Hoseok sneaks a glance at Jin. The man looks tired, drained, and nervous, and he regrets saying yes.“I’m fine, you know,” Jin’s voice breaks him from his trance.

“You don’t look fine,” Hoseok replies softly.

“I am. I promise, I’m just worried, more like scared. Jungkook doesn’t know me. He doesn’t even know who he is. Who knows what kind of magic Moyrah used on him. I-I’m just not sure what to expect.” The sadness in Jin’s voice is like a knife Hoseok’s heart.

“I get that. It’s natural to be fearful of the unknown, but Jungkook is your son, yours and Helena’s. It’s your blood that runs through his veins. He’s a fighter, a survivor.”

“I believe you,” Jin says as he takes a deep breath. “Why’s that Hoseok? Why is it that?” Hoseok doesn’t answer he can’t, and he’s not really sure Jin’s expecting him to anyway.

They ride in silence, and the moment isn’t awkward as much as reflective. They’ve always had a connection, one that goes beyond friendship. It’s a bond that Hoseok had once thought very seriously about exploring, but on the day he worked up the nerve to tell Jin how he felt, what he felt…on that day Helena entered Jin’s life and Hoseok knew he’d never be able to compete.

“Speaking of connections,” Hoseok thoughts inadvertently escape through his lips.

“We, uhm, weren’t talking about connections,” Jin mumbles.

Hoseok’s brain stalls realizing what has just transpired.

“Earlier,” he starts. “earlier you said that you felt Jungkook’s connection more intensely. Didn’t you?” Jin stares at him quizzically for a moment, as though he knows what Hoseok was actually thinking.

“Mmm,” the King nods his head, and the guard breathes a quiet sigh of relief. “I think I may even be able to show you on the map.”

Hoseok signals for the procession to stop. The guards obey their commander and come to a halt, standing at attention as the King and the Captain descend from their horses.

“You, bring me the map,” Hoseok points to the soldier closest to him. The man obeys instantly.

Hoseok takes the item when the man hands it to him and kneels on the side of the dirt road, unrolling the scroll-like paper.

“Show me,” he says to Jin, all formality is lost in his excitement.

If Jin notices the man’s slip, he shows no sign as he kneels next to the man, studying the chart. He points to a patch of brown-green on the map.

“There. He’s somewhere around this area.”

“That’s the mid-lands,” Hoseok muses. “I wonder how he ended up there?”

“I was wondering that myself,” Jin replies.

“The news good is that we’re less than a day’s ride from this area, so we should be there before dusk tomorrow.”

“What’s the bad new?” Jin eyes him curiously. The look is reminiscent of a younger Jin, and Hoseok can’t help the laugh that escapes.

“There’s no bad news.” Hoseok laughs harder as Jin's eyebrows raise in blatant disbelief.

“I grew up with you, remember? Every time you say ‘the good news is..’” Jin prefaces the statement with air quotes. “something that I’m not going to like always accompanies it.

So spill it, what’s the bad news?”

“When have I ever-” Hoseok doesn’t get to finish.

“When? Remember my thirteenth birthday when you told me you got me a horse? Only you forgot to tell me it was wild and we had to walk through the forest at night and got stuck in quicksand? If that guard hadn’t followed us, we’d still be there.” The smile on Jin’s face as he tells the story makes Hoseok’s heart beat faster than it should.

“Okay, fine. But tell me Jjanggu wasn’t worth it.”

“He really was beautiful with his all white coat and his proud stance. I think of him on the first snowfall,” Jin muses, staring off into the distance as though lost in a trance. “I miss him. Thank you for getting him for me Hoseok.”

The air is thick once again with things that can never be said. Hoseok clears his throat as he stands to his feet, folding the map and handing it back to the guard.

“We should go,” his says hoping the strain doesn’t show in his voice.

“Mmm,” Jin answers as he follows Hoseok to their horses.

“We head east,” the Captain of the guard yells the command to his men.

The hooves of twenty horses echo in the wind as they ride, and the earth shakes with each pound of their powerful stride. Hoseok looks over a Jin. He knows the man is nervous; this time tomorrow a father will reunite with his son, and a King will meet his heir.

֎֎֎

The King is not the only one facing apprehension. An ex-dragon rider is about to breach the hill that will put him face to face with a destiny that he’s long since given up on. He wonders why he agreed to this, wonders if Namjoon worked some magical, wizard voodoo on him, wonders if this is the step needed for him to finally find peace. He can feel the dragon’s excitement, and the hope in his heart grows wider. The capacity of love a dragon holds for its rider is immeasurable. It outnumbers the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.

“Do you feel that?” Namjoon asks as though reading his mind.

“Mmm,” he replies and nods his head. “The bond is very strong. Perhaps the most powerful I’ve ever sensed.”

“Yes, but, but…there’s something more, there’s another power, another magic?” Yoongi knows the question isn’t a question at all.

“Another magic?” He looks over his shoulder at the wizard.

Namjoon has slowed down almost to a stop and Yoongi reins in his horse and trots back to where the brown-haired man as stopped.

“Another magic?” he repeats the question, pulling Namjoon back to the present.

“Not just one Yoongi, the magic I feel radiating from that hill belongs to more than one person, and combined their powers are strongest and purest form of magic I’ve ever felt flow through me.” Namjoon swallows hard. “Th-there’s another like me as well, but he doesn’t know what he is. I can feel his confusion, his fear.” Namjoon’s holding his chest, and Yoongi moves at the speed of light jumping off his horse just in time to catch the falling wizard.

“Namjoon!” he yells as the man faints in his arms.

Yoongi knows what Namjoon is. It’s how the man was able to find him all those years ago, on the night that Molli and his fellow riders were murdered by the dark queen. The dragon had used her last breath to fly him to safety, shielding him with her body until the magic sniffer found him.

Namjoon begins to move in his grasp.

“What happened?” the man asks, rubbing his head as he sits up.

“You fainted.”

“Ahhh,” he says, looking up at Yoongi. “I’ve never absorbed so much magic at once before. I think I’m good now.” Namjoon stands to his feet, his movements somewhat awkward but stable.

Yoongi keeps a protective hand on the man’s back, helping him back onto his horse. Namjoon maybe a nosy busybody with no comprehension of personal space, but the man is his friend, perhaps his only one. He is also the person that Mollie entrusted him to.

“You good?” he asks the man before returning to his horse.

“Yeah, I’m good.” Namjoon smiles. “Hey Yoongi,” he turns to face the man once again, “that was you worrying about me just now, wasn’t it?”

“No, it wasn’t.” He can’t think of a sufficient comeback.

“Yes, it was,” Namjoon sing-songs.

‘No, it wasn’t.” Yoongi tries to sound commanding but fails.

“Just admit it, you think I’m awesome,” Namjoon says, and mirth colors his tone.

“I swear to God, Namjoon, if you don’t stop it I’m gonna punch you so hard you’ll faint again, and this time I won’t try to catch you,” Yoongi huffs, looking over his shoulder at the wizard.

Namjoon’s giggles tell him quite clearly the man isn’t buying any of it, and deep down Yoongi is glad about it.

“Oh my God!” Namjoon’s voice is filled with so much awe Yoongi almost falls off his horse from whisking his head around following the trajectory of the wizard’s eyes.

The dragon is beautiful, with a wingspan of at least thirty