Located in a valley between two mountains, situated in the bend of a river, was a clan of werewolves. Their territory was a respite, outside of the valley there was nothing but snow and death. Inside the valley though, there was lush grass, and green forest. Two boys were born to the leaders of this pack. One boy full of fire and will, even at a young age he was set to become one of the strongest werewolves in history. Woojin was a great leader, and even better at combat, joining his father on hunts years before most young pups were even weaned. The other son however was made of softer stuff, air and hope. Hyungseob was often found by creek beds staring at the slowly moving water, as sun beams seemed to drift past holding the hours that he lost to his mind. When questioned he would often tell tales about the people that lived in huge underwater colonies, who would swim to the top and sing to him. He was his father’s greatest shame, and his mother tended to hide him away from the rest of the pack, lest word get out that such a weak son was begotten by such strong parents.

The only person that seemed to understand Hyungseob was the oldest woman of their clan. Rumor had it that she was old even before even the mountains were created, and the rivers flowed. She was a woman of few words, but to Hyungseob she was a key to a world that no one but them could see. She filled his head with stories of great quests, filled with witches, magical forests, and danger at every turn. They would meet at the river bank, and for hours she would impress upon him her tales.

Hyungseob once asked her how she knew so many stories, and she told him the oldest tale she knew. Werewolves had not always been nomads, running from place to place in search of new territory, and more often than not at war with other clans. They were in harmony with every other being on earth, and had lived in the south where the air was warm and the food was plentiful. She had been young then, and so had the world been young as well. Magic too was young, and it lived on top of a great mountain. The magic protected Ameron, and blessed it. As long as the magic looked over the world there was no war, no hunger, and no fear. However, this paradise was not to last. Her father was a opportunistic man, and decided that the wolves deserved more of the world than the other species. He and his men conspired to steal the magic from the grand shrine that blessed all of Ameron. They climbed the top of the great mountain Dolomero, and burned the shrine to the ground. They searched the charred rubble, but found nothing. The humans had heard of the wolves plan to take over Ameron and had hidden the magic where it would be safe from them. They cursed her father and his men to never truly be human or wolf, and cast them off of the mountain. They banished the new werewolves to the north, where food was scarce, and the terrane treacherous. That was how their clan, and all other clans were created. Because the humans realized that the great magic would never truly be safe they cast it deep into the ground, and the great mountain Dolomero fell.

For years people remembered what once had been, but slowly knowledge was lost. The thing about magic is is that it will only exist for as long as people know about it, and as people forgot, the magic too got weaker. That is why the old woman existed, to tell the clans about their history, but people started to not want to remember. They mocked her and her stories, which is why she told them to Hyungseob, because he was the only one who wanted to remember.

Hyungseob took this the story to heart, and tried to tell everyone about the lost magic, but no one would listen. When his father learned that the old woman had poisoned his mind with her madness he banished her to the plains where she would surely die. That was the last day Hyungseob told her stories, because he quickly found out that if he didn’t, his father wouldn’t hesitate to banish him too.

However much his parents scorned their son, that could not deter Woojin from loving his brother. Though he could never see the people in the water, or the kingdoms in the sky that his brother saw, that didn’t stop him from trying. He would join Hyungseob for hours, desperately trying to join the world that his brother lived in, but was always eluded. At times he imagined that if he just squinted his eyes a little bit harder, or believed a little bit more that suddenly the sky would burst open with color and he could finally see the world as his brother did, and at times he felt he was just on the precipice of a huge dark hole, teetering on the edge of both points of view. He imagined that he could see his brother at the bottom, a shining light in the darkness, but then he would look back and see his parents, and just before he would take the leap to join Hyungseob, he would hesitate and pull away.

Though the two were night and day Woojin always protected his brother when the outside world wanted to tear Hyungseob down. People weren’t always kind to the boy, when Hyungseob was let out from his mother’s shadow the other members of the clan treated him like an anomaly, chasing him around the camp, and jeering at him. Woojin fought them all, always outside of his brother’s eye, but those who tormented Hyungseob soon were decorated with various scars and marks. Woojin vowed that even if he had to kill every single person who harrassed his brother, he would.

The two grew up though, as all children did, and slowly people started to forget about Hyungseob. Rumors abounded that the pack leader had had drowned him, or his mother had left him in a field. Stories were created that others had seen his spirit gliding over the river, or that if you listened closely on summer nights you would see Hyungseob running across the plains, whooping and howling like a man on fire. This wasn’t true though, Hyungseob was alive, and although he no longer lived fully in his imagination, the damage to his reputation was already done. On the eve of their 16th birthday, when most other young wolves would be preparing for their presentation, the night where they took their wolf form for the first time, Hyungseob was locked away. Woojin was furious, his brother should’ve have been cherished just like he was during their childhood, and now they were even denying Hyungseob one of the most important days in a werewolf’s life. His mother had promised Woojin that they would have a private ceremony for Hyungseob, but Woojin knew how much weight to give that. For the last few years it had only been him and Hyungseob at his birthday party. They were born on the same day, but Hyungseob wasn't even allowed to participate in Woojin’s party. It made Woojin’s blood boil, Hyungseob had every right to be be with everyone else, but instead he had to watch from his mother’s tent.

The night of their 16th birthday was the first time that Woojin truly hated Hyungseob. Woojin of course transformed into a powerful and intimidating wolf, bigger even than his father. Meanwhile Hyungseob transformed into a wolf smaller than even the weakest wolf in their clan. He had been hoping that somehow Hyungseob would become strong and powerful, and then finally be loved by their parents and village, but of course he couldn’t. Of course Woojin would always have to take care of Hyungseob, of course Hyungseob would never make their parents proud, of course Hyungseob would have to stay in the shadows, because he could never find it in himself to take even the slightest bit of interest in the things that other children like them did. What Woojin had found charming and mystical as a child became shame, shame when Hyungseob couldn’t, or wouldn’t even try things that would make him normal, shame when he caught his brother with his head in the clouds, and shame when their parents looked at them with disappointment.

So Woojin hated Hyungseob, scorned him, and wished that the kids back then had chased his brother into a river and drowned him. Woojin wished he had been right behind them, whooping and calling, and chasing Hyungseob till he could never find his way back, and then maybe everything would really be alright. Woojin’s parent’s wouldn’t have to deal with the shame of a weak son, and neither would he.

Of course though, his hatred couldn’t last, because no matter how much he wished he could live without his brother, he couldn’t. They were complete opposites, but they completed each other. And so more years passed, and Woojin once again had to protect his brother at every turn. Hyungseob for his part seemed to grow into his role a bit more, he was no longer drawn to the river, and didn’t spend hours looking up at the sky. He would never be as great a warrior as his brother, but he at least tried. The damage to his reputation had been done though, and Woojin knew that Hyungseob would never be accepted.

A few days after their nineteenth birthday a few of Woojin’s friends fell ill. They had high fevers, and the chills. Slowly rashes began to spread across their body, and only a few days after they got sick they fell into a deep sleep. More and more people began to fall ill. Their parents were panicking, they didn’t have nearly enough resources to deal with a plague, but they refused to let anyone leave and try to find out why people were getting sick. Some people thought that their water had been poisoned, or that the grain that they cooked with had fungus. Others thought that the prey that they hunted was sick, or that the wood they burned caused the illness. Hyungseob was silent, he knew the real cause of the disease, but no one would believe him. Woojin thought that Hyungseob might be hiding something, but he knew not to pry, Hyungseob always told him in the end.

Months passed and more and more people got sick, but still the leaders sent no one to try to find out what the true problem was. They were afraid of the outside world, none of them had ever left, and those that had had returned with stories of horrible cold, and monsters that not even the greatest of them could defeat. The clan waited, holding their breath in their valley that seemed less and less like a refuge as the days went on. That was until the day that Woojin got sick.

It started with a cough. Hyungseob and Woojin were walking back to their tent after fishing when Woojin coughed. Hyungseob looked over at his brother with dread, but Woojin assured him that he was fine. Hyungseob knew though, there was something about his brother that had changed, his hair was slightly duller than it had been a few days earlier. His face too was slightly more sallow. Most people probably wouldn’t even notice the difference with Woojin, but Hyungseob knew, his brother was sick.

The rest happened in quick succession and that night Woojin was already bedridden, with a high fever. He was barely awake, only slightly lucid when his parents came into his tent with his condition worsening by the minute. Their parents ordered Hyungseob to stay with Woojin, and alert them at the first sign of his condition worsening. Hyungseob stood vigil over his brother, watching him take ragged breaths as his skin flushed with what would soon become horrible rashes. So far no one had died from the disease but no one who had fallen asleep had woken up either.

Suddenly Woojin grabbed Hyungseob’s ankle and began to try to speak. “Hyun… what…” Hyungseob was down and cradling his brother’s head in a second. A wave of lucidity seemed to pass over his brother and for the first time in hours his eyes seemed to focus. “Seob,” Woojin managed, “Tell me what you’ve been hiding.” Hyungseob tried to sputter out a response but was stopped by Woojin’s harsh glare, “I know you know something,” Woojin’s voice was gravelly and forced, “Whatever it is, if it could help us I need to know, whatever sent me back only gave me so much time.” Hyungseob flushed, “I know you think I won’t believe you but I always did, so please Hyungseob.”

Hyungseob paused, but the decision was easy. “When I was a kid, before the old woman was exiled she told me about this old magic that was the source of all life. It had to be forced down into the earth to protect it from us, because we tried to abuse it. Because people forgot about it, the magic is dying and everything that feeds off it is dying too.” He looked down at his brother who seemed to finally understand him for the first time in their life, “Until the magic is brought back to power things will continue to get worse.”

Woojin’s eye’s narrowed, “You know how to fix this, don’t you?” Hyungseob looked away, “Please Seob, no more secrets.”

Hyungseob sighed, “Yeah, I know how to fix it.” He paused for a bit, unsure of how he wanted to start, “There’s a world beyond the cold, one filled with different creatures and other wonders. Somewhere out there there’s a way to free the old magic. As for how, I don’t know, but she told me that others might. All I have to do is make it out there.”

Woojin searched his brother’s face, “So what are you still doing here, Seob? Go out there and fix this.”

“B-but what about you?! Besides the fact that mom and dad wouldn’t even let me leave this tent, let alone leave the valley. Even if I did, what about the cold? Not even our best men survive that, there’s no way I would!”

Woojin’s face softened, “Seob, there’s no one else but you who could do this, you look at the world in a totally different way, see things that others can’t. The only one who I would trust to do this is you. Besides if it wasn’t meant to be you I’d probably still be unconscious and dying. Face it Seob, you’re meant to do this. Now hurry up, your stuff is still all packed, right? From our last camping trip? Get it and go,” Hyungseob began to protest, but Woojin was having none of it, “If you don’t leave right now I’m laying back down and actually dying.” That was enough to get Hyungseob up, he got his stuff and gave one last look at his brother, still so gray and weak on his mat. Hyungseob ran and gave his brother one last hug before bolting out of their tent, on the way to adventure. Inside the tent Woojin’s eyes began to cloud once more and he laid his head back down. Before he could fall asleep for one last time he smiled, his brother was going to save the world.