed to the basement. He’d kept note of those who’d shown up for breakfast, and then again for dinner, and Kita and Kris had been missing from both. Tip-toing carefully down the wooden stairs, D.O. was met with the same sight as every other time he had to come fetch them. Kris was sat cross-legged on the couch, brow furrowed in concentration and a heavy leather bound book open on his thighs. On the ground below him, Kita kneeled with a pad of paper and a pen in her hand. In her typical fashion, the notes were a set of messy scribbles that she swore she understood, and her face had smears of ink from where she’d swept her hands.

                D.O. stayed back by the wall for a moment, observing the two. The dynamic between them had changed drastically ever since Kita had gotten the library open. Before, Kris was a stern alpha, protecting his pack from the unknown Fey among them. Now, however, they were united in uncovering the hidden secrets of the Fey.

                “Why do we even need this chapter?” Kris groaned, “it’s so much more complicated than the others. Seriously, this book is ancient.”

                “You don’t think it’ll be useful to understand how magic actually works?”

                “Surely we can find that from something that’s not a spellbook.”

                “Just keep reading!”

                D.O. chuckled, with Kris no longer an antagonist against her, Kita’s final adversary was gone and she had quickly lost her final shreds of nervousness.

                Kris sighed, rolling his eyes at her. “Alright, where were we?”

                Kita looked down at her notepad, “You just started the paragraph, The frost in pieces shall set ice aflame…”

                “Right, then I stopped because none of this makes any sense whatsoever.” He trailed his finger down the page, narrowing his eyes as he deciphered the ancient Fey writings, “When night is … no wait… when darkness is… something, just leave a blank there I’ll come back to it. When darkness is blank, and a leaf is broken, no, splintered. Sorry, a leaf is splintered. This dialogue is so specific!”

                “Just do your best, you’re doing better than I ever could.”

                “Read the sentence back to me?”

                “The frost in pieces shall set ice aflame. When darkness is blank, and a leaf is splintered...”

                “mmm… and then…the chair, no, stool, no, seat, the seat of the moon is high.”

                “That’s it?”

                “That’s it. Hang on, let me just go back and see that word again…. When the darkness is…. It’s something like soon, or yonder, or upon you, something like that.”  

                Kita mumbled the words under her breath, then, “this makes no sense. Ok, I agree, let’s move to an easier book.” Kris moved quickly, obviously wanting to get a new book before Kita changed her mind. D.O chose this moment to clear his throat, startling the two study-birds.

                “You missed dinner.”

                “Again? Sorry D.O., I guess we just got caught up… again…”

                He smiled softly at her, “It’s ok, these things happen, did you want me to plate something up for you and bring it down here or…?”

                “That’d be great actually.” Kris said, emerging from the library with a new, significantly thinner book in his hand, “How does beginner magic sound?”

                D.O. shook his head, walking back up the stairs to plate up some food for them. They were already eagerly discussing the book. Kris had become a lot more open minded about the use of magic ever since Kita had directed his to make the mark on the door. Now that it was proven that he himself had magic he wanted to learn how to control it at all costs.

                In the corner, D.O. had to marvel at their dedication. If it took this long to get through a single sentence… His eyes roved over to the library where countless stacks of books sat waiting to be read. 

Kai had been locked in his bedroom all day with a cold. When he first noticed it he'd run to Kita, alarming his pack with his urgency, but this was apparently not a magic induced sickness. Kita couldn't do anything about it, and so he'd been confined to quarantine until he got better. When he finally felt better, or at least better enough for his head not to be spinning when he tried to stand, he wrapped his blanket around himself and made his way downstairs. 

D.O., at least, seemed concerned. The others were a little less inviting and despite his protests that he was better, they shoo'd him away, corralling him back to his bedroom to make sure he rested. But his bedroom was just so boring, so after another half hour when he figured everyone would have forgotten about him, he snuck back downstairs and crept past his pack this time, sneaking quietly into the basement. 

"Heat is fast, magic must run quickly. Cold is slow, and magic must reflect. Fire is friction, elevation of heat. Ice is immobile, the rejection of life."

"Well that got dark pretty quickly."

"Got any idea what it means?"

"Most of it, it seems to be telling how to control the rate of magic in order to cast certain types of magic... But I've got no clue about that rejection of life stuff..."

Kai's ears perked at the conversation. Kris and Kita had been down here for days, pouring over spellbooks, and at the beginning he'd sat with them. Then he'd had a bad feeling in his gut that usually preceded something attacking the border, but nothing had come of it and the pack had blamed it on his sickness. 

He skirted the pile of dirty dishes and plopped himself down on the carpet next to Kita. She nudged him with her arm in greeting, but continued talking to Kris. 

"So you think this ice stuff has something to do with the frost stuff from the other book?"

"I don't wanna talk about that book. Even thinking about it gives me a headache."

Kita chuckled, writing a note on the paper on her thighs. Kai peeked over, resting his chin on her shoulder as his eyes skimmed the ink. Most of it was in her messy scrawling font, he could understand most of the parts that were legible but there were some curving lines that he had no idea. He pointed at one of them, "Is that...?"

Kita grinned, "Fey language. Some of the parts are difficult to translate, it's easier going from one Fey dialect to another. Sometimes Kris is just on a roll and he goes faster, it's easier for me to copy when I'm not remembering how to write another language."

Kai nodded, realising for the first time that Kita's first language was her own, another stark difference between them that he hadn't known before. "Is it difficult?" He asked. 

She shrugged, "if you don't already know it, I guess."

"Reading it's not too bad." Kris said from the couch, his voice heavy, "it's understanding it that's the problem. Ancient fey seemed to think that speaking in riddles would be a fine way to record their history. We spend 10 minutes translating a paragraph and then an hour trying to understand it!"

Kita nodded in agreement, "they're still kind of like that, if I'm going to be honest. It’s a little frustrating at times."

Kris sighed, a breath that turned into a gaping yawn. "Well I'm going off to sleep, you should too Kita, well try and finish this book tomorrow." Carefully placing a bookmark in it, he closed the book and placed it on the small table beside him. Bidding them goodnight, he took the stairs two at a time leaving the basement silent. 

"Haven't seen Kris that tired in a while." Kai remarked. 

"He's working really hard, it can't be easy to translate the older dialect. Do you know how he knows it, by the way?"

Kai shook his head, readjusting himself to sit up on the couch and pulling Kita up with him. 

"You seem better." She said, smiling a little as she remembered his frantic eyes that morning. Kai blushed a little at the memory. "Do you get sick often?"

He shrugged, "not really. More than the others, I guess. But only since I stopped turning. My sister's worse though."

Kita turned her body full towards him, "you have a sister?"

"Two. Both older."

"Two sisters? Wow, where are they?"

"Probably still at home with my parents, girls don't leave the home pack as early as boys do."

"How old were you when you left?"

"13?"

Kai had been all on his own since he was 13? "Were you all like that?"

Kai shook his head, "Chen left home really late, he was 18."

Kita shook her head, sitting back down to lean against Kai, "I can't even picture it, little baby Kai with two big sisters."

He chuckled, his body rumbling, "technically it was baby Jongin." She looked at him again, obviously confused, so he continued. "Some of us like to separate between our human selves and our wolf selves. Kai is my wolf name, Jongin is the name I was born with."

"What? How does that work then? Call you Kai on full moons?"

"Nah, you're given the option to take a new name the first time you change, since you're a completely new person by morning."

Kita pondered this, "are your sisters both wolves as well?"

"Yup, a whole family of us."

"Really?" Now she was shocked.

"Yeah, but that's rare, it's because my parents are both wolves. Usually wolves are attracted to non-wolves, so then there's way less chance if having baby wolves."

She lapsed into silence, only now realising how close the two of them were. Her head was still lounging on his shoulder, her arm pressed right against his, her legs were curled up on the couch with her knee brushing his thigh. At each point she could feel the buzzing current of his magic as it flowed into her, and realised that now there was no shocking sensation when she touched Kai as there used to be, but more of a gentle warmth. 

"Aren't you going to sleep soon?" Kai asked, looking at her dropping eyelids. 

She yawned, "I should, but it's so far."

"Want me to carry you?"

"Don't you dare."

A comfortable silence settled over them, Kai’s eyes wandering over to the stack of books Kris and Kita had been working on.

“You think you’ll actually be able to cast any of these spells then?” Kai asked, feeling Kita shrug against him.

“Maybe, on a full moon?”

“And… and you won’t hurt yourself again?” Luhan had told him how badly Kita was affected by opening the door, and Kai was almost glad that he’d been locked in his room just so he didn’t have to see her in that much pain.

“Probably not, that was just because I don’t have enough control yet, my magic just went wherever it wanted.”

“I’ll help you.” Kai said resolutely, “I’ll learn with you.”

Kita laughed, patting his arm, “if you say so.”

Eventually, Kita had dragged herself off to bed, and Kai was alone in the basement with only the uncomfortable feeling in his gut for company. Chen and Xiumin had done a patrol earlier, apparently there was nothing out there but Kai still couldn’t shake the uneasiness. Standing, he took the stairs two at a time and strode to the front door, gripping the cold handle in his warm hand.

“Where you going?”

Kai whisked around, how could he have not noticed Sehun? The tall wolf was leaning against the kitchen door, a packet of cookies from Chanyeol’s high cupboard stuffed in his pockets and a bread knife in his hand.

“Nowhere.”

“Right, I really believe that. You’re doing a patrol aren’t you? We told you, we didn’t find anything along any of our borders.”

“I just need to do a check, just for myself. I’ll be back soon.”

“Like I’m letting you go out by yourself. In this state of mind you’ll be lucky if you don’t get lost.” Sehun walked past him, breezing out of the door and not waiting for Kai as he began to head towards the patrol line. “Come on Grandma, I’m not waiting all day.”

Kai chuckled, jogging after Sehun.

Kai led the way, following the feeling in his gut telling him he was going the right way, but was still far off. Sehun walked beside him, hands in his pocket, smirk on his lips, and eyes that kept sliding over to him as if laughing at a hidden secret.

“What?” Kai asked, not appreciating the attention.

“Nothing, just…” his smirk grew, “you and Kita huh?”

“What? There’s – , no – , we – , I – ,”

“Mhmmm. Come on man, just admit it! You like her!”

“I do not!”

“The last time you were this cuddly with anyone was when D.O. had been cooking all day and went to bed smelling like chicken. You’re never apart from her!”

“Just because she knows about magic!”

“You keep telling yourself that.” Sehun was grinning now, as if he’d proven his point, and Kai was furiously trying to tell his warm cheeks to calm down. “All I’m saying is that I’d better be godfather.”

Kai threw a pinecone at him, Sehun only laughed but finally shut up.

“We’re close.” Kai murmured.

“Close to what? We left our patrol lines fifteen minutes back, this is beyond our territory.”

Kai just shushed him, and with a roll of his eyes Sehun concealed himself behind a tree. The wind picked up, changing directions, and this is when Sehun focused. That smell, that rotting putrid smell…

“We need to get the pack!” He whisper-yelled to Kai.

“There’s no time! There’s only one, we can take it.”

Sehun nodded, swallowing to try and ignore the smell. He hated ghouls. Hated them. The way they looked like the last person they ate, it was just disgusting all over. Kai knew his partner hated them, but knew that everything would be put aside for the fight. Breathing deeply, he matched his breaths with Sehun’s, the two of them breathing as one, prepping for the battle ahead. There were almost never occasions when they fought without the rest of the pack, but he’d fought alone with Sehun once before.

As the ghoul walked within range he launched himself at it, tackling it to the ground and feeling Sehun rush after him, restricting the ghoul’s movement enough that after only a few moments, the thing was completely pinned on the ground. Sehun pulled the bread knife out of his belt and held it steady, waiting for Kai’s word.

Kai motioned for him to wait one second, and looked at the ghoul, “why are you by yourself?”

The ghoul leaned up, pressing its neck against Sehun’s knife, but to Sehun’s credit he didn’t flinch and the knife stayed steady. “The rest are coming, more than you can imagine. Don’t think you’ll be able to hide her forever.” And then his body jerked upwards as he himself on the knife. Sehun pulled his hand back in instinct, but the knife stayed standing in the things throat, the blood bubbling around the insertion point as the ghoul laughed. Kai gripped the knife handle and yanked it down, separating the head from the body and putting an end to the gurgling laughter.

Manoeuvring around the corpse, Sehun gripped one of the dead ghouls arms, preparing to drag it.

“What are you doing?” Kai asked.

“Last I checked Chanyeol was the only one who carried matches on him, so unless we want someone else stumbling on this nice fresh corpse, we’ve got to take it with us until we can burn it.”

Kai nodded, grabbing the hair of the severed head in one hand and its right arm in his other, and began dragging the body home with Sehun. His thoughts however, were not on this gruesome task, they were on the ghouls last words. It was coming for ‘her’, and the only possible explanation was that it meant Kita.

And that realisation sent his ribs tightening, a sensation that mirrored itself in a Fey girl who was slowly blinking her eyes open, wondering what her magic could be reacting to.  

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So i'm going away for a month so there won't be any updates on any of my fics until then! :( 

But I just wanted to get this chapter up before I left, I hope it'll be enough to tie you over until I get back. Enjoy!