Previously on Black Gold:

Seohyun: We’re lost in a forest with monsters crawling around every corner. We’ve been out here for days now and no one’s come looking for us! Our professors and classmates are probably dead and you guys aren’t taking this seriously!

Hyoyeon: Who put a stick up your ?!

Tiffany: (…The sooner we get back, the better.)

Taeyeon: (Please. I can’t stand anymore ing…)

//

Tiffany: Y-you make it look so easy. Does it not…bother you?

Hyoyeon: Does what bother me?

Tiffany: Killing people.

Hyoyeon: These are not people. They’re monsters.

Tiffany: I...I used to have lunch with Soyou from time to time.

Hyoyeon: And that Soyou is not the same one that you took out.

//

Jessica: Ta-taeyeon, she uh…she kind of confessed to me the other night. I think.

Seohyun: Unnie, do you like her too?

Jessica: I don’t know. I really like her as a friend, but I don’t know about maybe more. I’m not really sure how I feel.

//

Taeyeon: Sorry for startling you…and for...throwing you like that…

Jessica: I’ll find a way for you to make it up to me.

“You baby her way too much,” Sunny tells Taeyeon as she watches the massive black canine pass by on all fours, with Jessica, who’s passed out and laying face-first out on the werewolf’s back.

Taeyeon snorts back at her friend, blowing out a gust of hot air as her only means to argue back against her roommate.

“Well, someone had to carry Jessica or we’d have to stop, rest, and lose hours of light again,” Tiffany mumbles.

“I’m worried Jessica-unnie might fall off,” Seohyun remarks as she studies how Jessica’s fists are barely gripping onto the werewolf’s fur for security.

Hyoyeon rolls her eyes. “Oh, she’s fine. And if she does fall, that’s her fault. She should be carrying her own fat .”

“I am not fat,” Jessica growls, even though her eyes are still closed.

“A-ha!” Hyoyeon laughs, “I knew you were awake, you faker!”

“You guys are so noisy,” she groans. “How is anyone supposed to sleep?”

“At camp, with the rest of us, princess,” Sooyoung barks at the spoiled witch.

“Oh, come on,” Jessica groans as she sits upright. “We’ve been in this hellhole for like over a week now. I am not built for this.”

“You mean walking? Walking with your human legs?” Sunny teases.

“That’s exactly what I mean,” Jessica hisses back, still enjoying her free ride from the werewolf.

However, Taeyeon unexpectedly jerks to an abrupt stop, which sets off a domino reaction with all of the other witches. They watch her perk up her pointy black ears and her nose starts to fervently sniff the air.

“What’s wrong?” Jessica asks.

It takes a moment for Yuri to figure out what sound and smell the werewolf has honed in on. “Up there,” Yuri says. Hearing a muted version of what Taeyeon’s picked up, the fox points up while walking ahead of the other girls until they follow and see the problem the canines have discovered.

Stepping past a line of trees, they find a narrow gorge separating themselves from their planned route. When they look down, they can see a small river rushing tens of meters below them, and when they look up, they stare at the forest elevated up on the sheer cliff drop not far above. But not only is there a gorge separating the witches from their path, but there’s also a halfer guarding the edge.

Snarling, the male half-werewolf scurries back and forth along the cliff edge, desperately wanting to get closer to his prey. The only thing that bridges the gap are some fallen maple trees, but the trunks are thin and hardly sturdy to cross on by foot. Still, the halfer tries a few times, but as soon as he steps on the fallen tree trunk, he feels the wood bend under his weight, so he retreats back just as quickly.

“So they’re not total brainless savages,” Sooyoung remarks as she watches the creature snarl and whimper. “Apparently they still harbor some sort of survival instincts.”

“Should we just…go around?” Yoona offers, hoping they can avoid the beast altogether.

Tiffany looks left and right, trying to gauge how far down the gorge stretches. When she can’t see the river end in either direction, she shakes her head. “Who knows how long it’s going to take to walk around this. We should just punch straight though. Besides…I think it’s alone,” Tiffany says as she scans the area.

“Just one?” Yuri arrogantly comments as she twirls her bat. “Who’s going to take it out then?”

Hyoyeon looks between the other girls before shrugging. “Rock, paper, scissors?”

***

***

As superhuman as the halfer may be, the gap separating them was too far of a stretch for him to jump and attack the group of witches. However, the distance wasn’t a problem for a full-sized werewolf.

Taeyeon squeezes her jaws tighter and crushes the remaining air from the halfer’s lungs before she feels its body go limp. Disgusted with the taste of flesh in , she flings the corpse off the edge of the cliff and into the small river below. She grunts before she tries to spit what blood she can get out of her canine mouth.

 It’s astonishing really, the way that Taeyeon and the werewolf are one and the same entity. To her peers, it must be both frightening and terrifying to have the monstrous beast as an ally. It’s unnerving to know that a girl who’s normally so reserved and quiet has such a savage animal-counterpart sharing her same skin. The only thing that separates the wolf-girl from the likeness of their enemies is her mind.

She’s not some brainless brute.

“Tae, is everything good?” Tiffany hollers across the gap.

It’s awkward having a snout and not muscles capable or articulating her lip’s shape as she tries to spit the traces of blood out of . Taeyeon’s sure that her face must look like a mess of drool, but she ignores her appearance and replies Tiffany. The werewolf stutters a series of barks that sound like short howls, which give the group of girls the all-clear to cross over and join her.

Upon hearing the howls, Hyoyeon feels her anxiety to keep pressing forward grow. “Alright, let’s go,” she boldly states. Impatient, she volunteers herself first and places a foot onto the thin, fallen tree trunk and tests its durability. She leans her weight into the stretch of wood and feels it wobble. She frowns before thinking of a solution.

“Wingardium Leviosa,” she casts.

Hyoyeon feels it right away. Something about the spell isn’t producing quite right and she grits her teeth as she blames the mist of this enchanted forest for occasionally—and unpredictably—messing with their magic. She’s certainly not levitating, but she can definitely feel the bend in the tree-trunk bridge gone, as if her weight’s been reduced. It might not be a full levitation, but part of her mass is definitely floating and she doesn’t waste any time before her back foot leaves the safety of the ground and she’s scampering across the trunk, hastily placing one foot in front of the other.

“Hyoyeon, be careful!” Jessica gasps as she watches the girl rush across the gorge far too quickly for comfort.

Stumbling off the rickety ‘bridge’, Hyoyeon’s feet finally find safety on the grassy floor. “My magic’s weird,” she yells across the gorge, still feeling only faint traces of her levitation spell. “Be careful crossing!”

On the other side, Jessica huffs before muttering under her breath, “T-that’s exactly what I said to her…”

Tiffany gulps as she peers over the edge of the cliff. “We should cast a levitation spell too.”

“One of us is going to die, I swear,” Jessica whines as she also peeks over the edge.

“No one’s gonna die,” Yuri says, rolling her eyes. “This is a piece of cake,” she declares as she stalks past the two American witches. Light on her feet, the fox breaks into a trot across the fallen thin maple trunk and the onlooking girls gasp as Yuri’s full weight bends the wood into an unnerving shape with each step. Miraculously, the arrogant fox makes it across the small gorge alive and the ‘come here’ gesture she waves at her peers is nothing short of irritating.

“You’re insane!” Sooyoung screeches from the other side. “I am not crossing like that!”

The werewolf rolls her eyes before shoving past Yuri and Hyoyeon to get to the ledge. She doesn’t even need a running jump, just a good crouch to spring-load her legs before launching into the air and sailing across the meters that gap them apart. The witches scramble to make room for Taeyeon’s massive beastly form to land, and when she does, the girls’ knees quiver along with the way Taeyeon shakes the ground.

With a soft growl, she takes the witches closest to her. She scoops up the two Ravenclaw witches, one in each arm, before rearing up on her hind legs. Because of her human stance, she takes a bit of a running start before leaping through the air and Sooyoung can’t help herself from yelling and even Seohyun can’t stop the fearful whine from leaving .

Thunk!

“!” Sooyoung cusses as she feels the whiplash snag in her neck when Taeyeon’s heavy body meets with the ground on the other side of the gorge.

The werewolf can’t apologize for the rough landing, but she carefully sinks to her knees before easing the two Ravenclaw witches out of her hold.

“T-thanks, Taeyeon-unnie,” Seohyun says.

Taeyeon gives the younger girl a gentle nudge with her snout before turning back around, but she stops in her steps when she’s surprised to see that Yuri’s dropped her bat to the ground and is now impatiently crossing over the unsteady trunk, back onto the other side. She wants to shout, “What‘re you doing?” but all she can manage it a soft growl at the girl’s reckless action.

“Come on, I’ll help you guys over,” Yuri says as she bounces off the trunk and onto the ground.

Tiffany’s sure that the girl just wants to be as useful as the werewolf, but she can’t help her own natural instinct to step back as Yuri approaches her. “Y-yuri, no! You’re going to kill us if you—!” Tiffany squeaks before she gets to finish her sentence and it’s because the fox has swept her off her feet, bridal style. The American witch almost begins to flail, but she simply freezes and desperately clutches onto the girl’s green quidditch sweater as Yuri prances across the bendy trunk once more.

Since they’ve been stuck in this forest, Tiffany’s been doing everything in her power to be brave, just like Hyoyeon, but even the short travel across the gorge has her whimpering out loud in pathetic cries when all she can imagine is how she and Yuri are going to plummet to their death into the river below.

By the holy graces of God—or whatever other spiritual beings are looking out for Tiffany today—she almost sobs in relief when Yuri eases her down onto the safety of the grass on the other side. “A-at least use a freaking levitation spell!” Tiffany shrieks before slapping the quidditch captain’s arm.

“You’re overreacting!” Yuri snaps back as she shoos away Tiffany’s angry, flailing arms. “That bridge is fine and we need to keep moving.”

As the fox turns around to make the cross again, she watches Taeyeon sail through the air before landing on the other side to retrieve Yoona and Jessica into her sturdy embrace.

And that just leaves...Sunny.

Yuri sighs and tries not to roll her eyes as she haphazardly makes the wobbly cross again, ignoring the huge shadow that Taeyeon is casting above her as she leaps back over. “Alright, come on, midget,” Yuri teases Sunny as she hops off the tree trunk.

Sunny quickly shakes her head from side to side. “N-no way! Taeyeon can take me, okay? S-she’ll be right back,” she protests as she takes a step back from her peer.

The gumiho turns around for a moment and takes a sharp inhale through her nostrils. “Calm down, Yuri,” she tells herself. “It’s not your fault that humans are stupid.”

“I can hear you, ya know?!” Sunny snaps, standing right behind the brash fox.

Yuri takes another breath, calming her nerves and biting her tongue from insulting the other girl again. Without warning she spins around, grabs Sunny, and tosses the smaller girl onto her shoulder to carry her across the gorge.

“YAH! YU-YURI-AH!”

“Oh Lord,” Hyoyeon mutters from the other side, watching the drama unfold while being well aware of her friend’s rare, but nasty temper.

“YURI-AH!!!”

Yuri thinks that Tiffany’s paralyzing fear was delightful compared to Sunny’s thrashing panic. As Yuri steps onto the shaky fallen trunk, she realizes that having the other girl tossed over her shoulder like this is far scarier than the way she carried Tiffany over. When Sunny feels like she’s about to topple face first into the gorge, she tries to shift her weight higher up onto the gumiho’s shoulder—all while screaming at her, of course.

“Are you trying to blatantly kill me like this?!”

Yuri grits her teeth as she tries to steady her grip on the other girl’s waist, resting on her shoulder. “Just stop freaking moving!” Yuri hisses, feeling her knees shake from the ever-changing weight. She can feel Sunny’s fingers dig into the back of her sweater (and what feels like her skin too) in her death-tight grip. “I’d cross this a lot faster if you just quit your yapping—”

SNAP!

Just a couple more steps away from the edge, Yuri’s eyes widen in horror as she feels the wood suddenly splinter away beneath her feet.

‘.’

“YURI-AH!” Sunny shrieks.

Hands gripping Sunny’s waist already, Yuri summons every fiber of her strength to fling the girl off her shoulder and hopes that Sunny isn’t just going to smash into the side of the cliff as she thrown through the air. Luckily, Sunny doesn’t. As Yuri feels the entire trunk give out beneath her, she watches the other witch fly over the edge and out of sight and, as she does, the edge starts to get farther and farther away from the fox.

“YURI!” Tiffany screams as she leans over the edge and tries to grab her friend.

The gumiho’s already out of reach though and Yuri wishes her spiritual powers included levitation. She thought she’d be screaming just like Tiffany and Jessica up on the ledge, but instead, her jaw’s clenched tight and frozen in fear as she topples down.<